If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you, 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’s go after other gods” (which you have not known) “and let’s serve them,” you shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or to that dreamer of dreams; for Yahweh your God is testing you, to know whether you love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after Yahweh your God, fear him, keep his commandments, and obey his voice. You shall serve him, and cling to him. That prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death, because he has spoken rebellion against Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to draw you aside out of the way which Yahweh your God commanded you to walk in. So you shall remove the evil from among you.
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’s go and serve other gods”—which you have not known, you, nor your fathers; of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near to you, or far off from you, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth— you shall not consent to him nor listen to him; neither shall your eye pity him, neither shall you spare, neither shall you conceal him; but you shall surely kill him. Your hand shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the people. You shall stone him to death with stones, because he has sought to draw you away from Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. All Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall not do any more wickedness like this among you.
If you hear about one of your cities, which Yahweh your God gives you to dwell there, that certain wicked fellows have gone out from among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, “Let’s go and serve other gods,” which you have not known, then you shall inquire, investigate, and ask diligently. Behold, if it is true, and the thing certain, that such abomination was done among you, you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, with all that is therein and its livestock, with the edge of the sword. You shall gather all its plunder into the middle of its street, and shall burn with fire the city, with all of its plunder, to Yahweh your God. It shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again. Nothing of the devoted thing shall cling to your hand, that Yahweh 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, when you listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to keep all his commandments which I command you today, to do that which is right in Yahweh your God’s eyes.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 13, 14, 16, 17 Which sayeth that he hath things revealed unto him…
Which sayeth that he hath things revealed unto him in dreams.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 13 Deu 13:1 If there arise among you a prophet,…
Deu 13:1 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
Ver. 1. If there arise among you a prophet.] A public deceiver, that shall boldly obtrude upon you his erroneous opinions for divine oracles, seeking to drag disciples after him, {Act 20:29} such as of late times were Servetus, Socinus, Arminius, Vorstius, Pelargus the first Anabaptist, Istolius Agricola the first Antinomian; H. N., that is, Henry Nicolas of Leyden, the first Familist. Howbeit Gerson tells us of a woman, one Maria de Valentiana, that had lately, before his relation, written a book with incredible subtlety, concerning the prerogative and eminence of divine love, to the which whatever soul had attained, is, according to her, let loose from all the law of God’s commandments.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 Among you, i.e. one of your nation, for such…
Among you, i.e. one of your nation, for such might be both seduced and afterwards seducers.
A dreamer of dreams; one that pretends himself to be one to whom God hath revealed himself, either by visions or dreams. See Num 12:6.
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Giveth thee a sign or a wonder, i.e. shall foretell some strange and wonderful thing to come, as appears from Deu 13:2, as the true prophets used to do, as 1Sa 10.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 6, 12 Here is, I. A very strange supposition, Deu 13:1,…
Here is, I. A very strange supposition, Deu 13:1, Deu 13:2. 1. It is strange that there should arise any among themselves, especially any pretending to vision and prophecy, who should instigate them to go and serve other gods. Was it possible that any who had so much knowledge of the methods of divine revelation as to be able to personate a prophet should yet have so little knowledge of the divine nature and will as to go himself and entice his neighbours after other gods? Could an Israelite ever be guilty of such impiety? Could a man of sense ever be guilty of such absurdity? We see it in our own day, and therefore may think it the less strange; multitudes that profess both learning and religion yet exciting both themselves and others, not only to worship God by images, but to give divine honour to saints and angels, which is no better than going after other gods to serve them; such is the power of strong delusions. 2. It is yet more strange that the sign or wonder given for the confirmation of this false doctrine should come to pass. Can it be thought that God himself should give any countenance to such a vile proceeding? Did ever a false prophet work a true miracle? It is only supposed here for two reasons: - (1.) To strengthen the caution here given against hearkening to such a one. "Though it were possible that he should work a true miracle, yet you must not believe him if he tell you that you must serve other gods, for the divine law against that is certainly perpetual and unalterable." The supposition is like that in Gal 1:8, If we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you - which does not prove it possible that an angel should preach another gospel, but strongly expresses the certainty and perpetuity of that which we have received. So here, (2.) It is to fortify them against the danger of impostures and lying wonders (Th2 2:9): "Suppose the credentials he produces be so artfully counterfeited that you cannot discern the cheat, nor disprove them, yet, if they are intended to draw you to the service of other gods, that alone is sufficient to disprove them; no evidence can be admitted against so clear a truth as that of the unity of the Godhead, and so plain a law as that of worshipping the one only living and true God." We cannot suppose that the God of truth should set his seal of miracles to a lie, to so gross a lie as is supposed in that temptation, Let us go after other gods. But if it be asked, Why is this false prophet permitted to counterfeit this broad seal? It is answered here (Deu 13:3): "The Lord you God proveth you. He suffers you to be set upon by such a temptation to try your constancy, that both those that are perfect and those that are false and corrupt may be made manifest. It is to prove you; therefore see that you acquit yourselves well in the trial, and stand your ground."
II. Here is a very necessary charge given in this case,
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1. Not to yield to the temptation: "Thou shalt not hearken to the worlds of that prophet, Deu 13:3. Not only thou shalt not do the thing he tempts thee to, but thou shalt not so much as patiently hear the temptation, but reject it with the utmost disdain and detestation. Such a suggestion as this is not to be so much as parleyed with, but the ear must be stopped against it. Get thee behind me, Satan." Some temptations are so grossly vile that they will not bear a debate, nor may we so much as give them the hearing. What follows (Deu 13:4), You shall walk after the Lord, may be looked upon, (1.) As prescribing a preservative from the temptation: "Keep close to your duty, and you keep out of harm's way. God never leaves us till we leave him." Or, (2.) As furnishing us with an answer to the temptation; say, "It is written, Thou shalt walk after the Lord, and cleave unto him; and therefore what have I to do with idols?"
2. Not to spare the tempter, Deu 13:5. That prophet shall be put to death, both to punish him for the attempt he has made (the seducer must die, though none were seduced by him - a design upon the crown is treason) and to prevent his doing further mischief. This is called putting away the evil. There is no way of removing the guilt but by removing the guilty; if such a criminal be not punished, those that should punish him make themselves responsible. And thus the mischief must be put away; the infection must be kept from spreading by cutting off the gangrened limb, and putting away the mischief-makers. such Dangerous diseases as these must be taken in time.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–18 If there arise among you a prophet,.... A false…
If there arise among you a prophet,.... A false prophet, a lying prophet, as the Targum of Jonathan; one that pretends to be a true prophet, and to be sent of God, and to come from him with a message from him, a new revelation or doctrine, or in his name, to foretell things to come; the former is chiefly meant. Such prophets did arise in Israel before the time of Christ, and have since arose under the Christian name; see Pe2 2:1,
or a dreamer of dreams; the same with the prophet, only to be distinguished by the different manner of their having the mind and will of God revealed to them, pretended to; either by vision or by dream, which were the two usual ways in which the Lord spake to the true prophets, Num 12:6 so that the prophet is one who pretended he had a vision from the Lord, and the dreamer one that had a dream from him, or something revealed to him in a dream; and dreams are sometimes used for false doctrines, vain, deceitful, and illusory; see Jer 23:25. The Targum of Jonathan calls him"a dreamer of a dream of pride:''such persons are generally prompted by the pride of their own hearts to take such a method to make themselves famous and respected among men; and usually bring such doctrines with them which are agreeable to the pride and vanity of human nature:
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and giving thee a sign or a wonder; for the confirmation of his mission and doctrine; such as Moses wrought before the children of Israel and before Pharaoh. Signs are expressions or representations of things to come to pass; wonders, such as either do, or seem to exceed the common course of nature, or be contrary to it.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 Enticers to idolatry to be stoned, ver. 1-11. Idolatrous…
Enticers to idolatry to be stoned, ver. 1-11. Idolatrous cities to be entirely destroyed, ver. 12-18.
A dreamer of dreams - One that pretends God hath revealed himself to him by visions or dreams. Giveth a sign or wonder - That is, shall foretell some strange and wonderful thing.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 6, 13, 15, 17 Of false prophets and their lying signs, 1-6.
CHAPTER XIII
Of false prophets and their lying signs, 1-6.
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Of those who endeavour to entice and seduce people to idolatry,
7-8.
The punishment of such, 9-11.
Of cities perverted from the pure worship of God, 12-14.
How that city is to be treated, 15.
All the spoil of it to be destroyed, 16.
Promises to them who obey these directions, 17, 18.
NOTES ON CHAP. XIII
Verse 1. If there arise among you a prophet] Any pretending to have a Divine influence, so as to be able perfectly to direct others in the way of salvation; or a dreamer of dreams - one who pretends that some deity has spoken to him in the night-season; and giveth thee a sign, אות oth, what appears to be a miraculous proof of his mission; or a wonder, מופת mopheth, some type or representation of what he wishes to bring you over to: as some have pretended to have received a consecrated image from heaven; hence the origin of the Palladium, Numa's Shields, and many of the deities among the Hindoos. But here the word seems to mean some portentous sign, such as an eclipse, which he who knew when it would take place might predict to the people who knew nothing of the matter, and thereby accredit his pretensions.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16 Deu 13:1. Moses, foreseeing how liable the Israelites, in…
Deu 13:1. Moses, foreseeing how liable the Israelites, in after ages, would be to be deluded by false prophets, who, under pretence of divine revelations, or communications of divine power, while indeed they were assisted by no other than wicked and infernal spirits, might foretel some future events, or work some wondrous and unaccountable things as demonstrations of their false doctrine, and thereby persuade others to join in their idolatrous worship, here proceeds to show how such false pretenders to divine inspiration might be known, and lays down a law, according to which they were to be dealt with. If there arise among you — One of your own nation, for such might both be seduced, and afterward become seducers of others; a prophet — That is, a false prophet, one who falsely pretends to have received a divine message. Or a dreamer of dreams — One that pretends some god has revealed himself to him in visions or dreams. And giveth thee a sign — Foretels some future and wonderful events as a sure sign thereof; as the prophets of Jehovah were wont to do, 1Sa 10:2-7; 1Ki 13:3. It must be observed that sign and wonder here signify the same thing, and comprehend all miracles whatsoever, whether the foretelling of something that is out of the reach of human knowledge, or the performing some work that exceeds human power.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 5, 6, 12, 13, 16 A prophet, or a dreamer of dreams - Compare…
A prophet, or a dreamer of dreams - Compare Num 12:6. The “prophet” received his revelations by vision or direct oral communication Num 24:16; 2Sa 7:4; 2Co 12:2; “the dreamer of dreams” through the medium of a dream 1Ki 3:5; Mat 2:13.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 12, 13, 15, 17 If....a prophet, or even an angel from heaven, as…
If....a prophet, or even an angel from heaven, as St. Paul (Galatians i. 8,) says on a similar occasion, (Calmet) should work a miracle, and afterwards adduce it in proof of a false religion, believe him not. The Jews and Christians had already received such convincing proofs from God, of the truth of what they had been taught, that they had reason to conclude either that the miracle was false, or that the person who would persuade them to embrace a different religion had fallen, after God had honoured him with miraculous powers: or, in fin, that if he were an impostor at the time when he exercised that power, like the magicians of Egypt, or Balaam, the miracle was either not wrought in confirmation of what he preached, or at least it was eclipsed by some greater miracle in favour of the truth. Whether God will ever suffer a real miracle which may seem to countenance error, or not, this appears to be unquestionable, that he will never deny himself, or, in a contest of miracles, permit falsehood to gain the victory. If the magicians performed wonderful works, they were forced at last to confess their inferiority, and yield to Moses, Exodus viii. 18, 19. Miracles are generally a proof of any doctrine; but when the doctrine is already established, as in this case of the unity of God, (ver. 2,) it may be adduced with propriety as a criterion of miracles. Truth can never be in contradiction to truth. The light of reason suffices to evince that there is but one God. The same truth had been repeatedly confirmed by miracles, particularly during the last forty years, during which God had manifested his power over all nature, in the sight of all the Hebrews, and had trampled on the idols of the Gentiles. If therefore any person should attempt, by his dreams or predictions, in invalidate this most fundamental and undeniable article, his testimony could not be received. (Haydock) --- The Jews, in vain, allege this passage against the religion of Jesus Christ. He did not subvert, but fulfilled the law; so far was he from endeavouring to persuade them to abandon the true God. (Calmet) --- If he had not come to act in this manner, the law would have contained in itself the seeds of dissolution, by falsely holding forth the expectation of a future Messias, who would bring all things to perfection, chap. xviii. 15., Genesis iii. 15., and xlix. 10, &c. Hence when he really appeared, the Jews desired him to prove his mission by a miracle, as he did repeatedly, Matthew xii. 38., John viii. 40., and x. 25. --- A dream, of a mysterious kind, like those of Joseph and of the prophets. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv6, 9, 12, 14, 16, 17 WITHOUT REGARD TO NEARNESS OF RELATION. (Deu 13:6-18)
WITHOUT REGARD TO NEARNESS OF RELATION. (Deu 13:6-18)
If thy brother . . . entice thee secretly--This term being applied very loosely in all Eastern countries (Gen 20:13), other expressions are added to intimate that no degree of kindred, however intimate, should be allowed to screen an enticer to idolatry, to conceal his crime, or protect his person. Piety and duty must overcome affection or compassion, and an accusation must be lodged before a magistrate.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 6, 13, 16, 17 1. A prophet, or a dreamer — Two methods…
1. A prophet, or a dreamer — Two methods of divine revelation are here mentioned. Comp. Num_12:6 : “If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.” It is taken for granted that what this prophet announced comes to pass, or that prodigies have been performed, but they are like the signs and lying wonders of 2Th_2:6. If such a prophet taught the people to depart from Jehovah he was not to be heard. This is in agreement with what Paul, in Gal_1:8, says: “Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 6, 12 1–5 (2–6 in Heb.). Against the Prophet of Other…
1–5 (2–6 in Heb.). Against the Prophet of Other Gods
1. If there arise in the midst of thee] So Deu_19:15-16 also Sg. Cp. the synonymous if there be found in the midst of thee Deu_17:2, Deu_18:10, Deu_21:1, Deu_22:22, Deu_24:7. Steuern takes this as characteristic of the Pl. document, but like the other it occurs with the Sg. address; and we have seen that Deu_17:2 may originally have belonged to the same section as Deu_13:1. No conclusion, therefore, can be drawn.
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a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams] In early Israel regarded as identical; cp. the frequency in E of dreams as revelations, e.g. Gen_20:3 to Abimelech, Deu_28:10 ff., Deu_31:11 to Jacob, and the oracle quoted in E, Num_12:6 : if there be a prophet among you … I will speak to him through dreams. In later times the dream was discarded by the prophets as a professional delusion, Jer_23:25; Jer_23:27 and sharply distinguished from the true word of God: the prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the straw to the wheat? (id. Jer_23:28); that prophesy lying dreams (Jer_23:32); cp. Deu_27:9, Deu_29:8 f., prophets, soothsayers, sorcerers, diviners, your dreams that ye dream, they prophesy lies in my name, I have not sent them; Zec_10:2. These dreams of the false prophets appear to have been optimistic and unethical in contrast to the true prophet’s word that convinced of sin and predicted disaster. D also uses dreamer of a false prophet, and opposes to his dreams the commandments of Jehovah (Deu_13:4).
and he give thee a sign or a wonder] or portent (see on Deu_4:34), not necessarily what we narrowly call miracle (Israel making no distinction between natural and supernatural). Nor here are they wonders wrought on the spot such as Moses received as his credentials, Exo_4:2-9, J, and Aaron wrought before Pharaoh, Deu_7:9, P, nor like the Plagues brought upon Egypt; but (as is clear from the next verse) predictions of something that shall happen in the future like the signs foretold by Samuel to Saul (1Sa_10:1-9).
Deu_13:2. come to pass] Hebrew come in, arrive (1Sa_10:7; 1Sa_10:9). Such a fulfilment of the sign is not to be any credential of the prophet’s teaching, if he say—
Let us go after other gods] Deu_6:14 (q.v.), Deu_11:28, Deu_28:14, all Pl.; Deu_8:19, Sg.; with or without the addition and serve, i.e. worship, them as here. Cp. Jer_25:6 (deuteron.?).
which thou hast not known] Deu_13:6; Deu_13:13, Deu_11:28, Deu_28:64, cp. Deu_8:3.
Deu_13:3. This refusal to recognise miracle as necessarily a proof of the truth of a prophet’s doctrine is very striking. It is not in harmony with the earlier belief in Israel, expressed in JE and so characteristic of the Semitic genius (cp. the unwillingness of the heathen Arabs to receive a kâhin’s or prophet’s judgement on an ethical question except on the performance of some wonder, Wellhausen, Reste des Arab. Heidentums; and the readiness with which modern Arabs and Syrians accept the Biblical miracles) that it governed both the official and the popular mind in Jewry to the very end: the Jews require a sign, 1Co_1:22; cp. Joh_6:30 and our Lord’s words Mat_12:38 f.; Mar_8:11 f.; Luk_11:29 f. But it is in harmony with the teaching of the prophets, who, except in the case of Isaiah, condescending to the superstitious Ahaz (Deu_7:10), commend their truth to Israel solely upon its spiritual strength, or if they add proofs, find these in natural phenomena (the success or failure of harvests, plagues and the like) or in the events of history. But see further on Deu_18:21 f.
proveth you] putteth to the proof or test. See on Deu_4:34 : cp. Deu_8:2; Deu_8:16.
to know] See on Deu_7:9, Deu_8:2.
whether ye love] Stronger!—whether it be that ye love.
Deu_13:4. An accumulation of the frequent deuteron. phrases (walk after = walk in his ways with fear or obey: Deu_10:12, Deu_11:22, Deu_19:9, Deu_26:17, Deu_30:16; keep commandments: Deu_4:2 + 12 times in Deut. both in Sg. and Pl., either alone or with love, keep and fear; obey his voice: Deu_27:10, Deu_30:2; Deu_30:8; Deu_30:20; worship and cleave: see on Deu_10:20, which adds swear by his name, Deu_11:22, Deu_30:20). But they are arranged with an emphasis lost in the Eng. transl. Read: After Jehovah your God shall ye go, and Him shall ye fear, and His commandments shall ye keep, and His voice shall ye obey, and Him shall ye worship and to Him shall ye cleave. It is a difficult question whether Deu_13:4 breaking in with the Pl. address is editorial; the accumulated phrases point to that, and Deu_13:5 connects with 3, yet the emphatic order is original and is continued into Deu_13:5.
Deu_13:5. And that prophet, etc.] Again emphatic, the usual Hebrew syntax being changed: but as for that prophet, etc. he—
shall be put to death] The formal sentence, so Deu_17:6; Deu_24:16 (cp. Deu_21:22) and in E, Exo_21:12; Exo_21:15; Exo_21:17; Exo_22:19. The manner of death is not enjoined as in the next two laws.
because he hath spoken rebellion against, etc.] Turning aside, perversion or apostasy; also Deu_19:16. The corresponding verb is frequent in Deu_7:4; Deu_9:12; Deu_9:16; Deu_11:16; Deu_11:28; Deu_21:13; Deu_31:29; with the addition, neither to the right hand nor to the left, Deu_5:29, Deu_17:11; Deu_17:20, Deu_28:14; cp. Deu_2:27, Deu_4:9, Deu_17:17.
the Lord thy God which brought thee] So Sam. and LXX. The Hebrew your and you are due to the attraction of the Pl. of Deu_13:4.
redeemed thee out of the house of bondmen] See Deu_5:6, Deu_6:12, Deu_7:8.
to draw thee aside] See on Deu_4:19.
So shalt thou put away the evil] Too weak! Rather burn out or consume, as dung is burned, 1Ki_14:10. The phrase either with from thy midst, here, Deu_17:7, Deu_19:19, Deu_21:9 (innocent blood), 21, Deu_22:21; Deu_22:24, Deu_24:7, or with from Israel Deu_17:12, Deu_19:13 (innocent blood), Deu_22:22, occurs only with the Sg. address. It is always at the end of a law and refers to the punishment of the law-breaker (but see for another application of it Deu_26:13-14), and except in Deu_19:19 always of capital punishment.
This verse ‘shows how the people is already invested with a spiritual character. It has to act as a spiritual community (cp. Deu_17:4 ff.) which sits in judgement upon religious seducers, and the means of judgement is as radical as possible. Israel ought to be a community of saints’ (Bertholet).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 6, 9, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17 (1) If there arise.—Three cases of instigation to idolatry…
XIII.
(1) If there arise.—Three cases of instigation to idolatry are considered in this chapter:—
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1. The false prophet (Deu_13:1-5).
2. A private individual (Deu_13:6-11).
3. A city (Deu_13:12-18).
In every case the penalty is the same—death without mercy.
Is this law the production of a later age? It may be said to have been more often broken than observed.
But there are instances in the history of Israel which seem to require some such law as this in all its three sections. The case of the false prophet justifies the action of Elijah, who took the prophets of Baal from Carmel when proved to be impostors, and “brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. H. Mackintosh 1880 · Public Domain On v1 Deuteronomy 13
Deuteronomy 13
This chapter abounds in most weighty principles. It consists of three distinct sections, each one of which claims our deep attention. We must not attempt to weaken the admonitory force of such a scripture, or turn aside its keen edge, by saying that it does not apply to Christians; that it is wholly Jewish in its scope and application. No doubt, primarily, it was addressed to Israel; this is so obvious as not to admit of a question. But let us not forget that it was "written for our learning;" and not only so, but the more closely we study it, the more we shall see that its teaching is of universal importance.
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"If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them: thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. And that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee." (Vv. 1-5)
Here we have divine provision made for all cases of false teaching, and false religious influence. We all know how easily the poor human heart is led astray by anything in the shape of a sign or a wonder, and especially when such things stand connected with religion. This is not confined to the nation of Israel; we see it everywhere and at all times. Anything supernatural, anything involving an infringement of what are called the ordinary laws of nature is almost sure to act powerfully on the human mind. A prophet rising up, in the midst of the people, and confirming his teaching by miracles, signs and wonders, would be almost sure to get a hearing, and obtain an influence.
In this way, Satan has worked in all ages, and he will work yet more powerfully, at the end of this present age, in order to deceive and lead to their everlasting destruction those who will not hearken to the precious truth of the gospel. "The mystery of iniquity," which has been working in the professing church for eighteen centuries, will be headed up, in the person of "that Wicked whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming; even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." (2 Thess. 2: 8-12.)
So also, in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, our Lord warns His disciples against the same kind of influence. "Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before." (Vers. 23-25.)
Again, in Revelation 13, we read of the second beast, coming up out of the earth, the great false prophet, the antichrist, doing great wonders, "so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live." (Vers. 13, 14.)
Now, each of the above three passages of holy scripture refers to scenes which shall be enacted after the church has been taken away out of this world; but on this we do not dwell, inasmuch as our object in quoting them for the reader is to let him see how far the devil can go in the way of signs and wonders, to lead people away from the truth; and also to set before him the one divine and therefore perfect safeguard against all the delusive power of the enemy.
The human heart has no ability whatever to resist the influence of "great signs and wonders" put forth in favour of the most deadly error. There is but the one thing which can fortify the soul, and enable it to resist the devil and all his deadly delusions, and that is the word of God. To have the precious truth of God treasured up in the heart is the divine secret of preservation from all error, even though backed up by the most astounding miracles.
Hence, in the first of the above quotations we see that the reason why people will be deceived by the signs and lying wonders of "that wicked" one is "because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." It is the love of the truth that preserves from error, be it ever so persuasive, ever so fascinating, ever so strongly supported by the powerful evidence of "great signs and wonders." It is not cleverness, intellectual power, mental grasp, extensive learning; all these things are perfectly powerless in the presence of Satan’s wiles and machinations. The most gigantic human intellect must fall an easy prey to the wiles of the serpent.
But, blessed be God, the craft, the subtlety, the signs and lying wonders, all the resources of Satan, all the machinery of hell are perfectly powerless with a heart that is governed by the love of the truth. A little child who knows and believes and loves the truth is blessedly shielded, sheltered and divinely preserved from the blinding and deceiving power of the wicked one. If ten thousand false prophets were to arise and perform the most extraordinary miracles that were ever presented to the human gaze, in order to prove that the Bible is not the inspired word of God, or that our Lord Jesus Christ is not God over all blessed for ever, or in order to set aside the glorious truth that the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth from all sin, or any other precious truth revealed in holy scripture, it could have no effect whatever on the very simplest babe in Christ whose heart is governed by the word of God. Yea, if an angel from heaven were to come down and preach anything contrary to what we are taught in the word of God, we have a divine warrant to pronounce him anathema, without any discussion or argument whatever.
This is an unspeakable mercy. It puts the simple hearted, unlettered child of God into the most blessed position - a position, not only of moral security, but of sweetest repose. We are not called upon to analyse the false doctrine, or to weigh the evidence advanced in favour of it; we reject, with stern decision, both the one and the other, simply because we have the certainty of the truth and the love of it in our hearts. "Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams;" - although the sign or the wonder had come to pass - "for the Lord your God proveth you to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul."
Here, beloved reader, was the all-important point for Israel; and it is the same for us. Then, now, and always, the true moral security is in having the heart fortified with the love of the truth, which is only another way of expressing the love of God. The faithful Israelite who loved Jehovah, with all his heart and with all his soul, would have a ready and conclusive answer for all the false prophets and dreamers who might arise - a thoroughly effectual method of dealing with them. "Thou shalt not hearken." If the enemy does not get the ear, he is not likely to reach the heart. The sheep follow the Shepherd; "for they know his voice. And a stranger" - even though showing signs and wonders - "will they not follow, but will flee from him." Why? Is it because they are able to discuss and argue and analyse? No, thanks and praise to God! but because "they know not the voice of strangers." The simple fact of not knowing the voice is a sufficient reason for not following the speaker.
All this is full of comfort and consolation for the beloved lambs and sheep of the flock of Christ. They can hear the voice of their loving, faithful shepherd; they can gather round Him, and find in His presence true Test and perfect safely. He makes them to lie down in green pastures, and leads them by the still waters of His love. This is enough. They may be very weak, yea, perfect weakness in themselves; but this is no hindrance to their rest and blessing; quite the contrary, it only casts them more upon His almighty power. We need never be afraid of weakness, it is fancied strength we have to dread, vain confidence in our own wisdom, our own intelligence, our scriptural knowledge, our spiritual attainments; these are the things we have to fear; but as for our weakness, the more deeply we feel it the better, for our Shepherd’s strength is made perfect in weakness, and His precious grace is amply sufficient for all the need of His beloved and blood bought flock as a whole, and for each member, in particular. Only let us keep near to Him in the abiding sense of our own perfect helplessness and nothingness; let us treasure up His precious word in our hearts, let us feed upon it, as the very sustenance of our souls, day by day, the staple article of our lives, the living bread for the strengthening of the inward man. Thus shall we be safe from every strange voice, every false prophet, every snare of the devil, every influence which might tend to draw us away from the path of obedience, and the practical confession of the Name of Christ.
We must now quote for the reader the second paragraph of our chapter, in which the Lord’s people are warned against another snare of the devil. Oh! how many and varied are his snares and wiles! How manifold are the dangers of the people of God! But, blessed be His holy Name, there is full provision in His word for all.
"If thy brother, the son of thy mother, nearer, dearer and more tender than the son of the father - or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers, namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him; but thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you" (Vv. 6-11.)
Here, then, we have something quite different from the false prophet or the dreamer of dreams. Thousands might be proof against the influence of these, and yet fall before the ensnaring and seductive power of natural affection. It is very hard to resist the action of this latter. It demands deep-toned devotedness, great singleness of eye, firm purpose of heart, to deal faithfully with those who live deep down in our hearts’ tender affections. The trial to some of withstanding and rejecting a prophet or a dreamer with whom there was no personal relationship, no tender link of fond affection, would be as nothing compared with having to treat with stern and severe decision the wife of the bosom, the beloved brother or sister, the devoted and tenderly loved friend.
But where the claims of God, of Christ, of truth are at stake, there must be no hesitation. If any should seek to make use of the ties of affection in order to draw us aside from our allegiance to Christ, we must resist them, with unqualified decision. "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 10: 26)
Let us see that we thoroughly understand this aspect of the truth, and also that we give it its proper place. If poor blind reason be listened to, it will be sure to present to the mind the most hideous perversion of this great practical subject. Reason, whenever it attempts to exercise its powers in the things of God, is sure to prove itself the active and efficient agent of the devil in opposition to the truth. In things human and earthly, reason may go for what it is worth; but in things divine and heavenly, it is not only worthless, but positively mischievous.
What then, we may ask, is the true moral force of Luke 14: 28, and Deuteronomy 13: 8-10? Most assuredly, they do not mean that we are to be "without natural affection," which is one of the special marks of the apostasy of the last days. This is perfectly clear. God Himself has established our natural relationships, and each of these relationships has its characteristic affections the exercise and display of which are in lovely harmony with the mind of God. Christianity does not interfere with our relationships in nature, but it introduces a power whereby the responsibilities which attach to those relationships can be duly fulfilled to the glory of God. And not only so, but in the various epistles, the Holy Ghost has given the most ample instructions to husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants, thus proving, in the very fullest and most blessed manner, the divine sanction of those relationships and the affections which belong to them.
All this is perfectly plain; but still we have to inquire how it fits in with Luke 14 and Deuteronomy 13? The answer is simply this. The harmony is divinely perfect. Those scriptures apply only to cases in which our natural relationships and affections interfere with the claims of God and of Christ. When they operate in this way, they must be denied and mortified. If they dare to intrude upon a domain which is wholly divine, the sentence of death must be written upon them.
In contemplating the life of the only perfect man that ever trod this earth of ours, we can see how beautifully He adjusted the various claims which as a man and a servant, He had to meet. He could say to His mother, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" And, yet, at the fitting moment, He could, with exquisite tenderness, commend that mother to the care of the disciple whom He loved. He could say to His parents, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?" and, at the same time, go home with them and be sweetly subject to parental authority. Thus the written teachings of holy scripture, and the perfect ways of the living Christ do both combine to teach us how to discharge aright the claims of nature and the claims of God.
But it may be that the reader feels considerable difficulty in reference to the line of action enjoined in Deuteronomy 13: 9, 10. He may find it hard to reconcile it with a God of love, and with the grace, gentleness and tenderness inculcated in the New Testament scriptures. Here again we must keep a vigilant eye upon reason. It always affects to find ample scope for its powers in the stern enactments of the divine government; but, in reality, it only displays its blindness and folly. Still, though we would make very short work with infidel reason, we earnestly desire to help any honest soul who may not be able to see his way through this question.
We have had occasion, in our studies on the earlier chapters of this book, to refer to the very weighty subject of God’s governmental dealings, both with Israel and the nations; but, in addition to what has already come under our notice, we have to bear in mind the very important difference between the two economies of law and grace. If this be not clearly apprehended, we shall find very considerable difficulty in such passages as Deuteronomy 13: 9, 10. The great characteristic principle of the Jewish economy was righteousness; the characteristic principle of Christianity is grace - pure, unqualified grace.
If this fact be fully grasped, all difficulty vanishes. It was perfectly right, perfectly consistent, and in perfect harmony with the mind of God for Israel to slay their enemies. God commanded them to do so. And, in like manner, it was right and consistent for them to execute righteous judgement, even unto death, upon any member of the congregation who should seek to draw them aside after false gods, as in the passage before us. To do so was in full moral harmony with the grand ruling principles of government and law, under which they were placed, in accordance with the dispensational wisdom of God.
All this is perfectly plain. It runs through the entire canon of Old Testament scripture. God’s government in Israel, and His government of the world, in connection with Israel was on the strict principle of righteousness. And as it was in the past, so it shall be in the future. "A king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgement."
But, in Christianity, we see something quite different. The moment we open the pages of the New Testament, and hearken to the teachings, and mark the actings of the Son of God, we find ourselves on entirely new ground, and in a new atmosphere. In a word, we are in the atmosphere and on the ground of pure, unqualified grace.
Thus, as a sample of the teaching, take a passage or two from what is called the Sermon on the Mount - that marvellous and precious compendium of the principles of the kingdom of heaven. "Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth; but I say unto you, That ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on the one cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain." Again, "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy; but I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the sons [huioin] of your Father which is in heaven; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust..... Be ye therefore perfect [teleioi] even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matt. 5: 38-48)
We cannot now dwell upon those blessed sentences; we merely quote them for the reader in order to let him see the immense difference between the Jewish and Christian economy. What was perfectly right and consistent for a Jew, might be quite wrong and inconsistent for a Christian.
This is so plain that a child may see it; and yet, strange to say, many of the Lord’s beloved people seem to be clouded on the subject. They judge it to be perfectly right for Christians to deal in righteousness, and go to war, and to exercise worldly power. Well, then, if it be right for Christians to act thus, we would simply ask, Where is it taught in the New Testament? Where have we a single sentence from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ, or from the pen of the Holy Ghost to warrant or sanction such a thing? As we have said, in reference to other questions that have come before us in our studies on this book, it is of no possible use for us to say, "We think so and so." Our thoughts are simply worth nothing. The one grand question, in all matters of Christian faith and morals is, "What saith the New Testament?" What did our Lord and Master teach, and what did He do? He taught that His people now are not to act as His people of old acted. Righteousness was the Principle of the old economy; grace is the principle of the new.
This was what Christ taught, as may be seen in numberless passages of scripture. And how did He act? Did He deal in righteousness with people? Did He assert His rights? Did He exercise worldly power? Did He go to law? Did He vindicate Himself, or retaliate? When His poor disciples, in utter ignorance of the heavenly principles which He taught, and in total forgetfulness of His whole course of action, said to Him, on one occasion in the which a certain village of the Samaritans refused to receive Him, "Lord, wilt thou that me command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?" What was His answer? "He turned and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of, For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives but to save. And they went to another village." It was perfectly consistent with the spirit, principle and genius of the dispensation of which Elias was the exponent and representative, to call down fire from heaven to consume the men sent by a godless king to arrest him. But the blessed Lord was the perfect Exponent and divine Representative of another dispensation altogether His was a life of perfect self-surrender, from first to last. He never asserted His rights. He came to serve and to give. He came to represent God, to be the perfect expression of the Father in every way. The Father’s character shone out in His every look, His every word, His every act, His every movement.
Such was the Lord Christ when He was down here among men; and such was His teaching. He did what He taught, and He taught what He did. His words expressed what He was, and His ways illustrated His words. He came to serve and to give; and His whole life was marked by those two things, from the manger to the cross. We may truly say, time would fail us to quote the passages in proof and illustration of this, nor is there any need, inasmuch as the truth of it will hardly be called in question.
Well, then, is not He our great Exemplar in all things? Is it not by His teaching and ways that our course and character as Christians are to be formed? How are we to know how we ought to walk save by hearkening to His blessed words and gazing on His perfect ways? If we as Christians are to be guided and governed by the principles and precepts of the Mosaic economy, then, assuredly, it would be right for us to go to law, to contend for our rights, to engage in war, to destroy our enemies. But then what becomes of the teaching and example of our adorable Lord and Saviour? What of the teachings of the Holy Ghost. What of the New Testament? Is it not as plain as a sunbeam to the reader that for a Christian to do these things is to act in flagrant opposition to the teaching and example of his Lord?
Here, however, we may be met by the old and oft-repeated inquiry, "What would become of the world, what would become of its institutions, what would become of society, if such principles were to be universally dominant?" The infidel historian, in speaking of the early Christians, and their refusal to join the Roman army, sneeringly inquires, "What would have become of the empire, surrounded as it was on all sides, by barbarians, if every one had indulged in such pusillanimous ideas as these?"
We reply at once, If those spiritual and heavenly principles were universally dominant, there would be no wars, no fighting, and hence, there would be no need of soldiers, no need of standing armies or navies, no need of constabulary or police; there would be no wrong doings, no strife about property, and hence no need of courts of law, judges or magistrates; in short, the world, as it now is, would have an end; the kingdoms of this world would have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.
But the plain fact is, those heavenly principles of which we speak, are not intended for the world at all, inasmuch as the world could not adopt them, or act upon them for a single hour; to do so would involve the immediate and complete break up of the present system of things, the dissolution of the entire framework of society as at present constituted.
Hence, the objection of the infidel crumbles into dust beneath our feet, like all other infidel objections, and the questions and the difficulties which are based upon them. They are deprived of every atom of moral force. Heavenly principles are not designed for "this present evil world," at all; they are designed for the church which is not of the world, even as Jesus is not of the world. "If," said our Lord to Pilate, "my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now is my kingdom not from hence."
Mark the word "now." By-and-by, the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord; but now He is rejected, and all who belong to Him - His church - His people are called to share His rejection, to follow Him into the outside place, and walk as pilgrims and strangers here below, waiting for the moment when He shall come to receive them to Himself, that where He is, there they may be also.
Now, it is the attempt to mix the world and the church together that produces such terrible confusion. It is one of Satan’s special wiles; and it has done more to mar the testimony of the church of God, and hinder its progress than most of us are aware. It involves a complete turning of things upside down, a confounding of things that differ essentially, an utter denial of the church’s true character, her position, her walk and her hope. We sometimes hear the expression, "Christian world." What does it mean? It is simply an attempt to combine two things which in their source, nature and character, are as diverse as light and darkness. It is an effort to tack a new piece upon an old garment which, as our Lord tells us, only makes the rent worse.
It is not God’s object to Christianise the world, but to call His people out of the world to be a heavenly people, governed by heavenly principles, formed by a heavenly object, and cheered by a heavenly hope. If this be not clearly seen, if the truth as to the church’s true calling and course be not realised as a living power in the soul, we shall be sure to make the most grievous mistakes in our work, walk and service. We shall make an entirely wrong use of the Old Testament scriptures, not only on prophetic subjects, but in reference to the whole range of practical life; indeed, it would be utterly impossible to calculate the loss which must result from not seeing the distinctive calling, position and hope of the church of God, her association and identification - her living union with a rejected, risen and glorified Christ.
We cannot attempt to enlarge upon this most precious and interesting theme; but we should just like to point out to the reader an instance or two illustrative of the Spirit’s method of quoting and applying Old Testament scripture. Take, for example, the following passage from that lovely thirty-fourth Psalm: "The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth." Now, mark the way in which the Holy Spirit quotes this passage in the first epistle of Peter. "The face of the Lord is against them that do evil." (1 Peter 3: 12.) Not a word about cutting off. Why is this? Because the Lord is not now acting upon the principle of cutting off. He acted upon it under the law; and He will act upon it, in the kingdom, by-and-by. But, just now, He is acting in grace, and long-suffering mercy. His face is quite as much and quite as decidedly against all evil-doers as ever it was, or ever it will be, but not now to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. The most striking illustration of this marvellous grace and forbearance, and of the difference between the two principles on which we have been dwelling is seen in the fact that the very men who, with wicked hands, crucified His only-begotten and well-beloved Son - evil-doers, surely, of the most pronounced type-instead of being cut off from the earth, were the very first to hear the message of full and free pardon through the blood of the cross.
Now, it may appear to some that we are making too much of the mere omission of a single clause of Old Testament scripture. Let not the reader think so. Even had we but this one instance, it would be a serious mistake to treat it with anything like indifference. But the fact is there are scores of passages of the same character as the one just quoted, all illustrative of the contrast between the Jewish and Christian economies, and also between Christianity and the coming kingdom.
God is now dealing in grace with the world, and so should His people, if they want to be like Him, and such they are called to be. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" and again, "Be ye therefore imitators of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour. (Eph. 5: 1)
This is our model. We are called to copy our Father’s example, to imitate Him. He is not going to law with the world; He is not enforcing His rights with the strong hand of power. By-and-by, He will; but just now, in this day of grace, He showers His blessings and benefits, in rich profusion, upon those whose whole life is one of enmity and rebellion against Him.
All this is perfectly marvellous; but thus it is, and we, as Christians, are called to act on this morally glorious principle. It may be said, by some, "How could we ever get on in the world, how could we conduct our business, on such a principle as this? We should be robbed and ruined; designing people would take advantage of us, if they knew that we would not go to law with them; they would take our goods, or borrow our money, or occupy our houses, and refuse to pay us. In short, we could never get on in a world like this, if we did not assert our rights and establish our claims by the strong hand of power. What is the law for but to make people behave themselves? Are not the powers that be ordained of God for the very purpose of maintaining peace and good order in our midst? what would become of society, if we had not soldiers, policemen, magistrates and judges? And if God has ordained that such things should be, why should not His people avail themselves of them? And not only so, but who so fit to occupy places of authority and power, or to wield the sword of justice as the people of God?
There is, no doubt, very great apparent force in all this line of argument. The powers that be are ordained of God. The king, the governor, the judge, the magistrate are, each in his place, the expression of the power of God. It is God who invests each with the power which he wields; it is He who has put the sword into his hand, for the punishment of evil-doers, and the praise of them that do well. We bless God with all our hearts for the constituted authorities of the country. Day and night, in private and in public, we pray for them. It is our bounden duty to obey and submit ourselves to them, in all things, provided always that they do not call upon us to disobey God, or do violence to conscience. If they do this, we must - what? Resist? Nay, but suffer.
All this is perfectly plain. The world, as it now is, could not go on for a single day, if men were not kept in order by the strong hand of power. We could not live, or at least life would be perfectly intolerable, were it not that evil-doers are kept in terror of the glittering sword of justice. Even as it is, through lack of moral power on the part of those who bear the sword, lawless demagogues are allowed to stir up the evil passions of men to resist the law of the land, and disturb the peace, and threaten the lives and property of well-disposed and harmless subjects of the government.
But, admitting all this, in the fullest possible manner, as every intelligent Christian, every one taught by scripture, most assuredly will, it leaves wholly untouched the question of the Christian’s path in this world. Christianity fully recognises all the governmental institutions of the country. It forms no part of the Christian’s business to interfere, in any one way, with such institutions. Wherever he is, whatever be the principle or character of the government of the country in which his lot is cast, it is his duty to recognise its municipal and political arrangements, to pay taxes, pray for the government, honour governors in their official capacity, wish well to the legislature and the executive, pray for the peace of the country, live in peace with all, so far as in him lies.
We see all this in the blessed Master Himself, in perfection, blessed be His holy Name for evermore! In His memorable reply to the crafty Herodians, He recognises the principle of subjection to the powers that be: "Render to Caesar the things that be Caesar’s; and to God the things that be God’s." And not only so, but we find Him also paying tribute, although personally free. They had no right to demand it of Him, as He plainly shows to Peter; and it might be said, "Why did He not appeal?" Appeal! Nay; He shows us something quite different. Hear His exquisite reply to His mistaken apostle, "Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money; that take and give unto them for me and thee.* (Matt. 17.)
{*The fact that the tribute money may have been for the temple does not touch the principle set forth in the text}
And here we get back, with increased moral force, to our thesis, namely, the Christian’s path in this world. What is it? He is to follow his Master - to imitate Him in all things. Did He assert His rights? Did He go to law? Did He try to regulate the world? Did He meddle with municipal or political matters? Was He a politician? Did He wield the sword? Did He consent to be a judge or a divider, even when appealed to, as we say, to arbitrate about property? Was not His whole life one of complete self-surrender, from first to last? Was He not continually giving up until, at the cross, He gave up His precious life as a ransom for many?
We shall leave these questions to find their answer deep down in the heart of the Christian reader, and to produce their practical effect in his life. We trust that the foregoing line of truth will enable him to interpret aright such passages as Deuteronomy 13: 9, 10. Our opposition to idolatry, and our separation from evil, in every shape and form, while not less intense and decided, most surely, than that of Israel of old, is not to be displayed in the same way. The church is imperatively called upon to put away evil, and evil-doers, but not after the same fashion as Israel. It is no part of her duty to stone idolaters and blasphemers, or burn witches. The church of Rome has acted upon this principle; and even Protestants - to the shame of Protestantism - have followed her example.* The church is not called - nay, she is positively and peremptorily forbidden to use the temporal sword. It is a flat denial of her calling, character and mission to do so. When Peter, in ignorant zeal and carnal haste, drew the sword in defence of his blessed Master, he was at once corrected by his Master’s faithful word, and instructed by his Master’s gracious act: "Put up thy sword into the sheath; for all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword." And having thus reproved the act of His mistaken though well-meaning servant, He undid the mischief by His gracious touch. "The weapons of our warfare," says the inspired apostle, "are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (2 Cor. 10: 4, 5.)
{*The burning of Servetus, in 1553, for his theological opinions, is a frightful blot upon the Reformation, and upon the man who sanctioned such an unchristian proceeding. True, the opinions of Servetus were fatally and fundamentally false. He held the Arian heresy, which is simply blasphemy against the Son of God. But to burn him, or any one else for false doctrine was a flagrant sin against the spirit, genius and principle of the gospel, the deplorable fruit of ignorance as to the essential difference between Judaism and Christianity.}
The professing church has gone all astray as to this great and most important question. She has joined herself with the world, and sought to further the cause of Christ by carnal and worldly agency. She has ignorantly attempted to maintain the Christian faith by the most shameful denial of Christian practice. The burning of heretics stands as a most fearful moral blot upon the page of the church’s history. We can form no adequate idea of the terrible consequences resulting from the notion that the church was called to take Israel’s place and act on Israel’s principles.* It completely falsified her testimony, robbed her of her entirely spiritual and heavenly character, and led her upon a path which ends in Revelation 17 and 18. Let him that readeth understand.
{*It is one thing for the church to learn from the history of Israel, and another thing altogether to take Israel’s place, act on Israel’s principles, and appropriate Israel’s promises. The former is the church’s duty and privilege; the latter has been the church’s fatal mistake.}
But we must not pursue this line of things further here. We trust that what has passed before us will lead all whom it may concern to consider the whole subject in the light of the New Testament, and thus be the means, through the infinite goodness of God, of leading them to see the path of entire separation which we as Christians are called to tread; in the world but not of it, even as our Lord Christ is not of it. This will solve a thousand difficulties, and furnish a grand general principle which can be practically applied to a thousand details.
We shall now conclude our study of Deuteronomy 13 by a glance at its closing paragraph.
"If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the Lord thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying, 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 ye have not known. Then shalt thou inquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you; thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword. And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every whit, for the Lord thy God; and it shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be built again. And there shall cleave nought of the cursed thing to thine hand; that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and show thee mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers; when thou shalt hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep all his commandments which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord thy God." (Vers. 12-18.)
Here we have instruction of the most solemn and weighty character. But the reader must bear in mind that, solemn and weighty as it most surely is, It is based upon a truth of unspeakable value, and that is Israel’s national unity. If we do not see this, we shall miss the real force and meaning of the foregoing quotation. A case is supposed of grave error in some one of the cities of Israel; and the question might naturally arise, "Are all the cities involved in the evil of one?"’*
{*It is, of course, needful to bear in mind that the evil referred to in the text was of the very gravest character. It was an attempt to draw the people away from the one living and true God. It touched the very foundation of Israel’s national existence. It was not merely a local or municipal question, but a national one.}
Assuredly, inasmuch as the nation was one. The cities and tribes were not independent, they were bound up together by a sacred bond of national unity - a unity which had its centre in the place of the divine presence. Israel’s twelve tribes were indissolubly bound together. The twelve loaves on the golden table in the sanctuary formed the beauteous type of this unity, and every true Israelite owned and rejoiced in this unity. The twelve stones in Jordan’s bed; the twelve stones on Jordan’s bank; Elijah’s twelve stones on mount Carmel, all set forth the same grand truth - the indissoluble unity of Israel’s twelve tribes. The good king Hezekiah recognised this truth, when he commanded that the burnt-offering and the sin-offering should be made for all Israel. (2 Chr. 29: 24.) The faithful Josiah owned it and acted upon it, when he carried his reformatory operations into all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel. (2 Chr. 34: 33.) Paul, in his magnificent address before king Agrippa, bears witness to the same truth, when he says, "Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God, night and day, hope to come."* (Acts 26: 7.) And when we look forward into the bright future, the same glorious truth shines, with heavenly lustre, in the seventh chapter of Revelation, where we see the twelve tribes sealed and secured for blessing, rest and glory, in connection with a countless multitude of the Gentiles. And, finally, in Revelation 21 we see the names of the twelve tribes engraved on the gates of the holy Jerusalem, the seat and centre of the glory of God and the Lamb.
{*It may interest the reader to know that the word rendered, in the above passage, "twelve tribes," is singular, to; dodekaphulon. It certainly gives very full and vivid expression to the grand idea of indissoluble unity which is so precious to God, and therefore so precious to faith.}
Thus, from the golden table in the sanctuary, to the golden city descending out of heaven from God, we have a marvellous chain of evidence in proof of the grand truth of the indissoluble unity of Israel’s twelve tribes.
And, then, if the question be asked, where is this unity to be seen? or how did Elijah, or Hezekiah, or Josiah, or Paul see it? The answer is a very simple one, They saw it by faith; they looked within the sanctuary of God, and there on the golden table, they beheld the twelve loaves setting forth the perfect distinctness and yet the perfect oneness of the twelve tribes. Nothing can be more beautiful. The truth of God must stand for ever. Israel’s unity was seen in the past, and it will be seen in the future; and though, like the higher unity of the church, it is unseen in the present, faith believes it all the same, holds it and confesses it in the face of ten thousand hostile influences.
And, now, let us look, for a moment, at the practical application of this most glorious truth, as presented in the closing paragraph of Deuteronomy 13. A report reaches a city in the far north of the land of Israel of serious error taught in a certain city in the extreme south - deadly error, tending to draw the inhabitants away from the true God.
What is to be done? The law is as plain as possible; the path of duty is laid down with such distinctness, that it only needs a single eye to see it, and a devoted heart to tread it. "Then shalt thou inquire, and make search, and ask diligently." This surely is simple enough.
But some of the citizens might say, "What have we in the north to do with error taught in the south? Thank God, there is no error taught amongst us; it is entirely a local question; each city is responsible for the maintenance of the truth within its own walls. How could we be expected to examine into every case of error which may spring up here and there all over the land; our whole time would be taken up, so that we could not attend to our fields, our vineyards, our oliveyards, our flocks and our herds. It is quite as much as we can do to keep our own borders all right. We certainly condemn the error, and if any one holding or teaching it were to come here, and that we knew of it, we should most decidedly shut our gates against him. Beyond this, we do not feel ourselves responsible to go."
Now what, we may ask, would be the reply of the faithful Israelite to all this line of argument which, in the judgement of mere nature, seems so exceedingly plausible? A very simple and very conclusive one, we may be sure. He would say it was simply a denial of Israel’s unity. If every city and every tribe were to take independent ground, then verily the high priest might take the twelve loaves off the golden table before the Lord and scatter them here and there and everywhere; our unity is gone; we are all broken up into independent atoms having no national ground of action.
Besides, the commandment is most distinct and explicit, "Thou shalt inquire, and make search, and ask diligently." We are bound therefore, on the double ground of the nation’s unity and the plain command of our covenant God. It is of no possible use to say there is no error taught amongst us, unless we want to separate ourselves from the nation; if we belong to Israel, then verily the error is taught amongst us, as the word says - "Such abomination is wrought among you." How far does the "you" extend? As far as the national boundaries. Error taught at Dan affects those dwelling at Beersheba. How is this? Because Israel is one.
And then the word is so plain, so distinct, so emphatic. We are bound to search into it. We cannot fold our arms and sit down in cold indifference and culpable neutrality, else we shall be involved in the awful consequences of this evil; yea, we are involved until we clear ourselves of it by judging it, with unflinching decision, and unsparing severity.
Such, beloved reader, would be the language of every loyal Israelite, and such his mode of acting in reference to error and evil wherever found. To speak or act otherwise, would simply be indifference as to the truth and glory of God, and independency as regards Israel. For any to say that they were not responsible to act according to the instructions given in Deuteronomy 13: 12-18, would be a complete surrender of the truth of God, and of Israel’s unity. All were bound to act or else be involved in the judgement of the guilty city.
And surely if all this was true in Israel of old, it is not less true in the church of God now. We may rest assured that anything like indifference, where Christ is concerned, is most hateful to God. It is the eternal purpose and counsel of God to glorify His Son; that every knee should bow to Him, and every tongue confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father. "That all should honour the Son even as they honour the Father."
Hence, if Christ be dishonoured, if doctrines be taught derogatory to the glory of His Person, the efficacy of His work, or the virtue of His offices, we are bound by every motive which could possibly act on our hearts to reject, with stern decision, such doctrines. Indifference or neutrality, where the Son of God is concerned, is high treason in the judgement of the high court of Heaven. We would not be indifferent if it were a question of our own reputation, our personal character, or our personal or family property; we should be thoroughly alive to anything affecting ourselves or those dear to us. How much more deeply ought we to feel in reference to what concerns the glory and honour, the Name and cause of the One to whom we owe our present and everlasting all - -the One who laid aside His glory, came down into this wretched world, and died a shameful death upon the cross in order to save us from the everlasting flames of hell! Could we be indifferent to Him? Neutral where He is concerned? God, in His great mercy forbid!
No; reader, it must not be. The honour and glory of Christ must be more to us than all beside - reputation, property, family, friends, all must stand aside if the claims of Christ are involved. Does not the Christian reader own this, with all the energy of his ransomed soul? We feel persuaded he does even now; and oh! how shall we feel when we see Him face to face, and stand in the full light of His moral glory? With what feelings shall we then contemplate the idea of indifference or neutrality with respect to Him?
And are we not justified in declaring that next to the glory of the Head stands the great truth of the unity of His body, the church? Unquestionably. If the nation of Israel was one, how much more is the body of Christ one! And if independency was wrong in Israel, how much more wrong in the church of God! The plain fact is this, the idea of independency cannot be maintained for a moment, in the light of the New Testament. As well might we say that the hand is independent of the foot, or the eye of the ear, as assert that the members of the body of Christ are independent one of another. "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ" - a very remarkable statement, setting forth the intimate union of Christ and the church - "For by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more, those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary; and those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need; but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked. That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. NOW YE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST, AND MEMBERS IN PARTICULAR." (1 Cor. 12: 12-27.)
We do not attempt to dwell upon this truly marvellous scripture; but we earnestly desire to call the attention of the Christian reader to the special truth which it so forcibly sets before us - a truth which intimately concerns every true believer on the face of the earth, namely, that he is a member of the body of Christ. This is a great practical truth, involving, at once, the very highest privileges, and the very weightiest responsibilities. It is not merely a true doctrine, a sound principle, or an orthodox opinion; it is a living fact, designed to be a divine power in the soul. The Christian can no longer view himself as an independent person, having no association, no vital link with others. He is livingly bound up with all the children of God, all true believers, all the members of Christ’s body upon the face of the earth.
"By one Spirit are we all baptised into one body." The church of God is not a mere club, or a society, an association, or a brotherhood; it is a body united by the Holy Ghost to the Head, in heaven; and all its members on earth are indissolubly bound together. This being so, it follows of necessity, that all the members of the body are affected by the state and walk of each. "If one member suffer, all the members suffer with it." That is, all the members of the body. If there is anything wrong with the foot, the hand feels it. How? Through the head. So in the church of God, if anything goes wrong with an individual member, all feel it through the Head with whom all are livingly connected by the Holy Ghost.
Some find it very hard to grasp this great truth. But there it stands plainly revealed on the inspired page, not to be reasoned about, or submitted, in any way, to the human judgement, but simply to he believed. It is a divine revelation. No human mind could ever have conceived such a thought; but God reveals it, faith believes it, and walks in the blessed power of it.
It may be the reader feels disposed to ask, " How is it possible for the state of one believer to affect those who know nothing about it?" The answer is, "If one member suffer, all the members suffer with it." All the members of what? Is it of any mere local assembly or company who may happen to know or be locally connected with the person concerned Nay, but the members of the body wherever they are. Even in the case of Israel, where it was only a national unity, we have seen that if there was evil in any one of their cities, all were concerned, all involved, all affected. Hence, when Achan sinned, although there were myriads of people totally ignorant of the fact, the Lord said, "Israel hath sinned," and the whole assembly suffered a humiliating defeat.
Can reason grasp this weighty truth? No; but faith can. If we listen to reason we shall believe nothing; but, by the grace of God, we shall not listen to reason, but believe what God says because He says it.
And oh! beloved Christian reader, what an immense truth is this unity of the body! What practical consequences flow out of it! How eminently calculated it is to minister to holiness of walk and life! How watchful it would make us over ourselves, our habits, our ways, our whole moral condition! How careful it would make us not to dishonour the Head to whom we are united, or grieve the Spirit by whom we are united, or injure the members with whom we are united!
But we must close this chapter, much as we should like to linger over one of the very grandest, most profound, and most powerfully formative truths that can possibly engage our attention. May the Spirit of God make it a living power in the soul of every true believer on the face of the earth!
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16 Vers. 1-5. The case supposed here is that of…
IDOLATERS AND ENTICERS TO IDOLATRY TO BE PUT TO DEATH.
Vers. 1-5. The case supposed here is that of one professing to have supernatural intelligence, who should, by giving a sign or a wonder, endeavor to draw away the people to idolatry. Such a one was to be put to death.
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A prophet (nabhi, ayibn); one who speaks from God, an interpreter to men of what God reveals or suggests to him. (of for the meaning of the word. Exo_7:1 with Exo_4:16; also Jer_15:19) Dreamer of dreams. Not by visions or immediate suggestion only, but also by means of dreams, did God communicate with men. (cf. Num_12:6) The case supposed here, then, is that of one pretending to have had revelations from God through those media by which God was pleased to convey his will to men (cf. Hem., "Iliad," h 62
jAll age dh tina mantin ejreiomen.... h kailon kair tj onar ek Diov ejstin
Sign or a wonder. A sign was some event foretold by the prophet, and the occurrence of which was a token that something else which he announced would happen or should be done (cf. 1Sa_2:34 1Sa_10:7-9; 2Ki_19:29; Isa_7:11-14 Isa_38:7; Mar_13:4, etc.) A wonder was a miracle, the performance of which gave proof of a Divine commission. (Deu_4:24) These signs, it is assumed, should come to pass; nevertheless, the people were not to listen to the man who gave them to go after other gods. The mere fact that he sought to persuade them to forsake the worship of Jehovah was sufficient to prove him an impostor; for how could one who sought to seduce the people from God be sent by God? The sign which was given to authenticate such a message could only be one of those "lying signs and wonders after the working of Satan," by which his emissaries try to deceive and mislead; and was permitted by God only that their fidelity to him might be tested and proved. They had already received God"s message; they had his word; and no teaching which contravened that, however apparently authenticated, could be from him, or was to he accepted by them (cf. Jer_29:8; Gal_1:8, Gal_1:9; 1Jn_3:1, etc.) Come what might, they were to walk after Jehovah their God, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and serve him; and cleave unto him. The false prophet, as a public enemy and a suborner of treason against the King of Israel, was to be put to death; and so the evil would be put away from among them.
Vers. 1-18. Temptations to depart from God to be resisted at all costs.
In the preceding chapter we had directions with regard to the worship of the true God. Here Israel is told what to do in case of temptation arising to worship false gods. The chapter in its entirety deals with this one topic. From it we might open up two main homiletic themes:
(1) the treatment of error;
(2) the test of truth.
The second, however, we reserve till we come to Deu_18:21. The first, therefore, only, we deal with now. In doing this we must remember that Moses is not only the expounder of religious duty, but also of a judicial polity. He is not only the prophet, but the legislator. Israel"s constitution as a nation was that of a Theocratic Church-State. It is supposed, in this chapter, that temptations to depart from God may come
(1) from a professed prophet or wonder-worker, or
(2) they may arise from the nearest relative or besom friend, or
(3) they may come from a town or city.
In either ease, the infection is to be "stamped out" at once. Any enticement to idolatry, come whence it may, is not to be tolerated for a moment. The wonder-worker is to be put to death; the friend is to be slain; the city is to be destroyed. All this may seem harsh. Perhaps it is not so harsh as it seems. There may be occasions when severity is the greatest kindness, and when tolerance would be the greatest unkindness. In the early Christian Church, the sudden death of Ananias and Sapphira seemed severe. But the instantaneous cutting out of the canker of hypocrisy was, as it were, the surgical operation which only would save the Church. So here. There are three principles which were at stake in such cases as those here supposed.
1. The supremacy of Jehovah was the key-stone of their national constitution. Consequently, the attempt to draw Israel away after other gods was treason to the State, and must be dealt with accordingly.
2. The aim of Jehovah in choosing Israel was to separate to himself a people for his Name. Hence if they did not forcibly repress idolatrous worship, the very reason of their separate existence as a people would cease.
3. Since the very continuance of Israel depended on the continuance of their raison d"etre, for them not to stamp out idolatry would be to blot out themselves. It is a commonplace saying with reference to legislation, that it is to be tested not by the query, "What is abstractly the best?" but by another, "What will be the best for such and such a people?" Now, looking at all the circumstances of Israel, it would be very hard to say that any better, or even any other mode of securing the desired end could have been adopted. Here, as throughout the legislation, the people are supposed to be in full sympathy with Jehovah, and are themselves to co-operate in carrying out his Law. (see Homily on De 27) We have no warrant to apply the rules here given in detail, anywhere, because we have nowhere existing any people that, on the earthly side of its life, occupies a like position to Israel. Therefore no argument for a like extirpation of heresy can now be rightly maintained, because no parallel can now be shown of a nation with like constitution. But nevertheless, as in the preceding chapter we had permanent principles embodied under specific rules, so it is in this.
I WE HAVE TRUTHS OF SUPREME MOMENT INDICATED HERE, WHICH ARE CAPABLE OF APPLICATION TO THE GOVERNMENT OF THE CHURCH OF GOD. It is not possible to do more than briefly indicate the line of thought which such an application of the principles here laid down would involve.
1. Israel"s place in the world is now filled by the Church of God, which is "the commonwealth of Israel," into which all enter who believe through grace.
2. The Church is set for the maintenance and defense in the world of the great truths of our most holy faith, and she is "earnestly to contend for the faith once (for all) delivered to the saints.
3. This Church is to be a self-governing body, having within itself all the powers and authorities for self-regulation and discipline. The Epistles to the seven Churches show this abundantly.
4. The Church is to be very jealous in guarding the glorious gospel of the blessed God. Amid all changes of public sentiment and opinion on minor points, she is to hold fast the cardinal truth, that no advance of public thought can warrant her in surrendering the one vital truth on which her existence depends, without which she would have had no existence, nor could show any reason why she should continue to exist.
5. This one truth, which she is to conserve intact age after age, is analogous to the one which Israel was so sacredly to guard. Israel was to keep watch over the truth Jehovah, he is the Lord. The Church has now to guard the doctrine that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. (see 1Jn_4:1-4) The Church might as well cease to he as let that truth go. It is "the doctrine which is according to godliness." She is to guard the doctrine which tends to godliness, and to maintain the godliness which is to illustrate the doctrine.
6. She has within herself means and powers for the defense of the faith, and for visiting with monition, censure, suspension, or excommunication, those who deny it or disgrace it. (1Co 5; Mat_18:17-20; Tit_3:10, Tit_3:11, etc.)
7. Her weapons are not carnal. She has no power to use the sword. (Mat_26:52; 2Co_10:3-8)
8. Nor has the Church any power towards those that are not within her pale, (1Co_5:12, 1Co_5:13) i.e. she has no power of judging. She has to be a witness for God to the outlying world, and that she may be this she is to keep herself pure.
II THE PRINCIPLES OF THE CHAPTER HAVE A CONSTANT APPLICATION TO THE INDIVIDUAL LIFE. "Ye shall walk after the Lord" embodies New Testament teaching as well as Old. On the basis of the chapter before us, the following outline of thought may well be filled up.
1. Absolute loyalty to Christ should be the governing principle of life. The Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Christ of the New. He is the Mediator of the new covenant. He is a Legislator of more glory than Moses. (Heb 3) He appeals to us by righteousness, love, hope, fear.
2. Temptations to desert Christ"s standard may pour in upon us from various quarters. The chapter suggests three.
(1) A prophet. There may arise some new claimant for man"s homage, or some philosopher who thinks to disprove the claims of Jesus by showing his own wondrous intellectual stature, etc.
(2) The family. Seductions either to the false in faith or the corrupt in practice may come from those near and dear to us.
(3) The city. A strong current of public sentiment, adverse to "the truth as it is in Jesus," may set in, and may threaten to carry us away.
1. These temptations are to be withstood at all costs. No "sign," no "wonder," is ever to be allowed to dazzle us for a moment. Christ"s claims are so convincing to the conscience and heart, they are sustained by such overwhelming evidence, that nothing in any age can set them aside. The sovereignty of Christ is the fundamental law of our life. He will allow no rival whatsoever. Even if men should work miracles to lead us away from Christ., we are to follow Christ, and let miracles go for naught. Even under the Mosaic Law, miracles were not a sufficient test of truth. The doctrine they were intended to confirm must be put alongside therewith, and if this doctrine contravened the supreme canon of moral life, "Loyalty to God," it was to be set aside. So now. No physical wonder can ever justify us in ignoring supreme moral law. The Lordship of Jesus is our highest moral law. He is to us the embodiment of righteousness, truth, and love; yea, he is our incarnate God.
2. Though we may not visit our enticers with pains and penalties, yet, even now, the most sacred claims and relationships of our earthly life are to be renounced if they come into collision with our loyalty to Jesus. (see Luk_14:26-33) Even though the temptations should come from all quarters at once, our loyalty to our Savior is to remain unmoved. We may not halt, nor waver, nor seek a feigned neutrality. (Mat_12:30) It will be a very far more serious thing for us if we let ourselves be seduced from loyalty to God as revealed in Christ, than it would have been for Israel if they proved fickle under the legislation of Moses. (Heb_2:1-4 Heb_10:28-31) How earnestly should we pray that we may be kept faithful to our dear Lord in heaven! How lovingly should we warn others, lest they swerve from their fealty to him! (2Pe_3:17, 2Pe_3:18; Jud_1:17-25; Rev_2:10, Rev_2:11; Mat_24:11-13)
HOMILIES BY J. ORR. Vers. 1-6. False prophets.
In viewing the bearings of this passage on the credentials of revelation, two points should be observed.
1. The case supposed is one in which the prophet contradicts a revelation already received.
2. The prophet does not dispute the evidence of that earlier revelation. On the contrary, he admits it. He stands within the lines of it. He professes to speak under its authority. Yet he asks the people to violate its fundamental laws. This of itself was sufficient to convict him. His pretensions are disposed of by the simple fact that, professing to speak in the Name of God, he gives the people a message contradictory of what he admits God to have previously revealed. No sign and wonder can accredit contradictions. The prophet is inconsistent with himself, and is not to be listened to. Nay, his message had been anticipated, and the thing he bids the people do, expressly forbidden. Notice, then
I EXTERNAL MIRACLES DO NOT OF THEMSELVES ACCREDIT A REVELATION AS FROM GOD. (Vers. 1-3.) This prophet gives a sign or wonder presumably a predictive word and it actually comes to pass. The failure of his sign, according to Deu_18:21, Deu_18:22, would have been a proof of falsity. The converse of this, however, that he speaks God"s word because his sign has not failed, is not immediately to be admitted. There are other tests to be applied. In this case, the prophet"s message is condemned because contradictory of what he himself allows to have been a true revelation. This raises the question of the value of miracles as credentials of revelation. That they have a value is not disputed, but not as mere signs and wonders. This will be best seen by contrasting the sign or wonder given by this prophet with the evidence of the earlier revelation. If we take the Scripture account of the founding of the Mosaic dispensation, it is impossible to question the magnificence and convincingness of the displays of Divine power and holiness therein contained. In founding his dispensations. (Mosaic and Christian) God has not only given evidence, but an amount and kind of evidence which put the source of the revelation admitting the facts to be as stated beyond all cavil. For here, it is not merely the fact of miracle which is to be regarded, but the number, nature, magnitude, variety, spiritual quality of the supernatural events, in connection with the self-evidencing divineness of the revelation itself. The difficulty as to whether the miracle proves the doctrine, or the doctrine the miracle, or in what proportions the two factors combine, has little place in the actual evidences of revelation. The two cannot be separated, either in thought or in fact. Grant the authenticity of the miracles of the Gospels or of the Pentateuch, and it will not be disputed that they originated with God, not with Beelzebub. To this mass of evidence, overwhelming in its sublimity and convincingness evidence-embracing the wonders of Egypt, the displays of God"s power, love, and grace in the events of the Exodus, the miracles of the desert, the stupendous revelations of Sinai, etc. the prophet opposes a few stray signs and wonders. Which were the people to believe? Plainly, no sign or wonder would have justified an Israelite in believing a prophet whose teaching contradicted the first principles of his revelation; as no sign or wonder would justify us in believing teachings contradictory of the first principles of ours.
II THE RISE OF FALSE PROPHETS IS TO BE ANTICIPATED. (Ver. 1.) The passage takes it for granted that they will arise. They did arise in Old Testament times, and they will do so again. Their appearance is predicted in connection with "the last days" (Mat_24:11; 1Ti_4:1; 2Pe_2:1) "Signs and wonders" will not be wanting (Mat_24:24; 2Th_2:9, 2Th_2:10) False teachers are included under the category of false prophets (Mat_7:15; 2Pe_2:1) They assert as the truth of God principles and doctrines subversive of the revelation God has given. The readiness of people to believe them arises from want of knowledge; (Eph_4:14) from the itch for novelties; (2Ti_4:3) from a diseased craving for the marvelous witness the credulity displayed in connection with spiritualism; (2Th_2:9-13) above all, from the adaptation of their teachings to the inclinations of depraved hearts. (2Ti_3:1-8)
III THE RISE OF FALSE PROPHETS IS PERMITTED FOR THE SIFTING OF THE CHURCH. (Ver. 3.) God has thus much to do with their appearance that he permits it as a means of proving and sifting the Church. The trial is a searching and real one. The plausibility of their errors may occasion, even to believers, much mental conflict, But out of this conflict they come forth strengthened and purified, with firmer hold upon the truth, and clearer insight into Scripture. Those willing to be deceived are, on the other hand, led by the spirit of delusion. False prophets shake all but "the very elect". (Mat_24:24) The heresies, schisms, controversies, etc., which have agitated the Church, with the teachings of antichristian philosophy and science outside of it, have always had this effect of sifting, while in the end they have subserved the progress of the truth.
IV THE TEACHING OF FALSE PROPHETS IS TO BE REJECTED.
1. Their doctrine is to be tried by its conformity with the rule of faith. (Isa_8:20) John bids us "try the spirits," giving as the reason that "many false prophets are gone out into the world". (1Jn_4:1)
1. Their doctrine, if found contradictory of Scripture, is to be unhesitatingly rejected.
2. Of old, the prophet whose teachings struck at the foundations of the theocracy was to be put to death (ver. 5). This rule no longer applies. But it is the duty of the Church, in the exercise of her judicial functions, to deprive such a teacher of office and status in her ministry, see also 2Jn_1:10, 2Jn_1:11. J.O.
HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR Vers. 1-18. Idolatry to be treated as a capital crime.
This chapter relates to the Israelites themselves. As the government was a theocracy, idolatry in any form was treason against the Divine King, and justly punishable with death. The previous chapter (vers. 29-32) affords timely warning against sinful curiosity about heathen practices; and in this chapter the people are warned against all who would tempt them towards idolatry. The three cases mentioned are worthy of separate study.
I THE FALSE PROPHET, WITH HIS SIGNS AND WONDERS. Moses admits the possibility of signs and wonders in the interests of idolatry. This raises the whole question of miracles. These may be "helps to faith," or they may be "a trial of faith." It is evidently in the latter light that they are to be regarded when the wonder-worker wishes to lead them to idolatry. The horror of idolatry is really to fortify them against the miracle, so that, though it may try their faith, it will not overcome it. A miracle in itself, consequently, is not decisive, but must be taken along with the doctrine it proposes to support. God allows the miracle to be wrought by the false prophet to prove his people, "to know whether they love the Lord their God with all their heart and with all their soul" (ver. 3). The false prophet is to be taken, as a criminal convicted of a capital offence, and put to death. He has acted a traitor"s part among God"s subjects, and must suffer a traitor"s doom. By this terrible judgment does God stamp out all tendency to idolatry.
II THE NEAR RELATIVE AS A SEDUCER TO IDOLATRY. The false prophet might fail, and a near relative succeed. The public miracle, with its meretricious ostentation, might be withstood, while the unostentatious and secret insinuation of a near relative might prevail. Hence the instruction in these verses, 6-11, as to how the idol-loving relative is to be treated. Not only is the insinuation to be put away, but the person making it, no matter how nearly related, is to be treated as a public criminal, and put to death. All the sympathy which blood relationship ensures is to be set aside before this crime of appalling magnitude, and the relative is to cast the first stone at the apostate, the execution being completed by "the hand of all the people.
III THE APOSTASY OF A CITY. In this collective case, after a careful investigation, the utter destruction of the city is to be carried out, the idolatrous inhabitants are to be put to death, with all their cattle, their property burnt with fire, and the city to be never afterwards rebuilt (vers. 12-18). The idolatry, in propagating itself, must be stamped out even more carefully than in the individual cases of apostasy already mentioned. The sin must not be tolerated in the theocracy.
IV WE SHOULD SURELY LEARN FROM THIS HOW HEINOUS EVERY KIND OF IDOLATRY IS TO THE MOST HIGH. We may be idolaters through covetousness, (Col_3:5) through ambition, through any disposition to look for succor to things or persons instead of to God. It may be as needful for us to be exhorted against this sin, as it was for those to whom John in his Epistle wrote, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols". (1Jn_5:21) The temptation is strong to live by sense and sight instead of by faith. It will help us in withstanding temptation to remember how heinous the sin is! It is not less a sin because now idolaters are not taken out to a public place and executed. We deserve execution, though we do not receive it. For idolatry is high treason against God. When we trust, e.g. in money or in men, so as to attribute to them the powers belonging really to God, we rob him of his rights and bestow them upon others. If this was a capital offence in the Mosaic times, it is no less offensive to the Lord now. He is changeless in his judgments, and so must regard the iniquity as in the same serious light as ever. In such circumstances it surely becomes us
1. To humble ourselves most penitently before God because of our idolatries. We have been guilty of greater crimes than we suspected, and consequently should entertain the deepest possible penitence.
2. We should carefully abstain from all tendencies to an idolatrous spirit. "Keep yourselves from idols," says John. It shows how much is in our own power. We can abstain from much idolatry, if we are only watchful. In loyalty to God, out of respect for his honor and glory, we ought to keep ourselves in a trustful, humble attitude towards him, and reject every temptation to transfer our allegiance. We shall thus find ourselves going forward steadily in the exercise of spiritual purity and power. R.M.E.
HOMILIES BY D. DAVIES Vers. 1-18. God"s executioners upon idolaters.
No respecter of persons is God. The sin of all sins is idolatry, and such overt rebels against the supreme God shall be summarily punished, whether they be Amorites or Hebrews. As a rule, complete retribution is reserved for the future state; the full effect of evil ways is not seen in this life. Yet there are sins so flagrant so mischievous in their present influence, that God employs his agents, personal or impersonal, to execute his verdicts promptly and manifestly. It is not that infinite justice is not content to wait; it is that God is so solicitous for the good of the human race, that he puts forth his hand to arrest the moral pestilence. In this chapter we learn
I THAT GOD HAD ASSURED ISRAEL OF HIS UNITY, SUPREMACY, AND GOODNESS. In that early age men had not indulged in intellectual speculation touching the existence of a God. Mind had not yet formulated its proofs, nor its disproofs. The tendency of depraved tastes and instincts was practically to ignore a spiritual Deity, and to put a rash confidence in inferior beings or in intermediate agents. The demonstrations which God gave of his supremacy, to Israel in Egypt, were demonstrations addressed to their practical experience. They had been bondmen. They had long endured a crushing oppression. They were reduced to a condition of abject and dependent weakness. By whom had they been rescued from Pharaoh"s giant grasp? By whom? Not by any angelic champion, nor by any of the idols of the earth! Obviously, and without question, they had been recovered to freedom and to national life by the arm of Jehovah and by none other! Their new condition was the manifest proof that God reigned, and that he had gloriously triumphed. The unity and supremacy of the true God was established upon a solid basis. This cardinal truth shone upon the nation with the clear radiance of noon day. If anything was known this was known, that Jehovah was absolute Monarch God of gods and Lord of lords. Of this grand truth Israel was a witness to all the nations of the earth.
II THAT ISRAEL"S FAITH IN GOD WAS SOMETIMES PUT TO SEVERE TESTS BY THE PRETEXTS OF DIVINERS. The dream of fanatics would at times be verified. The arts of necromancers would sometimes succeed. Base motives of gain and renown would keep these pursuits alive. The specious successes may have been fortunate coincidences. They may have been specially permitted by God for wise and practical purposes. They served as a test for the faith of Israel. Faith never put to the proof would soon lose its tone and fiber. Granted that the prediction of a soothsayer found fulfillment, was this sufficient ground for sundering their loyalty to Jehovah? any ground for recognizing the power of an idol-god? Granted that something might be said on behalf of intermediate intelligences agents and servants of the Most High did this warrant their offering to such, honors which were the prerogative of Jehovah alone? Had not Jehovah alone redeemed them from Egyptian misery, and led them through the wilderness? And did not every impulse of gratitude, and every principle of reason, require that Jehovah alone should be worshipped? These artifices of soothsayers would serve to test their faith, and (if faith was sound) to brace and strengthen it. For this they should have rejoiced greatly, that the "trial of their faith, more precious far than gold, though it were tried by fire, might appear unto praise and honor and glory.
III THAT GOD HAD APPOINTED ISRAEL TO BE HIS EXECUTIONER OF ALL IDOLATERS, The only reasonable ground on which the Hebrews could vindicate their possession of Canaan was, that the foul idolatries of the Canaanites had made them a pest and a curse upon the globe. And if now the conquerors should yield to the habits and vices of the conquered, reason and right would require that they likewise should be displaced. The Nemesis of extermination had fallen upon the dwellers in Canaan, not because they were Canaanites, but because they were idolaters. Abraham had been called out of Charran, and received the promise of Canaan, that he might be a living and loyal witness for God. And the special mission of Abraham"s posterity was to stamp out idolatry, and to lift high the banner of Jehovah. To do this effectually, no connivance with the cursed thing must be tolerated. If the luminous agent employed to shed light makes alliance with the element of darkness, its mission is terminated: it is good for nothing. Hence, in order that the Hebrews might keep alive the lamp of heavenly truth, they must burn pure oil. The evil growth must be nipped in the bud. The dread disease must be checked at its very first symptom. If they are to continue "the sacramental host of God"s elect," no secret foe must be concealed in the comp. The decree had gone forth, "Idolatry shall cease!" and Israel had been commissioned to execute that decree.
IV THAT ISRAEL"S LOYALTY TO GOD REQUIRED THE SUBORDINATION OF ALL OTHER TIES AND CLAIMS. The ligaments of blood relationship are strong dear as very life. The ties of friendship and of conjugal love are tender and sacred. No language can adequately set them forth. Yet God has a prior claim. His will forestalls every other obligation. The love which is due to him overleaps every boundary absorbs every other affection. "With all the heart, and soul, and mind, and strength," that love to him, if adequate, must be. And this superior and incomparable obligation of love will sometimes necessitate most painful self-denial the amputation of a right hand, the sacrifice of aright eye. The demand made upon the Jews, to slay a wife or child, if addicted to idolatry, was a demand replete with awful severity; yet no one can question its righteousness. And if so be the will of God is clearly understood, natural inclination must yield to dutiful obedience. Said the immaculate Son, "I do always the things that please him.
V THAT THE HABIT OF IDOLATRY MUST BE ROOTED OUT, THOUGH IT MAY REQUIRE THE MOST DRASTIC MEASURES.
1. Searching investigation was first required (ver. 14). They were to inquire to inquire "diligently to search into the very heart of the matter. It would be a crime yea, a murder if they should act judicially on mere rumor or through any evil bias. The very utmost endeavors to reach the facts were required in the interests of truth and humanity. Certainty of the fact must precede any sentence of destruction.
2. The perilous effects of evil influence (ver. 13). Certain men of Belial can draw away into rebellion the inhabitants of a whole city. Some men of strong will anti clever ingenuity are well adapted to lead their fellows; and men of weak judgment readily follow. Both classes err. Men of superior parts are highly responsible to use their powers as God-entrusted talents; and those possessing lesser capacity are bound to examine for themselves, and to suspend action until judgment is convinced.
3. Where idolatry was clearly proved, the most complete punishment was exacted. The whole Hebrew nation were at once converted into soldiers, and were summoned to assail that miscreant city. The body politic was to gather up into a point all its righteous strength, and expel that foreign evil from its midst, life mercy was to be shown; no life was to be spared. Not a lamb in the flock was to escape; not an ounce of spoil was to be gathered. The executors of God"s vengeance must be above all suspicion of selfish and sordid interest. No material gain must accrue to them. The charred and blackened ruins of that city were to be a monument forever of the righteous severity of Jehovah.
VI THAT THE DESIGN OF PUNISHMENT IS THE MORAL GOOD OF SURVIVORS. (Vers. 5, 11, 17.) The effect anticipated was this, "All Israel shall hear, and fear, and do no more any such wickedness." On God"s side the result would be that he would "turn and show them mercy, and multiply" their numbers. Very clearly was it announced that this judicial action was the action of God that righteous and obedient Hebrews were the officers of Jehovah. In view of the magnificent results upon the whole nation, yea, upon the world, this grave disaster might be patiently endured. To spare the lives of these rebels, and yet to retain the favor of Jehovah, was a sheer impossibility. A severe choice was demanded. The remedy was painful, but the effect anticipated was precious. The smile of God, and the moral elevation of the nation, were the practical fruits. In these benign results, the survivors would have great occasion for grateful joy. The destruction of sinners is a beacon-light, to which we also should take heed. D.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 6, 17 Ye are the children of the Lord your God.
Deu_13:1-3
Ye are the children of the Lord your God.
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Israels relationship to God
Moses here tells Israel--
I. How God had dignified them, as a peculiar people, with three distinguishable privileges, which were their honour, and figures of those spiritual blessings in heavenly things with which God has in Christ blessed us.
1. Here is election. The Lord hath chosen thee (Deu_14:2); not for their own merits, or for any good works foreseen, but because He would magnify the riches of His power and grace among them. And thus were believers chosen (Eph_1:4).
2. Here is adoption. Ye are the children of the Lord your God (Deu_14:1); formed by Him into a people, owned by Him as His people, nay, His family, a people near unto Him, nearer than any other. Every Israelite indeed is a child of God; partaker of His nature and favour, His love and blessing.
3. Here is sanctification. Thou art an holy people (Deu_14:2); separated and set apart for God, devoted to His service, designed for His praise, governed by a holy law, graced by a holy tabernacle and the holy ordinances relating to it.
II. How they ought to distinguish themselves by a sober singularity from all the nations that were about them.
1. In their mourning. Ye shall not cut yourselves (Deu_14:1).
(1) They are forbidden to deform or hurt their own bodies upon any account. This is like a parents charge to his children that are foolish, careless, and wilful. The true meaning of such commandments is, do yourselves no harm; and this is also the design of those providences which most cross us, to remove from us those things by which we are in danger of doing ourselves injury. The body is for the Lord, and is to be used accordingly.
(2) They are forbidden to disturb and afflict their own minds with inordinate grief for the loss of near and dear relations. If your father die, ye shall not cut yourselves, you shall not sorrow more than is meet, for you are not fatherless, you have a Father who is great, living and permanent, even the holy, blessed God, whose children ye are.
2. In their meat. Their observance of this law would make them to be taken notice of in all mixed companies as a separate people, and preserve them from mingling themselves with their idolatrous neighbours.
(1) It is plain, in the law itself, that these precepts belonged only to the Jews, and were not moral nor of perpetual use, because not of perpetual obligation (Deu_14:21).
(2) It is plain, in the Gospel, that they are now antiquated and repealed (1Ti_4:4). (Matthew Henry, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Deuteronomy 13, 14
LAWS AGAINST IDOLATROUS ACTS AND CUSTOMS
Deuteronomy 13, 14
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HAVING thus set forth the law which was to crown and complete the long resistance of faithful Israel to idolatry, our author goes on to prohibit and to decree punishment for any action likely to lead to the worship of false gods. He absolutely forbids any inquiry into the religions of the Canaanites. "Take heed to thyself that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How do these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise." All that was acceptable to Yahweh was included in the law of Israel, and beyond that they were on no account to go in their worship. "What thing soever I command you, that shall ye observe to do: thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it." But it should be observed that the inquiry here forbidden has nothing in common with the scientific inquiries of Comparative Religion in our time. Curiosity of that kind, supported by the motive of discovering how religion had grown, was unknown at that early age of the world, probably everywhere, certainly in Israel. The only curiosity powerful enough to result in action then was that which tried to learn how the ritual might be made more potent in its influence over Yahweh by gathering attractive features from every known religion. That was one of the distinguishing characteristics of Manassehs reign. The Canaanite religions, the religions of Egypt and Assyria, were all laid under contribution; and wherever there was a feature which promised additional power with God or the gods, that was eagerly adopted. Israel had lost faith in Yahweh, owing to the successes of Assyria. In unbelieving terror men were wildly grasping at any means of safety. They worshipped Yahweh, lest He should do them harm, but they joined with Him the gods of their foes, to secure if possible their favor also. Inquiry into other religions, with the intent of adopting something from them which would make either Yahweh or the strange gods, or both, propitious to them, was rife. Like the heathen population who had been transported by Assyria into the territory of the ten tribes, men "feared Yahweh, and served their graven images." All that is here sternly condemned, and Judah is taught to look only to the Divine commands for effective means of approach to their God. The prohibition, therefore, does not import mere fanatical opposition to knowledge. It is a necessary practical measure of defense against idolatry; and only those can disapprove of it who are incapable of estimating the value which the true religion in its Old Testament shape had and has for the world. To preserve that was the high and unique calling of Israel. Any narrowness, real or supposed, which this great task imposed upon that people, is amply compensated for by their guardianship of the spiritual life of mankind.
But if inquiry into lower religions was forbidden, there could be nothing but the sternest condemnation for those who had inquired, and then endeavored to seduce the chosen people. Deuteronomy, therefore, takes three typical cases-first, seduction by one who was respected because of high religious office, then seduction by one who had influence because of close bonds of natural affection, and lastly that of a community which would be likely to have influence by force of numbers-and gives inexorably stern directions how such evil is to be met. There can be little doubt that the cases are not imaginary. In the evil days which the Deuteronomist had fallen upon they were probably of frequent occurrence, and they are, consequently, provided against as real and present evils. Naturally the writer takes the most difficult case first. If an Israelite prophet, with all his religious prestige as a confidant of Yahweh, and still more with the prestige of successful prediction in his favor, shall attempt to lead men to join other gods to Yahweh in their worship-for that and not rejection of Yahweh for the exclusive service of strange gods is almost certainly meant-then they were not to listen to him. They were to fall back upon the original principle of the Mosaic teaching as it was restated in Deuteronomy, that Yahweh alone was to be their God. Some lynx-eyed critics have discovered here the cloven hoof of legalism. They think they see here the free spirit of prophecy, to which untrammeled initiative was the very breath of life, subjected to the bondage of written law, and so doomed to death. But probably such a mood is unnecessarily elegiac. It is not to written law that prophecy is subjected here. It is the actual life-principle of Yahwism in its simplest form which prophecy is required to respect; that is, ultimately, it is called upon simply to respect itself. Its own existence depended upon faithfulness to Yahweh. If it had a mission at all, it was to proclaim Him and to declare His character. If it had a distinction which severed it from mere heathen soothsaying, it was that it had been raised by the inspiration of Yahweh into the region of "the true, the good, the eternal," and its whole power lay in its keeping open the communication with that region. It is therefore only the law of its own inner being to which prophecy is here bound; and the people are instructed that, whatever reputation or even supernatural power it might have attained to, it was to be obeyed only when true to itself and to the faith.
Nothing was to make men stagger from that foundation. Not even the working of miracles was to mislead the people, for only on the plane of Yahwehs revelation had even miracle any worth. This is the sound and wholesome doctrine of true prophecy, and other utterances on the subject in our book must be taken in conjunction with it. Religious faithfulness, not foretelling, is the essence of it, and by that the prophet is to be inexorably judged. If any prophet, therefore, leads men to strange gods, his character and his powers only make him more dangerous and his punishment more inexorable. "That prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death." He comes under the ban. "So shalt thou put away the evil from the midst of thee."
Similarly, when family ties and family affection are perverted to be instruments of seduction, they are to be disregarded, just as religious reputation and miraculous power were to be set aside. If a brother, or a son, or a daughter, or a wife, or a friend, shall secretly entice a man to "serve other gods," then he shall not only not yield, but he must slay the tempter. It is characteristic of the Deuteronomist that, by the qualifications of the various relationships he mentions, he should show his sympathy and his insight into the depths of both family affection and friendship. "Thy brother, the son of thy mother," "the wife of thy bosom," "the friend which is as thine own soul," even these, near as they are to thee, must be sacrificed if they are false to Israel and to Israels God. Nay more, "Thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people, and thou shalt stone him with stones that he die." Upon him, too, the ban shall be laid.
Nor, finally, shall their multitude shield those who suffered themselves to be perverted. If a city should have been led away by sons of Belial, i.e., by worthless men, to worship strange gods, then the whole city was to be put to the ban. It was to be immediately stormed, every living creature put to death, and all the spoil of it burnt "unto Yahweh their God"; and the ruins were to be a "mound for ever"-that is, a place accursed. Only on these terms could Yahweh be turned away from the fierceness of His anger at such treason and unfaithfulness among His people. The Canaanites had been condemned to death that their idolatries and vices might not corrupt the spiritual faith of Israel. There was no other way, if the treasure which had been committed to this nation was to be preserved. As Robertson Smith has said, "Experience shows that primitive religious beliefs are practically indestructible except by the destruction of the race in which they are engrained." But if so, it was perhaps even more necessary that idolaters within Israel should be also extirpated. We may think the punishment harsh; and our modern doctrines concerning toleration can by no ingenuity be brought into harmony with it. But the times were fierce, and men were not easily restrained. In more civilized communities excessive severity in punishment defeats itself, for it enlists sympathy on the side of the criminal. But among a people like the Hebrews, probably severity succeeded where mercy would have been flouted. In India our administrators have had to confess that the horrible recklessness and severity of punishment in the Mahratta states of the old type suppressed crime as the infinitely more just and better organized but milder British police organizations could not then do. "Probably the success of barbarous methods of repressing crime is best explained by their origin in and close connection with a primitive state of society. Because punishments were inhuman, they struck terror where no other motive would deter from crime." In other and Scriptural words, the hardness of mens hearts made such harshness unavoidable.
Taking the whole of this thirteenth chapter into consideration, therefore, we see how high and severe were the demands which Old Testament religion, as taught in Deuteronomy, made upon its votaries. It presupposes on the part of the people an insight into the fundamentally spiritual nature of their faith entirely unobscured by ritual and sacrifice. They were expected to pass beyond the teachings of accredited spiritual guides, beyond even the evidence of supernatural power, and to test all by the moral and spiritual truth, once delivered to them by prophet and by miracle, and now a secure possession. Spiritual truth received and lived by is thus set above everything else as the test and the judge of all. Other things were merely ladders by which men had been brought to the truth in religion. Once there, nothing should move them; and any further guidance which purported to come from even the heavenly places was to be tried and accepted, only if it corroborated the fundamental truths already received and attested by experience in actual life. Loyalty to ascertained truth, that is, is greater than loyalty to teachers, or to that which seems to be supernatural; and the chief power for which a prophet is to be reverenced is not that by which he gives a true forecast of the future, but that which impels him to speak the truth about God.
Even at this day, and for believers in Christ, after all the teaching and experience of eighteen Christian centuries, this is a high, almost an unattainable, standard to set up. Even today it is thought an advanced position that miracles as a security for truth are subordinate and inferior to the light of the truth itself as exhibited in the lives of faithful men. Yet that is precisely what the Deuteronomist teaches. He has no doubt about miracles. He regards them as being Divinely sent, even when they might be made use of to mislead; but he calls upon his people to disregard them if they seem to point towards unfaithfulness to God. Their supreme trust is to be that Yahweh cannot deny Himself. If he seem to do so by giving the sanction of miracle to teaching which denies Him, that is only to prove men, to know whether they love Yahweh their God with all their heart and with all their soul. The inner certainty of those who have had communion with Yahweh is to override everything else. "Whosoever loves God with a pure heart," says Calvin, "is armed with the invincible power of the Divine Spirit, that he should not be ensnared by falsehoods." This has always been the confidence of religious reformers who have had real power. Luther, for example, took his stand upon the New Testament and his own personal experience; and by what he knew of God he judged all that the most venerable tradition, and the authority of the Church, and the examples of saintly men claimed to set forth as binding upon him. "Here stand I: I can do no other: God help me." He felt that he had hold of the heart of the revelation of God as it was made in Christ, and he rejected, without scruple, whatever in itself or in its results contradicted or obscured that. Inspired and upheld by this consciousness, he faced a hostile world and a raging Church with equanimity. It is always so that abuses have been removed and innovations that are hurtful warded off in the Church of God.
But there is a difficulty here. As against the historical examples which show how much good may be wrought by this unshaken mind when accompanied by adequate insight, many, perhaps even more, instances can be adduced where unbending assertion of individual conviction has led to fanaticism and irreligion; or, as has even more frequently been the case, has blinded mens eyes, and made them resist with immovable obstinacy teachings on which the future of religion depended. On the altar of uncompromising fidelity to the letter of the faith delivered to them, men in all ages have offered up love and gentleness and fairness, and that open mind to which alone God can speak. How then can they be sure, when they disregard their teachers and defy even signs from heaven, that they are really only holding up the banner of faith in an evil day, and are not hardening themselves against God? The answer is that, since the matter concerns the spiritual life, there are no clear, mechanical dividing lines which can be pointed out and respected. Nothing but spiritual insight can teach a man what the absolutely essential and the less essential elements of religion are. Nothing else can give him that power of distinguishing great things from small which here is of such cardinal importance. Probably the nearest approach to effective guidance may be found in this principle, that when all points in a mans faith are to him equally important, when he frets as much in regard to divergence from his own religious practices as in regard to denial of the faith altogether, he must certainly be wrong. Such a temper must necessarily resist all change; and since progress is as much a law in the religious life as in any other, it must be found at times fighting against God. Otherwise, stagnation would be the test of truth, and the principles of the Christian faith Would be branded as so shallow and so easily exhausted, that their whole significance could be seized and set forth at once by the generation which heard the apostles. That was far from being the case. The post-apostolic Church, for instance, did not understand St. Paul. It turned rather to the simpler ideas of the mass of Christians, and elaborated its doctrines almost entirely on that basis. During the centuries since then many lessons of unspeakable value have been learned by the Christian world. The Church has been enriched by the thoughts and teachings of multitudes of men of genius. The providential chances and changes of all these centuries have immensely widened and deepened Christian experience. Stagnation consequently cannot be made the test of Christian truth. We must be open to new light on the meaning of Divine revelation, or we fail altogether, as the Israelites would have done had they refused to accept the teaching of any prophet after the first. This much may, however, be said on the affirmative side, that when a man has thoughtfully and prayerfully decided that the central element of his faith is attacked, he cannot but resist, and if he is faithful he will resist in the spirit of the passage we are discussing. His assertion of his individual conviction, even if it be mistaken, will do little harm. Time will be in favor of the truth. But mistake will be rare, indeed, when men are taught to assert in this manner only the things by which the soul lives, when only the actual channels of communion with God are thus defended to the uttermost. These any thoughtful, patient man who looks for and yields to the guidance of the Holy Spirit of Christ will almost infallibly recognize, and by these he will take his stand, for he can do no other.
But precautions against idolatry are not exhausted by the war declared upon men who might attempt to lead the Israelite into evil. Besides insidious human enemies, there were also insidious customs originating in heathenism, and still redolent of idolatry even when they were severed from any overt connection with it. Ancient rituals, ancient superstitions, hateful remnants of bloodthirsty pagan rites, were being revived in the Deuteronomists day on every hand, because faith in the higher religion that had superseded them had been shaken. Like streams from hidden reservoirs suddenly reopened, idolatrous and magical practices were overflowing the land, and were finding in popular customs, harmless in better days, channels for their return into the life of those who had formerly risen above them.
Some of these were more hurtful than others, and two are singled out at the beginning of chapter 14 as those which a people holy unto Yahweh must specially avoid: "Ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead." The grounds for avoiding these practices are first given, and we may probably assume that they are the grounds also for the other enactments which follow. They are these: "Ye are the children of Yahweh your God," and "Thou art a holy people unto Yahweh thy God, and Yahweh hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto Himself, out of all peoples that are upon the face of the earth." The last of these reasons is common to the Exodus code with Deuteronomy, and comes even more prominently into view in the Levitical law. Just as Yahweh alone was to be their God, they alone were to be Yahwehs people, and they were to be holy to Him, i.e., were to separate themselves to Him; for in its earliest meaning to be holy is simply to be separate to Yahweh. This whole dispensation of law, that is, was meant to separate the people of Israel from the idolatrous world, and in this separation we have the key to much that would otherwise be hard to comprehend. Looked at from the point of view of revelation, petty details about tonsure, about clean and unclean animals, and so on, seem incredibly unworthy; and many have said to themselves, How can the God of the whole earth have really been the author of laws dealing with such trivialities? But when we regard these as provisions intended to secure the separation of the chosen people, they assume quite another aspect. Then we see that they had to be framed in contrast to the idolatries of the surrounding nations, and are not meant to have further spiritual or moral significance.
But the first reason given is a higher and more important one, which occurs here for the first time in Deuteronomy: "Ye are the children of Yahweh your God." In heathen lands such a title of honor was common, because physically most worshippers of false gods were regarded as their children. But in Israel, where such physical sonship would have been rejected with horror as impairing the Divine holiness, the spiritual sonship was asserted of the individual much more slowly. In Yahwehs command to Moses to threaten Pharaoh with the death of his firstborn son, and in Hos_11:1, Israel collectively is called Yahwehs firstborn and His son. In Hos_1:10 it is prophesied that in the Messianic time, "in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not My people, it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God." But here for the first time this high title is bestowed upon the actual individual Israelites. It was perhaps implied in the Deuteronomists view of Gods fatherly treatment of the nation in the desert, and still more in his demand for the love of the individual heart. Yet only here is it brought plainly forth as a ground for the regulation of life according to Yahwehs commands. Each son of Israel is also a son of God; and by none of his acts or habits should he bring disgrace upon his spiritual Father. Likeness to God is expected and demanded of him. It is his function in the world to represent Him, to give expression to the Divine character in all his ways. This is the Israelites high calling, and the religious application of noblesse oblige to such matters as follow, gives a dignity and importance to all of them such as in their own nature they could hardly claim.
"Ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead." Israel was not to express grief for the dead in these ways, first because that was the custom of other nations, and secondly still more because the origin and meaning of such rites was idolatrous, and as such altogether unworthy of Yahwehs sons. "Both," says Robertson Smith, "occur not only in mourning, but in the worship of the gods, and belong to the sphere of heathen superstition." Elsewhere he explains the cutting of themselves to be the making of a blood covenant with the dead, just as the priests of Baal in their worship tried to get their god to come to their help by making a covenant of blood with him at his altar. This naturally tended to bring in the superstitions of necromancy, and opened the way also for the worship of the dead. Many traces of its previous existence among the Israelite tribes are to be found in the Scriptures; and the probability is that as ancestor-worship ruled the life and shaped the thoughts of Greeks and Romans till Christianity appeared, so Yahwism alone had broken its power over Israel. But such superstitions die hard, and in the general recrudescence of almost forgotten forms of heathenism at this time, this cult may very well have been reasserting itself. As for the shaving of the front part of the head, that had a precisely similar import. "It had exactly the same sense as the offering of the mourners blood." "When the hair of the living is deposited with the dead, and the hair of the dead remains with the living, a permanent bond of connection unites the two."
The prohibition as food of the animals and birds called "unclean" was another measure obviously of the same nature as the prohibition of heathen mourning practices; but in its details it is more difficult to explain. Probably, however, it was a more potent instrument of separation than any other. In India today the gulf between the flesh-eater and the orthodox vegetarian Hindu is utterly impassable; and in the east of Europe and in Palestine, where the Jewish restrictions as to food are still regarded, the orthodox Jew is separated from all Gentiles as by a wall. In traveling he never appears at meals with his fellow-travelers. All the food he requires he carries with him in a basket; and at every place where he stops it is the duty of the Jewish community to supply him with proper food, that he may not be tempted to defile himself with anything unclean. But it is very difficult for us now to bring the individual prohibitions under one head, and it seems impossible to explain them from any one point of view.
Some of the animals and birds prohibited were probably, then, animals eaten in connection with idolatrous feasts by the neighboring heathen. Isa_65:4 shows that swines flesh was eaten at sacrificial meals by idolaters, and from the expression "broth of abominable things is in their vessels" it is clear that the flesh of other animals was so used. All these would necessarily be prohibited to Israel; but beyond a few, such as the swine, which was sacrificed to Tammuz or Adonis, and the mouse and the wild ass, we have no means of knowing what they were. That this is a vera causa of such prohibitions is shown by the facts mentioned by Professor Robertson Smith, that "Simeon Stylites forbade his Saracen converts to eat the flesh of the camel, which was the chief element in the sacrificial meals of the Arabs, and our own prejudice against the use of horse-flesh is a relic of an old ecclesiastical prohibition framed at the time when the eating of such food was an act of worship to Odin." The very ancient and stringent prohibition of blood as an article of diet is probably to be accounted for in this way also. Blood was eaten at heathen sacrificial feasts; without other reason that would be sufficient. These are the general lines which must have determined the list of clean animals in the view of the lawgiver, since he brings them in under the head of idolatry and under the two general grounds we have, discussed.
Jewish writers, however, especially since Maimonides, have regarded these prohibitions as aiming primarily at sanitary ends, and as a proof of their efficacy have adduced the unusually high average health of the Jews, and their almost complete exemption from certain classes of disease. No such point of view is suggested in the Scriptures themselves, for it would surely be rather far-fetched to class possible disease as an infringement of the holiness demanded of Israel, or as a thing unworthy of Yahwehs sons.
Nevertheless a general view of the list of clean animals here given would support the idea that sanitary considerations also had something to do with the classification. The practical effect of the rule laid down is to exclude all the carnivora among quadrupeds, and so far as we can interpret the nomenclature, the raptores among birds. "Amongst fish, those which were allowed contain unquestionably the most wholesome varieties." Further, the nations of antiquity which developed such categories of clean. and unclean animals seem in the main to have taken the same line. The ground of this probably is the natural disgust with which unclean feeders are always regarded. Animals and birds especially which feed, or may be supposed to feed, on carrion, are everywhere disliked, and as a rule they are unsuitable for food. Grass-eating animals, on the other hand, are always regarded as clean. Scaleless fish, too, are generally more or less slimy to the touch, and with them reptiles are altogether forbidden. All this seems to show that a natural sentiment of disgust, for whatever reason felt, was active in the selection of the animals marked unclean by men of every race. The pre-Mosaic customary law on this subject would, of course, have this characteristic in common with similar laws of primitive nations. When the worship of Yahweh was introduced, most of this would be taken over, only such modifications being introduced as the higher religion demanded. In some main elements, therefore, the Mosaic law on this subject would be a repetition of what is to be found elsewhere. Hence a general tendency to health may be expected; for besides the guidance which healthy disgust would give, a long experience must also have been registered in such laws. The influence of them in promoting health has recently been acknowledged by the Lancet; and though that reason for observing them is not mentioned in Scripture, we may view it as a proof that the Jewish legislators were under an influence which brought them, perhaps even when they knew it not, into relation with what was wholesome in the practices and customs of their place and time.
Beyond these three reasons for the laws regarding food, all is the wildest speculation. If other reasons underlie these laws, we cannot now ascertain what they were. For a time it was the custom to ascribe the Jewish laws to Persian influence, though from the nature of the case such laws must have been part of the heritage of Israel from pre-Mosaic time. Even today Jewish writers ascribe them to the evil effect which bad food has upon the soul, either by infecting it with the characteristics of the unclean beasts, or by rendering it impenetrable to good influences. But, as usual, it is the allegorical interpreters who carry off the palm. Animals that chew the cud were to be eaten, because they symbolized those who "read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" the Divine law: those which divide the hoof are examples of those who distinguish between good and bad actions; and in the ostrich one interpreter finds an analogue to the bad commentators who pervert the words of Holy Scripture.
Hitherto in chapter 14 we have been dealing with material to which a parallel can be found only in the small code of laws contained in Leviticus 17-26, commonly called the Law of Holiness, and in the Priestly Code. But the two remaining directions regarding food, which are contained in the twenty-first verse, are parallel to prohibitions in the Law of the Covenant. The first, "Ye shall not eat of anything that dieth of itself, for thou art a holy people unto Yahweh thy God," is parallel to Exo_22:31. "And ye shall be holy men unto Me: therefore ye shall not eat anyflesh that is torn of beasts in the field," and to Lev_17:15, "Every soul that eateth that which dieth of itself, or that which is torn of beasts, whether he be home-born or a stranger, he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening." The ground for prohibiting such food, was, of course, that the blood was in it. But there is a divergence between the parallel laws, which is seen clearly when we take into account the destination of the flesh of the animal so dying. In Exodus it is said, "To the dogs shall ye cast it." In Deuteronomy the command is, "To the stranger within thy gates ye shall give it, and he shall eat of it, or ye may sell it unto a foreigner." In Leviticus it is taken for granted that an Israelite and also a stranger may eat either of the nebhelah, that which dieth of itself, or the terephah, that which is torn; and if either do so it is prescribed only that he should wash, and should be unclean until the evening.
Here, therefore, we have one of the cases in which the traditional hypothesis-that the Law of the Covenant was given at Sinai when Israel arrived there, the laws of the Priestly Code probably not many weeks after, and the code of Deuteronomy only thirty-eight or thirty-nine years later, but before the laws had come fully into effect by the occupation of Canaan - raises a difficulty. Why should the Sinaitic law say that terephah is not to be eaten by any one, but cast to the dogs, and the Levitical law in so short a time after make the eating of that and nebhelah mere cause of subordinate uncleanness to both Israelite and stranger, while Deuteronomy permits the Israelite either to give the nebhelah to the stranger that he may eat it, or to make it an article of traffic with the foreigner? Keils explanation is certainly feasible, that in Exodus we have the law, in Leviticus the provision for accidental, or perhaps willful, disobedience of it under the pressure of hunger, while in Deuteronomy we have a permission to sell, lest on the plea of waste the law might be ignored. But the position Of the "ger," or stranger, is not accounted for. In Leviticus he is bound to the worship of Yahweh, and can no more eat nebkelah or terephah than the native Israelite can, while in Deuteronomy he is on a lower stage than the Israelite as regards ceremonial cleanness, and much on the same level as the nokhri, the foreigner, who in Deuteronomy is dealt with as an inferior, not bound to the same scrupulosity as the Israelite. {Deu_15:3, Deu_15:23} There does not appear to be any explanation of such a change in less than forty years; more especially as the moment at which the change would on that hypothesis be made was precisely the moment when the stranger was about for the first time to become an important element in Israelite life. If, on the other hand, the order of the codes be Exodus, Deuteronomy, Leviticus, then the Exodus law, which does not consider the stranger, would suit the earliest stage of Israels history, when the stranger would generally be a spy. Later, he crept into Israelite life, and gradually received more and more consideration; especially in the days of Solomon, when the Chronicler estimates the number of the strangers at over a hundred and fifty thousand. But he was not recognized at that stage as fully bound to all an Israelites duties, or as possessed of all an Israelites privileges, and that is precisely the position he occupies in Deuteronomy. In the Priestly Code, however, at a time when the stranger had practically become a proselyte, the ideal Kingdom of God includes the "stranger," and gives him a position which differs little from that of the home-born. That would make these different laws answer to different periods of Israels history, and would coincide with what has been otherwise found to be the order of Israels legal development.
The second prohibition, which runs parallel to what we find in Exodus, is the somewhat enigmatical one that a kid should not be sodden in its mothers milk. What it was in this act which made it seem necessary to issue such a command cannot now be ascertained with any certainty. Most probably it was connected in some way with heathen ceremonies, perhaps at a harvest feast; for, as we have seen, it is a ruling motive throughout all this section that the Israelites should reject everything which among their neighbors was connected with idolatry.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 CRITICAL NOTES.—The true modes and forms of worship have…
CRITICAL NOTES.—The true modes and forms of worship have been laid down, the next step is to legislate against the authors and abettors of false ones. Such tempters are not to be spared, even though (Deu_13:1-5) their teaching be confirmed by miracles; or (Deu_13:6-12) be nearly allied by kindred or friendship; or (Deu_13:12-18) be supported in their apostacy by a whole city.—Speak. Com.
Deu_13:1. Prophet. Received communications orally or by vision. Dreamer. Through medium of dreams. These, the two chief media of divine revelation. (cf. Num_12:6.) Signs and wonders. To accredit his mission, and apparently true, yet not wrought by God, but by the power of the wicked one to deceive. (2Th_2:9.)
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Deu_13:2. Go after other gods and forsake Jehovah; therefore the prophet, a false prophet, a seducer and impostor, and must be put to death.
Deu_13:3. Know, prove, or test the people in loyalty. (cf. Deu_8:2; Gen_22:1.)
Deu_13:4-5. Israel must cleave firmly to God. There must be regular judicial procedure against the impostor. The people, the whole community must take part in the stoning to show their horror at the crime, and clear themselves of complicity in it. God only must be the object of regard and they must not be thrust, forced from the way in which they have to walk. Thus put away evil, an exhortation often given as an affair of importance. (cf. chaps. Deu_17:7; Deu_19:19; Deu_21:21; Deu_22:22; Deu_22:24.)
Deu_13:6. A second temptation to idolatry might be from blood-relations and intimate friends. Brother, fraternal tie. Wife, object of dearest affection. Friend, loved as much as our own life. (1Sa_18:1; 1Sa_18:3.)
Deu_13:7-8. The gods to be worshipped might be near or far off; might be different to the idols of Canaan, “or commend themselves by the charm of peculiarity and novelity.” There must be no yielding, nor must the tempters escape. The accumulation of synonyms (pity, spare, conceal) serves to make the passage more emphatic. Israel was to put to death without pity and stone the offender. (Lev_20:2.)
Deu_13:12-18. A third case when one city hears of another city which has been led astray. Worthless, profligate men may rise up. (Deu_5:13.) Children of Belial. Wicked, designing and lawless men (Jdg_19:22; 1Sa_1:16; 1Sa_25:26). (Sept. perverse men.)
Deu_13:18. Withdrawn. Deu_13:5; Deu_13:10, indicating strong persuasion, a degree of force, not easy seduction.
Deu_13:14, Thou. The magistrate to whom it officially belonged to investigate. If the report was true, the inhabitants were beyond protection and smitten. Man and beast were put to death without reserve, and all booty heaped together and burned with the city.
Deu_13:16. For the Lord. “As a whole offering to the Lord thy God;” sanctified to him by destruction. (Lev_6:15-16.)
Deu_13:17. Nothing must cleave to Israel, no spoil must be taken that the Lord may turn from His anger.
ENTICEMENTS OF FALSE PROPHETS.—Deu_13:1-5
Former perils might spring from Canaanites, now they may arise among themselves. Hence they must take care not to be drawn away if any should tempt them. “It there arise,” etc.
1. The Purpose of their Enticements. “Let us go after other gods,” to revolt from Jehovah, which is treason—a crime against the law and authority of God, against the organisation and life of society. Strange that any should be guilty in Israel, or in the present day, of such wickedness! But many, professedly learned and religious, entice from God and give divine honours to saints and images. I. From God whose authority is supreme and should be revered. “The Lord your God.” Doctrines, revelations, and miracles which pretend to be of God and are not so, vie with his law and authority; usurp his throne and claim absolute supremacy.
2. From God whose past favours should bind to him. “Which brought you out of the land of Egypt,” etc. (Deu_13:5). One thing was certain, repeated to Israel a thousand times and written as with a sunbeam in their history—that God was supreme. God, and God alone, had redeemed them from bondage and oppression. God’s constant goodness should touch our sensibility, excite our gratitude, and lead us to most joyful obedience.
II. The credentials by which they entice. The kingdom of lies has its wonders as well as the kingdom of truth, and prophets of God have their imitators. In our time we have dreamers of dreams, seers and pretenders to inspiration. “Imitators are a servile race,” says Fontaine.
1. They dream dreams. Pretend to have revelations from God in visions of the night. Jews had great regard for dreams, observed them, and often consulted those who pretended to explain them. This custom was forbidden. We must look only to God and His servants.
2. They perform wonders. The prophet gives “a sign,” a prediction of some future event; performs “a wonder” or feat of power—some counterfeit appearance of the supernatural produced by human artifice or Satanic agency.
3. Their signs and wonders come to pass. Predictions and miracles are authenticated by apparent facts. But miracles alone do not prove the truth of the doctrine and the divine mission of the performer. The doctrine must commend itself to conscience before it can be sealed by miracle. There are those “whose coming (presence) is after the working of Satan with (three means) all power and signs and lying wonders” (lit. of falsehood) to attest false doctrine and lead astray. (2Th_2:9.)
III. The treatment to be shown to these false prophets. In this matter there is no uncertainty, and there must be no hesitation.
1. They must be rejected. “Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet.” God’s law is the standard of truth, all that contradicts this is false. No sign nor wonder must lead us to believe in one whose purpose falsifies his profession. The God of truth can never lie. “I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart (a wilful fraud). (Jer_14:13-14).
2. They must be punished. “That prophet, or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death” (Deu_13:5). The risks and guilt must be removed by putting away the guilty one; spare him, the infection will spread and you are responsible. “Thus must the mischief be put away.” We are not to persecute and put to death. But we must denounce error, guard against seducers, and brand with infamy all attempts to “go after other gods.” “Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God.” (2Jn_1:9; 2Jn_1:11).
FALSE PROPHETS.—Deu_13:1-5
“The standing rule of faith and practice had been given once for all. That the people were to hold fast. The prophet who propounded another rule could only be an imposter. We need not then suppose that Moses is putting an impossible case by way of enforcing his words, as St. Paul does (Gal_1:6); nor yet that the prophet in question is one who was originally a true prophet, and obtained authority by his miracles as such, but was afterwards drawn away into apostasy.” (Speak. Com.) The prophet, by his teaching, plainly contradicts the accredited standard of truth, advocates idolatry, and therefore he is a false prophet.
I. False prophets are permitted to rise up among the people. They appeared in Israel, in the days of Christ and in apostolic times. It is predicted they will come “in the last days.” (Mat_24:11; 1Ti_4:1; 2Pe_2:1.) God’s people are often sorely tried, and the Christian Church sifted. Heresies, prodigies and controversies shake the faith, and “false prophets” work “great signs and wonders” to “deceive the very elect,” if it were possible. (Mat_24:24).
II. The people are often ready to obey false prophets when they appear. The moral condition of the people and the facts of history prove this. We have a love for the wonderful, a craving for novelty. We are ignorant of God, and our hearts tend towards idolatry. The teaching of seducers is bewitching; we listen, believe and are drawn astray. (Gal_3:1). “Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God.”
III. The consequences of this obedience will be serious. Serious to the teacher, the taught, and the community at large.
1. Apostasy from God. God was the Sovereign and Supreme Ruler in Israel. Idolatry was not simply a spiritual offence, but direct rebellion against their king. It was a political, a national offence; high treason itself, punishable by the law.
2. Utter ruin. The offender was stoned to death, and perished not alone in his iniquity. Apostasy will destroy character and life. Theudas was slain, and as many as believed him scattered. Judas of Galilee drew many after him, but perished, and his followers were disappointed. (Act_5:36-37). Watch and pray, and let none “thrust thee out of the way.”
WALKING AFTER THE LORD.—Deu_13:4
“Walk after the Lord your God.”
1. In reverent imitation. His example is before you—follow it.
2. With affectionate fear. You must not be familiar with God; He is your Lord and Maker.
3. With all obedience. Show your love for him by obeying his commands.
4. With holy zeal. Suffer no profaning of His name, no desecration of His temple. (Bib. Museum).
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
In this chapter we have three enticements from God. False teachers (Deu_13:1-5); intimate friends (Deu_13:6-12; wicked cities (Deu_13:12-17).
Deu_13:2. After other gods. Awful guilt in the Israelite. Strong delusion and infinite risk in our day. Let us go.
1. A dangerous pursuit.
2. In search of an unknown object. “Gods which thou hast not known.”
3. Hence folly to enter the path. Forsaking God, who is known to be good and holy.
Deceit is the false road to happiness; and all the joys we travel to through vice, like fairy banquets, vanish when we touch them.—A. Hill.
Deu_13:4. Distinguishing marks of godliness. Walk, fear, keep, obey, serve and cleave. Walk after God.
1. God the great end of life.
2. Keeping this end in view will save from manifold temptations.
3. The method of pursuing active, affectionate and constant obedience. One or two good actions, a step or two, will not make a walker. There must be continued motion, unwearied and steady as the stars in their orbits. “Enoch walked (habitually and closely) with God.” (Gen_5:24). Walk with the Lord.
1. Not before Him in desire, plans and anticipations. “If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that.”
2. Not behind Him in fear, hesitation or reluctance.
3. But with Him in confidence, affection and joy. Like a child walking hand in hand with its father.
“Mutual love, the crown of all our bliss.”
—Milton.
THE SEDUCTIVE POWER OF AFFECTION.—Deu_13:6-11
The next danger springs from the influence of affection. If miracle if supernatural fail, those near and dear may seduce. But even they, if found guilty after fair and formal trial, must be put to death.
I. Seduction may come from intimate friends. A brother, who should be a helper; a daughter, who should be dutiful; a wife, like Job’s (2, 9) may entice. An intimate and familiar friend, whom we love as ourselves, in whom we confide our secrets, may secretly plot to draw away from God. Strongest temptations are often from nearest friends.
II. Friends who thus seduce are guilty of the greatest crime. “They are are not friends, but foes in a man’s own household.” A friend consults our welfare; but these secretly plot against character, reputation, and position. Their design is disgraceful, and no affection, no degree of kindred must screen their crime nor conceal their persons. “I was wounded in the house of my friends.”
III. The claims of God are superior to Human Affection. We must be kindly affectionate one to another; but we must prefer God to our best friends. “Thou shalt not consent unto him” (Deu_13:8). When two claims come into collision, the weaker must give way. Though we must not cease to love, yet we must act as if we hated (Luk_14:26-27); we must disobey, and, if need be, desert those to whom we are naturally bound, and follow our higher calling. God must have and deserves the whole, and not halves. “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Mat_10:37).
GUILT AND DANGER IN DEPARTING FROM GOD.—Deu_13:8-11
Consider this ordinance as—
I. A temporary enactment. With the cessation of the theocracy it has ceased. Though, at first sight, it may seem severe, yet it was—
1. Just, as it respected the individual; for he was guilty of most heinous, most ruinous offence.
2. Merciful, with regard to the public. Most solemn were the issues to the Jews and to mankind, which depended on national fidelity. Hence the punishment was stern, severe, and monitory.
II. A lasting admonition. It declares to us in the strongest terms:—
1. The evil of departing from God, by whom they had been delivered from bondage and guided in their journey.
2. The danger of being accessory to any one’s departure from Him. “Neither be partaker of other men’s sins” (1Ti_5:22; 2Jn_1:11.
3. The need we have of firmness and steadfastness in religion.
“If sinners entice thee consent thou not.”—C. Simeon.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Deu_13:6.
1. The nature of friendship. “Thy friend as thine own soul.” A friend is a second self. Numerous are examples. David and Jonathan in Scripture, Achilles and Patroclus in Homer, Nisus and Euryalus in Virgil, and the well known story of Damon and Pythias.
2. The abuse of friendship. In betraying secrets, enticing to evil. “Try your friend before you choose him.” All who assume the name are not entitled to the confidence of a friend. “As to myself,” said Napoleon, “I know well that I have not one true friend. As long as I continue what I am, I may have as many pretended friends as I please.”
Deu_13:6-8. I. The inducements of the tempter.
1. From those least suspected—sister, brother, parent, or friend.
2. In secret. “Entice thee secretly.” Wickedness dreads light and seeks to conceal itself.
3. Plausable. This religion is popular “the gods of the people,” and yours is singular and confined to one God. “Let us go.” II. The spirit in which they must be met.
1. With firmness. No, we will not go.
2. With a sense of the danger incurred. In forsaking God he forsook the way of our fathers, and the way in which we have been trained. We degenerate in our character and rush into danger. “He that sacrificeth unto any god save unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed.”
THE SEDUCTIVE POWER OF NUMBERS.—Deu_13:12-18
The third instance of enticement is that of a whole city in revolt. If the city was found guilty after inquiry, then all its inhabitants were to be put to death, and it was to be reduced to a heap to avert the anger of God.
I. Multitudes may be disposed to evil. In the Church, in a community, in a city, a few may affect many. “Children of Belial,” throw off all restraints of conscience and law, and cry out “let us go and serve other gods.” Many walk in the broad path to destruction, but in the narrow, only here and there a traveller is found.
II. Multitudes disposed to evil are not to lead us astray. “Then shalt thou inquire and make search.” We are not to be unduly influenced by numbers. Majorities are not always right. Truth may be ridiculed and its adherents in the minority. Luther was told by a monk to whom he was attached, “the whole world is against you: how can you persist in the course you have chosen?” The noble reply was—” if the whole world be against Luther, then Luther will be against the whole world.” We must rest upon the rock and hold to the revealed Word. “Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil.”
III. Vigorous means are to be used to destroy the evil. Cattle and citizens were to be “utterly” destroyed, and all the spoil burned in the streets. We are not authorised to destroy by fire and sword. But by spiritual agencies we must purify the Church, educate the country, and destroy the evils which curse society. We must watch public sentiment, refute error, and preach “the truth as if in Jesus” to save men from apostacy and death.
HABITATIONS DIVINELY FIXED.—Deu_13:12
The clause “which the Lord thy God hath given thee to dwell in,” significantly reminds them that the real ownership of their dwellings rested in the Lord (cf. Lev_25:23), and that they, the mere tenants, must not allow His property to become a centre of rebellion against His just authority.—Speak. Com.
I. Residence in a city, the gift of God. All the earth is God’s. In town or country there is a providence over men; a permission to fix their abode. Momentous junctures in life are often fore-appointments of an unrecognised Protector, who settles the limits of nations, locates the residence of men, “and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitations.”
II. Residence in a city disturbed by wicked men. There may be splendid buildings, noble institutions and great advantages in cities. But often dangers and temptations outweigh privileges. Sons of Belial corrupt the population and draw from allegiance to God. Lot thought Sodom was a desirable residence, but “he was vexed with the filthy conversation (wanton behaviour, licentious life) of the wicked (the lawless).”(2Pe_1:7).
III. Residence terminated by the destruction of a city. We are only tenants at will. Pestilence and fire may drive away. The abominations of the inhabitants may bring down the judgments of God. No place is secure, no abode is permanent below. Seek, therefore, “a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Deu_13:12-18. Rumours and the reputation of the Church. I. The case supposed—a flying rumour; city talk, etc. II. The duty enjoined.
1. Not to be slighted or hushed up.
2. Not to be rashly acted upon.
3. To be carefully sifted.
4. If found to be true, to be followed by prompt and decisive action. Learn—To be jealous of reports touching the integrity of God’s people, or the institutions of religion.—Bib. Museum.
Deu_13:12-15. The duty of magistrates.
1. Not to judge before they know. Many act against knowledge, but none can act rightly without it. We can neither teach nor give judgment concerning that which we know not.
2. To inquire that they may know. “Here are three words—First, they must inquire; and if upon inquiry they got not information, then they were to make search; and if upon search they did not find, then they were to ask diligently; that is, to renew the inquiry, that by interrogating all persons who possibly know anything of the cause, they might search out the cause which they knew not.” (Caryl). “I was a father to the poor, and the cause which I knew not I searched out.”
3. To punish justly when they discover the guilty. They should have respect for law, and care for those under law. Equal and impartial justice must be done to all. “Justice proportions the smartness to the fault; so that we may behold the greatness of the offence in the fitness of the punishment.”—W. Secker.
Deu_13:16. The memorial heap. “An heap for ever.”
1. A monument of Divine justice against sin.
2. A beacon warning to all posterity. “This day they are a desolation, and no man dwelleth therein, because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to anger. (Jer_44:2-3.)
A city sacrificed for the nation, or the good of many demanding the sacrifice of a few. A principle of Divine procedure, common in operation, strange in nature, benevolent in design, and worthy of devout regard.
Deu_13:17-18. Two courses of conduct.
1. Apostacy exposing multitudes to danger and death.
2. Obedience and its benefits. (a) In warding off Divine anger. (b) Securing Divine mercy. (c) Causing increase of posterity. “Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go wall with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord thy God.”
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 13
Deu_13:1-5. Go after. The question is not whether a doctrine is beautiful, but whether it is true. When we want to go to a place, we don’t ask whether the road leads through a pretty country, but whether it is the right road, the road pointed out by authority, the turnpike road.—Hare.
Deu_13:6-7. Thy brother. None of the affections have been noted to fascinate and bewitch, but love and envy.—Bacon.
Deu_13:6. Thy friend as thine own soul.
“Friendship is the cement of two minds,
As of one man the soul and body is,
Of which one cannot sever but the other
Suffers a needful separation.—Chapman.
Deu_13:8. Consent not. He that yields to temptation, debases himself with a debasement from which he can never arise.—Mann.
“They that fear the adder’s sting will not come near his hissing.”—Chapman.
Deu_13:12; Deu_13:18. One of thy cities. To a single teacher the hope of an entire city is often entrusted.—Scriver.
Deu_13:14. Enquire. I reverence numbers; but only when they produce proof, not when they shun enquiry.—St. Athanasius.
Deu_13:17. His anger. The wrath of man is the rage of man; but the wrath of God is the reason of God.—Bp. Reynolds.
Deu_13:18. Hearken to the Lord. We remember the anecdote of the Roman commander who forbade an engagement with the enemy, and the first transgressor against whose prohibition was his son. He accepted the challenge of the leader of the other host, met, slew, spoiled him, and then in triumphant feeling carried the spoils to his father’s tent. But the Roman refused to recognise the instinct which prompted this as deserving of the name of love. Disobedience contradicted it and deserved death.—F. W. Robertson.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Deu 13:1-3
Deu 13:1-3
I. If the text teaches us how the true Jewish prophet would speak to his people, and in what spirit they would hear him, it teaches us who read him how we are to receive his words. The real significance of prophecies is felt when they are viewed in connection with the course of the Divine government. The interpreter is not to be heard unless he speaks to us first of a present God, of One who is in covenant with us, as He was with our fathers, who is calling on us every hour to turn from our idols to Him. If this is not the substance of his teaching, if all his predictions do not flow out of it, he is not speaking in the spirit of Scripture; for us, at all events, he is speaking falsely.
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II. What I have said of prophecy applies also to miracles. The text does not separate them, nor can we. We turn to the signs and wonders in the New Testament, as in the Old, to prove that God was speaking them. Do we not rather need the assurance that God is speaking to explain the signs and wonders? If we try to ascend from the sign to God, do we really ever find Him? How meanly we think of the Gospel when we suppose that it cannot be presented at once to the hearts and consciences of sinful men, but must be ushered in with a long array of proofs which the great majority of people find it much harder to receive than that which is proved, nay, which I suspect they never do receive till they have first embraced that.
F. D. Maurice, The Patriarchs and Lawgivers of the Old Testament, p. 274.
Reference: Deut 13—Parker, vol. iv., p. 229.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v4 ‘Enoch walked with God,’- Gen 5:22.
Genesis
WITH, BEFORE, AFTER
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‘Enoch walked with God,’- Gen 5:22.
‘Walk before Me.’- Gen 17:1.
‘Ye shall walk after the Lord your God.’- Deu 13:4.
You will have anticipated, I suppose, my purpose in doing what I very seldom do-cutting little snippets out of different verses and putting them together. You see that these three fragments, in their resemblances and in their differences, are equally significant and instructive. They concur in regarding life as a walk-a metaphor which expresses continuity, so that every man’s life is a whole, which expresses progress, which expresses change, and which implies a goal. They agree in saying that God must he brought into a life somehow, and in some aspect, if that life is to be anything else but an aimless wandering, if it is to tend to the point to which every human life should attain. But then they diverge, and, if we put them together, they say to us that there are three different ways in which we ought to bring God into our life. We should ‘walk with Him,’ like Enoch; we should ‘walk before’ Him, as Abraham was bade to do; and we should ‘walk after’ Him, as the command to do was given to all Israel. And these three prepositions, with, before, after, attached to the general idea of life as a walk, give us a triple aspect-which yet is, of course, fundamentally, one-of the way in which life may be ennobled, dignified, calmed, hallowed, focussed, and concentrated by the various relations into which we enter with Him. So I take the three of them.
1. ‘Enoch walked with God.’
That is a sweet, simple, easily intelligible, and yet lofty way of putting the notion which we bring into a more abstract and less impressive shape when we talk about communion with God. Two men travelling along a road keep each other company. ‘How can two walk together except they be agreed?’ The companion is at our side all the same, though the mists may have come down and we cannot see Him. We can hear His voice, we can grasp His hand, we can catch the echoes of His steps. We know He is there, and that is enough. Enoch and God walked together, by the simple exercise of the faith that fills the Invisible with one great, loving Face. By a continuous, definite effort, as we are going through the bustle of daily life, and amid all the pettiness and perplexities and monotonies that make up our often weary and always heavy days, we can realise to ourselves that He is of a truth at our sides, and by purity of life and heart we can bring Him nearer, and can make ourselves more conscious of His nearness. For, brethren, the one thing that parts a man from God, and makes it impossible for a heart to expatiate in the thought of His presence, is the contrariety to His will in our conduct. The slightest invisible film of mist that comes across the blue abyss of the mighty sky will blot out the brightest of the stars, and we may sometimes not be able to see the mist, and only know that it is there because we do not see the planet. So unconscious sin may steal in between us and God, and we shall no longer be able to say, ‘I walk with Him.’
The Roman Catholics talk, in their mechanical way, of bringing down all the spiritual into the material and formal, about the ‘practice of the presence of God.’ It is an ugly phrase, but it means a great thing, that Christian people ought, very much more than they do, to aim, day by day, and amidst their daily duties, at realising that most elementary thought which, like a great many other elementary thoughts, is impotent because we believe it so utterly, that wherever we are, we may have Him with us. It is the secret of blessedness, of tranquillity, of power, of everything good and noble.
‘I am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were,’ said the Psalmist of old. If he had left out these two little words, ‘with Thee,’ he would have been uttering a tragic complaint; but when they come in, all that is painful, all that is solitary, all that is transient, bitterly transient, in the long succession of the generations that have passed across earth’s scene, and have not been kindred to it, is cleared away and changed into gladness. Never mind, though you are a stranger, if you have that companion. Never mind, though you are only a sojourner; if you have Him with you, whatever passes He will not pass; and though we dwell here in a system to which we do not belong, and its transiency and our transiency bring with them many sorrows, when we can say, ‘Lord! Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations,’ we are at home, and that eternal home will never pass.
Enoch ‘walked with God,’ and, of course, ‘God took him,’ There was nothing else for it, and there could be no other end, for a life of communion with God here has in it the prophecy and the pledge of a life of eternal union hereafter. So, then, ‘practise the presence of God.’ An old mystic says: ‘If I can tell how many times to-day I have thought about God, I have not thought about Him often enough.’ Walk with Him by faith, by effort, by purity.
2. And now take the other aspect suggested by the other word God spoke to Abraham: ‘I am the Almighty God, walk before Me and be thou perfect.’
That suggests, as I suppose I do not need to point out, the idea not only of communion, which the former phrase brought to our minds, but that of the inspection of our conduct. ‘As ever in the great Taskmaster’s eye,’ says the stern Puritan poet, and although one may object to that word ‘Taskmaster,’ yet the idea conveyed is the correct expansion of the commandment given to Abraham. Observe how ‘walk before Me’ is dovetailed, as it were, between the revelation ‘I am the Almighty God’ and the injunction ‘Be thou perfect.’ The realisation of that presence of the Almighty which is implied in the expression ‘Walk before Me,’ the assurance that we are in His sight, will lead straight to the fulfilment of the injunction that bears upon the moral conduct. The same connection of thought underlies Peter’s injunction, ‘Like as He . . .is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation,’ followed immediately as it is by, ‘If ye call on Him as Father, who without respect of persons judgeth’-as a present estimate-’according to every mail’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear’-that reverential awe which will lead you to be ‘holy even as I am holy.’
This thought that we are in that divine presence, and that there is silently, but most really, a divine opinion being formed of us, consolidated, as it were, moment by moment through our lives, is only tolerable if we have been walking with God. If we are sure, by the power of our communion with Him, of His loving heart as well as of His righteous judgment, then we can spread ourselves out before Him, as a woman will lay out her webs of cloth on the green grass for the sun to blaze down upon them, and bleach the ingrained filth out of them. We must first walk ‘with God’ before the consciousness that we are walking ‘before’ Him becomes one that we can entertain and not go mad. When we are sure of the ‘with’ we can bear the ‘before.’
Did you ever see how on a review day, as each successive battalion and company nears the saluting-point where the General inspecting sits, they straighten themselves up and dress their ranks, and pull themselves together as they pass beneath his critical eye. A master’s eye makes diligent servants. If we, in the strength of God, would only realise, day by day and act by act of our lives, that we are before Him, what a revolution could be effected on our characters and what a transformation on all our conduct!
‘Walk before Me’ and you will be perfect. For the Hebrew words on which I am now commenting may be read, in accordance with the usage of the language, as being not only a commandment but a promise, or, rather, not as two commandments, but a commandment with an appended promise, and so as equivalent to ‘If you will walk before Me you will be perfect.’ And if we realise that we are under ‘the pure eyes and perfect judgment of’ God, we shall thereby be strongly urged and mightily helped to be perfect as He is perfect.
3. Lastly, take the other relation, which is suggested by the third of my texts, where Israel as a whole is commanded to ‘walk after the Lord’ their God.
In harmony with the very frequent expression of the Old Testament about ‘going after idols’ so Israel here is to ‘go after God.’ What does that mean? Communion, the consciousness of being judged by God, will lead on to aspiration and loving, longing effort to get nearer and nearer to Him. ‘My soul followeth hard after Thee,’ said the Psalmist, ‘Thy right hand upholdeth me.’ That element of yearning aspiration, of eager desire to be closer and closer, and liker and liker, to God must be in all true religion. And unless we have it in some measure, it is useless to talk about being Christian people. To press onwards, not as though we had already attained, but following after, if that we may apprehend that for which also we are apprehended, is the attitude of every true follower of Christ. The very crown of the excellence of the Christian life is that it never can reach its goal, and therefore an immortal youth of aspiration and growth is guaranteed to it. Christian people, are you following after God? Are you any nearer to Him than you were ten years ago? ‘Walk with Me, walk before Me, walk after Me.’
I need not do more than remind you of another meaning involved in this same expression. If I walk after God, then I let Him go before me and show me my road. Do you remember how, when the ark was to cross Jordan, the commandment was given to the Israelites to let it go well on in front, so that there should be no mistake about the course, ‘for ye have not passed this way heretofore.’ Do not be in too great a hurry to press upon the heels of God, if I may so say. Do not let your decisions outrun His providence. Keep back the impatience that would hurry on, and wait for His ripening purposes to ripen and His counsels to develop themselves. Walk after God, and be sure you do not go in front of your Guide, or you will lose both your way and your Guide.
I need not say more than a word about the highest aspect which this third of our commandments takes, ‘His sheep follow Him’-’leaving us an example that we should follow in His steps,’ that is the culmination of the walking ‘with,’ and ‘before,’ and ‘after’ God which these Old Testament saints were partially practising. All is gathered into the one great word, ‘He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk even as He walked.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Warnings against Temptations to Idolatry
Warnings against Temptations to Idolatry
The people are warned against three possible sources of temptation to idolatry, viz. the false prophet (Deu_13:1-5), an erring member of the family (Deu_13:6-11), and an apostate city (Deu_13:12-18). In each case the tempter or tempters must he put to death without mercy.
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2. A sign or a wonder is not enough to establish the credentials of a prophet. If he seeks to turn the people from the worship of Jehovah, he confesses himself thereby a tempter to evil, and must be put to death: cp. Mat_24:24; 2Th_2:9; Rev_13:13, Rev_13:14.
6. Even should the tempter to apostasy be the nearest and dearest, no mercy must be shown to him (Deu_13:8): cp. the zeal of the Levites (Exo_32:25-29) and of Phinehas (Num_25:7-8) and our Lord's words, Mat_10:37; Luk_14:26. The same principle is enunciated in Mat_5:29, Mat_5:30.
12-18. An instance of this may be read in Judges 19, 20.
13. Men of Belial] RV 'base fellows' or 'sons of worthlessness.' Belial is nota proper name: cp. Deu_15:9 mg; Jdg_20:13; RM 1Sa_25:25; 1Ki_21:13;
16. The street is the open square or market-place of the city. The word rendered every whit is the same as that used to denote the 'whole burnt offering,' so that the clause may be translated 'as a whole burnt offering to Jehovah thy God.'
17. Cursed thing] RV 'devoted thing': see on Deu_7:26; Lev_27:26-29.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv4–5 (See Scofield "Psa 19:9").
fear
(See Scofield "Psa 19:9").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 9. Warnings Against False Prophets and Their Punishment
9. Warnings Against False Prophets and Their Punishment
CHAPTER 13
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1. The first case: The false prophet and dreamer (Deu 13:1-5)
2. The second case: Temptation to idolatry from blood-relations (Deu 13:6-11)
3. The third case: The apostasy of a city (Deu 13:12-18)
Three cases are mentioned. The false prophet or a dreamer of dreams, who confirms his claims by a sign or a miracle, yet whose aim is to seduce to idolatry, is to be put to death. False teaching, which leads from God, is an abomination. It results finally in the most awful moral corruption. A false prophet may do signs and wonders to prove thereby that what he teaches is truth. Signs and miracles are therefore no evidence of the truth. Spiritualism and Christian Science claim to be the truth and they often refer to the evidences of supernatural manifestation and miraculous hearings which take place in their cults. Satan can work signs and miracles. He does so in these delusive systems of the last days and God permits it to prove thereby His people. In the light of Mat 24:23-25, 2Th 2:8-12 and Rev 13:12-14 the first five verses of the chapter we study are of great interest. The false prophet to come, the personal and final Antichrist will do lying wonders and the many who received not the love of the truth will be permitted to believe the lie. One does well to be on the guard whenever teachers claim some special power or signs. The second warning is against a more subtle snare, when the deception worketh secretly, emanating from a blood relation. If it is the dearest one, no pity is to be shown to him. The third case is that, when a whole city has departed from the Lord and serves other gods and practices the abominations of idolatry. It was to be completely destroyed and the city burned with fire. Such will be some day the awful fate of apostate Christendom, having rejected God’s Son and the gospel.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 6, 12 Of False Prophets in General
Of False Prophets in General
v. 1. If there arise among you, in your midst, a prophet, one pretending to be sent by the Lord, or a dreamer of dreams, (the latter were mediums through which the Lord had promised to make known His will, Num 12:6), and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, for the servants of Satan, with God’s permission, are also able to show great signs and wonders, Mat 24:24,
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v. 2. and the sign or the wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee, since the power of Satan is very great, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; that is invariably the purpose connected with the signs and wonders as they are performed by the false teachers, also the healers of our day, no matter to what extent they are genuine, namely, to lead men away from the true God, into misbelief, despair, and other great shame and vice;
v. 3. thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord, your God, proveth you, He uses the temptation of the false teachers to test the genuineness of the believers’ faith, to know whether ye love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul. No matter, then, how strongly convincing the miracles of the false prophets are or seem to be, the Word of the Lord, which had been received by them and confirmed by the signs of Jehovah, should remain their one standard and criterion, from which they should not deviate.
v. 4. Ye shall walk after the Lord, your God, follow Him alone, in trustful obedience, and fear Him, and keep His commandments, and obey His voice, as it was definitely transmitted to them in the words of Moses, and ye shall serve Him, and cleave unto Him, cling firmly to the sure Revelation of His will, and make that the standard according to which all preaching in their midst should be examined and tested, also that of the true prophets, Deu 18:21-22.
v. 5. And that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, he who made use of signs and wonders to tempt the people to idolatry, shall be put to death, because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord, your God, his words and actions having the aim of stirring up rebellion against the true God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord, thy God, commanded thee to walk in. That is what the efforts of the false teachers usually culminate in: those that listen to their seductive words are suddenly, and almost forcibly, pushed off the right road and placed on the path which leads to destruction. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee. Christians will heed the warning of the Savior to beware of false prophets and will not even be shaken in their faith by the apparently great signs and wonders which they show in our days.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 17 General Information:
General Information:
Moses continues speaking to the people of Israel.
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If there arises among you
"If there appears among you" or "If someone among you claims to be"
a dreamer of dreams
This is someone who receives messages from God through dreams.
a sign or a wonder
These two words have similar meanings and refer to various miracles. (See: Doublet)
comes about
"takes place" or "happens"
of which he spoke to you and said, 'Let us go after other gods, that you have not known, and let us worship them,' do not
This can be translated as an indirect quotation. AT: "and he tells you to serve and worship other gods which you have not known, do not" (See: Direct and Indirect Quotations)
Let us go after other gods
Worshiping other gods is spoken of as if they were going after or following other gods. AT: "Let us follow other gods" (See: Metaphor)
go after other gods, that you have not known
The phrase "gods, that you have not known" refers to the gods that other people groups worship. The Israelites know Yahweh because he has revealed himself to them and they have experienced his power.
do not listen to the words of that prophet, or to that dreamer of dreams
"do not listen to what that prophet say nor to what the dreamer of dreams says"
with all your heart and with all your soul
Here "heart" and "soul" are metonyms for a person's inner being. These two phrases are used together to mean "completely" or "earnestly." See how you translated this in Deuteronomy 4:29. (See: Metonymy and Doublet)
translationWords
raise
prophet
dream
miracle
false god
know
worship
word
Yahweh
God
test
love
heart
soul
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 5, 6, 9, 13, 14, 16 13:1-18 Prophets who tried to lead Israel away from…
13:1-18 Prophets who tried to lead Israel away from the one true God were guilty of treason, which carried the death penalty. No other religion insisted on exclusive worship of their national gods; consequently, such harsh penalties for the worship of competing deities were unknown elsewhere in the ancient Near East.
13:1 God performed signs and miracles to induce amazement and faith in those who witnessed them (see 6:22). False prophets and magicians were able to replicate these feats to a degree and thus sometimes led God’s people astray (see Exod 7:11, 22; 8:7).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.