Okay, Deuteronomy chapter 13, I'll just begin reading in verse 1. 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.
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. 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.
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.
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. 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. Amen. Well,
Introduction
remember that last week we looked at chapter 12 and we saw the centralization of worship. God told the children of Israel to go into the land of Canaan, to dispossess the land of the Canaanites, and to utterly destroy all remnants of Canaanite worship. They were to get rid of the altars, they were to get rid of anything that resembled Canaanite worship. They were to delete the names of the gods from that particular land, because God was putting His name there and God was going to dwell in their midst.
They were prescribed a particular place. God said through Moses that you go to the place that I choose and that you engage in worship in the manner that he had specified. He underscored all of this in chapter 12, verse 32. Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it.
You shall not add to it nor take away from it. And we saw the threat here was the second commandment. that we are to not have idols. We're not to worship the true God in a false way. That is sinful, that is bad, it is wicked.
It doesn't do us any good to say, well, we're worshiping Yahweh of Israel, we're gonna just use the Canaanite altars in order to do so. God says, that's wrong, it's wicked, don't engage in that manner of worship. And then here in chapter 13, we're dealing with seduction to idolatry. Again, the attempt by persons, and we'll see in three particulars, attempt by persons to seduce others to commit idolatry, and in so doing, to reject God Almighty, to rebel against the covenant, and to ultimately bring the wrath of God down upon one's head.
There's three categories or three groups of people here that may solicit or may seduce to idolatry. The first is the temptation from false prophets. We might call these the false religious leaders, verses 1 to 5. Then there is the temptation from family and friends, verses 6 to 11, and then the temptation from public apostasy, verses 12 to 18, are what Craigie, I think, rightly calls urban revolutionaries.
And it's obvious that if you don't deal with it with the false prophets and you don't deal with it within the family, it's going to blossom into this full-scale urban revolutionary mindset that we find here in chapter 13 verses 12 to 18. So we're going to consider these three particular threats, these three seducers to idolatry. We'll notice not only the enticement but the penalty that is spoken of in this particular chapter. Probably as we read through this you're a little bit shocked at what God says to do with these particular offenders.
That doesn't reflect upon God, rather it reflects upon us, how we have grown so accustomed to idolatry, and how we've grown so accustomed to pluralism, and how we've grown so accustomed to the rejection of God Most High, that it's shocking to see God calling for such penalties to be enacted against those who would violate His law. Well, let's just look at the first one, the temptation from false prophets. Notice the enticement itself. It says, if there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, This is one of God's ways of communicating to the people of Israel.
In Numbers 12, 6, as it's highlighting the peculiar nature of Moses, God is relating how he dealt or how he deals with others. He says, Here now my words, if there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make myself known to him in a vision. I speak to him in a dream. So prophets and dreamers of dreams were something that were part of Israelite society.
That's not the problem. We'll see the problem as we proceed. But notice here in verse 1. And he gives you a sign or a wonder.
And then what's incredible is verse 2. And the sign or the wonder comes to pass. So you have a false prophet, you have this dreamer of dreams, he does a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder actually comes to pass. It is accomplished, it is brought forth.
What's the admonition or what's the warning here? Notice. But he says to you, let us go after other gods which you have not known, and let us serve them." So you see, the man comes in the name of Yahweh, perhaps he's a prophet, he's a dreamer of dreams, he's in Israel, he's in the covenant community, he does a sign or a wonder, that actually comes to pass and on the heels of that he says let's go worship the Canaanite gods. Let's go follow those who are not Yahweh.
That's the particular temptation that is given here in this situation. One need only think of the modern emphasis and the long-time emphasis on signs and wonders. Biblical signs and wonders lead us to God Most High. If signs and wonders become the end in and of themselves, that's wrong.
If signs and wonders become everything that we seek to the neglect of the true and living God, that's wrong. And we see something of that here. Christopher Wright says,
Signs and Wonders Tested by the Word
No sign that appears to authenticate is to be given precedence over the content of the words spoken by a prophet. He may come with the signs of a true prophet, but if his words contradict the normative, covenantal demand, everything that God has heretofore revealed, then he is false and must be purged from the body of Israel like a lethal poison. So you see this prophet or dreamer of dreams comes, he does signs and wonders. The signs and wonders actually come to pass.
I suspect he'd have a stadium full of people in the 21st century. Who cares if it leads us to the true and living God? Just heal me of my afflictions and put money in my bank account. We don't care about God Most High, who these signs and wonders are supposedly supposed to direct us to.
We rather care about the signs and wonders themselves. Not so in this context. Notice after verse 2, verse 2 and verse 3, it says, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. Do not listen to him.
Do not pay attention to him. I don't care if he can float around the sky and make gold coins float out of his mouth. Don't listen to him if he doesn't lead you to Yahweh. If his word is not consistent, if he is calling for the worship of false gods, he himself is a false prophet.
True signs and wonders that lead us away from the cross are never God's sanction. They are not wrought by him. Again, Christopher Wright said, his words cancel out all his amazing deeds. No display of miraculous powers, no amount of signs and wonders can lend a moment's credibility to anybody with a message so clearly at odds with covenant truth and demand.
So if one of these healers or one of these miracle workers can't get justification right, they are false. prophets. It doesn't matter what they appear to be able to do. It doesn't matter what the phenomena may suggest. What matters is the truth of God's holy word.
We are a word-based, faith-based religion. We are not to be drawn in and caught up with the signs and the wonders. It does not matter what they say. It does not matter what they claim.
If they are not speaking truthfully and consistently with the God of heaven and earth, then it is wrong. The refusal to hear the false prophet. There's one thing in this world that demands complete allegiance and it is the word of the living and true God. You cannot miss that working through the book of Deuteronomy.
It is the foundation of covenant life. It is the foundation of man's relationship to God. Ultimately, we know, of course, the Lord Jesus, but it is that Word that reveals that to us. It is sufficient for all matters of faith and practice, notwithstanding the claims of prophets and dreamers of dreams.
This would be a difficulty if you see someone doing amazing things, certainly the temptation arises for you to follow them, and to watch them, and to be one like them. That's not what God says here though. He says resist that tendency, resist that temptation, and realize that even in this, God has his purpose. Notice, verse 3, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams.
Now notice, for the Lord your God is testing you. This isn't a temptation, a solicitation to do evil. Rather, it's the sort of testing that God has already revealed He did in the wilderness. In Deuteronomy chapter 8, you can turn there just so you see that God does send these things upon us to test us, to show, to demonstrate, to vindicate, affirm, confirm that what we have is indeed the true and living faith.
Notice in 8.2, you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. So if a few signs and wonders get you to compromise and follow after idols, then what you profess was not the true faith. If you are enamored with Benny Hinn and you worship his God, then what you professed in terms of salvation by grace through faith in Christ must not have been legit. Do not get caught up in the show.
Do not get caught up in the display. God is moving behind the scenes to test his people. Remember, Paul argues in a very similar fashion. See, as I said, when we read Deuteronomy 13, it shocks our Christian sensitivities and our delicacies.
The same things are true in the New Covenant. Paul says, for this reason there are heresies among you in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, so that those who are approved may be recognized. 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 19. There is a weeding process going on when men follow down and chase down heresies or signs and wonders and turn away from the living God through Jesus Christ. They are just showing it's a way of God thinning the herd.
It's a way for God to sort of thin out the branches. God has his purposes in all of this and we need to realize this. And this is precisely what is stated here. The Lord is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Remember that was the central confession, Deuteronomy 6.4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. What is the response to that central confession? You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
So if you get enamored with the signs and wonders that the dreamer of dreams and the false prophet manufactures, you weren't the real deal. This wasn't genuine love. You didn't have covenant fidelity. You weren't being faithful.
You need to respond to the Word of God rather than to what men manufacture. If it jives with the Scripture, praise God. If it contradicts the Scripture, they are to be rejected, refused to listen to them, side always with the Word of the Living God. There were times in Isaiah's ministry, there was a season where the people were seeking out diviners and mediums, and he says, to the law and to the testimony.
If they don't speak according to this, there's no light in them. They are to be refused, rejected, and shunned. We're not to be a people that are simply caught up by the demonstration of a man. We are to be caught up in the Word of the Living God.
Signs and wonders throughout the Bible came consistent with revelation. When you take the Bible and you look at it and you read it, people say, man, it's filled with miracles. You know, it really isn't. There's a lot of ages, a lot of years, there's not a lot of miracles.
When do miracles come? When God sends His servants, when God sends His spokesmen. They do signs and wonders to authenticate and evidence and confirm that they are of God and that the word that is coming is revelation. This is one of the arguments against tongues and prophesying today.
God has spoken in His prophets, in His Son, in these last days. We have the final word. We ought not to be looking for new revelation. God the Lord has spoken.
Signs and wonders and all of those things came at specific conspicuous times in redemptive history to validate the man of God that he was speaking for God and to affirm and confirm his word. So if a man does signs and wonders and then says, let's go worship, bail. He is to be refused. He is to be rejected.
He is to be shunned. And notice, not only does the Lord have a purpose here, but the Lord demonstrates a sovereignty. The Lord demonstrates His sovereignty, lest you think that Baal is the power behind these signs and wonders. Lest you think that Asherah or Molech is the power behind these signs and wonders.
God is the power behind these signs and wonders, and He is sending them to test Israel. He is sending them to validate and confirm whether these people are truly His own. The signs and wonders were not wrought by Baal through these dreamers of dreams. Any sign or wonder is God Almighty and He says, I am doing it to test, I am doing it to keep you from following these people.
And then notice the remedy. You shall walk, verse 4, 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. You see, we're a Him-based religion.
And I don't mean H-Y-M-N, I mean an H-I-M. We are a God-centered religion. God-central. First and second commandments.
You shall have no other gods before me, and you shall not make for yourself an idol. That's what's overarching in this admonition. And then notice, as they respond favorably, this then becomes the antidote to guard them against such false prophets and against such dreamers of dreams. If you are walking after the Lord your God, if you are fearing Him, if you are keeping His commandments, you're obeying His voice, you're serving Him and you're holding fast to Him, when a man comes and does signs and wonders and says, let's trot after Baal, you're going to say, get out of here!
So the response serves as the antidote and the help so that we can avoid this tendency or temptation or this solicitation to idolatry that comes through the false prophet. Again, Christopher Wright said, a people consciously living with this orientation and commitment would have the spiritual health and vitality to recognize and reject idolatrous enticement as decisively as a healthy body deals with invading germs. When you're walking with the Lord and the dreamer of dreams and false prophet comes and he throws down the lamby and the sparks fly, you're not going to fall prey to this because you're walking with Jehovah. It doesn't matter if you see all the signs and wonders.
It doesn't matter if you see the razzmatazz. It doesn't matter if you have the emotional high. You know that your God is faithful, that he has promised, that he will never leave you, and he will never forsake you. That's the religion of God's initiative.
It isn't just responding when we're getting stuck. It isn't just being a fair weather fan. Keep the signs and wonders coming, Lord, and I'll follow. That was what Jesus encountered when he fed men with bread.
What happened? They were a consumer mindset. When the bread was there, they ate and they followed Jesus. When the bread dried up and he said, I have a bread to tell you that comes down out of heaven and it gives eternal life, they didn't want that.
As long as their bellies were being filled, as long as they were being satisfied, as long as they got their needs met, they were happy. But when the bread, the physical bread, dried up, they fell away. They didn't want it. Well, isn't that the case with so many professors of religion?
As long as I'm happy, as long as I'm healthy, as long as I'm wise, as long as my children are well-behaved, as long as my taxes are paid, as long as my government is non-intrusive, I will be the best Christian you've ever seen, Lord. What's that? That is not the religion of the Bible. We are to follow the Lord in good times and in bad times.
We are to follow the Lord on the mountaintops and in the valleys. We are to follow the Lord always, and that's what verse four specifies. You do this, you don't have to worry about these false prophets. You don't have to worry about these dreamers of dreams.
They can pull a rabbit out of the hat and you can just say, that's for you and whatever person is interested in that. Yeah, good for you, exactly. Take your bow and follow after Baal. As for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.
That's what he instructs them in. And then notice the penalty for this man. This is going to be further explained later on in the book of Deuteronomy. Notice here in verse 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.
He has spoken in order to promote, here it is, apostasy. That's what turning away from is. It is defection from God. It is a falling away from.
So when he does his signs and wonders and he says, let's go follow after Baal now, what he is promoting in Israel is apostasy from the true and the living God. This is no small thing. This is revolution. This is treason.
This is high treachery. This is an assault upon the body of God Most High, which was Israel in that situation. It wasn't just a minor thing. We'll see that as we move through our study tonight.
What was unique about Israel is that they were in covenant with God. So when men counseled apostasy from God, it was an attack on the civil order. It wasn't just religious, though it was that, but it was an attack on the very society itself. And so they were to be put to death.
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." First time this is used, it will be used several other times. Put away the evil from your midst. So we see here the punishment of the evildoer. And again, we see that and we go, boy, that's pretty harsh.
That's really kind of a walk in the park compared to Galatians 1, isn't it? What does Paul say for someone who perverts the truth of the gospel? Let him be anathema. Let him be cursed.
Let him be damned to hell. That anathema principle, the Old Testament word is kerem, it's the Hebrew word where we get anathema, where we don't, but the Greeks got it, it was the same word, that's found in this passage. When there are these urban revolutionaries, when they want to pretend that they're Canaanites, you anathematize their city. You put it under the ban.
You put it under the curse. You destroy them. You destroy their livestock. You take all the plunder.
You put it on the ground. And you burn the city, just like you did with Jericho. When Israel conducts themselves like Canaanites, they will be punished like Canaanites. That's the third section.
But that principle of anathema, Paul pronounces that on gospel perverters. So before we roll our eyes and say, wow, that seems pretty harsh, Imagine what Paul is saying. Paul is saying, let them be damned to hell if they botch up justification by faith. Not because of ignorance, but because they want to distort the truth of the gospel.
They are perverters. They are not fit to preach the truth. of the cross. If they botch it up, they should be damned to hell. Paul says, not only a human preacher, if we, he says, or an angel from heaven should preach something we didn't preach before, let him be anathema.
So you see, the principle holds true. When you mess up the truth, there are ramifications. That's the whole thrust of James 3.1. Let not many of you become teachers.
Why? We shall receive a stricter judgment. Not to say that the people who follow don't go to hell, but the blind leading the blind, according to James, receives a stricter judgment. We see that here in this particular instance.
So what we find here is the punishment of the evildoer. And I think that what he is doing as well is highlighting the gravity of the crime when he says, because he has spoken in order to turn you out or to turn you away from the Lord your God, notice, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage. They're seeking to entice you to apostatize from the covenant Lord and Redeemer. They want you to turn your back on the very God who brought you out of Egypt.
They want you to turn your back on the Lord of heaven and earth who has purchased you, who has brought you into this situation, and it is therefore godless and wretched. In fact, Craigie says the false prophet was calling for faithlessness from a people redeemed by a God of faithfulness. calling for faithlessness when they should have been a people of faithfulness. He says he was calling for ingratitude from a people who should know only gratitude to God who brought them from the house of slavery. So we see in this penalty there's punishment for the evildoer, but as well there's a preservation for society.
Notice at the end of verse five. So you shall put away the evil from your midst. Why? so that you don't get consigned to destruction, so that you are not excluded. Go back for just a moment to chapter 11 and verse 28. not known.
So this preservation is seen simply in this. Either the false prophet dies and comes under the ban and comes under the curse or the whole nation dies, comes under the ban and comes under the curse. Those are your options. Purge the evil.
Get the evil away from your midst. Yea, for the punishment of the evildoer and for the preservation of society as a whole. So that's the temptation from the false prophets. Notice, secondly, the temptation from family and friends.
This one's even probably more difficult, isn't it? this is a little bit more difficult. It's not the brazen false prophet who does the signs and the wonders and says, all right, can I get a hallelujah for Baal. It's not sort of this public expression. It's the private mutterings from those whom you love the most, right?
Notice the language in verse six. If your brother the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom. Notice how this hits home, right? Notice what is going on here.
The nearness of the relation compounds the difficulty of the temptation. You might be able to look at that false prophet and say, I know I shouldn't go after Baal. This guy's a nut. But when your wife is nudging you in the bed saying, our neighbor's over there, they prayed to Baal and it rained.
Did you notice that? Did you notice that Bale seems to respond and he seems to answer? Did you notice they got a new car? Did you notice they got new lawn gnomes and they've dressed up their home and everything is nice and he's kept his job?
Have you noticed how Bale is responding, honey? This is the temptation. The nearness of it compounds the difficulty. The nearness of the relation makes difficult as well the necessity to report the violation.
You see, they secretly nudge you. It's your brother, it's your son, it's your daughter, it's your wife, and they're nudging you saying, wink, wink, let us go to the Baal worship, let us go see what's going on with Moloch, let us go see what's going on with Asherah. Well, the tendency is there not to report them, right? We don't want to turn them over.
That's Orwellian, isn't it? That's communistic. As I read through this, it really showed me how communism tries to take the place of God. You see, God is the Supreme Lord.
God does demand and God does deserve universal obedience and fidelity. The civil state does not. When the civil state urges people to conduct themselves like this, they are intruding upon sacred ground. But we are dealing with God's theocracy with the covenant people of Israel.
Notice, he says, 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, your bosom buddy, Your best friend, he comes over and he says, you know, I was over at the Joneses and they got some blessings from Bale. I'm not going to lie to you, that's tempting. What are you supposed to do when your buddy comes over and he says that? Notice, they secretly entice you saying, let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers.
Now, not known there doesn't mean they had no clue. It means they weren't in covenant relationship with them the way they were with Yahweh of Israel. Of course they knew. that there was Baal, that there was Moloch, that there was Asherah. Of course they knew these false gods were rivals in the land to Yahweh, but this is the nature of the enticement.
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. Notice the prohibition, notice the response, notice what you are to do. So the scenario, again, somebody very near and dear to your heart, somebody very close to you, could be your own wife, some sort of pillow talk, and she suggests that we follow after Baal or Moloch. Here's the response given by God through his servant.
Verse 8, you shall not consent to him. You shall not listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him. Don't let sentiment, don't let filial bind, don't let love color your duty and responsibility. Now again, for us, in our context, it seems a little bit much.
As we trace through, though, I think you're going to see what's going on here. Notice, you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him. In other words, you must deal radically with such rebellion against God and with an attack, ultimately, on your own soul. Somebody gets those things into you.
They suggest those things time and time again. What is the tendency of the temptation? It's to let your guard down. You know, my buddy can't be wrong.
I mean, he's such a great guy, right? He's right. The Joneses did get a new car. Maybe their religion works.
You see, we get pragmatic. We get this idea that our religion is supposed to provide for us rather than we're supposed to provide worship and obedience and seeking after the Lord. You know, we get it all turned around. God is there to serve us.
Well, notice the emphasis of verse 4. We're here to serve Him. You see, all manner of wickedness comes when we invert that order, when we plot man in the center of the Bible instead of God, we end up in big, big, big, big, big trouble. So I always say, the best thing to do if you have questions about Christianity, read the Bible.
You read the Bible and the Spirit blesses, you're going to learn something. God is most important and I'm not. And that's the fundamental place where every one of us needs to be, is to realize that God is most important and not us. But notice here, specifically in verses 9 to 11, the penalty is given.
So you're not supposed to listen, you're not supposed to consent, you're not supposed to listen, you're not supposed to pity him. Rather, in verse 9, 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," here it is again, "...who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage." Just so you don't get this idea that when they're lying there with their pillow talk and Honey suggests that we go to the bail service, he takes out his dagger and puts it into her gut.
Verses 9 and 10 speak of legal procedure. Verses 9 and 10 is the language of judicial process. Verses 9 and 10 are in place to make sure that a marital spat doesn't go south. Right?
Honey burned dinner. Well, I'm going to fix you. You walk out into the neighborhood or you gutter and then you say, she solicited me to apostasy. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
There is due course. There is legal procedure. That language in verse 9 is the language that will be detailed later in chapter 17 and chapter 19. The laws of civil court.
There is hearing, there is evidence, there is testimony, there is then a procedure for the execution of the death penalty. That language of verse 9. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death and afterward the hand of all the people. You see, this did not mean that a woman who was upset with her husband could stab him and then say, oh, he wanted me to go worship.
Bail. There was due process built into the system. And we'll see that when we get to the third example in just a moment. I think the tendency is for Christians to jump into this section and go, wow, do we keep a knife under our pillow in case our wife or our husband suggests such a thing and we kill them? just like so?
No, there's due process, there's legal procedure, there is a judicial law that had to be followed and verses 9 and 10 stipulate that. 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 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." Craigie explains something of this judicial procedure. He says, the person who reported the crime would cast the first stone against the accused person. Then the rest of the community would join him in stoning the offender.
The procedure of execution is significant. By casting the first stone, the person reporting the crime took responsibility for the execution. That will be outlined later in Deuteronomy 19 as well. If I allege something against Dodd, and we go before the judges, and the judges determine that Dodd is innocent, then whatever the penalty was is inflicted on me.
It reduces a suit-happy society. It makes people think twice. It makes people really consider It makes people stop and ponder their actions. You see, in a society structured the way this one was, there were safeguards built in.
Now, this isn't to suggest that somebody might have actually got stone that maybe shouldn't have. But if it was found out, the one guilty was ultimately punished likewise. So you knowing that, you would be a lot more cautious to present your case to the magistrate if you knew, if I allege that Dodd was guilty of a capital offense, but if the judges hear it and determine that I'm wrong, and they determine that this was false, then whatever that or that capital punishment would be inflicted on me. So it wasn't the scenario where your wife says, bail, and you shove a knife into her, or where your wife has irritated you to the point where you pushed her out of the car, and then you said, you know, I had to do it because she wanted to listen to the Praise 106, and they were worshiping bail.
I don't mean that legitimately. I'm not suggesting Praise 106 actually worships bail. But you see the point. It wasn't a means by which you could get rid of a son that you didn't like, a daughter that wasn't pleasing, a husband that was a deadbeat.
Oh well, I'll just take care of him and then I'll say he was soliciting me to apostasy. No, there were safeguards built in, the language of legal procedure is given here, and then the end result, or rather the desired effect of verse 11. so all Israel shall hear and fear and not again do such wickedness as this among you." Now, remember as well, they're being told at the outset. It's not as if the thought police, it's not as if men in big boots are knocking on doors and saying, we want to punish you. They were given the law.
They were told. They knew not to entice people to bail worship. They knew not to suggest, let's go to Moloch services tonight. This law was given and they were supposed to hear and fear and not again do such wickedness as this among you.
Now notice the third example. the temptation from these urban revolutionaries. Meredith Klein said, if the stipulations of the preceding verses, the one dealing with false prophets, the one dealing with the family, if the stipulations of the preceding verses were not vigorously carried out, the rebellion would increase. You see, it's growing here. The third scenario follows logically from scenarios one and two if they're not dealt with.
You see, a little leaven leavens the whole lump. A little bit of gangrene makes the whole limb affected. One slug in the salad makes you lose your appetite. And that's what's going on here.
He says the rebellion would increase from individual to community proportions. and a situation requiring the yet more difficult decision and action prescribed here. So you see, if you don't deal with it at the level of the false prophet, you don't deal with it at the level of the family, you're going to have to wage war on a city-state in the nation itself. all Israel had better hear and fear. God does not take lightly the treatment of the first and the second commandment. God does not take things lightly that seduce the covenant people away from him.
If you hear someone in one of your cities which the Lord your God gives you to dwell in saying, again, the undercurrent throughout is God's gracious promise. God's given you these cities to dwell in. God has given you this promised land. God has given you Canaan.
And yet what has happened? One of the cities has betrayed that grace and they have fallen into this act of revolution against the living and true God. Notice the specific offense. Corrupt men.
This is the sons of Belial that you read about a lot in the scriptures. This is the first instance of the sons of Belial. The corrupt men, the wicked men, the godless men, the evil men. Corrupt men have gone out from among you and enticed the inhabitants of their city.
You see, they're marauding now. They're revolutionaries. They've got their false prophets, they've got their dreamers of dreams, they've got a few families, and now they want to propagate this so that the entire city is given over, not to Yahweh, not giving gratitude, praise, and glory to Him for having given them that parcel of land, but rather they're going to bow to Baal, they're going to bow to Asherah, they're going to bow to Molech. Let us go and serve other gods which you have not known, and now notice, Again, due process is built in.
See, what's to prohibit City A from taking City B over because City B has a lot of money? They've managed their resources well. They've done a good job. Let's go take their stuff.
Well, there's two safeguards built in. The first safeguard is verse 14, you shall inquire. You shall search it out. You shall ask diligently.
You don't wage war upon a city-state in Israel without due diligence. This isn't a willy-nilly decision. This isn't the White House saying, well, you know, we just thought. No, you don't just think.
You carefully calculate. before you enter in to this particular, it's grave. This is huge. We don't want this to come to pass. This is not something you want in your body politic.
You don't want city state A waging war against city state B. Do your due diligence. Search it out. Inquire.
Ask questions. But the second safeguard is this. It's that harem principle. The city's placed under the ban.
You're not allowed to take their wealth. You're not allowed to take their gold. You're not allowed to take their livestock. You're supposed to destroy everybody in the city.
You're supposed to pile up the loot and you're supposed to set fire to it as a burnt offering to Yahweh. That really, now again, there's wicked city-states to be sure, but if city-state A knows they're not going to get anything from city-state B, it really sort of takes the fun out of it, doesn't it? There's safeguards built in, brethren. This isn't some barbaric code of a bunch of marauding orgs just engaging in some Mad Max society that has no restraints.
This is not lawlessness. This is lawfulness. So if the city-state is determined to have indeed engaged in this manner of apostasy, then you go in and execute them. You purge the evil from the land.
You get rid of them. You get rid of all of the persons in the land. You get rid of all of the livestock, and you burn their property. Just like what you did in Jericho, you will do it in Israel.
What's the implication? If Israel acts like Canaan, they're going to be judged by Canaan. Now never forget, brethren, God makes good on this. This is what we find in 722 and in 587 and 586 when Israel was expelled from the land.
It was God bringing His wrath upon that people in this particular manner. Meredith Klein again says, by embracing the abomination of Canaan, the Israelite city would become an abomination. It would become like Canaanite Jericho and must share Jericho's cursed doom by fire and sword. That's the stipulation. urban revolutionaries are not meant to be met with this idea of pity, of consent, or that's okay, they're going to do their own thing in their city-state.
No, you go in and you utterly destroy them, destroy their livestock, burn their property, offer it as a burnt offering to Jehovah. And then notice specifically in verses 18 and 19, 17 and 18. So none of the accursed things shall remain in your hand that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger. It's a propitiatory sacrifice in this.
It averts the wrath of God. By destroying that city, you preserve the whole. By destroying that apostasy, you preserve the faithful. Again, the principle holds true.
You punish the one to save the rest. And then, verse 17, not only is God's wrath averted, 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. So you see these three temptations are not to be met with These three temptations are to be met with biblically. You are to engage the false prophet in this manner.
Resist him. Do not be caught up with his tricks, with his signs, with his wonders. Resist him, reject him, turn him over to the authorities so that they may execute him. Same thing in the family, in the domestic sphere.
Same thing with your wife, same thing with your kids. If they are soliciting to apostasy, if they are soliciting to idolatry, you go through due process, you go through the stipulation of the law to deal with the evil in the midst of Israel. And then with these urban revolutionaries, you investigate, you diligently seek it out, you realize you're not going to get any of the plunder, you're not going to get any of the booty, there's nothing in it in terms of gain for you. That's two safeguards put into place so that you will not enter into this lightly.
But when the decision has been made, you go in, you destroy, you go in and you burn. That is how God says we are to honor the first and the second commandments. Now, in conclusion, the apparent, I call it the apparent severity of the penalties. Again, just reading through this, sometime, maybe not anyone here, because you're all really godly and really biblical, and you only think covenantally.
But a lot of Christians get a little bit squeamish when they read Deuteronomy 13. Why would you teach on that at a Bible study? That's just crazy. Are you really advocating the death to false prophets, the death to family? death to city-states.
I mean, really, is that where you're going? Well, again, I think we see some, you know, we have a different scenario now in terms of our civil polity. But with reference to ecclesiology, we're not to use the physical sword, but the same demands are present. The same demands are in place.
The gospel perverter is anathematized. The family who stands between us and Jesus is to be Hate it, Luke 14, 26. Again, Jesus doesn't say go down to the local store and buy a gun and shoot them because, you know, they're standing between you and me. But he does say you need to hate them.
There is not to be allegiance above God in your life. It's not supposed to be your wife, or your husband, or your children, or your job, or your car, or your summer home. and then Jesus. There is a priority structure involved in Christianity that is reflected here in Deuteronomy 13 that has not been compromised. We are to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
We are to put the Lord first above our wives, above our husbands, above our children. We're not to be family-centered. We're not to be husband-centered. We're not to be job-centered.
We're to be Christocentric in everything that we do, in every way that we have our being. That is a consistent carryover covenantally. But I do want to speak to this issue of the apparent severity of the penalties. Craigie explains it, I think, beautifully.
Just listen. It's a bit of a longer quote, but you need to understand there's more at stake here in chapter 13 than what I think at times, not again you guys, but some of those other Christians who get squeamish, they don't really appreciate what's going on here. He says, the legal penalties noted in this chapter may seem at first sight to be excessively harsh. But the reason for the severity lies in the nature of the crime.
You see, this sin, idolatry, was also criminal. Not all sin is crime, necessarily. You might covet. Again, maybe none of you, because you're all really holy, and godly, and biblical.
But that's a sin that God will deal with. But you don't expect the RCMP to, you're going to jail, because you covet it. Not all sin is crime. Not all crime is sin.
If you were in Iran, and you preach the gospel, that would be a criminal act, or in Saudi Arabia, but it's not a sin. God's not mad at you when you preach the gospel. Do you see, in this context, idolatry is both sinful and criminal. He says, the continued existence of the covenant community depended literally upon allegiance to the Lord of the covenant.
Thus the crime is considered not simply in light of the actions of the perpetrator, but in light of the effect of the crime on the welfare of the whole people of Israel. of all potential crimes in ancient Israel, the one described in this chapter was the most dangerous in terms of its broader ramifications. To attempt deliberately, now remember, that's what's going on. This wasn't your wife pounding her thumb with a hammer and she said, oh, bail. Not to justify that.
But she is soliciting her man to follow bail. They are attempting to undermine allegiance to Yahweh. That's what's in view here. So listen.
The one described in this chapter was the most dangerous in terms of its broader ramifications. To attempt deliberately to undermine allegiance to God was the worst form of subversive activity in that it eroded the constitutional basis of the potential nation, Israel. In its implications, the crime would be equivalent to treason or to espionage in time of war. It was an act of treason.
You know, we don't have any problem with that today if somebody engages in treason against the Canadian government in a time of war. Right thinking Canadians would say he deserves to die. That was an act of him attempting to betray his entire country. That's what the false prophet and the family member in these urban revolutionaries are doing.
They're betraying fidelity to God and thus sacrificing the entirety of the covenant community. So when we see these penalties before we go, wow, that's amazing, I'm so glad I didn't live in that particular time frame, realize that in the New Covenant, the same ideas are present, the same principles are there, the same level of love and fidelity and follow and service to God is all there. What is unique in terms of the Canadian government is they're not inflicting the death penalty on idolaters. In this scenario, they were.
And the idolaters themselves knew it. The false prophet, the family member, and the revolutionaries knew what the penalty was for this subversive activity. So in that environment, when they engaged in a usurpation of God and His covenant, and they called men to break the first and the second commandment, The penalty fit the crime. It wasn't severe.
It wasn't excessive. It wasn't harsh. It was legitimate. It was just.
It was equitable. And God had built into the entire process safeguards so that we would not abuse the system by turning people over according to our whim or according to our fancy. This law, brethren, is calculated in such a way as to bring glory to God and bring benefit to the people. Not the opposite.
It was calculated and structured in such a way that the people indeed were helped. uh... right one more comment and i mentioned luke fourteen twenty six of this read that again just get our minds focused on the reality that nothing's changed in terms of our response to god and our faithfulness to god and luke chapter fourteen and verse twenty six if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." Wright says, neither Jesus nor Deuteronomy were, by any stretch of imagination, anti-family. Jesus and Deuteronomy are not anti-family. They were both passionately anti-idolatry and recognized in the family one of the toughest and subtlest sources of hidden idolatry on which many a profession of loyalty to the kingdom of God has foundered. So between the covenants we see the self-same principles in terms of fidelity, obedience, and treating the first two commandments with every bit of respect, every bit of reverence, every bit of fear and obedience that they should have mustered up by the power of God in the Old Covenant.
So that hasn't changed in terms of us and realize the church hasn't been given the sword. You say, why don't you punish idolaters in the church? The church has not been given the sword. Again, that's a discussion for another time, but I hope that you see these threats, these three temptations to apostasy, to idolatry, were not to be met with casually, In Israel, they were to be met with head-on and dealt with strictly, according to God's mind and God's will revealed in His holy law.
Well, let us pray. Father, we thank You for this, Your Word. We thank You, Father, for what it teaches us concerning Your holiness, for what it teaches us concerning Your demand upon Your people. And we pray in this new covenant setting that we would take these things seriously, that we would see the importance of men speaking the truth properly if they are in positions of leadership, that we would see the necessity of seeking to bring the gospel, to bring the truth to bear in our families. and to call our wives and our husbands and our children to faithfulness in the Lord.
And God, we pray that you would just keep from the land this widespread idolatry that we see each and every day, increasing and growing. Give us something of what Paul had in the book of Acts, in the place of Athens, when his spirit was provoked within him, when he saw the city given over to idols. We see your mind revealed here, God, how you despise it. May we likewise despise it.
And we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.