Bible Verse: “Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you.” Deuteronomy 4:2
Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 4:1-49
Sometimes, I think the Pharisees get a bad rap.
Sometimes.
I know, we’re in Deuteronomy this week (no Pharisees there), but we will get there. Don’t misunderstand. The Pharisees, individually and collectively, were identified as way off the mark. They are culpable for both their ignorance and selfishness (see Matthew 23:1-39).
It’s a well-established fact that to avoid breaking the Law of Moses, the Pharisees built some additional man-made requirements around the core laws that God gave Moses.
I want to think they were trying to help the people. After all, as a father, I know where the lines are that I don’t want my boys to cross—where the objective right and wrong is—so I set up boundaries well back from those places. I build their rules well away from the areas of sin and consequences.
Maybe that’s what the Pharisees were doing: attempting to protect the people.
Now, take a good read of today’s verse and consider the extent of the laws that God gave. God gave 611 laws and requirements. He covered everything the Israelites might face, either in specifics or in principles. There was nothing more the Israelites needed to know and nothing more they needed to do. And God reminds them of that in today’s verse.
In the rest of Moses’ farewell thoughts throughout Deuteronomy, he reminds Israel of the laws given to their parents. The laws that the people of God were to live by. They were the laws to set Israel apart from the nations around them. God’s instructions were not to be added to or taken away from.
This puts the Pharisees back in a bit of perspective. The problem wasn’t that they themselves were trying to be faithful to God. The problem is that the Pharisees were making barriers to others getting close to God.
And that’s the takeaway for us.
As men, we know our struggles. We know where the boundaries are. And there may be a great deal of wisdom in drawing our own additional boundaries, but those boundaries are for us. They are not to be put on other people.
There’s a danger in treating man-made ideas as though they are God’s requirements. When we start to put our own ideas and boundaries on other people, we have started to add to the Law of God.
And that is a dangerous position.
Prayer: God, thank You for giving Your Law that helps us all live in the ways You intended us to live. Please help me to do my best to live according to those standards. Help me set up safe boundaries for myself without using them to judge other people. Help me draw close to You and help others do so, too. Amen.
Reflection: What boundaries have you established for yourself to draw and stay close to God? Is there any danger that you might put those same boundaries around others in their relationship with God?
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