Deuteronomy 13 – Keeping the Worship of God Pure

A. Protecting against those who would entice Israel to serve other gods.

1. (1-3) Protecting against the deceiver who comes with miraculous signs.

“If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, 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,’ 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.

a. If there arises among you: This section of the long sermon of Moses (Deuteronomy 5:1 to 26:19) deals with threats that could come from within Israel, threats to the faithful worship of Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel.

b. A dreamer of dreams: Dreams can come from God (Numbers 12:6, Genesis 37:5-11), or they can be false prophecies (Jeremiah 23:25-26). God’s people must be careful to never put too much confidence in claimed revelation from dreams, and any such claim should be tested. False prophets might use dreams to give weight to their message (Deuteronomy 13:1-5, Jeremiah 23:25-28).

i. God may certainly speak through dreams, and many passages of the Bible show this. In the Bible, those to whom God spoke through dreams include the pagan ruler Abimelech (Genesis 20:3), Jacob (Genesis 28:12, 31:11), Laban (Genesis 31:24), a Midianite (Judges 7:13), Solomon (1 Kings 3:5), Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 2:1), Daniel (Daniel 7:1), Joseph (Matthew 1:20, 2:13, 2:22), and Pilate’s wife (Matthew 27:19).

ii. In the Bible, God spoke to unbelievers or pagans in dreams almost twice as many times as He spoke to His people in dreams. We hear many stories today about how God speaks to people in the Muslim world with dreams about Jesus.

iii. It’s always important to remember that not every dream is a revelation from God. Dreams can come just because our minds are busy: A dream comes through much activity.… For in the multitude of dreams and many words there is also vanity (Ecclesiastes 5:3, 5:7).

iv. People shouldn’t look for messages from God anywhere else than the Bible – it is God’s voice. Yet believers may recognize that from time to time God will choose an unusual way to communicate, yet never against the Bible or never equal to the Bible’s authority or importance.

c. And he gives you a sign or a wonder: Moses warned the people that there may arise from among them prophets or workers of signs who could also produce a sign or a wonder.

i. Deuteronomy 18:22 told Israel what to do with a prophet who spoke a word and it did not come to pass. This passage told Israel what to do with a prophet who spoke a word and it came to pass, but they then spoke against what God has already revealed in His word.

d. And the sign or the wonder comes to pass: It is possible for a false teacher to “prove” their point through some kind of apparent sign or wonder. These apparent signs and wonders might be false, tricks used to deceive. Or it is also possible that apparent signs and wonders are works of Satan, performed through agents that may know they are Satan’s instruments, or may not be aware of it.

i. “The sign or wonder had to be tested against the message of the prophet, for only when the message was consistent with the whole range of divine revelation could the accompanying miracles be given credibility.” (Merrill)

ii. The display of supernatural power – even real supernatural power – does not prove that a message comes from God. Those who are immediately convinced at the apparent presence of supernatural power are in danger of being deceived. 2 Thessalonians 2:9 reminds us that the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders.

iii. This is why Jesus said and these signs will follow those who believe (Mark 16:17). Signs are to follow believers, instead of believers following signs.

e. You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer of dreams: One with godly discernment will always carefully examine the message of a spiritual leader, instead of looking only to the spiritual experiences which may surround him or her.

i. In considering some of the great prophets of the Old Testament – men such as Elijah and Elisha, who worked many spectacular signs and wonders – if even they were to say, let us go after other gods, then Israel was to reject them and put them to death. This general attitude carries over into the New Testament when Paul told the Galatian Christians that even if he or an angel from heaven were to preach another gospel, they should be rejected and regarded as accursed by God (Galatians 1:8-9).

ii. It is interesting to consider Elijah’s confrontation with the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:20-40) in this context. According to the commands here in Deuteronomy 13, even if the prophets of Baal were able, in some way, to produce fire from heaven, they should still have been rejected and even executed. Elijah’s challenge that the true God could be discerned from a supernatural event was a special exception prompted by a special revelation from God (1 Kings 18:36), not a standing principle.

f. The LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart: This explains one of God’s reasons for allowing such deceivers to exist among His people – to allow the hearts of His people to be tested and proven, to see if they really love the God of truth or are merely seeking a spiritual sign or experience.

i. “And particularly there are many signs, yea, such as men may think to be wonders, which may be wrought by evil spirits, God so permitting it for divers wise and just reasons, not only for the trial of the good, as it here follows, but also for the punishment of ungodly men, who would not receive Divine truths, though attested by many evident and unquestionable miracles, and therefore are most justly exposed to these temptations to believe lies.” (Poole)

ii. God is testing you: Meyer described three areas where Christians are commonly tested: in Christian service, in their use of money, and in actions regarding doubtful things. “How much happens to us for this reason! God proves us — not that He may learn aught of us which He did not know before, but that He may reveal us to ourselves. We need to know ourselves, that we may be prompted to know and use His infinite resources, and that, in the great consciousness of our frailty and weakness, we may be led to avail ourselves of His grace.” (Meyer)

2. (4-5) The penalty for the deceiver who comes with miraculous signs.

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 hold fast to Him. 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.

a. You shall walk after the LORD: Israel was commanded to not let a deceiver succeed in leading them astray. No matter how attractive the deception, they were to keep focused on a faithful walk with God according to His truth.

b. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death: Ancient Israel was a unique state. The civil government of Israel was directly appointed by God and charged with maintaining spiritual order as well as civil order. Therefore, heresy and deception were capital crimes and punished by execution. This was how Israel was to put away the evil from their midst.

i. For many centuries, when the church held significant political influence, it often exercised the death penalty against heretics. The institutional church rarely directly put heretics to death; accused and condemned heretics were normally given over to the civil government for execution. “This power is still in the Christian magistrate, to inflict capital punishment on gross heretics; such as was Servetus at Geneva.” (Trapp, mid-1600s)

ii. Under the new covenant, God has not commanded the formation of Christian nations along the same pattern as He did with biblical Israel. Israel was commanded to use capital punishment against heretics. Under the new covenant, neither the church nor the state has the same divine command to execute false teachers. Instead, false teachers should be noted and avoided (Romans 16:17, 2 Thessalonians 3:14-15, 1 Timothy 6:3-5, 2 John 1:10-11). This is how Christians, under the new covenant, are to put away the evil from their midst.

c. Who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage: God’s authority over Israel was based on the redemption He won for them in rescuing Israel from their slavery in Egypt. This great work demanded Israel’s faithful allegiance to Yahweh.

3. (6-11) The penalty for a relative who would lead an Israelite to worship other gods.

“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, 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, you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; 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. 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. So all Israel shall hear and fear, and not again do such wickedness as this among you.

a. Brother…your son or your daughter…your wife…your friend: God commanded Israel that they should not allow their close family relations to lead them to worship other gods. Such influence was to be rejected (they were to not consent or even listen to such false teachers), and those teachers were also to be executed (you shall surely kill him). This was God’s command for biblical Israel under the old covenant.

i. By God’s command, the relative should be one of the main witnesses against the guilty party (your hand shall be first against him to put him to death). This was the “casting of the first stone,” the initiation of execution by one of the witnesses to the crime deserving the death penalty.

ii. “The nature of God’s covenant with Israel was such that loyalty and love to him were more important than the love of one’s family.” (Thompson)

iii. This command demonstrates that God never puts ultimate priority on family relationships. If a family member forsakes the LORD, we are never to follow them in their apostasy. Jesus always comes first, as He said in Matthew 10:37: He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.

b. Secretly entices you: God’s prohibition of the worship of other gods was so comprehensive that it also included private conversations. The invitation to worship other gods did not have to be public to be of great concern to God’s people.

c. So all Israel shall hear and fear: If Israel properly addressed the problem of false teachers among them, it would teach the people to properly honor and reverence God. Proper opposition to false teaching would discourage the practice of leading people away from Yahweh and to false gods.

i. “This extreme punishment is expected to produce good results. Though many modern sociologists declare that punishment—especially capital punishment—is no deterrent to crime, the message Moses proclaimed as the Word of God says that it would be a deterrent.” (Kalland)

ii. “Unfortunately, the injunction must seldom if ever have been carried out. Over and over again Israel and Judah were unfaithful to the Lord, a pattern of life that brought a series of judgments upon them, culminating in the eventual demise and deportations of the respective kingdoms (cf. 2 Kings 17:7–23; 24:3).” (Merrill)

B. Protecting the nation against those who would lead them into idolatry.

1. (12-14a) How to deal with reports of a city given over to idolatry.

“If you hear someone in one of your cities, which the LORD your God gives you to dwell in, saying, ‘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—then you shall inquire, search out, and ask diligently.

a. Then you shall inquire: If reports arose regarding an Israelite city given over to idolatry, there was first to be a careful investigation.

i. Corrupt men: “Children of Belial…lawless men;—persons good for nothing to themselves or others, and capable of nothing but mischief.” (Clarke)

b. Inquire, search out, and ask diligently: The command to carefully investigate would guard Israel against making harsh, unfounded judgments. Perhaps there were a few idolaters in the city who needed to be punished, but the city as a whole was not given over to idolatry. The matter had to be investigated.

i. Under the leadership of Joshua, Israel wisely followed this practice of carefully investigating charges of apostasy before treating the accused as guilty (Joshua 22:10-34). When the two-and-one-half tribes that settled on the east side of the Jordan were thought to have built an altar to a pagan god, Israel was ready to make war against them according to these commands in Deuteronomy. Yet, their investigation proved the accusation to be unfounded.

2. (14b-18) The penalty for a city given over to idolatry.

And if it is indeed true and certain that such an abomination was committed among you, 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. 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. 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, 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.

a. Such an abomination: The investigation was to determine if an abomination was committed among the people of Israel. The word abomination here refers to a gross, offensive idolatry. Later in Daniel and in the New Testament, the word is used in the phrase abomination of desolation, which refers to the ultimate idolatry of the Antichrist – the establishing of an idolatrous image of himself in the Most Holy Place (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).

i. “The term abominable thing (toeba) is used in the Old Testament for something that is totally displeasing to God and denotes something impure, unclean and totally devoid of holiness (cf. Deuteronomy 7:25-26; 14:3; 17:1, 4; 18:9; 20:18).” (Thompson)

b. You shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword; utterly destroying it: If the investigation found that the city was indeed given over to idolatry, it was then to be treated as a Canaanite city. They were to utterly destroy the city, including its property. The property was to be given to the LORD by destroying it, a form of “sacred destruction.”

i. The entire community was under judgment, both because of their toleration of the abomination, and their being party to it. “Theirs was a corporate guilt and, as so often in the Old Testament, they were judged corporately.” (Thompson)

ii. This made certain that no one could profit materially by declaring a city to be given over to idolatry. If this provision were not in the Law of Moses one could imagine a city being falsely accused and plundered under a pretended concern for faithfulness to the LORD.

iii. “As God did not permit them to take the spoils of these idolatrous cities, they could be under no temptation to make war upon them…. How few religious wars would there ever have been in the world had they been regulated by this principle: ‘Thou shalt neither extend thy territory, nor take any spoils!’” (Clarke)

iv. “The very same punishment which was inflicted upon the cities of the cursed Canaanites, to whom having made themselves equal in sin, it is but fit and just that God should equal them in punishment.” (Poole)

c. It shall be a heap forever; it shall not be built again: The destroyed town was to be left as a heap forever. The mound of ruins would be a testimony to the rest of Israel.

i. The word heap is literally tel, and the word tel is used in Arabic for any ruined site. Throughout Israel today, one will see curious mounds rising from a plain. These tels are the heaped up remains of ancient, destroyed cities, covered over with centuries of dust and accumulated dirt.

ii. Not be built again: “This doom, which goes contrary to the common practice of rebuilding towns on the ruins of the site, as the stratigraphic remains of tells in the Middle East plainly show, indicates how serious the Lord considered any defection from him.” (Kalland)

d. To do what is right in the eyes of the LORD your God: This demonstrates that Israelites were never to regard ethnic or national connections greater than their connection to the LORD God; if their fellow countrymen were given over to idolatry, they were not to be spared.

i. The commands of Deuteronomy 13 compel the modern believer to remain faithful to God. If signs or wonders, close relatives, or national or ethnic ties would lead a person to unfaithfulness to Jesus Christ, all of those should be rejected in honor and faithfulness to the LORD.

ii. Morgan described four ways in this section of Deuteronomy that people are seduced from the true worship of God to the worship of idols. These remain a challenge to the people of God.

· Curiosity (Deuteronomy 12:29-32).

· Signs and wonders (Deuteronomy 13:1-5).

· Enticements of human affection (Deuteronomy 13:6-11).

· Failure to discipline, to confront false teaching (Deuteronomy 13:12-18).

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