I like - except "but God did this that they may learn the importance of acknowledging Him as God". The extreme harshness and the endless regulations were imposed by man, not Him.
And herein lies the problem. The Jews went into captivity and lost their home land for two major sins...
Eze 20:16 because they despised My judgments and did not walk in My statutes, but profaned My Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols.
Eze 20:17 Nevertheless My eye spared them from destruction. I did not make an end of them in the wilderness.
Eze 20:18 "But I said to their children in the wilderness, 'Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols.
Eze 20:19 I am the LORD your God: Walk in My statutes, keep My judgments, and do them;
Eze 20:20 hallow My Sabbaths, and they will be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.'
Eze 20:21 "Notwithstanding, the children rebelled against Me; they did not walk in My statutes, and were not careful to observe My judgments, 'which, if a man does, he shall live by them'; but they profaned My Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out My fury on them and fulfill My anger against them in the wilderness.
Eze 20:42 Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for which I raised My hand in an oath to give to your fathers.
Eze 20:43 And there you shall remember your ways and all your doings with which you were defiled; and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight because of all the evils that you have committed.
Eze 20:44 Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I have dealt with you for My name's sake, not according to your wicked ways nor according to your corrupt doings, O house of Israel," says the Lord GOD.' "
Idolatry and Sabbath breaking. So the Pharisees and the scribes came up with laws that were not God's Law, they were safeguards to keep the people from getting even close to breaking the Law so that they would not suffer those punishments again. They were extremely strict and harsh.
God never intended this and you cannot find in scripture what a 'Sabbath Day's journey' is nor can you find how much weight a person may carry, nor can you find anything about eating a few grains of wheat to be considered 'threshing grain' on the Sabbath...
Mat 12:1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.
Mat 12:2 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, "Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!"
Mat 12:3 But He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him:
Mat 12:4 how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?
Mat 12:5 Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?
Mat 12:6 Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple.
Mat 12:7 But if you had known what this means, 'I DESIRE MERCY AND NOT SACRIFICE,' you would not have condemned the guiltless.
Mat 12:8 For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
They were accusing the disciples of threshing grain on the Sabbath. They knew picking a few ears of grain to eat in another persons field was perfectly acceptable...
Deu 23:25 When you come into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbor's standing grain.
Funny thing is, those of us who keep God's Sabbath understand this, it is the faith only crowd that applies the Pharisaical rules to the Sabbath.