Do Not Add...Or Take Away

Deuteronomy 12:32-13:3 – See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it. If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Deuteronomy 4:2,29 – 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…But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Isaiah 8:20 – Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.

Genesis 22:1 – Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied.

Deuteronomy 6:5 – Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Application:

• ·         The revelation the Lord gives is sufficient. All of it must be obeyed, and anything that adulterates or contradicts it cannot be tolerated.
• ·         Only by heeding the Lord’s word through Isaiah—reinforced by the “signs and symbols” that Isaiah and his sons represented—would the light dawn for Israel.
• ·         Satan tempts us in order to make us fall; God tests us in order to confirm our faith or prove our commitment.
• ·         To love King Yahweh is to be His loyal and obedient servant. Love for God and neighbor is built on the love that the Lord has for His people and on His identification with them. Such love is to be total, involving one’s whole being.
• ·         “With all your heart and…soul” indicates total involvement and commitment. The phrase is applied not only to how the Lord’s people should seek Him but also to how they should fear Him, live in obedience to Him, love and serve Him, and, after forsaking Him, renew their allegiance and commitment to Him.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV