FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Scripture Reference: Deuteronomy 12-13; 18:9-22

5. Avoiding Contamination – Continued

Please read Deuteronomy 12:29-13:18; 18:9-22 for the background to this section.

Temptation from a multitude (verses 12–18). “You shall not follow a crowd to do evil” (Exodus 23:2). If a person has committed wickedness, the fact that hundreds of people approve of it doesn’t change its character. It is God who defines what sin is and how we should deal with it. God governs His people by decree, not by consensus. How could an entire town in Israel turn away from the Lord and start worshiping false gods? By failing to deal with the first persons in the town who turned to false gods. The leaders didn’t obey God’s law and purge the evil from the town, so the sin easily spread from person to person and eventually infected everybody. When you remember that the land belonged to the Lord (Leviticus 25:23), that He graciously allowed the Jews to live there, and that He alone had the right to lay down the rules, you can see that the idolatrous town was guilty of very serious sin.

It was important that the matter be investigated thoroughly and accurately. “He who answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame to him” (Proverbs 18:13). If the accusation was found to be true, the wealth and possessions of the people were to be burned in the town square as a burnt offering to the Lord. The people were to be slain and the city itself was to be destroyed and nothing was to be salvaged from it. It was to be left a “heap,” which is the translation of the Hebrew word tel, which is a mound composed of layers of ruins. The heap of ruins would be a constant witness to warn the Jews not to worship idols.

But could the nation of Israel afford to lose a town and all its inhabitants? Yes, because God would multiply His people and bless them for obeying His Word and honoring His name. Why not rebuild the town and start all over? Because God said it was to remain a heap of ruins forever and never be rebuilt. Human calculation would say that this was a great loss, but divine wisdom says it is a great gain, for a festering sore had been removed from the nation.

Unfortunately, Israel didn’t obey these laws and idolatry multiplied in the nation during the reign of Solomon and after the kingdom divided. When Jeroboam became ruler of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, he made idolatry official by setting up two golden calves for the people to worship, one at Dan and the other at Bethel. In this way, he encouraged the people not to go to Jerusalem to worship (1 Kings 12:25-33). Because of their idolatry, Israel fell to Assyria in 722 B.C. and Judah fell to Babylon in 606–586 B.C. God would rather that the nation be scattered and the holy sanctuary be destroyed than that His people worship false gods. The people forgot that it was the Lord Jehovah who delivered them from Egypt and gave them their land (Deuteronomy 13:5, 10).

To Be Continued

Adapted and modified excerpts from Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Equipped, “Be” Commentary Series.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Deuteronomy 12-13; 18:9-22

5. Avoiding Contamination – Continued

Please read Deuteronomy 12:29-13:18; 18:9-22 for the background to this section.

Temptation from friends and relatives (verses 6–11). It would not be difficult to expose and execute a false prophet, but what about a relative or close friend who tempts you to worship a false god? And what if the temptation is secret and the worship of the idol is also secret? As long as you maintained your public image as a worshiper of Jehovah, you might get away with being a secret Baal worshiper. But to this suggestion, Moses gave a resounding, “No!” Even if man’s own wife enticed him to worship idols—King Solomon comes to mind (1 Kings 11:1–13)—the husband was not to shield her but was to take her to the authorities and even participate in her execution. The Jews were to love the Lord their God even more than they loved their own mates or family. Jesus laid down a similar condition for discipleship (Luke 14:25–27). Moses taught that this kind of capital sentence would put the fear of the Lord into the rest of the nation and they would think twice before turning to idols (Deuteronomy 13:11; see 17:13; and 21:21). The lesson for the church is, “Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all, that the rest also may fear” (1 Timothy 5:20).

During my years of ministry, I was often aware of other ministers who were unable to deal with flagrant sinners in the church because the offenders had relatives on the board or in the congregation. We attended a church very briefly where the pastor’s son was leading in the praise and worship portion of the service, while all the while, the son was openly living in adultery. When we talked to the pastor about this grievous situation, we were told we were judging and unloving. Because of their refusal to take action against blatant sin in the congregation, the Holy Spirit moved us on, but oh how sad that common situation is today.

How sad it is when the testimony of a church is totally destroyed because of people who put their family ahead of God and His Word. “Peace at any price” isn’t the biblical way to deal with problems, for “the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable” (James 3:17). Unity that is based on hypocrisy will never last. On the other hand, I have seen godly people stand with the congregation in disciplining their own relatives who had brought disgrace to the name of Christ and the church.

To Be Continued

Adapted and modified excerpts from Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Equipped, “Be” Commentary Series.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Deuteronomy 12-13; 18:9-22

5. Avoiding Contamination – Continued

Please read Deuteronomy 12:29-13:18; 18:9-22 for the background to this section.

Temptation from the prophets (13:1–5). God raised up prophets in Israel during those times when the people needed to be called back to the faithful worship of the Lord. It has often been said that prophets weren’t just “foretellers”; they were primarily forth-tellers who declared the Word of the Lord in the name of the Lord. The faithful prophet spoke in God’s name and gave only God’s message for God’s glory and for the good of God’s people.

The key phrase in Deuteronomy 13 is, “Let us go after other gods” (verses 2, 6, 13). In this paragraph, Moses describes a prophet who predicted an event and it occurred, which was the test of a true prophet (Deuteronomy 18:21–22). But then the prophet invited the people to join him in worshiping other gods. Why would a prophet deliver a true message followed by an invitation to worship false gods? For the same reasons formerly orthodox religious leaders in the church will abandon their calling and get involved in cults or even organize their own cults: pride, the desire to have a following and exercise authority, and the desire to make money. The Israelites knew that God’s law prohibited the worship of idols, but there are always unstable people who will blindly follow a “successful religious leader” without testing their decision by God’s truth.

Bible students don’t agree on whether this man referenced and given as an example in 13:1-5 was/is a true prophet who turned false or a false prophet from the beginning. If he were known to be a false prophet, the Law states he would have been killed, but the Jews didn’t always obey the laws involving capital punishment. I take it from 13:1 that the man in the example was/is a true prophet, which would make the temptation even more insidious.

Moses made it clear that the Word of God was true no matter how many miracles or signs a prophet might perform. We don’t test the message by supernatural events; we test the message by God’s Word. Satan can perform signs and what appear to be miracles (2 Thessalonians 2:9; Revelation 12:9) and not everybody who addresses Jesus as “Lord” and performs miracles is a genuine child of God or servant of God (Matthew 7:21–23). God sometimes allows these things to happen in order to test His people to see if they will obey His Word. Even if this man had been originally called of God, when he asked the people to disobey the God’s law, he ceased to be a true servant of the Lord. Because he enticed the people to rebel against the Lord, he was to be put to death.

“So you shall put away [purge] the evil from your midst” (Deuteronomy 13:5). This statement is found at least eight more times in the Book of Deuteronomy (17:7, 12; 19:19; 21:21; 22:21–22, 24; 24:7), and Paul quoted it in 1 Corinthians 5:13 with reference to discipline in the local church. We don’t stone guilty people in our churches, but we should expel from the fellowship any that openly live in sin and refuse to repent and obey the Word of God. Why? For the same reason the idolater was removed (by death) from the nation of Israel: sin is like yeast and when it’s not purged, it will spread and infect others (1 Corinthians 5:6–8; Galatians 5:9). Just as a surgeon removes cancerous tissue from a patient’s body to keep it from spreading, so the local body of believers must experience surgery, no matter how painful, to maintain the spiritual health of the church.

So many today want to justify not doing this by using Scriptures such as found in Matthew 7. Yet in context, Matthew 7 actually agrees with the rest of Scripture concerning recognizing and rebuking falsehood in those amongst us. Christians today cannot justify ongoing blatant sin within their midst. Paul wrote this in 1 Corinthians, “Do not be deceived: ‘Evil company corrupts good habits’ ” (1 Corinthians 15:33).

The fact that the accuser was to throw the first stone would encourage him to give serious consideration to the facts and not impetuously accuse an innocent person. The method of execution was stoning so that all the people could participate and cast their vote against the worship of idols. Either one person’s sin affects the whole nation (Joshua 7), or the whole nation must deal with that one person’s sin.

It’s remarkable how many otherwise intelligent people study their horoscopes and consult professional “psychics” who claim to have the power to see into the future. If people really had that ability, they could make a great deal of money on the stock market or at the racetrack and wouldn’t have to earn a living reading palms, gazing at the stars, or consulting crystal balls. Later in his address, Moses will name specific occult practices that are forbidden to God’s people, and one of them is consulting Satan in order to know the future (Deuteronomy 18:9–13). Jesus warned about false prophets and the apostles warned about false teachers (Matthew 7:15–20; 2 Corinthians 11:3–4, 11–13; 1 Timothy 1:6–7; 2 Peter 2).

To Be Continued

Adapted and modified excerpts from Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Equipped, “Be” Commentary Series.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.