Deuteronomy 13:1-18
Punishment of Apostates
1 “If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—’and let us serve them,’ 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. 5 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst.
6 “If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, 7 of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, 8 you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; 9 but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. 10 And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 11 So all Israel shall hear and fear, and not again do such wickedness as this among you.
12 “If you hear someone in one of your cities, which the LORD your God gives you to dwell in, saying, 13 ‘Corrupt men have gone out from among you and enticed the inhabitants of their city, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods“‘—which you have not known— 14 then you shall inquire, search out, and ask diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an abomination was committed among you, 15 you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it, all that is in it and its livestock—with the edge of the sword. 16 And you shall gather all its plunder into the middle of the street, and completely burn with fire the city and all its plunder, for the LORD your God. It shall be a heap forever; it shall not be built again. 17 So none of the accursed things shall remain in your hand, that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of His anger and show you mercy, have compassion on you and multiply you, just as He swore to your fathers, 18 because you have listened to the voice of the LORD your God, to keep all His commandments which I command you today, to do what is right in the eyes of the LORD your God.
Just as then, now we are also urged by the scriptures to continue in listening to the truth of God’s word and not be misled into error by those wielding powerfully persuasive teachings that only lead to idolatry and immortality of the soul and even the body. We hear Moses here warning of such false statements of self-proclaimed prophets with “a word from the Lord” that is really only their own deception spoken convincingly enough to draw followers to themselves instead of the Lord God. These come now from within as well as from out the church (Acts 20:29-30, 31, 2 Peter 2:1) as ravenous wolves ready to devour sound faith based on God’s word as they replace it with subtle errors to lead others off the narrow path to join them. We must therefore know as much of the truth from study and reflection on God’s word to identify and avoid anything but clinging to worship of the only Lord Jesus Christ as we love God with all our lives and hearts and minds to keep His word because He alone has rescued us from the bondage of sin and called us to worship and follow only Him. Certainly we do not follow the examples here of killing the false teachers or self-proclaimed prophets as was required then before the Spirit of God loved in the children of God to keep them from this evil, but we can keep them out of the assembly of the saints (1 Corinthians 5:12-13) when their unrepentant motives are revealed to keep the flock safe from such nefarious doctrines. We are told to test all things by the word and Spirit given us (Acts 17:11, 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22, 2 Timothy 4:3-4, 1 John 4:1-2) and to hold fast to what is proven right and true. The temptation is to listen and desire a new thing or doubt the facts with speculative “what if” questions when we are convinced of the truths clearly given us and understood in our minds, hearts, and spirits. We also need to understand that those things which are not clear in scripture may be claimed to mean some definite thing without scriptural proof and should beware if the explanation does not fit in the larger context and intent of the rest of scripture. The enemy still tells us, “did God really say” as a way to misdirect us from the truth taught by the Spirit and through that same Spirit in fellow Christians. May we keep alert for the roaring lion in all the avenues he uses against us, therefore as we listen to and follow the truth.
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