Do and do; rule on rule...

I've been reading in Isaiah and came across this set of verses:

"For it is:
Do and do, do and do,
rule on rule, rule on rule;
a little here, a little there."

(Isaiah 28: 10)

The same thought is repeated again in verse 13 of the same chapter:

"So then, the word of the Lord to them will become:
Do and do, do and do,
rule on rule, rule on rule;
a little here, a little there --
so that they will go and fall backward, be injured and snared and captured."

Does that sound familiar? It sounds like religion to me. So many people have been hurt or trapped by a set of rules that they equate with their faith. Some have completely been derailed by their experiences in a church. Others still labor under a system of "rule on rule," thinking that its the only way to please God or to earn their salvation.

And the alarming part is that Isaiah is speaking about the prophets and priests of his time. Isaiah shared this before the Mishnah or the Koran or Catholicism or Protestantism or many of our other current religions were even around!!

The Mishnah, for example, added to the Torah (the first 5 books of the Old Testament or books of the law) 63 treatises to guide the daily living of the Jewish peoples. Of those 63 treatises of the Mishnah, 2 entire treatises detail proper conduct for the Sabbath. One of those treatises, Shabbat, lists thirty-nine classes of prohibited actions - things a conscientious Jew cannot do on the Sabbath. They are further elaborated so that there are in fact several hundred prohibitions just for the Sabbath. And the whole of the Mishnah (all 63 treatises) is further detailed by the "commentaries" - eighty volumes of explanation that make up the Talmud.*

Now don't think I'm only picking on Judaism. Not at all. How many other religions regulate when you pray, who you pray to, how much you give, how short your skirt should be, if you kneel or stand or raise your arms to worship, who you do business with or any of the other myriad of RULES that have been added to God's plan of redemption and the expression of His love.

What's my point?

Be aware that the rules are no substitute for knowing God. Yes, He places authorities in place, He provides His word to guide us, and He still hates sin. His law, however, is not just the rulebook. It's an expression of the lengths He has gone to because He loves us and doesn't want sin to separate us from Him. It's a Father guiding His children. Because more than anything, He wants to know us personally, intimately, and wants to shape us into the person He designed us to be. Don't get so tangled in the rules that you miss His heart.

*Much of my information of this paragraph is based on an overview given in Designer Women: Made by God, by Ruth Tuttle Conard which I plan to review at another time but recommend.