Don't Add to or Take Away

Many years ago, a friend of mine shared a unique way that they read the Scriptures each morning. Their goal wasn't to read through the entire Bible in a certain amount of time, nor was it even to read through an entire book or chapter each day. Instead, their goal was to read at least one verse each day. They would read that verse over and over again, emphasizing a different word each time to see whether changing the emphasis changed the way they viewed and understood the verse.

For instance, John 15:17 would be read repeatedly, emphasizing a different word each time:

These things I command you, so that you may love one another.

These things I command you, so that you may love one another.

These things I command you, so that you may love one another.

These things I command you, so that you may love one another.

With this in mind, as I was reading through Deuteronomy 4, I came to verses 1 and 2. As I read them repeatedly, emphasizing each word, I came to the words "in order" and "to keep" in the middle of verse 2. Changing the emphasis caused me to see these words in a new way.

Deuteronomy 4:1–2

"Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to do, so that you may live and go in and possess the land that Adonai, the God of your fathers, is giving you. You must not add to the word that I am commanding you or take away from it—in order to keep the mitzvot of Adonai your God that I am commanding you."

I have always read these verses from the point of view that we should not add to or take away from G-D's Word because doing so would actually make it impossible for us to keep His Word as He gave it.

But this week, as I read these verses word by word, I arrived at the words "in order to keep," and I caught a glimpse of a different perspective. Not that my previous understanding was wrong, only that it was incomplete.

I began looking at the phrase "in order to keep" from a slightly different direction: "in order to help us keep." In other words, do not add to or take away from G-D's Word in an attempt to help us keep G-D's Word.

The truth is that when we look at both Judaism and Christianity, we find examples where things have been added to G-D's Word in order to help people keep the mitzvot, and other examples where things have been taken away from G-D's Word for the same reason.

Let me give one example.

We were given the commandment to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. We were also told that part of keeping the Sabbath holy was refraining from work on the Sabbath. Our Jewish ancestors, in an effort to help people keep this mitzvah, established a distance known as a Sabbath day's journey,the maximum distance one could walk before walking was considered work.

The establishment of this distance was intended to be helpful and to unify the people's observance of the mitzvah. However, when walking farther than a Sabbath day's journey is treated as though it is itself a violation of the Sabbath, something has been added to G-D's Word in an effort to help people keep the mitzvah.

That is not to say that traditions and customs are inherently bad or that they are themselves violations of G-D's Word. Rather, it is to say that equating traditions, which were established for the sake of unity in practice, with G-D's actual commandments is where the problem begins. There are many other examples within Judaism of additions made with the intention of helping people keep the commandments.

On the other side of the Yeshua-faith pendulum, Christianity has often taken things away from G-D's Word in an effort to help people keep the commandments.

Every time someone says, "Yeshua did that for you, so you don't have to anymore," it is an example of taking away from G-D's Word in order to make keeping the commandments easier. Or, stated another way, within much of Christianity it is taught that the only way to truly keep the commandments is by not trying to keep them at all.

It doesn't matter which tradition is involved, whether Judaism adding to G-D's Word or Christianity taking away from it. If either the addition or the subtraction was done in an attempt to help people keep the commandments, then those additions and subtractions have, in fact, violated the very commandment that says we are not to add to or take away from G-D's Word.