Woe to Someone Else

I am sitting here reading Isaiah 28 which in my Bible is subtitled "Woe to Ephraim." There are a lot of Woe to... passages coming up in this part of Isaiah which I normally see as a quick read because I don't have to really think about what it written since I am not Ephraim (Is. 28), or David's City (Is. 29), or the Obstinate Nation (Is. 30). Wait a minute, I may be part of an obstinate nation.

So I am sitting here skimming over Isaiah 28 when these words jump from the page,

For it is:
     Do and do, do and do,
     rule on rule, rule on rule;
     a little here, a little there. (v. 10)

And then I keep reading:

Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues
God will speak to this people,
to whom he said,
"This is the resting place, let the weary rest";
and, "This is the place of repose" -
but they would not listen.
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 - (vs. 11 - 13a)

Whoa. I had to go back and read this whole passage again. It took me a minute to realize that the first time the phrase do and do, do and do... is used, it is the priests and prophets saying these words. They are taking the warnings of Isaiah, the prophecy of God's chosen voice and breaking them down, mocking them as do and do, rule and rule, a little here, a little there. They took God's words through Isaiah and turned them into action statements, into to do lists, into rules to live by.

We do this, all the time. We read passages in scripture and make them a task list. We take verses out of context and them mold our lives around them. We, the church, the Christian community, have said to do and do, rule and rule, a little here, a little there.

And the truly sad part is that was never God's intent for his church, for his priests and prophets.

"This is the resting place, let the weary rest"; and "This is the place of repose" (v. 12)

I may not be Ephraim, but woe to me the one who condenses God's word down into a to do list. The one who has traded in God's resting place for a list of dos and don'ts.

And the woe is there, right in the text.

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 - (v. 13)

When we choose to distill God's word down to a to do list, we end up being tied down to something that cannot save us, cannot help us, and cannot gives us rest. We tie ourselves to a burden that God never intended for us.

How often I do this. How often I tell myself I need to do this, I need to be that, I need to...

Thankfully Holy Week, this week before Easter Sunday, reminds me that I don't need to do anything. It was already done. I just need to rest in it.