Warnings Against Idolatry

Continuing a chronological Bible study:

(Deuteronomy 13:1) “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 hearken to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God proves you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul."

In the last chapter and post, Moses told the people that there would come a time in their new land in Canaan when they would worship and serve their Lord in a place of His choosing, and they would bring offerings there in a prescribed manner.  He warned them against idolatry and against practicing any customs that the pagans they were dispossessing used in the service of their false gods.  They were to destroy every sign and symbol of the false gods. 

In this chapter Moses began by telling the people that even if a self-proclaimed prophet among them or dreamer of visions foretold some strange or wonderful sign that came to pass in order to confirm that they should pursue other gods and serve them, they were not to listen to that false prophet.  He was obviously a false prophet because he spoke contrary to God's word.  This reminds me of the Bereans in Acts 17:11.  When Paul and Silas preached to them, they examined the scriptures to confirm if what they were telling them was true, or contrary to the scriptures.  That's how to tell truth from a lie; that's why it's necessary to know the word of God so we won't be fooled.  God always gives us a choice between life or death, blessing or cursing, His ways or the ways of the world.  He doesn't force us to accept Him, but situations such as the one described in these verses would test the individual to know whether he truly loved the Lord with all his heart and soul, or if he could be easily persuaded to choose to dabble in idolatry.

(4) “You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; and you shall serve Him and cleave to Him."

Moses again exhorts the people to walk in the ways of their Lord, have a reverential fear of Him as the very giver of life and almighty God of the universe, keep and obey His commandments, and serve and hold fast to only Him.

(5) "And 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 thrust you out of the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put the evil away from the midst of you."

That false prophet was to be put to death, not because he dreamed such a dream, but because he told the people about it in order to turn them away from their Lord God who had brought them out of Egypt from that land of bondage.  They had to put that evil away from them by putting him to death so that he not be allowed to further tempt the children of Israel away from their God. 

(6) “If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, entices you secretly 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 hearken to him, neither shall your eye pity him, neither shall you spare him or conceal him."

Even if someone very close to a person, his own brother, wife, child, or a friend as close and dear to him as himself, tried to secretly talk him into serving other gods of the people around them or in other parts of the earth, that person was forbidden to listen or consent to it.  Additionally, he was not to have pity on that idolater, though he be very close to him; his life was not to be spared and he could not conceal him, which would make him complicit in the evil.

(9) "But you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people."

This does not mean the person was to murder another by his own authority because of what that other person had told him in secret, but the fact that all the people were involved, proves there was a public hearing.  This was not taken lightly.  According to Dr. John Gill, in his Exposition of the Entire Bible, this was difficult to judge because the affair had taken place in secret, with no other witnesses.  Therefore, "either the enticer must be brought to a confession of his guilt, or the testimony of the enticed alone must be taken. The Jewish doctors say that they laid in wait for the enticer, which they never did for any other person, and the method they took was this; the enticed brought two persons, and put them behind a hedge, so that they might see the enticer, and hear his words, and he not see them; and he said to the enticer, say what thou hast said to me privately; which said, the enticed answered to him, how shall we leave our God which is in heaven, and go and serve wood and stone? if he returned (from his evil) hereby, or was silent, he was free; but if he said unto him, so we are obliged, and thus it is comely for us; they that stood afar off, behind the hedge (or in a dark room), brought him to the sanhedrim, and stoned him, that is, after examination, trial, judgment, and condemnation."  The person who had been originally enticed would be the one to cast the first stone, followed by the casting of stones by the rest of the people.

(10) “And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he has sought to thrust you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage."

If found guilty, the enticer was to be stoned to death, because he sought to drive the people away from their Lord God, the one true God who had done so much for them with signs and wonders and the deliverance from bondage in Egypt.  Even though he may have only whispered the rebellion to one person, if allowed to go unchecked it would have destroyed the whole group of people.  If this punishment sounds harsh, we should always remember that to steer a person away from God is to murder his soul.

(11) "And all Israel shall hear and fear, and shall do no more such wickedness as this is among you."

All of Israel would have heard what happened to that enticer, and would fear to act as he had and be cautious against being drawn into sin by someone like him.  Once again, this was done to prevent such wickedness from spreading.

(12) "If you shall hear in one of your cities, which the LORD your God has given you to dwell there, saying, (13) 'Certain men, the children 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 you have not known, (14) Then you shall inquire, search out, and ask diligently, and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought 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 cattle, with the edge of the sword."

So egregious was the sin of enticing people into idolatry and away from their Lord God, that even if they heard rumors that in one of their cities certain men of Satan were drawing people away from their Lord suggesting they dabble in idolatry, then they were to diligently search out if the rumor was true.  So serious was such an abomination, they must investigate the matter, and if found to be true, they were to destroy that city and all that was in it.  Undoubtedly, if there were righteous men in that city, they would come out of it, but the city and all within it was to be completely destroyed, so that such wickedness would not spread to other cities.

(16) “And you shall gather all its spoil into the middle of the street, and completely burn with fire the city and all its spoil, for the LORD your God; and it shall be a heap forever; it shall not be built again."

Once the people and livestock of such an evil city were destroyed, all the goods of that city were to be piled into the midst of it and burned; the spoil and the entire city were to be burned for their Lord God, by His commandment and to rid from their midst and His such an abomination, as a sort of offering to Him.  That city was never to be rebuilt.

(17) "And there shall remain none of the cursed things in your hand, that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of His anger and show you mercy, and have compassion on you and multiply you, as He has sworn to your fathers, (18) When you shall hearken to the voice of the LORD your God, to keep all His commandments which I command you this day, to do what is right in the eyes of the LORD your God."

The people were to completely rid their land of any of the accursed things belonging to the idolaters, including the whole city itself, that the Lord's anger might be assuaged, and that He have mercy and compassion on them and multiply their numbers as He had sworn to their forefathers.  The people might think that destroying an entire city and killing their brethren was in conflict with increasing their numbers, but Moses told them that if they followed their Lord God, kept His commandments, and did what was right in His sight, and rid themselves of corruption, He would bless and increase them all the more.  Jesus taught something to this effect in the New Testament.  He said that whoever saved his own life would lose it, and whoever gave his life for the Lord's sake would find life; and whoever gained the whole world but lost his soul in the process profited nothing (Matthew 16:25-26).  Giving up a city for the Lord's sake would mean blessings and life more abundant than anything they could have gained by holding onto worldly goods.