<p>15:9- see on 15:2.</p>
<p><em>But in vain do they worship me</em>- 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;no effect&rdquo; in :6.</p>
<p><em>Teaching doctrines</em>- The original of Is. 29:13,14 doesn&rsquo;t say this. 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>
<p><em>Which are the precepts of men</em>- The emphasis was surely upon the word &ldquo;men&rdquo;. The Lord has been comparing the commandments of&nbsp;<em>God</em>&nbsp;with Jewish tradition. Tradition had become the word of God to these people.</p>