Deuteronomy 13:1-18

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.