See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it. – Deuteronomy 12:32

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 11, 2012): Deuteronomy 12

We seem to like to invent laws. We see them as rules that will keep us on the right path. Every year bills enter the halls of our governments that mean to introduce a new law to our lands so that we can all enjoy life a little more. But unfortunately, what might seem to increase one person’s enjoyment becomes an unnecessary restriction on someone else. And some of the laws we have on the books are downright silly. In Canada, did you know that it is illegal to pay for a fifty cent item using only pennies? In Alberta, it is illegal to paint a log (I broke that one this past summer out of ignorance.) It is also mandated that a person released from jail should receive a horse and a gun so that he can ride out of town. One of my favorite laws is in the province of British Columbia. There it is illegal to kill a Sasquatch. A close second would be New Brunswick’s law which makes it illegal to drive on the road.

Our American neighbours have a few great laws of their own – including California’s law making it illegal to bathe two babies in the same tub at the same time, or Arizona’s prohibition against hunting camels. In Alaska, it is illegal to push a live moose out of a moving airplane (I would love to hear the circumstance that caused that law to come into existence) and in Alabama it is illegal to wear a fake moustache that causes laughter in church (because we just cannot have any laughter in church.)

In religious circles we tend to expand on the rules that we follow. In the denomination that I grew up in we had a lot of rules that were supposed to help us keep other laws. I think at times we became so comfortable with the rules (don’t drink, don’t smoke) that we lost sight on the reason why the rules existed. And some even came to believe that the rules were biblical – when in reality the Bible was silent on the issue.

Moses instructs Israel not to add anything to the rules that God had given them. The idea was that the laws that came from God were enough – there was no reason to add to or take away from the laws that they had received. To be fair, most Biblical faiths would stress that they have not done that – all they have done is to better define the laws that are found in the book of Moses. But sometimes the effect is that we seem to make “keeping the faith” harder than God ever intended it to be.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 13