Deuteronomy 13:1-18
1 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
2 And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;
3 Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
4 Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.
5 And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turna you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.
6 If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;
7 Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;
8 Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:
9 But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.
10 And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.b
11 And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you.
12 If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the LORD thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying,
13 Certain men, the childrenc of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known;
14 Then shalt thou enquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you;
15 Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword.
16 And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every whit, for the LORD thy God: and it shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be built again.
17 And there shall cleave nought of the cursed thing to thine hand: that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and shew thee mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers;
18 When thou shalt hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep all his commandments which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the LORD thy God.
Deuteronomy: God’s Law of Love
Love and Obey the *LORD your God
Deuteronomy
Philip Smith
Chapter 13
v1 ‘A *prophet or someone who explains the meaning of dreams might promise to you a *sign or a *wonder. v2 Then he might ask you to *worship false gods. And he might ask you to serve those false gods. You have not known these false gods before. Even if the *sign or *wonder happens, v3 do not listen to that person. The *LORD your God is testing you. The *LORD wants to discover whether you love him completely. v4 You must *worship the *LORD your God and you must *fear him. *Keep his *commandments and obey him. Serve him and be loyal to him. v5 You must kill that *prophet or that person who explains the meaning of dreams. That is because he told you to refuse to obey the *LORD your God. He has tried to persuade you away from what the *LORD your God has told you to do. The *LORD brought you out of Egypt. He rescued you when you were *slaves. That *prophet has tried to change your minds. You must stop that kind of wicked behaviour.’
Not all *prophets were true *prophets. A *prophet might try to persuade people not to give honour to God. But people should not listen to him. Even if his *prophecy came true, they must not listen. God would use this situation. God would see what the *Israelites would do. God would see whether they were loyal to God. The people must not refuse to obey God. Instead, they should obey the *Lord and *worship him loyally. They should kill the false *prophet who tried to persuade them away from God.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 5, Paul tells the Christians at Corinth to remove a wicked man from the church. But in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul tells them to forgive the man. That was because the man was sorry about his *sins.
v6 ‘Other people might encourage you to give honour secretly to false gods. They are false gods to whom you and your *ancestors have never given honour before. Those people might include your brother or your son or your daughter. They might include the wife whom you love or your closest friend. v7 The people round you might give honour to those false gods. The people might live near you or they might live far away. v8 You must not do what those people say. Do not listen to them. Do not show *mercy to them. Do not protect them. v9 You must kill them. You must be the first person to throw stones at them. Then let everyone else throw stones at them too. v10 Throw stones at them until you have killed them. They tried to persuade you to leave the *LORD your God. The *LORD rescued you when you were *slaves in Egypt. v11 Then all the people in *Israel will hear about it. They will be afraid. Nobody will do such a wicked thing again.’
In those days, relationships in a family were very strong. But the *Israelites must kill even a member of their family if he or she encouraged people to *worship *idols. The other members of the family would throw the first stone. To kill a family member was a severe punishment. But God allowed it in order to keep the whole nation *holy. It showed how serious the wrong action was. That person did not deserve to live with God’s people,
When we follow Jesus, we must be loyal to our Christian family. They must be more important than our physical family. And God must be more important than a person’s own family. (See Matthew 12:48-50.)
v12 ‘The *LORD your God will give to you towns in which to live. But you might hear this about one of the towns. v13 “Wicked men from among you have persuaded the people in their town to do wrong things. They have told people to go and to give honour to false gods.” (You have never given honour to those gods before.) v14 You must discover whether that is true. You must ask and you must examine it carefully. If that terrible thing is true, v15 then kill all the people in the town. *Destroy the town and the animals too. v16 Bring together all the people’s possessions into the middle of the town. Then you must burn completely the town and everything in it. Burn it as a *burnt offering to the *LORD your God. You must ruin the town and you must never rebuild it. v17 Do not keep any of the things that God has *cursed. Then the *LORD will not continue to be angry. He will pity you. He will have *mercy on you. And he will increase your numbers. He promised that to your *ancestors. v18 Obey the *LORD your God. *Keep all his *commandments that I have given to you today. Do what he wants you to do.’
Sometimes, people who gave honour to *idols would affect whole towns. If a town allowed that to happen, the *Israelites must *destroy it. In those days, unity in a town or in a group of people was very strong. So they all were guilty. But the *Israelites had to be certain that the town was guilty.
God did not allow them to keep anything from the town for themselves. That meant that people would not *destroy a town for their own advantage. The *Israelites *destroyed towns like Jericho (Joshua 6:17-21) and Gibeah (Judges 20:42-48). If all the people involved themselves in that very wicked behaviour, they all suffered the punishment. If there were good people in the town, they should have left. They should not remain where people *worship false gods.
A man called Achan took goods from one of those towns. In Joshua 7, you can read what happened as a result of his act. (But note this. Joshua 6:23 says that Rahab escaped from Jericho because of her *faith.) The *Israelites should not live with people who did not believe God. If they did, the *Israelites would not continue their beliefs.
In Colossians 3:5, Paul tells Christians: ‘Destroy the power of all the evil desires in your life that belong to this world.’ For example, avoid wrong sex. Do not greatly desire possessions and too much food. Here ‘this world’ refers to the people who do not obey God.
Lord ~ a name for God. It translates the word ‘Adonai’ in the Hebrew language, which means ‘my ruler’. The word ‘lord’ (without a capital letter) means an ordinary ruler.LORD ~ God gave this special name to himself. It translates the word ‘Yahweh’ in the Hebrew language. It is the Covenant name for God. It links to the words ‘I am’; it means that God has always been here.
covenant ~ the special promise that God made to his people. God’s covenant with the Israelites established a relationship between him and them. But they must obey him.
Israelite ~ a person from the nation called *Israel; Israelites is another name for the Jews.
Jew ~ a person who belongs to the family of the Israelites. Jews are descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
descendant ~ a person in your family who will live after you.
sign ~ an unusual event that God uses to teach people something. But sometimes false prophets promised signs.
wonder ~ an event that astonishes people and it shows God’s power. But other people who did not love God sometimes did them too.
worship ~ when people show honour to God, or to a false god. People may sing or pray. Or they may kneel down or give a sacrifice.
sacrifice ~ something valuable that people give to God, or to a false god; or, to make such a gift.
fear ~ to be afraid; to respect someone who is very great.
keep ~ to do whatever you should do because of a promise or a law; to respect and to give honour to the law.
commandment ~ a rule or a command that God gave to the Jews; the 10 rules that God gave to Moses. That was on the mountain called Mount Sinai (or Horeb); a command from someone who has authority.
Jew ~ a person who belongs to the family of the Israelites. Jews are descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Mount ~ mountain. For example, ‘Mount Sinai’ means the mountain called Sinai.
Israelite ~ a person from the nation called *Israel; Israelites is another name for the Jews.
descendant ~ a person in your family who will live after you.
Israelite ~ a person from the nation called *Israel; Israelites is another name for the Jews.
Jew ~ a person who belongs to the family of the Israelites. Jews are descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
descendant ~ a person in your family who will live after you.
Lord ~ a name for God. It translates the word ‘Adonai’ in the Hebrew language, which means ‘my ruler’. The word ‘lord’ (without a capital letter) means an ordinary ruler.
LORD ~ God gave this special name to himself. It translates the word ‘Yahweh’ in the Hebrew language. It is the Covenant name for God. It links to the words ‘I am’; it means that God has always been here.
covenant ~ the special promise that God made to his people. God’s covenant with the Israelites established a relationship between him and them. But they must obey him.
Israelite ~ a person from the nation called *Israel; Israelites is another name for the Jews.
Jew ~ a person who belongs to the family of the Israelites. Jews are descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
descendant ~ a person in your family who will live after you.
ancestors ~ people in your family who lived before you.
mercy ~ kindness instead of punishment.
idol ~ an image of a false god that people give honour to; an object of wood, stone or metal that people worship.
worship ~ when people show honour to God, or to a false god. People may sing or pray. Or they may kneel down or give a sacrifice.
sacrifice ~ something valuable that people give to God, or to a false god; or, to make such a gift.
holy ~ morally good; something completely good and perfect; something that people consider to be very important in their religion.
destroy ~ to damage something so that it does not continue to exist; to kill people or animals.'burnt offering ~ a priest burned the whole animal on the altar.
altar ~ a table on which people give gifts or sacrifices to God or to a false god.
sacrifice ~ something valuable that people give to God, or to a false god; or, to make such a gift.
curse ~ the opposite of a blessing; bad things that God will do to people because they have been wicked; to say that God will curse someone.
blessing ~ a good thing that God does for us; when someone asks God to do good things for a person or for people; when a person speaks good words about someone.
destroy ~ to damage something so that it does not continue to exist; to kill people or animals.
faith ~ strong belief and trust.