Rules are good - or are they?

I must admit I've been reading Leviticus for a few days now at the same time as reading Exodus, in fact I'm about a third of the way through. I must also admit it is quite full on and I don't understand all of it, but I know that all of God's word is important and that I can learn through reading any of it.
I guess my first thought about what I've read so far is that it is a book of rules. We all have to live by rules, in fact  every day we chose whether to break a rule or obey a rule.
God made the rules for the Israelite people so that they could be closer to him, so that they could be Holy and righteous. However, because we live in a fallen world, the Israelite people were fighting a loosing battle. The rules and laws that they were meant to keep became a huge problem for them so much so that the rules eventually became more important than God himself.
One of my favourite passages of scripture is where Jesus is having a go at the Pharisee's and teacher's of the law. In Matthew 23 Jesus is quiet scathing as he calls them hypocrites. 


²³ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practised the latter, without neglecting the former. ²⁴ You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. Matthew 23:23-24


The Pharisees are so concerned with the law that they are forgetting the important stuff, their forgetting loving one another, helping one another and more importantly loving God. They are only concerned with keeping the rules, and so they judge those who are not as good at keeping the rules as they are!
I would also like to say that rules are good for us too! Anyone who knows me will know that I am a person that always has to obey the rules.  If we disobey the rules of life then we are generally going to get into trouble. Many of the laws of our land are based on the 10 Commandments, e.g. do not murder, do not steal etc...But it also tells us in the bible to obey the laws of the land -
  
¹³ Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, ¹⁴ or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 1 Peter 2:13-14


So even though reading Leviticus can seem a little daunting, I am really glad its in the word of God, not just because it shows me that I must obey the law, but also that I can Praise God that I don't live under the law, instead I live under grace. This means that I don't have to perform all the sacrifices that the Israelite people had to, instead I know that Jesus died for me as a sacrifice once and for all, so that I can be saved, forgiven and accepted into the family of God. We are so fortunate to live this side of the cross, we don't have to go through a priest; we don't have to make a sacrifice; we don't have to stay away from others because we are unclean. All we have to do is accept Jesus as Lord of our lives, acknowledge that he died for us and ask Him to forgive our sins - JOB DONE!