When we were younger, my older brother decided to bake cookies. He followed the recipe just fine, but at the end he decided that waiting for one batch of cookies to bake, take them out and then put in a second one would be too much work. So he decided instead to just make the lumps of cookies dough on the pan larger so they would all fit in one batch. The result was not a plate full of individual cookies to dip into milk, but instead a sheet of one solid cookie that needed to be cut with a knife. Not a huge deal as it still tasted delicious, but a very clear and visual result of what happens when you try to alter recipes.
Just like my brother learned in cooking, we can learn that when we try to alter the commandments of God we do not get the results promised from obedience. In Psalms 89:34 it reads:
34 My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
And later in 2 Peter 1:20 it reads:
20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
Though these and other scriptures are pretty clear about not changing what you have agreed to in terms of following God's commandments in the way they are laid out by His prophets, there is a form of alteration happening in Luke 9:29:
29 And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering.
Alterations can happen, but instead of it being man altering the things of God it is the things of God altering man.
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