Who Are We to Improve God's Plan?

How many of you are good at following directions?  As an example, when you are making a new recipe do you follow it to a T or do you have a tendency to tweak it? 

Or when you are following directions for putting something together and you see a better way to do it and tweak the directions a bit.

Or when you hire an expert to give you guidance in a certain area and then you take the guidance and tweak it.

Am I the only one that does that or is that a pretty universal human trait?  My guess is that it is pretty universal.  Now is that a good thing or a bad thing?  I can think of many instances when it is a good thing.  Many of the technologies that we enjoy in life today are the results of people tweaking things.  In that case it is a good thing.  However I can think of one area where I don't think it is a good thing.  That area is tweaking God's Word.

Acts 10:9-16(NKJV)
9The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour. 
10Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance 
11and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. 
12In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. 
13And a voice came to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.”
14But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.”
15And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” 
16This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again.

Seems pretty clear.   Don't contradict or correct God.

But then there is a contention as to whether the Gentiles need to be circumcised to be saved.   When all of the disciples gather to settle the issue they use what God has told Peter as the basis for their ruling that Gentiles don't have to be circumsized.  But look what happens.

Acts 15:19-21(NKJV)
19Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, 
20but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from £sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood. 
21For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath.”

God told us not to trouble them "BUT" we are going to anyway.  Now I am not saying that the things that they added are things that we should be able to do.  What I am calling attention to is that even though God Himself didn't feel the need to amplify what He had told Peter, man couldn't resist the temptation to add to God's instructions.

Let me give another example.  In Acts it was a pretty big deal when the disciples were told to take the Gospel to the Gentiles.  Why?  Because for centuries it had been against the customs and laws of the Jewish people to associate with  non Jews.  But here is what the Prophet Amos had to say back in around 760 BC.

Amos 9:11-12(NKJV)
11    “On that day I will raise up      The £tabernacle of David, which has fallen down,     And repair its damages;     I will raise up its ruins,     And rebuild it as in the days of old;
12    That they may possess the remnant of Edom,£     And all the Gentiles who are called by My name,”     Says the Lord who does this thing.

Now if it was God's plan all along to include non Jewish people in His plan of salvation, does it really make sense that God told the Jewish people to exclude all others or is it more likely that man's desire to tweak things may have reared its head again?

My point is that as we spend time in the Word we need to be aware of our human tendencies to tweak what we read with our own interpretations.  That is why it is so important to start your study with prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to give you discernment so that you are able to tell the difference between God's Word and man's tweaking!