<p>7:7 <em>But in vain do they worship me, teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men</em>- The mere act of worship itself is not spirituality. Religion is full or 'worship' of God but this is not of itself acceptable to Him; so much such religion is &quot;in vain&quot;. It depends whether our worship is a reflection of our understanding the right teachings / doctrines; otherwise it is worship in vain. Worship is therefore a reflection of and outflow from the things we believe about the Lord we worship.</p><p>Worship and sacrifice to God can be done &ldquo;in vain&rdquo; if our attitude to His word is wrong. The reason for the vanity of their worship and devotions was because their doctrine was wrong. This clearly shows that religious devotion alone doesn&rsquo;t mean anything in terms of acceptability with God. And it also shows that the intention of doctrine, of teaching from God&rsquo;s word, is so that our lives are&nbsp;<em>not</em>&nbsp;lived &ldquo;in vain&rdquo;; there is &ldquo;effect&rdquo; in the outworking of God&rsquo;s true word in human lives. &ldquo;In vain&rdquo; here is surely to be semantically paralleled with &ldquo;making void&rdquo; in :13.</p><p>The original of Is. 29:13,14 doesn&rsquo;t say &quot;teaching for doctrines&quot;. It is addressed to&nbsp;<em>the people</em>, stating that their fear of God is taught by the doctrines of men. The Lord amends the text slightly to make it relevant to the&nbsp;<em>teachers</em>&nbsp;whom He was addressing. Such amending of Old Testament quotation was common in Jewish&nbsp;<em>midrash</em>. The point is, that God&rsquo;s ancient word is to be reapplied to us today in&nbsp;<em>our</em>&nbsp;contexts, rather than be left as mere historical statement to people long ago.</p>