Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 13:1
If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
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.
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 khin’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).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Deu 13:1-3
Ye are the children of the Lord your God.
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.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XIII
Of false prophets and their lying signs, 1-6.
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, oth, what appears to be a miraculous proof of his mission; or a wonder, 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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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.
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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. If there arise among you aprophetThe special counsels which follow arose out of thegeneral precept contained in De12:32; and the purport of them is, that every attempt to seduceothers from the course of duty which that divine standard of faithand worship prescribes must not only be strenuously resisted, but theseducer punished by the law of the land. This is exemplified in threecases of enticement to idolatry.
a prophetthat is, somenotable person laying claim to the character and authority of theprophetic office (Num 12:6;1Sa 10:6), performing feats ofdexterity or power in support of his pretensions, or even predictingevents which occurred as he foretold; as, for instance, an eclipsewhich a knowledge of natural science might enable him to anticipate(or, as Caiaphas, Joh 18:14).Should the aim of such a one be to seduce the people from the worshipof the true God, he is an impostor and must be put to death. Noprodigy, however wonderful, no human authority, however great, shouldbe allowed to shake their belief in the divine character and truth ofa religion so solemnly taught and so awfully attested (compare Ga1:8). The modern Jews appeal to this passage as justifying theirrejection of Jesus Christ. But He possessed all the characteristicsof a true prophet, and He was so far from alienating the people fromGod and His worship that the grand object of His ministry was to leadto a purer, more spiritual and perfect observance of the law.
De13:6-18. WITHOUTREGARD TO NEARNESSOF RELATION.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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 2Pe 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, Nu 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:
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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The first case. If a prophet, or one who had dreams, should rise up to summon to the worship of other gods, with signs and wonders which came to pass, the Israelites were not to hearken to his words, but to put him to death. The introduction of , “ a dreamer of dreams,” along with the prophet, answers the two media of divine revelation, the vision and the dream, by which, according to Num 12:6, God made known His will. With regard to the signs and wonders ( mopheth , see at Exo 4:21) with which such a prophet might seek to accredit his higher mission, it is taken for granted that they come to pass ( ); yet for all that, the Israelites were to give no heed to such a prophet, to walk after other gods. It follows from this, that the person had not been sent by God, but as a false prophet, and that the signs and wonders which he gave were not wonders effected by God, but (“lying sings and wonders,” 2Th 2:9); i.e., not merely seeming miracles, but miracles wrought in the power of the wicked one, Satan, the possibility and reality of which even Christ attests (Mat 24:24). – The word , saying, is dependent upon the principal verb of the sentence: “if a prophet rise up…saying, We will go after other gods.”
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Cautions Against Idolatry. | B. C. 1451. |
1 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, 2 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; 3 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. 4 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. 5 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.
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. i. 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 (2 Thess. ii. 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 (v. 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,
1. Not to yield to the temptation: “Thou shalt not hearken to the worlds of that prophet, v. 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 (v. 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, v. 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.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
DEUTERONOMY – CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Verses 1-5:
Any attempt to turn Israel away from worshipping and following after Jehovah God was considered a capital crime, and the perpetrator was to be put to death.
“Prophet,” nabi, one who speaks from God, to tell men what God reveals to him. The term does not always denote a true prophet from God.
“Dreamer of dreams.” God at times communicated with men in dreams, see Num 12:6.
The text describes the case of a prophet who claims to reveal the will of God, and confirms this claim by some unusual or miraculous event.
“Sign,” oth, an event which the prophet foretold that confirmed something else he had announced would come to pass, see Exo 4:8.
“Wonder,” mopheth, “miracle,” .proof of Divine authority, see Exo 4:21; Exo 7:3; Deu 4:34.
Ordinarily the fulfillment of signs predicted and wonders performed would suffice as proof of Divine commission. But there is one other test, which if failed would discredit the prophet even though the thing he predicted came to pass as he said. The sign and miracle must lead the people to obey and worship and serve Jehovah God. If not, it was false, and the perpetrator was guilty of a capital crime. He was to be put to death.
Not all supernatural events are from God. Satan has miracle-working power, see Exo 7:11; Exodus 22; Exo 8:7; Exo 8:18; 2Co 13-15; Rev 13:1-3; Rev 13:11-13. God gives the test to which all spirits should be subjected, 1Jn 4:1-3. Any who fails to pass that test is not from God, but from Satan.
God permits His children to be tested that they may determine for themselves the extent of their commitment to Him.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
After having restrained the Israelites from the strange delusions of the Gentiles, Moses now forbids them from being too credulous if false teachers should arise from among themselves, and warns them diligently to beware of all novel inventions, and not to turn aside in the very least degree from the Law, at the instigation of any one. For there is peril to be apprehended, not only from professed and manifest enemies, or from foreign superstitions, but Satan plots also by means of intestine deceits, and abuses the holy name of God in order to betray us. Therefore it behoves that the faith of the godly should not only be externally fortified and protected by the ramparts of the word, lest corruption should creep in from without, but also that it should be garrisoned within by the same word, lest novel imaginations should secretly insinuate themselves and destroy the purity of doctrine. Moreover, we gather from this prohibition that there is such certainty in the divine doctrines as to prevent our faith from being undermined or shaken, provided it has put forth into them living roots, and is firmly grounded upon them. For it would be vain for God to warn us against giving admission to false teachers, unless He, at the same time, shewed the means by which they were to be guarded against. And assuredly nothing can be more improbable than that religion should be ambiguous; and since the rule and definition of it is faithfully prescribed and set forth in the Law, justly does God require of His people that they should not waver, but constantly persist in the truth delivered to them. For truly does Isaiah declare respecting the Law, that in it it has not been said in vain to the seed of Jacob, that they should seek God’s face. (297) (Isa 45:19.) But, in seeking God, it would not be sufficient to teach what is right, unless men’s minds are established in it; it is requisite, therefore, that religion should be sure and firm, or it will not be duly ordered. Nor is there any doubt that what Paul witnesses of the Gospel was true also of the Law, viz., that it armed its disciples against all the storms of temptation, that they “should be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men,” etc. (Eph 4:14.) But the words before us, when examined more closely and regularly, will shew, with greater clearness, the aim of the matter.
1. If there arise among you. We already perceive that the question is not respecting the falsities and errors which Satan had spread throughout the world, but respecting those which were to appear in the very bosom of the Church, as if it had been said that the Law was not only given in order to separate the Israelites from heathen nations, but to keep themselves in the purity and integrity of the faith; for just as now-a-days Christ betroths the Church to Himself by the preachers of the Gospel, (2Co 11:2,) that she may devote herself as a chaste virgin to His obedience, and not allow herself to be withdrawn from the simplicity of the faith by any seductions; so of old God espoused His ancient people to Himself, and bade them close their ears against impostors, who are, as it were, the seducers of Satan tempting them to violate that sacred and special bond of marriage whereby God would be united with His people. We shall speedily see wherefore God would have His Church exposed to this evil. Meanwhile it is useful to admonish believers of their danger, that they may be constantly watching against the snares of Satan; for this abomination did not only prevail in that particular age, but it will have its evil influence even to the end of the world. We must remember what Peter says, that “as there were false prophets among” the Jews of old, so also in the kingdom of Christ
“
there shall be false teachers who privily shall bring in damnable heresies.” (2Pe 2:1.)
Moses, however, does not merely speak of domestic enemies, but, of such as shall assume the title of Prophets in order that they may deceive with greater license and impunity. From hence we infer that it is not enough to have an honorable position, or a plausible name, whether pastor, or prophet, or priest, unless it be allied to sincerity in accordance with our calling; for who are the persons whom God here commands to be avoided and held in abomination? Just those who boasted themselves to be Prophets, but who, when carefully inquired into, were obliged to drop their mask, and driven to confusion. A particular appellation is subjoined to their general one, since the same individual is spoken of as “a dreamer of dreams,” because God of old time manifested Himself to the Prophets sometimes in visions and sometimes in dreams. Either of these, then, was an honorable pretext for conciliating favor. But the temptation which follows was still more dangerous, viz., if such an one should have commended himself by a successful prediction; for who would despise a prophecy authenticated by events, especially when Isaiah declares this to be the attribute of God alone? (Isa 45:21.) And the difficulty here is still increased, because in chap. 18, God appears to distinguish false Prophets from true ones by this very test. (298) Thus I resolve the difficulty, God’s claiming to Himself the glory of foretelling events does not prevent Him from occasionally conferring even on the ministers of Satan the power of prophecy respecting some particular point. Balaam was worse than any hireling crier, wishing as he did to frustrate the eternal decrees of God, and yet we know that his tongue was directed by the divine inspiration of the Spirit so as to be the proclaimer of that grace which he had been hired to quench. There is, therefore, no inconsistency in this, that a man should be a perfidious impostor, and still endowed at the same time with a particular gift of prophecy, not so as always to deliver true revelations, (as, for instance, Caiaphas, who prophesied correctly once, was not always veracious,) but in so far as by God’s permission it shall be given him to foreknow this or that, so that one example of truth-telling may be the cloak for many falsehoods. Fitly, then, and properly, in the other passage, does God, by Moses, reprove the vanity of those rash spirits who promise what is not fulfilled. For we must take into consideration His intention. Many are there who bring themselves into notice by clandestine acts, and at length boldly burst forth and boast themselves to be prophets, whilst the people are in doubt whether they ought so to consider them. But since it most frequently happens that the folly of such men is betrayed by marks of infamy and disgrace inflicted upon them from above, so that the world may see that they have spoken falsely, justly does God declare that the event of their predictions is to be regarded, lest the Israelites should promiscuously and unreflectingly receive whatever they may hear. The principle, therefore, is established, that those speak in God’s name who predict what really comes to pass; for they could not declare the truth respecting things unknown to man unless God Himself should dictate it to them. This is the tendency of the answer of Jeremiah to Hananiah, —
“
The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old, prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence. The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the Lord hath truly sent him.” (Jer 28:8.)
Hananiah promised that the war should end prosperously; but Jeremiah, knowing that he lied, brings him to an experimental proof of his falsehood, in case the facts should not correspond with what he had said. Thus far there is no inconsistency in our statement, that all true prophesies must proceed from God, and yet that the same Prophet who has predicted the truth may, in other points, be a deceiver And especially let us remark the admonition of Paul, that
“
because they (the reprobate) receive not the love of the truth, that they may be saved; for this cause God sends 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.” (2Th 2:10,)
Hence we are taught that not only are the reins of Satan loosed in order that he may do injury, but that he is armed with power effectively to drag on the reprobate to final tied struction. Moses here teaches the same thing, for there are no reasonable grounds for the differences between Hebrew commentators as to the word sign. (299) It is unquestionable that signs were sometimes used in order to obtain credit for prophesies, as when Isaiah walked naked, ( Isa 20:2,) and Jeremiah wore a yoke on his neck, ( Jer 18:10😉 it is also unquestionable that Satan often deceives by magical incantations; but I have no doubt that by the words signifying the sign and the wonder, Moses here means anything incredible and unexpected, for the purpose of vaticination. The Hebrews use the word מופתים , mophethim, to express miracles whereby God portends anything future, as if He spoke from heaven. The word אות , oth, is more general, and is sometimes used for a banner, or a watchword, or signal, (symbolum.) Both are here put for extraordinary signs which testify the power of God, as if it were present; in this sense, Christ warns His disciples to beware of signs and lying prodigies. ( Mat 24:11.) But although Satan dazzles the eyes with his illusions, so as in his false rivalry to win to himself the glory of God, yet have we shewn from St. Paul, and Moses has before declared, that impostors in their working of miracles are the ministers of God’s vengeance, in order that the reprobate may be taken in their snares. Should any object that signs would be useless, which may be as well dangerous deceptions as confirmations of the truth, I reply, that such license has never been accorded to the devil, as that the light of God should not in the end shine forth from the midst of the darkness. It will happen, therefore, that the true power of God may be obscured for a time, (as we have seen before in the history of the magicians,) but that it will never be overwhelmed. Thus in the miracles, whereby the Law was ratified, the glory of God so shone forth that they might obtain credit without any hesitation from the godly. Such, without controversy, are the miracles which authenticate the Gospel, because they present evidences inscribed upon them by God by which all suspicion of deceit is fully removed. And, indeed, since men’s minds are involved in dull stupidity, and are blind even to the ordinary course of God’s dealings, so also they are almost always mistaken with respect to miracles, unless His word enlightens them to dispel the darkness. In order, therefore, that we may duly profit by signs, an inseparable connection must be established between them and doctrine; and Moses rightly teaches that they must be repudiated who shall endeavor to pervert piety under the pretext of signs, because they impiously and wickedly divide things which God has joined together, and improperly divert to a contrary use the signs which only serve as aids to righteous doctrine. But after the religion of the Jews had been sealed by sure and evident signs, it was wrong for them to attend to accidental signs, and not altogether without base ingratitude. We now arrive at the sum of this passage, viz., that they must persevere in the worship of the one God, so that not even prodigies should have any force to shake the people’s minds. The clause, therefore, “which thou hast not known,” must be observed; whereby Moses signifies that the glory of the God which they serve was so certainly testified that their levity in turning this way or that would be inexcusable; and thus the knowledge which ought to be firmly implanted in their hearts, and to abide therein, is opposed to all the artifices of the devil, which only affect unstable minds.
(297) See note on Deu 30:11, ante.
(298) Addition in Fr. , “disant, Que si le cas n’advient, le Prophete s’est ingere par presomption;” saying, that if the thing does not come to pass, the Prophet has meddled with it presumptuously.
(299) C. found in S. M.’s note on this verse that some of them understood the word signs to refer to such a sign as Jeremiah was to exhibit, (Jer 27:2,) the like to which was done by the false Prophet Zedekiah, (1Kg 22:12😉 whilst others thought that the text spoke of what magicians might do by their art, as Moses had witnessed in Pharaoh’s presence. — W.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE RECAPITULATION OF THE LAW
Deu 5:1 to Deu 26:19 record for us a recapitulation of the Law. The study of this section sets out clearly certain fundamental truths.
The Decalog is repeated with significant variations. Chapter 5, fundamental to all the laws of God is the Decalog. In Exodus, Moses delivered the same as he brought it from the tip of the fingers Divine. In Deuteronomy, the Law is given again. From the first to the tenth commandment, the very language of Exodus is employed, save in the instance of the fourth. Here, the reason assigned to the Jew for keeping the Sabbath, is strangely and significantly changed, namely, from because the Lord in six days made heaven and earth and rested on the seventh day, to Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm; therefore, the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day (Deu 5:15).
This change is so strange and so unexpected that it arrests immediate attention and demands adequate explanation. Why did God shift the reason for keeping the Sabbath from the finished creation to a completed redemption? The answer is not difficult. In the Divine plan, redemption is a far greater event than creation; the soul of man exceeds the weight of the world; for that matter, of all worlds. The Law was given by Moses, but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ. The Law was given for Jews; the Gentiles were never in bondage to it, and above all, believing Gentiles are not bound by it. To them, the Law is not a great external or outside force created for practices of restraint. Its spirit is transcribed to their souls rather; they walk at liberty while seeking Divine precepts. This is not to inveigh against the Law. The Law is just, and true and good, but by Law no man has ever been redeemed. It is to exalt Grace, which God hath revealed through Jesus Christ, in whom men have redemption from sin. If I only love my father and mother because the Law commands it, I do not love them at all; if I refrain from making images and bowing down before them because this is the demand of the Law, my heart may yet be as full of idolatry as a heathen temple. Redemption is not by the Law; it is by Grace in Jesus Christ!
The early Church was shortly called upon to settle this question of salvation by Law or Grace, and in the Jerusalem Conference Peter rose up and said unto them,
Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the Word of the Gospel, and believe.
And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us;
And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.
Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? (Act 15:7-10).
Later he said, We believe that through the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ (not by Law) we shall be saved, even as they (Act 15:7-11). Mark you, in that very sentence, Peter, the Apostle, proves his realization of the fact that the Law had failed as a savior and the very Jew himself had hope alone in grace. How strange, then, for men of the Twentieth Century to turn back to Law and proclaim the Law as though it were a redeemer, and protest that men who ignore the Jewish Saturday as the Sabbath will plunge themselves into the pit thereby, when the Law never saved! The keeping of the Sabbath was the one Law that contained in itself no ethical demand. The Law to worship, the Law to honor father and mother, the Law against killing, stealing and covetousnessthese are all questions of right and wrong; but to tithe time by the keeping of the Sabbath was a command solely in the interest of mans physical life. When, therefore, by the pen of inspiration the reason for it was shifted from a finished creation to a finished redemption, the act was lifted at once to a high spiritual level and became a symbol of the day when Christ, risen from the grave, should have completed redemptions plan. That great fortune to mankind fell out on the first day of the week, creating not so much a Christian Sabbath as making forever a memorial day for redemption itself, for the eighth day, or the first day of the week, clearly indicated the new order of things, or the new creation through Christ.
We have no sympathy whatever with secularizing each one of the seven days; but we would have the first day of the week kept in the spirit of rejoicing as redemptions memorial. On that day our Lord rose from the dead; on that day He met his disciples again and again; on that day the brethren at Troas assembled with the Apostles and broke bread; on that day the Christians laid aside their offerings; on that day they met for prayer and breaking of breadthe fellowship of the saints; on that day John was caught up in the spirit and witnessed the marvels recorded in his apocalyptic vision. Oh, what a day! No legal bondage, for what have we to do with holy days, sabbaths and new moons; but salvations memorial, a day of special service to the Son of God, our Saviour, a day for the souls rejoicing in Jesus. Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
But as we pass on in the study of this section of Scripture, we find Moses defends the Decalog in character and consequence. He reminds them of the glory out of which the voice spake (Deu 5:24). He reminds them of the obligation in the words themselves (Deu 5:32). He reminds them of the relationship of the possession of the land to obedience of the precepts. He pleads with them as a father, Hear, therefore, O Israel (Deu 6:4). He anticipates the day of prophecy and begs that these words have place in their hearts (Deu 6:6), to be diligently taught to their children (Deu 6:7); bound for a sign upon their hands and frontlets between their eyes, lest they be forgotten (Deu 6:8); written upon the posts of the house and on the gates, where they could not be unobserved (Deu 6:9). Moses knew the relationship of law-keeping to national living. It is doubtful if modernists now have or will ever again entertain the same sacred reverence for Law that characterized the ancients, even the heathen of far-off days.
We cannot forget how Socrates, when he was sentenced to death and, after an imprisonment of thirty days, was to drink the juice of the hemlock, spent his time preparing for the end; friends conceived and executed plans for his escape and earnestly endeavored to prevail upon him to avail himself of the opportunity, but he answered, That would be a crime to violate the law even when the sentence is unjust. I would rather die than do evil. If a heathen philosopher could treat unjust laws with such reverence, Moses was justified in pleading with his people to regard the laws that were true and just and good, and such were the mandates of Deuteronomy.
It is easy enough for one to pick out some one of these precepts and, by detaching it from its context, create the impression that it was foolish or superficial or even utterly unjust; but when one reads the whole Book, he sees the effectual relationship of laws, general and particular, to the life Israel was leading, and for that matter, catches the supreme spiritual significance of the same as they interpret themselves in the light of New Testament teaching. There is not a warning that was not needed, nor an exhortation which, if heeded, would have failed to profit the people. It all came to one conclusion for Israel.
What doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul (Deu 10:12)?
And as there was not a law in the Old Testament but was fitted for the profit of Israel, so there is not a command in the New Testament but looks to the conquest of the Christian soul.
Among these enactments were personal and significant suggestions. They gave dietary and sanitary suggestions (Deuteronomy 14); they established the Sabbatic year (Deuteronomy 13); they fixed the time of the Passover (Deuteronomy 16); they set forth the character of the offerings (Deuteronomy 17); they determined the duties of the Levites (Deuteronomy 18); they gave direction concerning the cities of refuge (Deuteronomy 19); they determined the way of righteous warfare (chap. 20); they established a court of inquest (Deuteronomy 21); they announced the law of brotherhood (Deuteronomy 22); they descended to the minute instances of social life and regulations of the same (Deuteronomy 23); they dealt with the great and difficult question of divorce (Deuteronomy 24); they ended (Deuteronomy 23) in an almost unlimited series of regulations concerning the social life of the people knowing a wilderness experience, including the law of the first fruits (Deuteronomy 26).
It is interesting to study not alone the laws enacted here, but the penalties declared, including the blessings and curses from Ebal to Gerizim. There is about them all an innate righteousness that has been unknown to those purely human codes for which God never assumed responsibility. From the curse against bribery to the curse against brutal murder to this day the sentences are justified in the judgment of the worlds most thoughtful men.
In all they contrast the injustice and inordinately severe punishments often afflicted by godless governments. Plutarch, in writing about Solon, tells us that he repealed the laws of Draco except those concerning murder. Such was the severity of their punishments in proportion to the offense that we are amazed as we read them. If one was convicted of idleness, death was the penalty. If one stole a few apples or potherbs, he must surely die, and by as ignominious a method as did the murderer. And out of that grew the saying of Demades that Draco wrote his laws, not with ink but with blood. And when Draco was asked why such severe penalties, he answered, Small ones deserve it, and I can find no greater for the most heinous. Such were human laws in contrast to these laws Divine.
But a further study of these laws involves a third lesson.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
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.)
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 treasona 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 historythat God was supreme. God, and God alone, had redeemed them from bondage and oppression. Gods 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 powersome 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. Gods 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.) Gods 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 youfollow 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 Jobs (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 mans 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 ones departure from Him. Neither be partaker of other mens 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 suspectedsister, 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 Gods. 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 supposeda 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. LearnTo be jealous of reports touching the integrity of Gods 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 wordsFirst, 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 dont 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 adders 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 fathers 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.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
LESSON TEN Deu. 12:29 to Deu. 13:18; Deu. 17:2-13
2. ONE GOD: DEATH PENALTIES FOR APOSTASY
(Deu. 12:29 to Deu. 13:18; Deu. 17:2-13)
29 When Jehovah thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest in to dispossess them, and thou dispossessest them, and dwellest in their land; 30 take heed to thyself that thou be not ensnared to follow them, after that they are destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How do these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. 31 Thou shalt not do so unto Jehovah thy God: for every abomination to Jehovah, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters do they burn in the fire to their gods.
32 What thing soever I command you, that shall ye observe to do: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
If there arise in the midst of thee a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and he give thee a sign or a wonder, 2 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; 3 thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or unto that dreamer of dreams: for Jehovah your God proveth you, to know whether ye love Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 Ye shall walk after Jehovah your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him and cleave unto him. 5 And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death, because he hath spoken rebellion against Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of bondage, to draw thee aside out of the way which Jehovah thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put away the evil from the midst of thee.
6 If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, that 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; 7 of the gods of the peoples that 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; 8 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: 9 but thou shalt surely kill him; thy hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. 10 And thou shalt stone him to death with stones, because he hath sought to draw thee away from Jehovah thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 11 And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is in the midst of thee.
12 If thou shalt hear tell concerning one of thy cities, which Jehovah thy God giveth thee to dwell there, saying, 13 Certain base fellows are gone out from the midst of thee, and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known; 14 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 in the midst of thee, 15 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. 16 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, unto Jehovah thy God: and it shall be a heap for ever; it shall not be built again. 17 And there shall cleave nought of the devoted thing to thy hand; that Jehovah 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; 18 when thou shalt hearken to the voice of Jehovah thy God, to keep all his commandments which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of Jehovah thy God.
THOUGHT QUESTIONS 12:29-13:18
236.
After destroying idol worship why would anyone be ensnared in it?
237.
Are we to infer that these idolators had had opportunity to know the one true God and had steadfastly refused to worship Him? or that they were being slain in their ignorance?
238.
Are we to understand from Deu. 12:2 that certain false prophets can perform a sign of wonder?
239.
Explain in your own words just how God tested some persons. Cf. Deu. 12:3-4.
240.
Why not preach to some of these idolators?
241.
Specify what was so attractive in the worship of these other gods that some would be willing to risk their very lives for the worship of them.
242.
What lesson for love, hatred, right, wrong, are in the example of killing your own loved ones because of idolatry?
243.
If such stringent measures were taken by Israel, how often would they be repeated? As to the use of a preventive measure how could the fewest lives be lost and still preserve the worship of Jehovah?
244.
Please do enough research to discover the total procedure involved before passing the death penalty upon an individual or a city. Cf. Deu. 17:2-7; Deu. 19:15-19; Lev. 24:10-14; Jos. 8:4-7.
245.
Are there lessons here for present-day church discipline? Cf. Mat. 18:15-20; Luk. 17:3-4; Gal. 6:1; Jas. 5:19-20.
AMPLIFIED TRANSLATION 12:29-13:18
29 When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go to dispossess, and you dispossess them and live in their land,
30 Be watchful that you are not ensnared into following them after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.
31 You shall not do so to the Lord your God; for every abominable thing which the Lord hates they have done for their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burned in the fire of their gods.
32 Whatever I command you, be watchful to do it; you shall not add to it or diminish it.
If a prophet arises among you, or a dreamer of dreams, and gives you a sign or a wonder,
2 And the sign or the wonder he foretells to you comes to pass, and if he says, Let us go after other gods, which you have not known, and let us serve them,
3 You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your [mind and] heart and with your entire being.
4 You shall walk after the Lord your God and (reverently) fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and cling to Him.
5 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has talked rebellion and turning away from the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage; that man has tried to draw you aside from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So shall you put the evil away from your midst.
6 If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend, who is as your own life, entice you secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known, you nor your fathers;
7 Of the gods of the peoples who are round about you, near you or far away from you, from one end of the earth to the other,
8 You shall not consent to him, or listen to him; nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him;
9 But you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.
10 And you shall stone him to death with stones, because he has tried to draw you away from the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
11 And all Israel shall hear, (and reverently) fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this among you.
12 If you hear it said in one of your cities, which the Lord your God has given you in which to dwell,
13 That certain base fellows have gone out from your midst, and have enticed away the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known;
14 Then you shall inquire and make search and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be true and certain that such an abominable thing has been done among you,
15 You shall surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all who are in it, and its beasts, with the edge of the sword.
16 And you shall collect all its spoil into the midst of its open square, and shall burn the city with fire, with every bit of its spoil [as a whole burnt offering] to the Lord your God; it shall be a heap [of ruins] for ever; it shall not be built again.
17 And nothing of the accursed thing shall cling to your hand; that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of His anger, and show you mercy, and have compassion on you, and multiply you, as He swore to your fathers,
18 If you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep all His commandments which I command you this day, to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord your God.
COMMENT 12:29-13:18
Note that in these verses we have
(1)
Warnings against being seduced and ensnared into idolatrous practices (Deu. 12:29-32)
(2)
Idolatrous prophets and dreamers to be slain (Deu. 13:1-5)
(3)
Idolatrous relatives and friends to be slain (Deu. 13:6-11)
(4)
Idolatrous cities to be destroyed and their inhabitants slain (Deu. 13:12-18)
Thus this entire section is concerned with cautions and warnings about being led away into idolatry.
INQUIRE NOT AFTER THEIR GODS, SAYING, HOW DO THESE NATIONS SERVE THEIR GODS? EVEN SO WILL I DO LIKEWISE (Deu. 12:30)There is always a danger in the process of informing oneself of something that is evil. The motives (at first) may be ever so pureperhaps to gain information for the purpose of helping someone in a false religious system. But, all too often, there is a foggy and ethereal line between such a persons information and his own beliefs, What he knows he tends to believewhether right or wrong. We would not stifle an investigating spirit and an inquisitive mind. Only let that mind be first firmly established in Christ, and the motives for investigation be an ever more useful service to Christ, These inspiredbut with a sensual heart! Doubtless they wanted the lowdown on all the immoral and godless rites the heathen practicedso they could try their hand at it!
FOR EVEN THEIR SONS AND THEIR DAUGHTERS DO THEY BURN IN THE FIRE TO THEIR GODS (Deu. 12:31)See also Deu. 18:9-12, Psa. 106:34-37, Eze. 16:20-21. This was practiced in the worship of several gods in the areas surrounding Israel, especially Molech (Moloch, Milcom), Lev. 18:21; Lev. 20:1-5; 2Ki. 23:10the national god of the Ammonites, and Chemosh, the national god of the Moabites, 1Ki. 11:7, Cf. 2Ki. 3:27; and apparently Baal, 2Ki. 17:16-17.
AND THE SIGN OR THE WONDER COME TO PASS (Deu. 12:2)Note that whether the prediction of this Seer comes to pass or not is not the only criterion to be used to establish his identity as a true or false prophet. He is to be judged by the law of God per seclaims, proofs, and confirmations notwithstanding. A false prophets predictions are not always wrongif they were, nobody would believe them! See Deu. 18:9-22, notes. Paul certainly recognized the great influence of he, whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders . . . (2Th. 2:9). Other examples could be given, such as Jannes and Jambres (2Ti. 3:8, Cf. Exo. 7:8-13; Exo. 7:20-22; Exo. 8:6-7). The question is not Did they perform a miracle? but Are they furthering and promoting the teachings and will of Christ? See 2Co. 11:10-15, Mat. 7:15-23, 1Jn. 4:1. Someone might ask Why would God allow the false prophets prophecy to be fulfilled? The next verse in our text provides the answer:
FOR JEHOVAH YOUR GOD PROVETH YOU (Deu. 12:3)i.e., is testing or trying you (Heb. nasah, as in Deu. 8:2). How many could learn from this truth in our present age if they would take it to heart! Why quibble and forever argue with these who saw some present day Simon giving out that he is some great one, and causing multitudes to cry out, This man is that power of God which is called Great (Act. 8:9-10)? If we are to prove the spirits, whether they are of God because many false prophets are gone out into the world what means shall we use? To the law and to the testimony! If they speak not according to this word, surely there is no morning for them (Isa. 8:20).
THAT PROPHET, OR THAT DREAMER OF DREAMS, SHALL BE PUT TO DEATH, BECAUSE HE HATH SPOKEN REBELLION (Deu. 12:5)See also Deu. 12:9, Deu. 17:2-7, Deu. 18:20-22. The Heb. word sarah (rebellion) is variously rendered. The A.V. has to turn you away . . . a rendering that Gesenius seemingly confirms by his definition, prop. a departing, withdrawing; hence (1) the violation of a law, an offence, Deu. 19:16 [where it is rendered wrong doing]. (2) departure from Jehovah, Deu. 13:6. Baumgartner has rebellion . . . obstinancy, and specifically incite rebellion against. As a deceiver, he was to be put to death.
IF THY BROTHER . . . SON . . . DAUGHTER . . . WIFE . . . FRIEND . . . ENTICE THEE SECRETLY . . . THOU SHALT SURELY KILL HIM (Deu. 12:6-11)See also Deu. 17:2-7. At least two witnesses were required, and death was to be by stoning. This command is obviously stated as it is because of the great temptation to be lenient and lax about carrying out Gods law with regard to transgressors close and dear to them. Read Deu. 12:8 again! Their enticement would be secretly, (Heb. sether) and doubtless subtle and plausible!
THY HAND SHALL BE FIRST UPON HIM (Deu. 12:9)In executing the laws of Israel wherein someone was worthy of death, the accuser-witness was to be the first to lay his hands on the guilty party, and to cast the first stone. See Deu. 17:7, Deu. 19:15-19, Lev. 24:10-14, and compare the wording of Joh. 8:4-7.
This would tend to prevent off-hand, haphazard or flippant accusations. The accuser had to have the courage and strength of conviction to follow through with his charges. If not, he was not to make any charges. The principle involved could be well-received by many today.
We do not of course have any such death-penalty law in the Israel of God, the church of the Lord. However, the principle of the accuser-witness instigating the corrective action, is definitely taught by Christ: (Mat. 18:15-20; Luk. 17:3-4; Gal. 6:1; Jas. 5:19-20) not only if he realizes his brother has sinned, but if he realizes he has sinned against his brother (Mat. 5:23-26). The principle is, that if something is seen or realized as in need of correction or forgiveness, immediate action should be initiated toward that end.
THOU SHALT SURELY SMITE THE INHABITANTS OF THAT CITY (Deu. 12:15)But not before a careful investigation was made (Deu. 12:14). Note how it all began. Certain base fellows influenced the city like leaven, and a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. (Margin, Heb. sons of worthlessness, and expression meaning those totally worthless or devoted to worthless ends. Cf. sons of disobedience, Eph. 2:2).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XIII.
(1) If there arise.Three cases of instigation to idolatry are considered in this chapter:
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 samedeath 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.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
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.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Chapter 13 Warnings Against Idolatry And Guidance On How To Deal With Those Who Lead Men Astray.
This chapter continues the closing theme in Deuteronomy 12 where emphasis has been laid on observing the word given by God to Moses. It warns against those who would seek to lead men astray from that word by various means. The chapter begins with how to deal with false prophets who come from their midst with signs and wonders (Deu 13:1-5), goes on to deal with family members and close friends who may seek to use their influence to lead their family astray (Deu 13:6-11), and finally ends with how to deal with cities led astray, not by foreigners, but by worthless people ‘in your midst’, that become bastions of idolatry so that men are led astray by persuasive leaders and popular opinion (Deu 13:12-18). These were the three major influences on their spiritual lives, preachers, family and environment. They must ensure that they were not led astray by any of them.
The emphasis in all three cases on the fact that this was ‘the enemy within’ explains the harshness of the sentences. They should know better. They were acting as traitors ‘in the midst’. And in times of emergency, as this would be, such people could only be dealt with in one way, by death. The purity of Israel could depend on it.
Such sentiments are regularly found in treaty forms where it is conceived that men may come among a subject people and seek to lead them to follow others in rebellion against the overlord. Some treaties even cite prophets and family as possible sources of this. Others cite cities. All were likely culprits for this kind of behaviour. Such ideas have been adapted here by Moses. How common in treaties these ideas were we do not know, for as yet we do not have sufficient examples of such treaties from wide enough sources.
For the Christian the lesson is that we also must beware lest we be led by such people or such influences away from ‘the simplicity which is in Christ’ (2Co 11:3). There is only one test of truth, the words that come from God.
Beware of False Prophets ( Deu 13:1-5 ).
The warning here is against those who come with deceitful words, even showing signs and wonders, but speak contrary to God’s word. So-called prophets were a common feature of life in the Ancient Near East. They professed to have contact with the gods. We have only to consider Balaam to recognise the influence that they could have, and how they were valued (Numbers 22-24). However, this prophet would be one who had arisen ‘in the midst’ of them. Thus it would seem a false prophet of Israel is indicated, even one who cites Yahweh. He comes claiming extraordinary powers. But signs and wonder are never to be taken as proof of the genuineness of the wonderworker, nor of the truth of what he says. Note that this immediately follows Deu 12:32. What Moses has commanded must not be laid aside because of some prophet, even one who claims to come from God. What he says must be tested against Moses’ words. Today we have a larger ‘word of God’ including the teaching of Jesus Himself. It is important that we know it well so that we too might not be led astray, and so that we can help those who are led astray. All prophets must be tested against His word. In Paul’s words they must be ‘judged’.
For the place that Yahweh has chosen so that He could set His name there will be countered by all kinds of temptations to turn from Him to other names and other gods. And in this chapter we are given three examples of such. To follow after false prophets, or false family, or false fellow-countrymen can only lead to disaster.
Analysis using Moses words:
a If there arise in the midst of you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and he give you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come about, of which he spoke to you, saying, “Let us go after other gods, which you have not known, and let us serve them (Deu 13:1-2).
b You shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or to that dreamer of dreams, for Yahweh your God proves you, to know whether you love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul (Deu 13:3).
c You shall walk after Yahweh your God, and fear Him (Deu 13:4 a).
c And keep His commandments, and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him, and cleave to Him (Deu 13:4 b).
b And 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 (Deu 13:5).
a To draw you aside out of the way which Yahweh your God commanded you to walk in. So shall you put away the evil from the midst of you (Deu 13:6).
Note that in ‘a’ the false prophet arises to deceive by signs and wonders and to lead in the way of false gods, and in the parallel he is seeking to draw them away from Yahweh their God. In ‘b’ they are not to listen to the prophet or dreamer of dreams for it is a test of Yahweh their God of their love for Him, while in the parallel that prophet or dreamer of dreams is to be put to death for speaking rebellion against Yahweh their God Who is their Deliverer. In ‘c’ they are to walk after Yahweh their God and fear Him, and in the parallel they are to keep His commandments, obey Him and cleave to Him.
Deu 12:32 to Deu 13:2
‘ Whatever thing I command you (ye), that you (ye) shall observe to do. You (thou) shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it. If there arise in the midst of you (thee) a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and he give you (thee) a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come about, of which he spoke to you, saying, “Let us go after other gods, which you (thou) have not known, and let us serve them,” ’
We have repeated Deu 12:32 here so as to bring out the dual connection back and forwards. As a group they must observe his commands, and none of them individually shall add to his words or diminish them, neither shall the nation as a whole. ‘In the midst of you (thee)’ must refer to the nation as such, but the remainder of the verse might be seen as more having individuals in mind.
The danger warned against here is that people might come with impressive ‘signs and wonders’ and pose as prophets, or dreamers of significant dreams which they claimed, and even believed, to come from a divine source. They might point to signs and wonders that were coming, or that they performed (compare Mat 24:24). These might for example include eclipses, or interpretations of weather conditions, or some manufactured situation brought about by conjuring or ‘magic’ (compare Exo 7:11; Exo 7:22; Exo 8:7; Exo 8:18). They may arise through bold claims which are fulfilled by some coincidence, or from some cleverly manufactured situation, or from some unknown phenomenon which could be explained given all the facts. Or it may be by means of ‘spiritual healings’ which were really psychosomatic (the result of the effect of the mind on the body. The body can be strongly affected by the mind). When Jesus came men sought similar signs and wonders from Him. But He refused to give them (Mat 12:38-39; Mat 16:1-4). He warned severely against looking at signs and wonders, (even though they emanated from Him everywhere because of Who He was). He never tried to use them as ‘proofs’, although to the believing John He pointed to them as demonstrating that He was the One sent from God as promised in the Old Testament (Luk 7:22). John was not looking for proof but for reassurance. But the real test of prophets is simple. Do such people speak according to God’s word? (Deu 12:32; see Isa 8:20). Signs and wonders are no proof of truth.
This is very different from the situation in Deu 18:21-22. There the test is as to whether the prophet’s central message comes about. It is not there referring to signs and wonders which are used to support the message as here.
With regard to dreams, there have been a few times when God has through history spoken through dreams given to certain chosen men, especially when the dream has left behind a sense of foreboding. But that is far from saying that dreams generally are revelations from God, although in those days they were often deemed to be. Such God-given dreams are few and far between, given in relation to special people and situations (Gen 20:3; Gen 31:11; Num 12:6; Joe 2:28). Num 12:6 tells us that to lesser prophets God does sometimes reveal things through dreams, but does not see it as a reliable method of obtaining full truth. There God contrasts those who come with such dreams who speak in ‘dark speeches’ (in that case Aaron and Miriam) with the one who came with the direct word of God (Moses). The dreams must be tested out and must not be given too much emphasis.
Most dreams result from what has been eaten the day before, or arise from strongly desiring something which cannot be obtained in practise, or through some vivid event that has affected the inner mind, or from working too hard (Ecc 5:3), or simply result from a vivid imagination (Ecc 5:7). It would sometimes be nice if we could go to bed and dream away our problems and difficulties and obtain answers to them. But life is not like that. Many have been led astray by following dreams. We should beware of laying too much emphasis on them and reject them utterly if they go contrary to, or seek to expand on, the word of God.
The religious ‘importance’ of dreams would be well known from Egypt where many manuals were written on the interpretation of dreams, and it had become a ‘science’, although not a reliable one. It is therefore interesting that outside Genesis (pre-Mosaic) and Daniel (post-exilic, and the latter in a foreign country where dreams were given credence) little credence is laid on dreams in the Old Testament. And even in Genesis, apart from outsiders (this being God’s purpose in giving them), dreams appear only to come to immature young men starting out in life (Gen 28:12; Gen 37:5; Gen 37:9), not for prophetic purposes but for personal reasons. We can discount Deu 31:10-11 for that was for Laban’s consumption. Outside Genesis and Daniel there are occasional references to dreams (1Sa 28:6; Jer 23:25-32; Jer 27:9; Jer 29:8; Zec 10:2) all of which are derogatory. Only Num 12:6; 1Ki 3:5; 1Ki 3:15; Joe 2:28 are positive references, and even then the dreamer is at a lower level than Yahweh’s prophets except possibly in the case of Joe 2:28, but that is referring to a unique time (and interestingly also refers to young men). Thus on the whole the Bible does not encourage the use of dreams as a means of discovering truth, although occasionally allowing it. Genuine dreams, like genuine miracles, appear to have come in rare bursts. If someone comes to us with a dream we should perhaps suggest that they have heard ‘unspeakable things which it is not lawful for a man to utter’,
In this case these wonderworkers and dreamers would seek to lead people off to giving credence to strange gods with a view to worshipping and serving them, which makes quite clear that they could not be trusted. For God’s word on this matter was particularly clear. ‘No other gods’. Thus they must be rejected and dealt with severely.
“Which you have not known.” This has a dual aspect to it. Firstly it may indicate an attempt to arouse interest by introducing something new. They were, said their proponents, unknown, powerful gods (compare Act 17:21. While these were not Greek intellectuals many people who are not intellectuals also cannot resist novelty). But secondly Moses is pointing out that they had no practical experience of such gods. They have not ‘known’ them by experiencing what they can do. How foolish then it would be to trust in them and follow them. On the other hand they did know through experience what Yahweh could do, for He had already done it. They knew precisely how powerful He was. Let them therefore look only to Him. To turn from the One Whom they knew through long experience, to supposed gods whose credentials were totally unknown, would be totally inexcusable. This point is made by Moses again and again (Deu 12:6; Deu 12:13; Deu 11:28; Deu 28:64; Deu 29:26)
Deu 13:3
‘ You (thou) shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or to that dreamer of dreams, for Yahweh your God proves you (ye), to know whether you (ye) love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul.’
The point is now made that it is important not to listen to those who come with anything that contradicts what God has said, and especially when what He has said has been stated plainly, even though they come with signs and wonders and extraordinary dreams. God does allow such things to happen as He did with Balaam (although He does not deliberately act to bring them about) in order to test whether we will follow His word closely. But those who love God with all their heart and soul will soon discern truth from falsehood. We are reminded again that ‘love’ is the true covenant response. The Christian looks not to outward signs, but to the witness within of the Spirit to His word (1Jn 2:20; 1Jn 2:27). Those who are true speak what is true (1Jn 4:1-2), and those who are true hear what is true. Some of these wonderworkers will be such that if it were possible they would even deceive them, but thankfully that is not possible (Mat 24:24), for they look to His word (in this case the word of Moses) and judge all by that.
Deu 13:4
‘ You (ye) shall walk after Yahweh your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and you shall serve him, and cleave to him.’
Note here the contrast with Deu 13:5. ‘You’ (ye) on the one hand, and ‘that prophet’ on the other. This may be utilising, as an example, treaty stipulations known to Moses from his past. This is how the believer can keep on the true path, by wholehearted loyalty. By walking after Yahweh his God, by fearing Him, by keeping His commandments, by obeying His voice, by serving Him, by cleaving to Him (see Deu 5:33; Deu 8:6; Deu 10:12; Deu 11:22). They are to be like sheep who diligently follow the shepherd. As Jesus said, ‘My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give to them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and none shall pluck them from My hand’ (Joh 10:27-28). Such will never be led astray by false teaching.
The summary is a good description of different aspects of the Christian life. ‘Walk after God.’ Our lives are to be a daily walk with Him as He walks with us through the day. ‘Fear’ – we could do with a little more of the fear of God. ‘Keep His commandments.’ We must observe them and do them. ‘Obey His voice.’ We must ever be open to His prompting, and sensitive to what He requires, a sensitivity acquired by reading His word and by worship. ‘Serve Him.’ This includes both worship and doing His will. We must never forget that we are servants. ‘Cleave to Him.’ This involves true responsive love and not allowing anything else to come between us and God.
A preacher tells how a student once came to him and told him how he was losing his faith because of liberal teaching. His response was simply to look back at him and ask, ‘What have you been doing?’ He knew that the problem was not with the liberal teaching, which could be coped with, it was with his failure to walk after God and obey Him and cleave to Him. And the student bowed his head and admitted that he was right. He had lost touch with God and was craving after the world. That was his real problem. The other was simply an excuse.
Deu 13:5
‘ And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death, because he has spoken rebellion against Yahweh your (of ye) God, who brought you (ye) out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you (thee) out of the house of bondage, to draw you (thee) aside out of the way which Yahweh your (thy) God commanded you (thee) to walk in. So shall you (thou) put away the evil from the midst of you.’
But the prophet or dreamer of dreams who seeks to lead them to worship false gods shall be put to death for urging rebellion against their Overlord. This was always the sentence on traitors in treaties. The greatness of their offence is stressed by the reminder of the gratitude that they should have had for their Overlord. He had brought them out of the land of Egypt (Deu 1:20; Deu 4:20; Deu 4:37; Deu 5:6; Deu 5:15; Deu 6:12; Deu 6:21; Deu 7:8; Deu 7:18; Deu 8:14; Deu 9:26; Deu 16:1; Deu 20:1; Deu 26:8; Deu 29:25), delivering them by a mighty hand, and had redeemed them from the house of bondage (Deu 7:8; Deu 15:15; Deu 24:18; see also Deu 5:6; Deu 6:12; Deu 6:21; Deu 8:14; Deu 13:10; Deu 16:12; Deu 24:22). How then can they now turn against Him? It can be seen how important this motif is in the book. The stress on ‘redemption’ emphasises how He had exercised His power on their behalf. They had much to be grateful for.
The severity of the punishment reflects the situation. At this new birth of the nation it was essential that the children of Israel be fully protected, and it was important that they themselves saw the severity of the offence. There could only be one penalty. Death. For such teaching led to death.
“So shall you put away the evil from the midst of you.” Compare Deu 17:7; Deu 17:12; Deu 19:19; Deu 21:21; Deu 22:21-22; Deu 22:24; Deu 24:7 also see Deu 19:13; Deu 21:9. This was usually, but not always, by death (see Deu 19:19). The evils in mind were considered to be so serious that the death sentence was usually required. Evil was put away by carrying out Yahweh’s sentence, and Moses wants them to see how important the putting away of that evil was.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Of False Prophets in General
v. 1. If there arise among you, v. 2. and the sign or the wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee, v. 3. thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord, your God, proveth you, v. 4. Ye shall walk after the Lord, your God, v. 5. And that prophet or that dreamer of dreams,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
IDOLATERS AND ENTICERS TO IDOLATRY TO BE PUT TO DEATH.
Deu 13:1-5
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.
Deu 13:1
A prophet (nabhi, ); 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
” .
)”
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. A wonder was a miracle, the performance of which gave proof of a Divine commission (cf. 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.
Deu 13:6-11
A second case supposed is that of temptation to apostasy proceeding from some near relative or intimate friend. Not only was this to be resisted, but no consideration of affection or bend of friendship was to be allowed to interfere with the stern sentence which doomed the tempter to death; on the contrary, the person tempted was to be the first to lay hands on the tempter and put him to death. This was to be done by stoning, and the person he had tried to seduce was to cast the first stone.
Deu 13:6
Thy brother, the son of thy mother; thy full brother, allied to thee by the closest fraternal tie. The wife of thy Bosom; the object of thy tenderest affection, Whom it is thine to protect and cherish (cf. Deu 28:54, Deu 28:56; Mic 7:5). Thy friend, which is as thine own soul; i.e. whom thou lovest as thyself. The word translated “friend” (, for ) is from a verb which signifies to delight in, and conveys primarily the idea not merely of a companion, but of a friend in whom one delights; and the definition of true friendship is the loving another as one’s self (Aristot; ‘Eth. Nic.,’ Deu 9:5). As commonly used, however, the word designates any one with whom one has any dealing or intercourse; and so our Lord expounds it (Luk 10:29, etc.). Secretly. If the temptation was in private, and so known only to thyself.
Deu 13:8
Pity, spare, conceal. The accumulation of terms serves to make the injunction more solemn and impressive.
Deu 13:11
The penalty publicly inflicted, and therefore generally known, would have a deterrent effect on the community, so as to prevent the recurrence of such evil.
Deu 13:12-18
A third ease supposed is that of the inhabitants of a city being seduced by wicked men into idolatry. In this case inquiry was to be made as to the fact; and if it was found to be so, the inhabitants of that city were to be put to the sword, all their property was to be burnt, and the city itself reduced to a heap; so should the anger of the Lord be averted from Israel, and he would do them good.
Deu 13:12
Hear in one of thy cities. The Hebrew phrase, “to hear in” ( ). has sometimes the meaning of to overhear, as in Gen 27:5; 1Sa 17:28; Job 15:8; sometimes it means simply to hear, as in 2Sa 19:36 [35]; in Job 26:14, it has the force of to hear of or concerning, though some think this questionable. This latter is apparently the meaning here: If thou hear concerning any of thy cities, etc. Baying. This introduces what is heard.
Deu 13:13
Men, the children of Belial; the sons of worthlessness, utterly worthless persons. Beli yaal (a compound of , not, and , to ascend, to have worth, to profit) means primarily that which is low, hence worthlessness, naughtiness, wickedness. In Deu 15:9, Belial is rendered in the Authorized Version as an adjective, “wicked,” and also in Neh 1:11. In Psa 18:4, it is rendered by “ungodly men.” Most commonly it is treated as a proper name. But in all places the proper meaning of the word might be retained. The Hebrews described an object, of which any quality was predominantly characteristic, as the son of that quality. Are gone out from among you; have gone forth from the midst of you, i.e. have risen up among yourselves. Withdraw. The verb here is the same as that rendered by “thrust,” in Psa 18:5 and Psa 18:10. It conveys the idea of drawing away with some degree of force, not mere easy seduction, but impulsion by strong persuasion.
Deu 13:14, Deu 13:15
After due inquiry, if it was found that such a thing had really been done in any of their cities, the extreme penalty was to be inflicted on the city and all its inhabitantsall were to be destroyed. Smite with the edge of the sword; literally, with the mouth of the sword, as biting and devouring like a ravenous beasta phrase for utter destruction.
Deu 13:16
All the spoil thereof every whir, for the Lord thy God; rather, all the spoil [booty] thereof as a whole offering unto Jehovah thy God; it was to be wholly devoted to God, and as such to be consumed by fire. “It was a destruction, and not properly an offering. Hence the author selects neither nor , but , whole, whole offering (Deu 33:10; Le Deu 6:15 [22]), which word, in the law concerning offering, is no technical designation of any particular kind of offering. The rendering omnino is untenable” (Knobel). The city was to be made a ruin, never to be rebuilt; and thus was to be treated the same as a heathen, idolatrous city might be (cf. Num 21:3).
HOMILETICS
Deu 13:1-18
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 testednot 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 Deu 27:1-26.). 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 truthJehovah, 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 5:1-13.; 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 3:1-19.). 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.
3. 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.
4. 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 2Pe 1:17 -25; Rev 2:10, Rev 2:11; Mat 24:11-13)!
HOMILIES BY J. ORR
Deu 13:1-6
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. (Deu 13:1-3.) This prophet gives a sign or wonderpresumably a predictive wordand 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 revelationadmitting the facts to be as statedbeyond 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 convincingnessevidence- 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. (Deu 18:1.) 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 marvelouswitness 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. (Deu 18:3.) 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).
2. Their doctrine, if found contradictory of Scripture, is to be unhesitatingly rejected.
3. Of old, the prophet whose teachings struck at the foundations of the theocracy was to be put to death (verse 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.
Deu 13:6-12
God or our brother.
Terribly stern is the duty here laid on the person enticed to idolatry. The law is adapted to an age of stern deeds, and to a people living under a stern dispensation. Yet, reflecting on the nature of the crime, on the constitution of the Jewish state, and on the issues to mankind which hung on the slender thread of this one nation’s fidelity, it is difficult to see how it could well have been less stern than it is. Its severity was perhaps its mercy. Note, too, that the criminal could be executed only after formal impeachment, fair trial, and conclusively established guilt (cf. Deu 13:14; Deu 17:2-8; Deu 19:15-21).
I. GOD ALLOWS NO CLAIM OF NATURAL AFFECTION TO INTERFERE WITH HIGHER DUTY TO HIMSELF. It is the same stern voice which we hear even in the Gospels (Mat 8:21, Mat 8:22; Mat 10:37; Luk 14:26). The demands of God on his people’s supreme and undivided allegiance are not now a whit less rigorous than they were of old.
II. GOD WOULD HAVE US REGARD THOSE WHO DELIBERATELY ATTEMPT TO SEDUCE US FROM HIM AS OUR WORST FOES. They really are so, whether they think it or not. No language is strong enough to paint the crime of seeking to seduce a soul from its allegiance to its God. The guilt of the man who deliberately sets himself to counter-work a child’s affection for its parent, and to produce alienation of heart between them, is trivial in comparison with it. The crime is that of soul-murder. For in fidelity to God lies the happiness of life here, and salvation in the world to come. We are not, therefore, to allow any private affection to blind us to the enormity of this crime. Those whom we cherish as dearest are only the more guilty if they take advantage of our affection to betray us into deadly sin.
III. GOD REQUIRES THAT WE DO NOT SPARE THOSE WHO ARE GUILTY OF THIS CRIME. We are no longer called uponand we may be thankful for it-to impeach our seducers, and lead them out to death. Our religion requires that we return good for evil, that we pray for those who injure us, that we seek their conversion and salvation. But it does not require of us that we do not abhor their conduct, and severely reprobate and denounce it. We fail in duty if there is not placed on all attempts at spiritual seduction the immediate brand of our strongest condemnation.J.O.
Deu 13:12-18
A city under ban.
The case here supposed is even more appalling than the former one, for it is the inhabitants of a whole city who, with all that they have, are to be destroyed. Yet, as it is certain that godly persons, dreading the execution of this sentence, would leave this city as soon as they found out what was going onbeing very possibly the bearers of the tidings to othersthe curse would practically take effect only on those who were in league with the idolaters. Searching investigation was to precede the infliction of doom (Deu 13:14).
I. EVIL–DISPOSED PERSONS CAN DO MUCH HARM. A few men”children of Belial”perhaps, at first, but one or two, succeed in seducing, and ultimately in destroying, a whole city. Their cancerous influence speedily infected the mass. Like fire breaking out in a little corner of a building, it soon involved the whole place in ruin. “One sinner destroyeth, much good” (Ecc 9:18). “Evil communications corrupt good manners (1Co 15:33). Evil is not to be thought lightly of, because at first confined to a few individuals, and circumscribed in its range of operations. It will spread faster than good.
II. THE SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF EACH CITY IS OF INTEREST TO THE WHOLE COMMUNITY. Disease in one part of the social organism will speedily communicate itself to the other parts.
III. IMMEDIATE ACTION SHOULD BE TAKEN TO REDUCE EVIL IN ITS CHOSEN SEATS. No longer, indeed, with carnal weapons. We have no warrant to proceed by fire and sword. A better way is open to us of reducing evil than by judicial slaughter. The wickedness of a city is doubtless a token of God’s wrath resting upon it. If it repent not, his judgments will fall upon it with all the old severity. But it does not lie with us to give effect to these judgments; God keeps them in his own hand. Our work, meanwhile, is the happier one of seeking the reduction of evil by spiritual meansby reasoning, by persuasion, by preaching of the truth, by substituting good influences for bad ones. These weapons are adequate to the work for which they are given, and ought to be plied to the utmost. Places differ in spiritual character. There are those of which it may be saidas of Pergamos, “where Satan’s seat is” (Rev 2:13)that in them evil has a kind of stronghold. Against these, by preference, the assaults of God’s servants should be directed. The apostles chose for their attacks the leading centers of pagan influence. One stronghold gained is worth a dozen outposts,J.O.
HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR
Deu 13:1-18
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 (verses 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” (Deu 13:3). 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 (Deu 13:12-18). 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
Deu 13:1-18
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 flagrantso 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 MonarchGod 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 intelligencesagents and servants of the Most Highdid 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 camp. 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 strongdear 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 boundaryabsorbs 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-denialthe 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 (verse 14). They were to inquireto inquire “diligently”to search into the very heart of the matter. It would be a crimeyea, a murderif 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 (verse 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. (Verses 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 Godthat 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.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Ver. 1-4. If there arise among you a prophet, &c. The divinity of their religion, and its peculiar opposition to idolatry, having been fully shewn,
Moses now proceeds to put the strongest case possible; acquainting them, that if any prophet or dreamer of dreams, any person pretending to supernatural inspiration, should give them a sign or a wonder, should predict or perform any thing extraordinary, and make that the ground of drawing them aside from the worship of their God to that of idols, they should utterly disregard any such sign or wonder, nor be at all influenced by it to hearken to the words of the deluder; assured that he could not be commissioned by God, who, being always the same, can never contradict himself: and in this confidence, though perhaps they might not be able to discover the mode of his deceit, or the method by which he was able either to foretel or to perform any thing extraordinary; though they could not tell whether he did it by mere juggling, or by communications with evil spirits; yet they were absolutely to put such a person to death, infallibly assured that no messenger from God could ever attempt to seduce them from the worship of that God. From the 3rd verse one may be led to believe, that, as the Almighty sometimes permits other evils for the same end of proving his people, so he thought fit to allow among the Jews such persons as are here spoken of to perform things really stupendous and miraculous; and how far he may have permitted evil spirits to assist such persons is not for us to determine. This, however, by no means impugns his wisdom or goodness; for as, in the present case, he gave the Israelites such an infallible criterion whereby to determine, so, in all cases, we may be assured that he will either vouchsafe to mankind such criterions, or give to the miracles which real prophets perform such evident marks of divinity and superiority over those of others, as shall never leave the human mind in doubt. Indeed, were we not infallibly assured of this from the very nature of God, we could have no sure foundation whereupon to build our faith, nor any infallible test whereby to prove the truth of a revelation. This subject has been completely handled by Dr. Chapman, in his excellent work called Eusebius, chap. 2. Those, however, who desire to see more and different opinions, may consult Bishop Stillingfleet’s Origines Sacrae, lib. ii. c. 10, where he speaks of discerning true miracles from false; Wells’s Sermons at Boyle’s Lecture, and Bishop Chandler’s Defence. Mr. Locke very well observes upon the subject, that “since God’s power is paramount to all, and no opposition can be made against him with a force equal to his; and since his honour and goodness can never be supposed to suffer his messenger and his truth to be borne down by the appearance of a greater power on the side of an impostor, and in favour of a lie; whenever there is an opposition, the signs which carry with them the evident marks of a greater power will always be a certain evidence that the truth and divine mission are on that side on which they appear. For, though the discovery, how the lying wonders are or can be produced, be beyond the capacity of the ignorant, and often beyond the conception of the most knowing spectator, yet he cannot but know that they are not seals set by God to his truth for the attesting of it; since they are opposed by miracles, which carry the evident marks of a greater and superior power, and therefore they cannot at all shake the authority of one so supported. God can never be thought to suffer that a lie, set up in opposition to a truth coming from him, should be backed with a greater power than he will shew for the confirmation and propagation of a doctrine which He has revealed to the end it might be believed.”
And giveth thee a sign or a wonder Le Clerc thinks, that sign and wonder here signify nearly the same thing: but Houbigant asserts, that the particle ou, rendered or, is disjunctive in the Hebrew; and that, consequently, these two words denote different things. Accordingly, he thinks that a wonder is something more than a sign: the latter signifying a miracle subjected to the human sight, the former such a one as affects man; of which kind were the Egyptian plagues. Both kinds, however, here mean true miracles, things supernatural; for the original words are never used in sacred writings for the jugglings and fallacies of diviners, and therefore the miracles of Moses and Aaron are never expressed by any other words. In the 2nd verse, there is a transposition very frequent in Scripture; the two verses may be read together thus: If there arise among you a prophet, &c. saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, (had no communication with, or intelligence of,) and let us serve them; and shall give you a sign or a wonder, which shall come to pass, according to what he spake unto thee, &c.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Deu 12:32 to Deu 13:18
Deu 12:32 What thing soever [The whole word] I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
Deu 13:1. If there arise [stand up] among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, 2And the sign or [and] the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods [follow other gods] which thou hast not known, and let us serve them: 3Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that [this] 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. 4Ye shall walk [go] 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. 5And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away [spoken, revolt against] from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage [servants] to thrust thee [seduce] out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou [And thou shalt] put the evil away from the midst of thee. 6If thy brother, the son of thy mother, 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, 7which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers: Namely [om. 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; 8Thou shalt not consent [yield] unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: 9But thou shalt surely [by all means, utterly] kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. 10And thou shalt stone him with stones that he die; because he has sought to thrust thee away [to seduce thee]1 from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage [bondmen], 11And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is [such evil word] among you. 12If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the Lord thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying, 13Certain men, the children of Belial,2 are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which 14ye have not known; Then [And] shalt thou inquire, and make search, and ask diligently [well]; and behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain [truth is it, certain the word] that such abomination is wrought among you; 15Thou shalt surely smite [sternly, without mercy] the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly [laying it under a bann] and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword. 16And thou shalt gather all the spoil [made in it] of it into the midst of the street [gate, plaza]3 thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every whit,4 for the Lord thy God: and it shall be an heap [heap of ruins] forever; it shall not be built again. 17And there shall cleave nought of the cursed thing [banned thing] to thine hand: that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and shew [give] thee mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers; 18When thou shalt hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep all his commandments [commandment] which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord thy God.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Deu 13:1-5. The closing verse of the last chapter serves as an introduction to what follows. Comp. 4:1, 2. In the exposition of the third command hitherto, the confession to Jehovah was determined with respect to the one place in opposition to the wide dispersion of Israel in Canaan. Now the same confession is confirmed against every seducing influence, 1) however it may come, and 2) from whatever source, and 3) whatever extent or progress it may have won. [Tempters to false worship are not to be spared even though (Deu 13:1-5) their teaching be confirmed by miracles; or (Deu 13:6-12) they be nearly allied by kindred or friendship; or (Deu 13:13-18) be supported in their apostacy by a whole city. Bib. Com.A. G.].
The first case, Deu 13:1-5. Among you, out of Israel itself, while hitherto the attacks came from without. For see Doct. and Eth. 1. The phrase dreamer of dreams does not precisely describe the character of the false prophet, for Num 12:6 the dream form is expressly assigned to the prophet of Jehovah; the prophet here may be explained by the vision there. Moses also, chap. 18, designates himself as a prophet. The discourse, in the very manner of the pentateuch, is indefinite and comprehensive of the whole prophetic function or being. Givethi.e., announces or makes known to thee, Deu 13:3, (1Ki 13:3) sign or wonder, (4:34) are to be distinguished as and , signum and prodigium, the former more objective and the latter subjective effect [the subjective effect of wonder or astonishment being transferred to that which produces it.A. G.] equally whether is from () to shine, something striking, brilliant, or from , to turn (the kindred Arabic word being to turn away) that which is strangely turned, or more naturally that which excites aversion, amazement, (Psa 71:7), unless we should think of (from , ,) instantly, what is sudden, unexpected. (Used specially of a thing or person who draws astonished attention to himself as typifying and presaging the future. HengstenbergChristol., 2 Ed., Vol. III., I., p. 281). Deu 13:2. And () even both, thus the most extraordinary appearance which could legitimate a discourse, does not depend upon the principal verb (Deu 13:1), but upon , as soon as he gave the sign he spake. Comp. 6:14; 11:28; 5:9. Deu 13:3. For the Lord your God proveth (is proving) you. The participle here, as 8:5, designates the constant method of Jehovah with His people. Comp. 4:34; 8:2. Ye are loving. Since the love must be enduring, the proving also must be lasting or constant, 6:5. Deu 13:4. Comp. 4:3; 8:6; 10:20; 4:4. Deu 13:5. At first, as continually in the first law-giving, simply the death sentence, then in a deuteronomic way the reasons, and the practical hortatory application. The death-sentence () suggests the usual procedure in the courts (17:47; 21:20). For the reasons. Comp. 7:4, 8; 4:19; 9:12, 16. The application refers the act of executing the death sentence, probably by stoning (Deu 13:11) to the character of Israel as a holy people of Jehovah (7:6) which they must confess in every case, but which in this case must be especially sanctified out of the opposition to the name of Jehovah.
2. Deu 13:6-11. The second case proceeds from the peculiarly enticing aspect which the addition of brother, wife, friend, (Deu 13:6) makes clear. In the first case it was that which is above nature, now it is nature truly, flesh and blood with which they should not parley; not to one born of the same mother, then to thine own flesh and blood, nor further, to those bound in the ties of love, nor lastly, to those bound by the still higher tie of friendship (2Sa 1:26; 1Sa 18:1; 1Sa 18:3). For the rest similar to Deu 13:2. Deu 13:7. Only the God of Israel, no other. Deu 13:8. Thou shalt not once listen to him. In other points, comp. 7:16. Since the enticement was in secret, so the proving extends to the concealing (Mat 10:37). Deu 13:9. Comp. 17:7, (2:15). Deu 13:10. Comp. Deu 13:6; Deu 4:19. This energetic, real counter-confession to Jehovah, against ones own flesh and blood, (the neighbor, the confidant, should become accuser, witness, and even the first avenger), Israel should thoroughly fulfil, and indeed with sacred awe before the holy majesty of the one God (comp. Deu 13:5) that the case might never occur again. The purpose of the given death penalty as such is not to terrify. But the prescribed stoning with many stones made it possible that others than those at first related, that the rest of the people even, might share in the confession to the holy name of Jehovah, and perhaps make ready the eternal heap, Deu 13:16. Comp. Jos 7:25-26.
3. Deu 13:12-18. In the third case it is the extent of the sin which is the peculiar object of thought. Deu 13:12. not among, nor of, but, that in one, sq., there are gone out, sq., Deu 13:13. The case is clearly stated at the outset, in the construction, but becomes more prominent through the obligation to the giver Jehovah, placed over against it. introduces the report, what had occurred. [The clause which the Lord thy God giveth thee serves to aggravate the sin, and at the same time to remind the innocent city of the obligation to watch over that which had involved itself in apostacy. The city was the Lords. They held it as stewards. It was entrusted to them. Hence they were to watch over it with the greatest jealousy, and hence the erring city was misusing and perverting the Lords property.A. G.]. Deu 13:13. , who are conceived, born of perf. from above, or imperf. from () to ascend, and thus with that which amounts to nothingworthlessness, both religious and moral, as if we should say, vain, profitless people, as their gods are nonentities, (2Co 6:15). Out from among you. Israel viewed as a whole, hence the obligation against the criminal part. Deu 13:1; Deu 13:5; Deu 13:11, which comp. But the comprehensive punishment, corresponding to the extent of the sin, should follow only Deu 13:14 upon the most thorough investigation. Comp. 9:21. Deu 13:15. so that they fall to the sword. Destroying, sq., banned are they, sq. Comp. chap. 7. Deu 13:16. The street designates the broad, open place in the gates; the place of concourse, of the courts. the whole, what was entirely offered, borders upon and as a whole offering for Jehovah. Deu 13:17. Comp. 7:25 sq. Holiness, as it makes its demand through righteousness, must receive satisfaction, and therewith mercy can follow. The enlargement should counterbalance the loss occasioned by the punishment.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Delitzsch, upon Gen 20:7, explains by one addressed by God, or speaking for Him, i.e., a receiver or interpreter of divine revelation, and thus as equivalent to . Both ideas lie in the primitive word which is common to all dialects. The primordial of the idea is not the utterance as such, or indeed the statement in clear word (C. Meier); is not the name of a ready, fluent worker, peculiarly speaker, (Ewald) or an interpreter (Gesenius); but as , related to , to boil, bubble up, thus as , transferred to human speech, points out the flowing announcement, hence presupposes an extraordinary endowment and inspirationa concealed fountain breaking forth in humanityso the form asserts its usual passive significance (Hengst.) as frequently in words in which suffering, reception, and activity are connected (, ), not precisely equal to inspiratus but nearly so (Hupfeld) i.e., one who receives the secret communications or suggestions. Therefore not so much as the confidant of God; for the prophet not merely preserves these communications, but has to communicate them, which indeed was the case with the patriarchs (Psa 105:10-11), not to speak of the prophetic sayings of Isaac and Jacob, otherwise we should know nothing of their visions and dreams. , = to hum, murmur, of secret trusted communication, as: to whisper, has notwithstanding Hupfelds repeated assertion, no etymological connection with . Even Exo 7:1 can only be viewed as a decisive passage sage for the idea of the prophet, when the two there designedly separated sides: the suggesting God and the uttering prophet are taken together (comp. upon 18:18. A prophet therefore is one who utters, communicates, that which is hidden, flowing forth from secret sources, either higher (divine) or lower, (demonic). The contents make the distinction between the true and false prophet, as to the form, even signs and wonders, do not fail the latter.
2. As to the biblical idea of a wonder or miracle, it is to be observed that signs precede wonders even in the New Testament connection: , the latter never occurring alone. In the sign it is the objective import of the thing upon which it depends, in the wonder it is the subjective perception. Thus remarks Havernick, it appears here from the standpoint of revelation, it is not the wonder in and by itself, but that which is significant in it, the higher to which it points, which is the peculiar essential kernel and characteristic of the true miracle. Above all in the biblical miracle there is an exalted sacred conformity to, or connection with the great educating purpose of God. The fact announced in this chap., that signs and wonders may be used in the service of falsehood, is not less important for the biblical idea of the miracle (Mat 24:24; 2Th 2:9; Rev 13:13) since thus with the signs and wonders we must take the doctrine, and in connection with this the life, and conduct of the wonder-worker. Comp. Mat 7:15 sq.; 22 sq. It is clear that however great the importance attributed to signs and wonders, they were never regarded as of supreme moment, were never in themselves decisive, but that there was in Israel a certainty which was so much more sure and firm than any demonstration of the wonder, that it could be placed in the most decided opposition to it. This certainty was the knowledge of God; for when they were warned against the service of idols, the opposition between Jehovah and the gods was for the most part thus stated; that Israel had known Jehovah as his God, but had not known the gods of the heathen, and could not therefore trust itself to them, etc. (Baumgarten).
[The point here is not as to the nature and force of the true miracle, but whether these signs and wonders are to be regarded as true miracles. The Scriptures use these terms in a very wide sense, and there is ground for the usage in the very nature of the case. It could not well be otherwise. If we hold, with some, that the prophet here is a true prophet, and the wonder a real miracle; that God for the purpose of proving and testing His people, permitted this use of His power, we involve ourselves in inextricable difficulties. It will be hard to reconcile this view with the character of God, as true and good, or to justify such a misleading test to His people. We shall be driven to degrade the miracle as a proper evidence of a divine commission, or withdraw it altogether from the field of the evidences. We may meet the case here by the supposition that Moses is putting a hypothetical but impossible case, as Paul in Gal 1:6. But the whole statement as to the sin, and the manner in which it should be dealt with, implies that it was not only a supposable case, but one which would actually occur. Such prophets would arise, and such wonders be wrought.
The only satisfactory solution is that those wonders were not real miracles. They were supernatural events, i.e., events not traceable to any human agency, or to any natural power or process, but not due to the immediate agency of God, or to any other permissible use of His power in any other sense than that in which He permits whatever is. They were not tricks or impostures. They were real wonders so far as the physical events are concerned. They were true occurrences in the external world, wonders to men, lying above and beyond their power, but due to Satanic or demonic agency. Such agency is recognized in the Scriptures everywhere. It would be likely to manifest itself, for precisely the ends in view by these prophets or dreamers. They had the semblance of true miracles, and herein lay the test. It was only the semblance, and they should have distinguished the real from the apparent. The physical wonder, however striking or awe-inspiring, or unexpected it may have been, was not the miracle. The material wonder coincides with some express announcement, some express claim upon the part of him who works it. The nature of the wonder itself, the truth or announcement connected with it, and the character of the agent, all go to make the miracle. Our Lord Himself appeals to the design with which His miracles were wrought. No wonder or sign therefore could justify them in listening for a moment to one who would turn them from the love and service of Jehovah. God would never coperate to alienate His own people. See the able article on miracles in Smiths Bib. Dict., Am. Ed. Trench on Miracles, Introduction. Mozley, Lecture on Miracles, London, 1865, and the authors referred to in Smiths Bib. Dict.A.. G.].
3. When the peculiar doctrine and practice of the Romish Church, in whose system not only Calvin, but even Melancthon, were entangled, is based as to the punishment of heretics, schismatics, and sects upon our chapter, it is due to a confusion of ideas; of the theocracy with the Byzantine or medival State Church, and involves a mistake as to the nature both of the State and the Church. In the Israelitish theocracy, apostacy from Jehovah, and the institution of a heathen confession and service, was intelligibly treason, rebellion, a civil offence, which must meet with civil punishment. The State, even the Christian state, has the sphere of law and justice for its province, rules in the relations of men to men; can thus only be appealed to in regard to faith, the relation to God, when danger or injury from that side, as to its legal relations, threatens it. And the Church will generally have to decline the means of violence as repugnant to the very nature of religion, as especially considering the religious development, it cannot work with the Old Testament against the New Testament injuries, the more refined and cultivated forms of evil. Against Augustines compelle intrare (Luk 14:23), Luke himself, 9:54 sq., should be heard. But the sword of the Spirit which the Church bears, the word of God, it uses not merely through philosophic demonstration, but the Spirit is the Spirit of testimony, of strength, and of discipline, (1Co 5:13). Comp. Lange, Christian Dogmatics, III., 52, and for the history, Herzogs Realencycl., V., p. 459 sq.
4. The end of the punishment, as it is more expressly declared in the three clauses (Deu 13:5; Deu 13:11; Deu 13:17), is the putting away of the sin from the midst of Israel by an actual manifestation of the violated law, hence as opposed to the sinful confession which had come into Israel, to make an energetic counter-confession to Jehovah, not-withstanding signs and wonders, bands of blood, and of choice, and even prudence on account of the greatness of the evil. Thus the jus talionis. Deu 13:5 declares the negative element of the punishment by Which the sin was restrained in its course, and limited to the doer. Its positive destination, through which the transgression was atoned, and the guilt of the transgressor expiated, appear in Deu 13:11, since the divine righteousness, in its fearful majesty, enters threateningly over against the whole people. The negative and positive elements are both embraced or pre-supposed, Deu 13:17-18, so that the reconciliation of God to Israel, and of Israel to God, can now have room. The subordinate or derived ends of punishment, says Nitzsch, can only be sought and attained, as they are made good through the consciousness of eternal righteousness.
5. [The Jews applied, Deu 13:2-5, to Christ as though He would have allured them, from their allegiance to God and the law, utterly and blindly perverting His whole teaching; which our Saviour took pains to present, as in its whole nature and tendency completing and not destroying the law. Wordsworth closes his long and elaborate note here with the remark that the conduct of the Jews here shows the vast importance of a correct interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. They had the Scripture, but failed to understand it, and incurred its fearful denunciations by condemning Him to whom they bare witness. A. G.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Deu 12:32 sq. Luther: We should depend entirely upon the word, and do all which it enjoins heartily; for if the word is lost, God is lost. But it is better that one should lose friend, brother, saints and nobles, and all, than God. Calvin: There is a certainty in the heavenly doctrine which does not permit our faith to waver or to be overthrown, Eph 4:14. Cramer: There must be heresies among you, that the upright may appear, 1Co 11:19. Berl. Bib.: One such prophet is our reason. Deu 13:2. Tub. Bib.: Truth is more than all wonders, and no wonder avails against the truth. Deu 13:3. Luther: Dost thou see here that the right is given to every one to judge the doctrine? Mat 7:18. The silent power of love. Calvin: God searches the heart, not to learn what was unknown to Him, but to reveal what was concealed. Thus the true saints are separated from the hypocrites. Schultz: He knows from the beginning; but there must be some fitting experience through which His conduct may stand justified before men, angels and Himself even, Job 1:8. Berl. Bib.: It is noticeable, that there is no example in the Old Testament in which Israel as such has so treated one of the many false prophets, but many examples in which they wrested the law against true prophets, and against Christ Himself. Mat 21:33 sq.; 23:34 sq.; Act 7:52; Joh 19:7. Deu 13:7. Richter: The evil one tempts at all times, but most easily through those we love; Adam through Eve, Christ through Peter, Mat 16:23. Deu 13:16. Richter: Since Israel never carried out this sentence upon godless places, God has done it Himself, especially through the Chaldeans. Schultz: If the Church neglects the extermination, the Lord will complete it through the spirit of judgment and the spirit of destruction even, Isa 4:4.Faith in temptation, however dazzling the temptation is to it, follows the Lord; however alluring, the Lord is all to it and more; however violent, it is satisfied with the grace whose strength is mighty in the weak.
Footnotes:
[1][Deu 13:10. Here as above the does not precisely correspond with our word thrust, which carries with it the idea of external force. Better when followed by , to draw from.A. G.].
[2][Deu 13:13. Margin, naughty men: lit. sons of worthlessness.A. G.].
[3][Deu 13:16. Street, the broad, open market-place, at the gate; Gesenius.A. G.].
[4][Deu 13:16. Schroeder adopts the rendering of our version, making an adverb. See however Exeget. notes. Others, Keil, Knobel, Bib. Com., render it as in 33:10, a whole offering.A. G.].
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
DISCOURSE: 206
THE JEWS LEADING OBJECTION TO CHRISTIANITY CONSIDERED
Deu 13:1-3. 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.
IT has commonly, and with justice, been thought, that the two great pillars on which a revelation from God must stand, are, miracles, and prophecies. Without these, we cannot be assured, that any discovery which may have been made to man, is really divine. The points that are traced to a divine origin may be highly reasonable and excellent in themselves; yet, before they are clothed with a divine authority, we very properly ask, What proof is there that they are from God? what evidence do you give that they are not the offspring of your own mind? If they are from God, I take for granted that God does not leave you without witness: tell me then, what works do you perform, which no created power can perform; or what other credentials have you, whereby your heavenly mission may be known? If you can foretell things to come, I shall then know that you are from God; because none but God can certainly foreknow them: or if you can work things above, and contrary to the course of nature, then I shall know that you have that power from on high; because no created being can impart it.
This, I say, is the established mode of judging concerning a revelation from God: and, according as any thing professing to be from God is thus confirmed, or not, we give to it, or withhold from it, our assent. It is from grounds like these that we judge of the revelation given to Moses; and from similar grounds must we judge of the truth of Christianity also.
We must indeed inspect the matter of the thing revealed, to see whether it be worthy of him from whom it is said to come; and from its internal evidence our faith will derive great strength: but still in the first instance we look rather to external proofs, such as we have before spoken of.
But the Jews imagine that they are precluded from judging of Christianity on such grounds as these, since Moses, in the passage we have just read, guards them against any such inferences as we are led to draw from the prophecies and miracles on which our religion is founded. He concedes that some prophecies may be uttered, and some miracles be wrought, in favour of a false religion; and that, even if that should be the case, the Jews are not to regard any evidences arising from those sources, but to hold fast their religion in opposition to them.
This is an objection commonly urged among the Jews, when we invite them to embrace the Christian religion. That we may meet it fairly, we will, first, state the objection in all its force, and then give what we apprehend to be the proper answer to it.
I.
We begin then with stating the objection; and we will do it in such a way as to give the Jew all possible advantage.
The scope of the passage is to guard the Jews against idolatry. They were, and would continue to be, surrounded by idolatrous nations, who would strive to the utmost to draw them from Jehovah to the worship of false gods. And the Jews themselves having from the earliest period of their existence as a people been accustomed to see the idolatrous worship of Egypt, were of themselves strongly attached to idolatry; so that it was necessary to guard them against it by the most awful menaces, and the most impressive cautions.
The caution here given is certainly most solemn. That we may give it all the force of which it is capable, we will notice distinctly these three things; The supposition here made; The injunction given notwithstanding that supposition; and The argument founded on that injunction.
First, mark the supposition here made, namely, that God may permit miraculous and prophetic powers to be exercised even in support of a false religion. We are not indeed to imagine that God himself will work miracles in order to deceive his people, and lead them astray; nor are we to imagine that he will suffer Satan to work them in such an unlimited way as to be a counterbalance to the miracles by which God has confirmed his own religion: but he will, for reasons which we shall presently consider, permit some to be wrought, and some prophecies to come to pass, notwithstanding they are designed to uphold an imposture. The magicians of Pharaoh, we must confess, wrought real miracles. When they changed their rods into serpents, it was not a deception, but a reality: and when they inflicted plagues upon Egypt after the example of Moses, it was not a deception, but a reality: but at the same time that they thus, in appearance, vied with Moses himself, and with Jehovah, in whose name he came, there was abundant evidence of their inferiority to Moses, and of their being under the control of a superior power: for the magicians could not remove one of the plagues which they themselves had produced; nor could they continue to imitate Moses in all the exercises of his power (from whence they themselves were led to confess their own inferiority to him): nor could they avert from themselves the plagues which Moses inflicted on them in common with the rest of the Egyptians. They were permitted to do so much as should give Pharaoh an occasion for hardening his own heart, but not sufficient to shew that they could at all come in competition with Moses.
In every age there were also false prophets, who endeavoured to draw the people from their allegiance to God; and in the multitude of prophecies that they would utter, it must be naturally supposed that some would be verified in the event. Our blessed Lord has taught us to expect, even under the Christian dispensation, that some efforts of this kind will be made by Antichrist, 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 [Note: 2Th 2:9-10.]. He has moreover told us that these false prophets should shew such signs and wonders as to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect [Note: Mat 24:24.]: nay more, that in the last day some will appeal to him respecting the prophecies they have uttered, and the miracles they have wrought in his name, and will plead them in arrest of judgment [Note: Mat 7:22.]. We may therefore safely concede what is here supposed, namely, that God may suffer miraculous and prophetic powers to be exercised to a certain degree even in support of idolatry itself.
Now then, in the next place, let us notice the injunction given to the Jews notwithstanding this supposition. God commands them not to give heed to that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, even though his predictions should be verified, if his object be to turn them from him; for that he himself suffers these illusions to be practised upon them, in order that their fidelity to him may be tried, and their love to him approved.
It may seem strange that God should suffer such stumbling-blocks to be cast in the way of his people: but it is not for us to say what Jehovah may, or may not, do: we are sure that he tempteth no man, so as to lead him into sin [Note: Jam 1:13.], and that the Judge of all the earth will do nothing but what is right. But it is a fact, that he thus permitted Job to be tried, in order that he might approve himself a perfect man: and in like manner he tried Abraham, in order that it might appear, whether his regard for Gods authority, and his confidence in Gods word, were sufficient to induce him to sacrifice his Isaac, the child of promise [Note: Gen 22:1-2; Gen 22:12.]. It was for similar ends that God permitted his people to be tried for forty years in the wilderness [Note: Deu 8:2.]; and in the same way he has tried his Church in every period of the world. This is the true reason of so many stumbling-blocks being laid in the way of those who embrace the Christian faith. Christianity is not revealed in a way to meet with the approbation of proud and carnal men: it is foolishness to the natural man: yea, even Christ himself is a stumbling-block to some, as well as a sanctuary to others; and such a stumbling-block, as to be a gin and a snare to both the houses of Israel, amongst whom it was foretold, many should stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken [Note: Isa 8:14-15.]. It is Gods express design in the whole constitution of our religion, to discover the secret bent of mens minds: and whilst to the humble he has given abundant evidence for their conviction, he has left to the proud sufficient difficulties to call forth their latent animosity, and to justify in their own apprehensions, their obstinate unbelief [Note: Luk 2:34-35.]. He gave originally to the Jews, as he has also given to us, sufficient evidence to satisfy any candid mind: and this is all that we have any right to expect. It was not necessary that our Lord should give to every man in the Jewish nation the same evidence of his resurrection, as he gave to Thomas: it was reasonable that there should be scope left for every man to exercise his own judgment on the evidences that were placed within his reach; as our Lord said to Thomas, Because thou hast seen, thou hast believed; but blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed.
Hence then God enjoined his people not to regard any person who should attempt to draw them to idolatry, even though he should work a miracle before their eyes, or foretell an event that should afterwards come to pass. They had had abundant evidence, that the religion they had embraced was from God: they possessed also in the very nature of that religion an internal evidence of its excellency: and they had received from God such demonstrations of his power and goodness, as ought to unite them to him in the most indissoluble bonds of faith and love. If therefore they should be induced to renounce their allegiance to him, and to transfer it to dumb idols that had never done any thing for them, nor ever could do any thing, they would betray a manifest want of love to him, and must blame themselves only, if they should ultimately be given up to a delusion to believe a lie, and be left to perish in their iniquity [Note: 2Th 2:11-12.]. He would have them therefore upon their guard in relation to this matter, and resolutely to resist every attempt to draw them from him, however specious that attempt might be.
The argument founded on this injunction comes now before us with all the force that can be given to it. A Jew will say, You Christians found your faith on prophecies and on miracles: and admitting that Jesus did work some miracles, and did foretell some events which afterwards came to pass, God permitted it only to try us, and to prove our fidelity to him. He has cautioned us beforehand not to be led astray from him by any such things as these: he has expressly forbidden us to regard any thing that such a prophet might either say or do: nay more, he commanded that we should take such a prophet before the civil magistrate, and have him put to death: and therefore, however specious your reasonings appear, we dare not listen to them or regard them.
II.
Having thus given to the objection all the force that the most hostile Jew can wish, I now come in the second place to offer, what we hope will prove a satisfactory answer to it.
It cannot but have struck the attentive reader, that in this objection there are two things taken for granted; namely, that in calling Jews to Christianity we are calling them from Jehovah; and that our authority for calling them to Christianity is founded on such miracles as an impostor might work, and such prophecies as an impostor might expect to see verified.
But in answer to these two points we declare, first, that we do not call them from Jehovah, but to him;next, that our authority is not founded on such miracles and prophecies as might have issued from an impostor, but such as it was impossible for an impostor to produce;and lastly, that, in calling them to Christ, we have the express command of God himself.
First, we do not call our Jewish brethren from Jehovah, but to him.
We worship the very same God whom the Jews worship: and we maintain his unity as strongly as any Jew in the universe can maintain it. As for idols of every kind, we abhor them as much as Moses himself abhorred them. Moreover, we consider the law which was written on the two tables of stone as binding upon us, precisely as much as if it were again promulged by an audible voice from heaven. Instead of calling them from the law, we call them to it: we declare that every man who has transgressed it in any one particular, is deservedly condemned to everlasting misery [Note: Deu 27:26; Gal 3:10.]: and it is from a consciousness that this sentence must fall on every human being who has not fled for refuge to the hope set before him in the Gospel, that we are so anxious to call both Jews and Gentiles to a belief of the Gospel. We go further, and say, that no human being can be saved, who has not a perfect obedience to that law as his justifying righteousness. But where shall we find a perfect obedience to that law? where shall we find a man who can say, he has fulfilled it in every jot and tittle? Alas! we all have transgressed it times without number: we are all therefore condemned by it: and being condemned for our disobedience, we can never be justified by our obedience to it. Would to God, that this matter were understood by the Jews! we should find no difficulty then in leading them to Christ. Did they but know what wrath they have merited, they would be glad to hear of one who has borne it for them: and did they but know how impossible it is for an imperfect obedience to that law to justify them, they would be glad to hear of one who has fulfilled it in all its extent, and brought in an everlasting righteousness for all who believe in him. Yes, my Jewish brethren, know assuredly that the Christian does not make void the law, but establishes the law [Note: Rom 3:31.]: and has no hope of salvation in anyway, but such as magnifies the law and makes it honourable [Note: Isa 42:21.]; and it is his earnest desire that you should agree with him in this matter; because he is sure, that, when once you come to understand your own law, and see how Christ was the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth, your difficulties will all vanish as the morning dew before the rising sun.
With respect to the ceremonial law, we do indeed call you from the observance of that; and we have good reason so to do; for you yourselves know, that all the essential part of your religion existed before the ceremonial law was given; and that Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, who lived hundreds of years before the ceremonial law was given, were saved simply and entirely by faith in that promised Seed, in whom all the nations of the earth are blessed. By faith then in this promised Seed must you be saved: every child of Abraham must seek for acceptance in the way that Abraham did. If you ask, Why then was the ceremonial law given? I answer, To shadow forth your Messiah, and to lead you to him: and when he should come and fulfil it in all its parts, it was then to cease; and you yourselves know that it was intended by God himself to cease at that appointed time. Do you not know that your Messiah was to come out of the loins of David; and that he was also to be a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec? But if there was to be a new priesthood after the order of Melchizedec, the priesthood of Aaron must cease: and if the new priest was to spring from David, who was of the tribe of Judah, and not from Levi to whose descendants the priesthood was confined, then it is clear from this also that the Aaronic priesthood must cease: and if that be changed, then must there of necessity be a change of the law also [Note: Heb 7:11-12.]: so that you yourselves know that the ceremonial law was never intended to continue any longer than the time fixed for its completion in the predicted Messiah. If then we call you from the outward observances of that law, it is not from disrespect to that law, but from a conviction that it has been fulfilled and abrogated by the Lord Jesus. We call you only from shadows to the substance. We call you to Christ as uniting in himself all that the ceremonial law was intended to shadow forth. He is the true tabernacle, in whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. He is the true Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, even that Lamb of God which, as John the Baptist testified, taketh away the sins of the world. He is the great High-Priest, who, having through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, is now entered into the holy place with his own blood, and there ever liveth to make intercession for us; and is to come forth from thence once more to bless in his Fathers name his waiting people. I wish then, my Jewish brethren, that you would particularly bear this in mind. We honour the ceremonial law as admirably calculated to prepare your minds for the Gospel: not only because it exhibited so fully and so minutely every part of the mediatorial office which our Lord was to sustain, but because by the burthensomeness of its rites it tended to break your spirit, and to make you sigh for deliverance. And methinks, it should be no grievance to you to be called from those observances, because you neither do, nor can, continue them: the destruction of your city and temple, and your whole ecclesiastical and civil polity, have rendered impossible for you to comply with them, and have thus shut you up to the faith of Abraham, which is the faith of the Gospel.
I am aware that in calling you to worship the Lord Jesus Christ we appear to you to be transferring to him the honour due to God alone. But if you will look into your own Scriptures, you will find than the person who was foretold as your Messiah is no other than God himself. Examine the Psalm before referred to [Note: Psalms 110.], and see how David speaks of your Messiah: The Lord said unto my LORD, Sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool. David here calls him Jehovah: and how could he do that, if that title did not properly belong to him? This question Jesus put to the Pharisees in his day; and they could not answer him a word: nor can all the Rabbis upon the face of the earth suggest any satisfactory answer to it now. The only answer that can be given is, that the same person, who as man, was Davids son, as Jehovah, was Davids Lord, or, as Isaiah calls him, Emmanuel, God with us. Receive him in the character in which the Prophet Isaiah foretold his advent, as the Child born, the Son given, the Wonderful Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace. Call him, as another prophet instructs you, Jehovah our righteousness: and know, that, in thus honouring Christ, you will honour the Father who sent him.
This then is my first answer; that in no respect whatever do we call you from God, but wholly and altogether to him; to Him, as the One true God, in opposition to all idols; to his law, as fulfilled in Christ, and directing you to him; and to his Gospel, as the completion and consummation of all the wonders of his love. In as far as we call you from your present course, it is only from types and shadows to the substance and reality. You remember that at the moment of our Lords death the veil of the temple was rent in twain, and the most holy place was laid open to the view of all who were worshipping before it. The way into the holiest being thus opened to you all by God himself, we invite all to enter in with boldness, and assure you in Gods name that you shall find acceptance with him.
The next thing which we proposed to shew was, that our authority for calling you thus to Christ is not founded on such prophecies or miracles as might have issued from an impostor, but on such as it was impossible for an impostor to produce.
Consider the prophecies: they were not some few dark predictions of mysterious import and of doubtful issue, uttered by our Lord himself; but a continued series of prophecies from the very fall of Adam to the time of Christ; of prophecies comprehending an almost infinite variety of subjects, and those so minute, as to defy all concert either in those who uttered, or those who fulfilled, them. A great multitude of them were of such a kind that they could not possibly be fulfilled by any but the most inveterate enemies. Who but an enemy would have nailed him to the cross, or pierced him to the heart with a spear, or offered him gall and vinegar to drink, or mocked and insulted him in the midst of all his agonies? Do not these put his Messiahship beyond a doubt? I will mention only one prophecy of Christ himself: but it is such an one as no impostor would utter, and no impostor could fulfil. What impostor would rest all the credit of his mission on his being put to a cruel, ignominious, and accursed death, and rising from the dead the third day? Or if an impostor were foolish enough to utter such a prophecy, how, when he was actually dead, could he fulfil it? But the whole Scriptures predicted these things of Jesus, as Jesus also did of himself: and the exact fulfilment of them proves beyond all reasonable doubt his true Messiahship.
Consider the miracles also: these were beyond all comparison greater and more numerous than Moses ever wrought. The healing all manner of diseases was the daily and hourly employment of the Lord Jesus for the three or four last years of his life. The whole creation, men, devils, fishes, elements, all obeyed his voice; and at his command the dead arose to life again. But there is one miracle also which in particular we will mention. Jesus said, I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again: and the former of these he proved by speaking with a loud voice the very instant he gave up the ghost, shewing thereby, that he did not die in consequence of his nature being exhausted, but by a voluntary surrender of his life into his Fathers hands. And at the appointed time he proved the latter also, notwithstanding all the preparations made to defeat his purpose, all of which proved in the issue the strongest testimonies to the truth of his word. But would an impostor have pretended to such a power; or when actually dead, could he have exercised it? And, when the interval between his death and resurrection was to be so short, would not the stone, the seal, the watch, have been sufficient to secure the detection of the imposture? Further, would an impostor have undertaken to send down the Holy Ghost after his death for the purpose of enabling his followers to speak all manner of languages, and of working all kinds of miracles; or if he had predicted such things, could he have fulfilled them? Judge then whether here be not ground enough for that faith which we call you to exercise towards him? If there be not, how do you prove the divine authority of your own lawgiver? In point of testimony, great as was that which proved the divine mission of Moses, it was nothing when compared with that which substantiated the Messiahship of Jesus. We therefore confidently call you to believe in him, and to embrace the salvation which he offers you in the Gospel.
But there is one great argument which we have reserved till now, in order that it may bear upon you with the greater weight. We declare to you then, in the last place, that, in calling you to Christ, we have the express command of God himself.
Moses, in chapter 13 of Deuteronomy, bids you, as we have seen, not to listen to any false prophet: but in chapter 18:18, 19, he most explicitly declares, that a Prophet should arise, to whom you should attend. Hear his own words: I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.
Now I ask you, Who is the Prophet here spoken of? Where was there ever, besides Moses, a prophet that was a Mediator, a Lawgiver, a Ruler, a Deliverer? Was there ever such an one, except Jesus? And was not Jesus such an one in all respects? Yes; he has wrought for you not a mere temporal deliverance like Moses, but a spiritual and eternal deliverance from sin and Satan, death and hell: He has redeemed you, not by power only, but by price also, even the inestimable price of his own blood. Having thus bought you with his blood, he ever liveth in heaven itself to make continual intercession for you. A new law also has he given you, the law of faith, in conformity to which he enjoins you to walk, and by which he will judge you in the last day. Of this blessed person all your own prophets have spoken; and this very Moses, in whom you trust, declares to you, that, if you will not hear and obey this Prophet, God will require it of you. When therefore you plead the authority of Moses, we join issue with you, and say, Be consistent. Renounce false prophets, because he bids you: but believe in the true Prophet, whom God according to his word has raised up to you, because he bids you. Let his authority weigh equally with you in both cases: and then we shall not fear, but that you will embrace the salvation offered you in the Gospel, and be the spiritual children, as ye already are the natural descendants, of believing Abraham. Abraham looked forward with eager expectation to see the day of Christ, and saw it, and was glad. May ye also now see it, and rejoice in him as your Saviour for evermore!
It is for your partiality in this respect that God has punished you now these eighteen hundred years, and is punishing you at this day. He told you, he would require of you your rejection of this Prophet; and he has required it more severely, than he has all your other sins ever since you became a nation. O repent of this evil, and turn to God in his appointed way! so shall his wrath be turned away from you, and you shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation.
We cannot conclude our subject without suggesting a suitable improvement of it to our Christian brethren
As the Jews were constantly assailed by idolaters who sought to draw them from the worship of the true God, so are you by infidels, or worldlings, to draw you from the belief or practice of the Gospel. But do infidels assault you? Ask them whether their objections, all of which arise from ignorance alone, are sufficient to invalidate all the evidences which may be adduced in support of our religion? If not, then hold fast the profession of your faith without wavering. Do worldlings tell you that God does not require you to renounce the world, and to give yourselves up entirely to him? Ask them, what proof they can give, that God has authorized them to set aside the plainest declarations of his word. You may expect at least that they shall be possessed of miraculous and prophetic powers, or else they have not so much as the semblance of true prophets. But even if they had these powers and displayed them evidently before your eyes, yet ought you not to regard their counsels, because they seek to turn you from God to a poor perishing and worthless idol; from God, who has redeemed you by the blood of his only dear Son, and given you all things in and with him, to an idol, that never has done any thing for you, nor ever can. Be firm therefore, even though your father or your mother, your brother or your sister, or even the wife of your own bosom, should seek to turn you from the Lord. Your plain answer to them all is, Whether it be right to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. Whatever temptations they offer, or menaces they employ, let nothing induce you to draw back from following the Lord fully. Be faithful unto death; and he will give you a crown of life.
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
CONTENTS
This Chapter is a continuation of the same subject as the former. Particular and special precepts are contained in it to arm against the motives to idolatry; the persons tempting to it are to be stoned, and even the cities where this sin is committed, are to be razed to the earth.
Deu 13:1
To those who know not the deceitfulness of the human heart, or the melancholy state of blindness and ignorance to which we are fallen, the precept in this verse may appear strange. But Reader! danger of deception concerning true and false prophets was not peculiar to the Israelites. Observe what Paul saith of the last times concerning apostacy, and then pause over the subject, and pray for grace to resist every temptation of this kind. See 1Ti 4:1 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Danger and Security
Deu 13
This passage, by the inspiration of God, touches upon all the possible points of danger in a religious course. Suppose, for the moment, we do not admit the inspiration, still there remains the fact that in a book so old as Deuteronomy some master hand has touched the three great points of vital danger in religious progress. We bow to genius: we acknowledge power: we say it is but decent to uncover the head in the presence of superiority; bound by this law, we cannot read this chapter without feeling that, be the writer who he may, he was a man who knew human nature: he saw clearly every point of danger, and with delicate, but resolute, courage pointed out the only course which such dangers involved and required.
What are the points of danger? The first may be described as being somewhat after a philosophical sort. There is nothing rude in the assault, nothing violent, or startling, or shocking, from a merely animal or physical point of view; it is a very delicate encroachment upon religious thought: it is shadowy as a vision: it is impalpable as a dream, and the speaker of his dream assumes, with amazing appearance of innocence, a total want of responsibility in the matter, forasmuch as he is simply relating, with a child’s ingenuousness, what he saw in the dark and what he heard in the silence. What creature could be less objectionable? Here is no blatant vulgarity of denunciation, no audacious assault upon conservative piety. Who would not allow a man to relate a dream? Who does not like to have his imagination touched as by fire, and invited to the hospitality of spaces boundless and lights that outshine the sun? What harm can come of a trip to the upper air? What possible injury can come from a survey of clouds which break now and again to let the glory through? Surely this is harmless: it is more than harmless: it is instructive: it may be a lesson in the deeper philosophy; it may be the beginning of a widening revelation. Besides, an approach of this kind is marvellously graded so as to suit human nature: you do no harm to your cause by assuming that the man to whom you are speaking is a fellow-dreamer, a brother-poet, gifted with the same imagination, and by gently insinuating that he may have had still higher experiences of the night-scenes, the star-fields, the glory-lands that burn above. A man likes to be accosted as if he were an intellectual gentleman. To tell him a dream is to beget his confidence; to ask him to listen to the minor tones of the soul is to confer the highest of favours upon his manhood. The mischief is this, that a man who would listen to such a dreamer, or seer of visions, and allow his religion to be affected by the nightmare, would turn the man out of his presence if he attempted to offer him a single idea upon any practical subject under heaven. We are easily beguiled from the religious point. “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?” Surely this is a mystery of a profound and solemn kind, that we are always ready to listen to dreamers and visionaries concerning the faith of Christ, and give them credit for penetration amounting almost to inspiration, and yet upon all other subjects we withdraw the confidence of our judgment and heart from such men. We allow any thief to steal our religion, mayhap, because we want to get rid of it; we lay it where the thief can purloin it without trouble: he knows where to find it. In politics we laugh at him; in business we deny his right to speak, and call it impertinence if he cough in the presence of commercial men; and were he to offer a judgment upon literature, propriety would shudder, intellectual dignity would recoil lest the man should stain its purity; but let him tell a dream or a vision that will imperil the faith of the rising life of the country, and he may be listened to. It would seem as if it were easier to murder the soul than to kill the body. The first point of danger, therefore, is thus clouded in a golden veil; and the man who may be said to be preparing for that danger is dreamy, hazy-minded, speculative, always looking into a mist if, haply, he may find a star: such a gentle, dozing creature, so harmless, and really so very attractive in many qualities of his character.
What is the second point of danger? It is not at all philosophical; it may be ranked among the social forces that are constantly operating upon life: “If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee” ( Deu 13:6 ). All kindred would seem to be written under this designation, and the friend who is akin to the soul, your very other self, he of whom you ask no questions even when you least understand him, because he is golden gold, true as the geometry of the universe, upright, square, thoroughly well-related in all the parts and qualities of his nature, a building of God. Social influences are constantly operating upon our faith. The youngest member of the family has been reading a book, and has invited the head of the house to go and listen to some new speaker of theories, speculations, and dreams: the service is so beautiful: the idea is so novel: a great deal of the rush and tumult common to elementary religious life is totally escaped; the intellectual brother the man supposed to have all the brains of the family has got a new idea, an idea which in no wise associates itself with historical churches and traditional creeds, but a bran-new idea, altogether sparkling and daring, and whosoever professes it will at once take his place in the synagogue of genius; or the darling friend has caught a voice down some by-way, and he will have his other self go with him in the evening to hear this speaker of anti-Christian ideas, a man who has undertaken to reconstruct so much of the universe as will allow him to touch it: a person of exquisite mind, of dainty taste, and of quite latent power. The subtle purpose is to draw men away from the old altar, the old Book, the God of deliverance and beneficence, of mercy and redemption, to another god who will condescend to be measured for a creed, and who is not above sitting for his portrait. So we blame the family for alluring us from old centres: the older members of the family would not have gone, but under pressure from the brother, the son, the daughter, the wife, or the family friend. Why betake yourself to such cowardly language? Why add insult to injury when you leave the old altar, saying you would not have gone but that some other man enticed you? The fact is you have gone: better stand straight up and claim your going to be the expression of a conviction, the outworking of what you believe to be a true inspiration. Do not follow a multitude to do evil. Do not always be at the string end, led about by those who are of more forceful and energetic will than yourselves. Be sure as to what they are taking you to; have a clear understanding before you begin. You would not allow those persons to interfere with anything practical: when the discussion of commercial questions arises, you stand at the front and say, There I can bear testimony, and there I ought to be heard. Why claim such a solemn responsibility in the settlement of nothing, and allow anybody to settle for you the great questions of religious truth and personal destiny? There is no need to violate courtesy, or to suspend friendly relations; but it ought to be needful to every man to know exactly what is proposed to be done with his soul by the prophet who has dreamed a dream, or the member of a family who has been seized with a desire to entice other members of that family from the historical altar.
What is the third point of danger? It is not philosophical; it is not, in the narrow sense of the term, social; it is a point of danger which may be characterised as public sentiment, public opinion, a general turning round, and a wholesale abandonment of old theologies and old forms of worship: “If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the Lord thy God hath given thee to dwell there,” that the cities have turned round, as it were, en masse, and have gone after “other gods, which ye have not known” ( Deu 13:12-13 ). Some men may have courage to laugh at the dreamer: others may have virtue enough to resist the blandishments of the nearest friend; but who can resist the current or tendency of public opinion? Say to some men, Public opinion is against you; you are talking a forgotten language; you have not associated yourself with the tendency of the times; all your speech is not without benevolence and the attraction of quaintness: there is an archaic flavour in your speech that is very touching and that might for a moment bring with it a species of rest to the soul, but new thought has arisen, new language has been coined, new music is expressing a new worship: the whole city has turned round obey that public opinion; to be in a minority is to invoke mockery and contempt; and they will instantly yield.
Thus the writer of the chapter has given the three points of danger, philosophical, social, and public. The great advantage of all seducers from the true faith lies in the marvellous mystery that some people like to be in danger. A species of capital is made out of the religious vote. Various candidates for the throne of confidence ask you what you will take for your vote. It places men in an interesting condition to be regarded as intellectual invalids, spiritual convalescents, and in some degree of danger from the fever of heterodoxy; it pleases them to lay their empty heads upon their indolent hands, and to be regarded as persons whose condition excites the solicitude of Christendom. A marvellous human nature this! And the persons who so pose not knowing whether they will vote for Barabbas or Christ, the living God or the god of wood and stone, such persons are utterly wanting in moral robustness, intellectual health, spiritual vigour that begets confidence and assures security.
What is the course to be taken under circumstances of danger? Moses had no difficulty about his reply: let us see what it was, and consider whether we can adopt it. “And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death” ( Deu 13:5 ). The seducer in the family brings upon himself this penalty. “Neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: but thou shalt surely kill him” ( Deu 13:8-9 ) “thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die” ( Deu 13:10 ). And as for the city representative of public opinion, “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” ( Deu 13:15-17 ). That was a drastic course: there is no touch of compromise in that stern provision; there is no line of toleration in that tremendous answer. The same course is to be taken today, as to its spiritual meaning. Physical violence there must be none: the day of physical pains and penalties for spiritual offences has closed; but the great lesson of destruction remains for ever. We have just seen that the truest destruction is moral; we have admitted to ourselves that no conquest is worth achieving that is not based upon the consent of the conquered man or nation; we must destroy by spiritual influence, by moral dignity, by such assuredness of conviction and simplicity of faith on our own part as will be as a burning fire to every suggestion bearing upon apostasy or treason.
Why are such temptations permitted? The answer is given in the third verse: “The Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” Every man’s faith must be tried. Every man is tried in business, so that the honest man is known from the dishonest, and the power of temptation upon the integrity of the trader is estimated with appalling accuracy. We are tried by success; we are proved by prosperity; the thief may actually be sent to us that we may know whether every door and window has been fastened. We close the house night by night with simple confidence: the round has become so monotonous a course that we take it for granted that all things are secure. The thief will find out the one point of weakness; and the night after we shall be much more careful than we were the night before. It is a notable feature of human nature that after the property has been stolen it is quite excited with new solicitude. Such is the noblest creature that traverses the little mean space called earth! After he has lost all he had, he puts in every bolt he can lay his hands upon, and turns every lock with expressive violence. O that men were wise! In such an hour as ye think not the thief cometh. If the good man of the house had known at what hour the thief would come, he would have been sitting up waiting for him armed. We live in circumstances of uncertainty, in periods full of excitement; the voice of Christ is “Watch.”
But are we not living in the days of toleration? Is there not, in some countries at least, an Act of Toleration? There is: toleration has still its place; but toleration must not be misunderstood. Who are the men who claim the exercise of toleration? Are they consistent men? From point to point in all the line of social intercourse and confidence do they carry out this idea of toleration? Let us test. They are very large in their toleration of aberrations and eccentricities in theology; along that line there is no end to their sublimity. Are they consistent? Let us try them by the standard of life. Here is a man who says, Morality is quite a parochial term: morality is a question of circumstance; as to right and wrong, they vary with latitude and longitude; morality must be considered a variable quantity. Do you tolerate that man? Would you leave him in charge of your business for one calendar month? Would you allow him to have full control over your family circumstances for the same limited period of time? Would you trust such a man with signed cheques, the money lines of which were blank? You are lovers of toleration; you preach toleration; you would die (if you could not help it) for toleration. Are you consistent? Where does your toleration begin? Where does it end? Here is a man who comes with anew creed, untouched by ministerial fingers, unpolluted by pulpit senility and ignorance; he says, Weak people have no rights: strength is right: he who can get has a right to get, and the weak must go to the wall; the weak are an offence to nature: they are out of harmony with the constitution of things; they must be got rid of; strength, health, force, these are the masters of the world. Do you tolerate him? Would you like him to sit up for the nights of one whole week with your little sick child? Would you like him to take out, in its little perambulator, the pale-cheeked one of the family the little creature whose life trembles in the balance? You love toleration; you are fond of toleration; you clap your sweltering hands in applause of infinite nothings mouthed by irresponsible speakers about toleration. Where does the toleration begin? Where does it end? We make people welcome a thousand welcomes to all the theology; but when they touch our money, or our family, or our little ones, we say we must have the very highest references about them. Why refer? Why submit to such pointless routine? Refer! be tolerant, be magnanimous, be trustful. You, who can afford to let a man do what he pleases with theology, ought not to be so scrupulous as to what he may do with your bank-book. Here is a man who lays down the doctrine that property is robbery. His creed is, Share and share alike. He says he is a “democrat”; he says he will have no boundary walls, and no entails and primogenitures and rights and deeds and Chancery injunctions and decrees; he would have all equal. What a splendid man! What an original thinker about all things created! What an administrator! What a Daniel come to judgment! Shall we tolerate him? Shall we be very gentle to him? and shall we begin by handing him over whatever we have about us? We are tolerationists! As for theology, you may turn into that field all the beasts you own, and let the quadrupeds trample the fair gardens under their hoofs; but you will not tolerate the man who says, What is yours is mine, and I have a right to it, and I claim it now. We admire toleration: we think it is an excellent abstract idea: we believe there is a whole heaven of beauty in it, if anybody could discover it; but, in the meantime, we will have no toleration of liars, thieves, evil persons, who seek to disturb the foundations of society and property. We are “fearfully and wonderfully made.”
What penalty, then, shall we inflict upon men who seek to destroy our faith? I hesitate not in my reply: Avoid them; pass by them; they would injure your soul. Wherever there is matter of mere opinion there should be the largest measure of toleration not upon one side, but on both sides. It is a marvellous thing that the men who cry out for toleration are often the most reluctant to exercise it. There is much mockery addressed to the Christ of today; there is not a little penalty inflicted upon the Christian thinkers of the time; there are disallowances and disabilities and disqualifications of many kinds attached to deep religious conviction. Do not suppose that toleration is a one-sided quantity; when it is established it will operate from two opposite centres. Meanwhile, what are our religious convictions? If they are large, vital, well-reasoned; if they have borne the burden of the day; if they have sustained the heat of noontide; if they have survived the thick rains of night; if our convictions have been potent in life, comforting in affliction, inspiring in death, he does not violate the genius of conviction who says, Beware of any man who would tamper with those convictions, who would kill your spiritual enthusiasm, who would tempt you from the service of passion into the passivity of indolence or the uncertainty of insincere confession. We are not intolerant. We believe, and therefore speak. Our convictions are our life. If they were mere opinions, we should compare them, compromise with others, make arrangements for the settlement of controversies; but where convictions are positive, either on the one side or the other; where they are real convictions men must abide by them, and beware of the thievish hand. This is our position; we have tested it by manifold experience.
Selected Note
“Thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die” ( Deu 13:10 ). The mode of capital punishment which constitutes a material element in the character of any law, was probably as humane as the circumstances of Moses admitted. It was probably restricted to lapidation or stoning, which, by skilful management, might produce instantaneous death. It was an Egyptian custom ( Exo 8:26 ). The public effusion of blood by decapitation cannot be proved to have been a Mosaic punishment, nor even an Egyptian; for in the instance of Pharaoh’s chief baker ( Gen 40:19 ), “Pharaoh shall lift up thine head from off thee,” the marginal rendering seems preferable “shall reckon thee and take thine office from thee.” He is said to have been “hanged” ( Gen 41:13 ); which may possibly mean posthumous exposure, though no independent evidence appears of this custom in ancient Egypt. The appearance of decapitation, “slaying by the sword,” in later times (2Sa 4:8 ; 2Sa 20:21-22 ; 2Ki 10:6-8 ) has no more relation to the Mosaic law than the decapitation of John the Baptist by Herod ( Mat 14:8-12 ); or than the hewing to pieces of Agag before the Lord by Samuel, as a punishment in kind ( 1Sa 15:33 ); or than the office of the Cherethites, (2Sa 8:18 ; 2Sa 15:18 ; 2Sa 20:7-23 ), or headsmen, as Gesenius understands by the word, from “to chop off” or hew down (executioners belonging to the bodyguard of the king); whereas execution was ordered by Moses, probably adopting an ancient custom, to be begun first by the witnesses, a regulation which constituted a tremendous appeal to their moral feelings, and afterwards to be completed by the people (Deu 13:10 ; Deu 17:7 ; Jos 7:25 ; Joh 8:7 ). It was a later innovation that immediate execution should be done by some personal attendant, by whom the office was probably considered as an honour ( 2Sa 1:15 ; 2Sa 4:12 ). Stoning, therefore, was probably the only capital punishment ordered by Moses. It is observable that neither this nor any other punishment was, according to his law, attended with insult or torture. Nor did his laws admit of those horrible mutilations practised by other nations. For instance, he prescribed stoning for adulterers (comp. Lev 20:10 ; Eze 23:25 ; Eze 16:38-40 ; Joh 8:5 ); but the Chaldeans cut off the noses of such offenders. Mutilation of such a nature amounts to a perpetual condemnation to infamy and crime. Moses seems to have understood the true end of punishment, which is not to gratify the antipathy of society against crime, nor moral vengeance, which belongs to God alone, but prevention. “All the people shall hear and fear, and do no more so presumptuously.”
Prayer
Almighty God, help us to understand thy law and to do it obediently and lovingly, that we may enjoy the happy issue of such action, and find in experience a light upon many a mystery. If we do the will, we shall know the doctrine. How hard it is to do the will thou knowest. Thou understandest us altogether in the mystery of the mind, in the peculiarity of the whole constitution; thou knowest how sensitive we are to evil suggestion, how profoundly we love the darkness, and how we love to be liberated from the restraints of law. Yet herein is our greatness as well as our infirmity. Thou hast made us in thine own image and likeness; but we have lost our uprightness and sought out many inventions, and now we are following after wind and vanity, and grasping energetically at the nothings of time. So we come before thee to mourn our fall, our personal apostasy, and to utter our personal prayer for pardon, liberty, and hope. We rejoice that there is a door standing wide open, and that within the opened home is our Father waiting to be gracious, his great love tarrying for us, his infinite compassion ready to welcome us. This is the Gospel we have heard; this is the good news which has filled our life from the very first. We have heard that God is love, God is light, God hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked, God says Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die? and he stands at the door of the heart and knocks, and asks to be admitted to the guest-chamber of the soul. Behold, we delight in this Gospel: it is music to our ears a sovereign balm for every wound. We need such speech, for the darkness is often very burdensome, and the wind so cold, and the pit-falls so many, and our readiness to go astray so eager. So we require to hear, now and again, of thy love and tenderness as revealed in the sacrifice of Christ, the oblation of the Son of God, the atonement wrought for sin. We reply to such Gospel by new vows and oaths and utterances of thankfulness; may we live this utterance in all obedient and noble life. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
(See the Deuteronomy Book Comments for Introductory content and Homiletic suggestions).
XIII
SECOND GREAT ORATION, PART 2
Deuteronomy 12-26
This section is on the second part of the second great oration of Moses, as embodied in Deuteronomy 12-26 inclusive, of the book of Deuteronomy. If you have carefully read all this section, it will be easier for me to emphasize in the brief limits of this chapter the most salient points and easier for you to grasp and retain them. By the grouping of correlated matters under specific heads, the important distinction between many statutes and the constitutional principle from which they are logically derived will become manifest. A constitution is a relatively brief document of great principles, but legislative enactments developing and enlarging them become a library, which continually enlarges, as new conditions require new statement and application.
Yet again you must note that while one discussion arranges in order many statutes, it necessarily leaves out much of the homiletical value of each special statute. Each one of them may be made a text for a profitable sermon. Indeed these fifteen chapters constitute a gold mine of texts for the attentive preacher.
First of all, it should be noted that Moses is speaking here to the whole people as a national unit and concerning the future national life in the Promised Land which they are about to occupy. He carefully puts before them the national ideal of a people belonging to Jehovah separated from other nations and devoted to a special mission. Because addressing the whole people he recalls the history and law in Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers much more particularly than the special legislation of Leviticus relating mainly to the official duties of a single tribe.
Secondly, when he touches the tribe of Levi in Deuteronomy, it is as a part of the nation rather than about their specific duties as priests and Levites. On this account Deuteronomy is called the people’s code and Leviticus the priest’s code. This fact will help us much to understand tithing in Deuteronomy when compared with tithing in the preceding books. Note carefully this point.
While it is difficult to classify satisfactorily such a multitude of topics and laws, we may profitably group the whole section under the following heads:
I. Unity in the Place of National Worship, Deu 12:5
In their pilgrimage history the cloud and the ark, shifting from place to place according to the exigency of travel, designated day by day the central place of worship. But the people are here admonished that when they conquer the land and become a settled people, God himself will designate one fixed locality as the center of national unity and one permanent place of national worship. In Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and I Samuel, when we get to those books, we shall find only a temporary central place, and occasionally, more than one at the same time, the land not yet all conquered, the people not yet all settled, but in David’s time everything prescribed about the central place of worship is fulfilled, Jerusalem is the place thenceforward throughout their history until Jesus, that prophet like unto Moses, comes and says to the woman of Samaria, “Believe me, the hour cometh when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall ye worship the Father. Ye worship that which ye know not; we worship that which we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and Truth.”
To this place, that is, the central place of worship, three times a year must the tribes come in national assembly to keep the great festivals of the Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, and as a nation they must observe the great day of atonement. In this connection observe particularly that the tithing in Deuteronomy, to which we have before referred, is not the first tithe of the other books, which was the Lord’s inheritance and devoted to the general support of the great festivals, in which indeed the Levites share as a part of the people. Hence the Levites’ share of this tithe does not correspond to their title to the whole of the first tithe, and hence the third year’s provision in Deuteronomy for the poor is unlike any provision of the first tithe. If you have that point fixed in your minds, you are able to answer one of the gravest objections ever brought against Deuteronomy, that is, that it contradicts, on the question of tithes, what had been previously said in other books.
The marvelous effect of this one fixed place of national worship, and of these great festivals, on national unity, on the preservation of a pure worship, appears in all their subsequent history and becomes the theme of psalm, song, and elegy. When we get over into the Psalms and the Lamentations of Jeremiah, we will see backward references to this central place of worship. It is in the light of this law that we discover the sin in the later migration of the Danites and their setting up a new place of worship (Jdg 18 , particularly verses Jdg 18:27-31 ); the sin of Jeroboam (1Ki 12:26-33 ); the sin of the Samaritans later, and the sin of a temple in Egypt. That is the first thought, the unity in national worship. For an account of the Samaritan Temple see Josephus, “Antiquities,” Book XI, chapter 8, and for the Egyptian Temple see “Antiquities,” Book XIII, chapter 3.
2. Unity in the Object of Worship
The second thought in this oration is unity in the object of worship, the exclusive worship of Jehovah. Under this head the section prescribes the death penalty on the following:
(1) The false prophet, who however attested by signs and wonders, shall seek to divert the people to the worship of some other god.
(2) Any member of a family, however near and dear the tie of kindred, who sought to induce the rest of the family to turn away from the worship of Jehovah to worship another god, that member of the family had to die.
(3) Any city that turned aside as a municipality to other worship, that city must be placed under the ban and blotted out. If you have been much of a student of classic literature, you must have noticed how each city stresses the worship of some particular patron divinity, as Minerva at Athens, Diana in the City of Ephesus and Venus at Corinth. Now, this law teaches that any city, in its municipal life, turning aside from the worship of Jehovah to worship a false god for local advantage shall be blotted off the face of the map. The underlying principle here is of immense importance in our times. Cities are tempted continually to sacrifice the paramount spiritual and moral interests of the community in order to promote material interests. So in their annual fairs which bring local advantage in commercial affairs, they lose sight of God and handicap what is commendable in these enterprises by overloading them with poisonous and corrupting attachments, and count any man an enemy to his home place, however much he may approve the good, if he protest against the bad. See the striking examples and illustrations in the cases at Philippi and Ephesus (Act 16:19 ).
(4) To show more emphatically that Jehovah alone is God and must be worshiped, the death penalty was assessed on any necromancer, soothsayer or wizard who sought by illicit ways to understand and interpret the future. To Jehovah alone must the people come to know secret things. What he chose to reveal was for them and their children. What he withheld must remain hidden. All prurient curiosity into Jehovah’s domain of revelation must be rebuked; all seeking unto the dead, all fortunetelling and divinations were mortal sins and punishable by death in every case.
(5) All persons guilty of crimes against nature; the nature of the subject forbids me to specify. They were such outrageous violations of the dignity of man made in God’s image, and indicated such disregard for Jehovah that capital punishment alone would meet the requirements of the case.
(6) Every breaker of the covenant must be put to death. If any had knowledge that another had violated the covenant, it became his duty to investigate the case and bring the attention of the magistrates to it. There is a reference to that in the letter to the Hebrews, where it is said, “He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, think ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God [offense against the Father], and hath counted the blood of the everlasting covenant an unholy thing [sin against the Son], and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace [sin against the Holy Spirit, and an unpardonable sin]?” (Heb 10:28-29 ).
(7) To impress still more this thought of the exclusive worship of Jehovah: There must be no borrowing from other religions in bewailing the dead; Jehovah’s law alone was the one exclusive standard. The custom of cutting themselves, and disfiguring themselves in the days of their mourning as practiced in other religions, finds here a positive prohibition. I stop to say, Oh, what a pity that so soon after apostolic times, in the great apostasy which Paul predicted and which took place in the Roman Catholic development, there was borrowing old robes of every religion in the world.
3. All Administrations of Law Subject to Jehovah
Whether ceremonial law, moral or civil and criminal law, all administration of law was subject to Jehovah. The government was a theocracy pure and simple, no matter whether it remained a republic or became a kingdom, as it did in the days of Saul, it was a theocracy, God was the only real King and governed all officers himself, whether executive, judicial, or religious.
(1) They were representatives of Jehovah and must first of all consider his honor, justice, and mercy. This fact determined the prescribed character and qualifications of every prince, ruler, elder, judge, sheriff and scribe. These officers must be God-fearing men, hating covetousness, impartial and fearing not the face of any man.
(2) They must in judging hear all evidence fairly.
(3) They must not convict except upon adequate testimony.
(4) It took two good witnesses to prove any point.
(5) They must justify the innocent and condemn the guilty without any regard for age, sex, social position, or financial position. Even and exact justice must be administered to all.
(6) Decision when given must be enforced speedily.
(7) If the case was too hard for them, they must appeal to Jehovah and no other for light. A provision was made by which Jehovah would give the right answer in every such case of appeal. What a pity we have not that kind of a supreme court!
(8) The conduct of all their wars must be under the laws prescribed by Jehovah. War must not be declared against any nation except upon his direction. Their later history furnishes many examples of referring the declaration of war to Jehovah, and it furnishes many examples of disaster befalling them when they went to war in their own wisdom and strength. The regulations touching war covered all material points, such as sanitary measures in camp, treatment of prisoners, conducting sieges, and sparing fruit trees when besieging a city. The boasted progress of modern civilization falls far short of the Mosaic code in ameliorating the sufferings and horrors of war. A great Federal general of the War Between the States well said, in view of his own practice in conducting it, “War is hell!”
(9) On account of this subordination to Jehovah, note the remarkable paragraph Deu 21:1-9 , touching civic responsibility in a case of murder where the offender is unknown. In my prohibition speech in the last prohibition contest in Waco, I used that paragraph as a principle upon which prohibition is based. If you will look at the passage in your Bible and mark it, you will notice that the case is this: A man is found murdered and it is not known who killed him; the nearest city thereto is determined by measurement and must purge itself of responsibility for the crime. The municipal officers in that city must come in the presence of that dead body, hold up their hands before God and swear that they are innocent of the blood.
In my speech I recalled the case of the County Attorney of Tarrant County who was shot down on the streets of Fort Worth, his murderer also being killed; nobody could be held directly responsible for the murder. I said, “Suppose the mayor, the city council, and all the other city officers had been required to place their hands on that dead body and swear that no negligence on their part was resposnible for that murder. They could not have taken the oath. Every one would have been convicted, because they were responsible for the conditions that not only made that particular murder possible, but made murder in some cases certain.”
(10) The numerous statutes concerning charities, mercy, and humanity constrain the people to imitate Jehovah himself in dealing with the poor and with the unfortunate. Indeed some of the most beautiful and pathetic of these laws relating to treatment of the lower creatures embody principles capable of application in a wider range of higher things. They reprobate all cruelty and the infliction of all unnecessary suffering as hateful to Jehovah, for example: “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn”; and “Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother’s milk.”
Once in Waco a young man whom I had known when he was a little fellow came to me bringing a letter purporting to be from his father, commending this young man to me and asking me to help him in any way I could. When he next came and asked me to endorse a paper for thirty dollars, I endorsed it. When it matured, I had to pay it. I wrote to the father about it and he replied that his son had forged that letter, and that is was only one case out of many. That son had broken him up. The boy was arrested on a similar case at Corsicana and sent to the penitentiary. When it was suggested that I testify against him, I would not, because of this scripture, “Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.” The only way I could help to convict that boy would be to submit his father’s testimony to prove that he was a forger.
(11) In like manner all laws regulating business, such as weights and measures. Once I called upon a man whose name I will not give, and asked him why, when he bought goods, he weighed on one scale and when he sold goods he sold by another. He said. “They are all right.” I said, “No, sir, you have loaded the one you sell by and whoever buys from you does not get full weight.” All laws touching business, such as weights and measures, the restraints on exacting pledges for debt, the withholding of wages for day laborers which they have fairly earned, the limitations on usury and the like are but expressions of divine mercy and justice and tended to build up an honest and righteous people, not forgetful of mercy.
(12) The social laws concerning marriage, slavery, parental power over children, while far from the highest expression of God’s will, do yet in every particular prohibit many current evils freely practiced in other nations. Our Lord himself explains that on account of their hardness of heart and low order of development imperfect laws were suffered. “The people but recently were a nation of slaves, with much more of the slave spirit remaining. It cannot be denied that even the civil and criminal codes on these points were far superior to the codes of other nations. The sanctity of human life, the sanctity of the home, and the sanctity of the family are marvelously safeguarded in these laws. And wherever this code touched an evil custom, it never approved the evil but limited the power and scope of the evil, as far as the unprepared people were able to bear it.
(13) Restrictions on entering the covenant, Deu 23:1-7 , constitute a paragraph very few people understand. This applied to proselytes from other nations. The body politic must not be corrupted by alien additions that could not be easily assimilated. On that line our own nation is gravely troubled by loose naturalization laws that permit the scum and offscourings of other nations to be absorbed into our national life and so fearfully endanger the perpetuity of free institutions and make our great cities cesspools of iniquity. An orator once prayed, “O that an ocean of fire rolled between us and Europe!” The Pacific Slope seems also praying ,”O that an ocean of fire rolled between us and the Orient!”
(14) The governing Jehovah idea appears in an emphatic way in the paragraph Deu 24:1-11 , where by an offering of a basket of firstfruits the Israelite must confess Jehovah’s absolute ownership over his products and his own unworthy derivation. The oration concludes with his general result: “Thou hast avouched Jehovah this day to be thy God, and that thou wouldest walk in his ways and keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his ordinances, and hearken unto his voice: and Jehovah hath avouched thee this day to be a people for his own possession, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments, etc.”
QUESTIONS
1. What the importance of grouping correlated matters under specific needs and what is a constitution?
2. What the homiletic value of these fifteen chapters?
3. What two things especially noted concerning the second part of Oration Two?
4. Under what three heads does the author group all the material of these fifteen chapters?
5. Under the first head, when was the central place of worship to be established; when, where and by whom actually established; how long continued?
6. How often and at what festivals must the nation assemble at this central place of worship?
7. What bearing has this fact on the tithing question of Deuteronomy?
8. What the marvelous effects of this one fixed place of national worship?
9. Give examples of the violation of this law, and what their particular sin?
10. Under the second head, what cases of violation called for capital punishment?
11. What underlying principle governing the cities is of great importance in our times? Illustrate.
12. What reference to the covenant breaker in the New Testament, and what the threefold sin therein described?
13. Which of these prohibitions are Romanists most guilty of violating?
14. Under the third head (1) What must be the qualifications of all officers? (2) What their several duties? (3) If the case was too hard for them what were they to do? What the provision for Jehovah’s answer? (4) What prescriptions concerning war? (5) How determine civic responsibility in the case of murder where the murderer was unknown? Present day application and illustrate. (6) What laws relating to the poor and to lower animals? (7) What laws regulating business? (8) What social laws? (9) What the restrictions on entering the covenant and the present day application? (10) How does the governing Jehovah idea appear emphatically
15. How does the oration conclude?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
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.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Deu 13:1-5
1If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ 3you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4You shall follow the LORD your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him. 5But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has counseled rebellion against the LORD your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to seduce you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from among you.
Deu 13:1 Not all persons claiming to speak for deity can be trusted. We must test them (cf. Deu 18:20-22; Matthew 7; Mat 24:24; 1Jn 4:1-6; 2Pe 3:15-16).
Deu 13:1; Deu 13:3 prophet See Special Topic below.
SPECIAL TOPIC: OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY
NASB, NKJV,
NJBdreamer of dreams
NRSVthose who divine by dreams
TEVinterpreters of dreams
JPSOAdream-diviner
This term is a construct of the VERB (BDB 321, Qal ACTIVE PARTICIPLE) and the PLURAL NOUN (BDB 321). Divination (cf. Deu 18:14-15) or the attempt to understand, foreknow, or effect the will of god/gods was common in the ancient Near East. There were many ways to divine:
1. dreams/trances (mental states)
2. lots, sticks (man-made items)
3. clouds/storms/droughts (weather)
4. birds (flight of and type of)
5. events in the sky (movement of constellations, comets, eclipses, etc.)
6. condition of sheep’s liver (other sacrificial animals)
Deu 13:1-2 sign It seems to me the word sign (BDB 16) in the Bible is used when talking about something that had been predicted and then fulfilled. This term is used in several different senses in Deuteronomy:
1. The miracles/plagues that YHWH did through Moses in Egypt to force Pharaoh to let Israel leave, Deu 4:34; Deu 6:22; Deu 7:18-19; Deu 11:3; Deu 26:8; Deu 29:2-3; Deu 34:11.
2. Small containers which contained Scripture texts, Deu 6:8; Deu 11:8
a. on left arm
b. on forehead
c. on doorpost
3. Miracles/predictions of false prophets to lead Israel away from the exclusive worship of YHWH, Deu 13:1-2.
4. YHWH’s judgments on a disobedient Israel will function as a future warning to generations of Israelites, Deu 28:46.
or wonder Wonder (BDB 65) seems to refer to a miraculous deed done in the presence of witnesses. It is often used in tandem with signs.
Deu 13:2 and the sign or the wonder comes true Miracles are not automatically from God (cf. Exo 7:11; Exo 7:22; Mat 24:24; 2Th 2:9). This is also true of accurate predictions (cf. Deu 18:22).
If the Prophet of Deu 18:18-19 is a foreshadowing of the Messiah, then this false prophet is a foreshadowing of the Anti-Christ (cf. Deu 18:20). The falseness is revealed if:
1. the word does not come true
2. the word is not of YHWH
Let us go after. . .let us serve them These two VERBS document the proposed deviation from the exclusive worship of YHWH:
1. go after – BDB 229, KB 246, Qal COHORTATIVE. This is a repeated warning, cf. Deu 6:14; Deu 8:19; Deu 11:28; Deu 13:2; Deu 13:6; Deu 13:13; Deu 28:14; Deu 29:18; Deu 29:26
2. serve – BDB 712, KB 773, Hophal IMPERFECT, used in a COHORTATIVE sense. This is also a repeated warning, cf. Deu 5:9; Deu 7:4; Deu 7:16; Deu 8:19; Deu 11:16; Deu 13:2; Deu 13:6; Deu 13:13; Deu 17:3; Deu 28:14; Deu 28:36; Deu 28:64; Deu 29:18; Deu 29:26; Deu 30:17; Deu 31:20.
The phrase Let us go after other gods is a repeated warning, not just in Deuteronomy, but in Jeremiah.
gods (whom you have not known) The issue here is not the ability to perform power signs, but the exclusive worship of YHWH. See Special Topic: Know .
Deu 13:3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet The VERB (BDB 1033, KB 1570, Qal IMPERFECT) is the often repeated shema, which means to hear so as to do. See note at Deu 4:1.
for the LORD your God is testing you The VERB (BDB 650, KB 702, Piel PARTICIPLE) expresses the truth that God puts humans in situations of testing or temptation in order to know and strengthen their faith/trust/obedience in Him (cf. Gen 22:1-12; Exo 15:25; Exo 16:4; Exo 20:20; Deu 8:2; Deu 8:16; Jdg 2:22; Jdg 3:1; Jdg 3:4; 2Ch 32:31). Even the presence of false prophets among the people is a divine way to separate true believers from peripheral believers. God uses evil for His own purposes (cf. Genesis 3)!
with all your heart and with all your soul See note at Deu 4:29. This is a metaphor for total and complete devotion. Israel is repeatedly called on to love YHWH with complete devotion (cf. Deu 6:5; Deu 7:9; Deu 10:12; Deu 11:1; Deu 11:13; Deu 11:22; Deu 13:3; Deu 19:9; Deu 30:6; Deu 30:16; Deu 30:20).
Deu 13:4 This verse contains a series of Qal IMPERFECTS, which serve as guidelines for the exclusive worship of YHWH:
1. follow, BDB 229, KB 246, cf. Deu 8:6
2. fear, BDB 431, KB 432
3. keep, BDB 1036, KB 1581, cf. Deu 5:29; Deu 6:2
4. listen, BDB 1033, KB 1570
5. serve, BDB 712, KB 773
6. cling, BDB 179, KB 209
This verse is similar to Deu 6:13 and Deu 10:20.
Deu 13:5 that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death YHWH is concerned with the pollution of His worship as Deuteronomy 12 clearly shows. If the worship of YHWH had become polluted here, the NT would not be a reality. God was concerned that His people perform their worship in the exact way He commanded (cf. Deu 4:2; Deu 12:32). If it was not pure worship, the consequence was death, which included Canaanites and false prophets within Israel (cf. Deu 13:5; Deu 13:9; Deu 13:15). Seduction was possible for individuals within the community (cf. Deu 4:19; Deu 13:5; Deu 13:10).
redeemed This term (BDB 804, KB 911, Qal PARTICIPLE) is a way of expressing a price paid to release someone from slavery or prison. See , see Special Topic: Ransom/Redeem .
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
If, &c. Beginning of Moses’ fourth address. See note on Deu 1:1.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 13
Now in chapter thirteen, the warning against false prophets. If a man comes in and does some kind of a sign or a wonder and he’s a dreamer of dreams or a prophet and he gives some kind of a sign and it comes to pass; but if that man would then lead you to worship other gods you are to put him to death, even though he may have been able to work some miracle.
Now, let me say that there is a strange fascination that we seem to have towards supernatural things, but this can be a dangerous fascination. Because someone is able to bring to pass some kind of a phenomena for which there is no scientific explanation, does not necessary follow that that phenomena comes from God. Satan is a deceiver and he is able also to create all kinds of spectacular phenomenon. Thus, we are not to be drawn to phenomena and use phenomena as a criteria for truth.
The person who is seeking after miracles is on dangerous territory for when the anti-Christ comes he is going to come with lying signs and miracles that he’s able to work before the people. There is an unhealthy absorption in miracles in many people’s lives. You need to become thoroughly absorbed in Jesus Christ. There you’ll have no problem. You’ll see the miracles, the miracles that He’ll work in your life, the miracles that He’ll work through your life. But we should not really be putting a lot of emphasis and attention and a concern in the seeing of miracles, for Satan is able to use them as a tool to deceive.
So here were prophets, they were able to give a sign or a wondering would come to pass but then they would lead them to worship other gods. He said, “Put them to death”.
for your LORD God proves you, to know whether or not you love the LORD with all your heart, with all your soul. Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and reverence him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave to him ( Deu 13:3-4 ).
Now, if one of your family, a brother, a son, a daughter, even a wife should seek to lead you to worship another god, God said you’re to put them to death and yours shall be the first hand against them. You’re not to hide it or hide their sin even though you love them. But God was anxious to develop a spiritual purity among these people, lest they become infected by the lascivious worship of the pagan gods that the people were worshipping and be corrupted and lose the rights and the place within the land.
Thou shalt consent to their death, you’re not to hearken to their cries; neither shall your eye pity them, neither shall you spare, neither shall you conceal them ( Deu 13:8 ):
Now if you hear of a city where the people in the city have decided to serve some other god, then you’re to arm yourself and come against that city and utterly destroy the inhabitants of that city. That desire that God had of maintaining a spiritual purity.
“
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
The discourse commenced in chapter twelve continues with carefully expressed warnings against idolatry, and it is very arresting to note how the ways by which they might be seduced from the pure worship of Jehovah to the false worship of idols were guarded against.
First, there would be the danger of curiosity and therefore they were charged not to inquire after false gods. Second, there would be a peril of signs and wonders wrought by false prophets No such sign or wonder must be permitted to withdraw them from the pure worship of Jehovah and, indeed, any such working of signs was I pronounced guilty of death.
Third, in all probability there would be the temptation presented by some tie of blood or friendship. These must all be sternly guarded against, and any being seduced in either way were to be slain without pity.
Once more there would be the peril arising from looseness of discipline in these very matters and the people were charged to take active measures against seducers and the seduced. The importance of these severe provisions will be understood as it is remembered that the worship of a people forevermore determines their character and their conduct.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Cut Out the Plague Spot
Deu 13:1-18
How to exterminate sources of disease is a main question with the modern world; but the stamping-out of possible sources of temptation must not less energetically be pursued by each religious soul. The prophet, the beloved associate, the community, that endeavored to turn Israel aside from God, might have no mercy shown. There was no room for those liberal views, in vogue today, that smile on the greatest divergencies of belief, if only their advocates are sincere.
For ourselves the lesson is clear enough. We must dissociate ourselves from companionships, however affectionate, which exert a deleterious effect on our characters, and draw us away from God. There is only one alternative-that we should overcome evil with good and lift them to our own ideals. If that be impossible, our course is clear. Our eye must not pity, nor our hand spare. And Jesus left no other alternative. See Mar 9:42-43.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
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.
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.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
9. Warnings Against False Prophets and Their Punishment
CHAPTER 13
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 Gods Son and the gospel.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
a prophet: That is, one pretending to the divine inspiration and authority of the prophetic office, or a dreamer of dreams, one who pretends that some deity has spoken to him in the night season, and giveth thee a sign, oth, what appears to be a miraculous proof of his mission, or a wonder, mopheth, some portentous sign, such as an eclipse, which he, who knew when it would happen, might predict to the people, who knew nothing of the matter, and thereby accredit his pretensions. But no pretended miracles must be admitted as a proof that the people might violate the first and great commandment. 1Ki 13:18, Isa 9:15, Jer 6:13, Jer 23:11, Eze 13:2, Eze 13:3, Eze 13:23, Zec 13:4, Mat 7:15, Mat 24:11, Luk 6:26, 2Pe 2:1, 1Jo 4:1
a dreamer: Jer 23:25-28, Jer 27:9, Jer 29:8, Jer 29:24, *marg. Zec 10:2
Reciprocal: Gen 31:10 – a dream Exo 7:11 – they also Exo 8:7 – General Exo 22:20 – sacrificeth Deu 18:20 – the prophet Deu 26:1 – General Deu 29:18 – among you man 1Ki 13:3 – General 1Ki 13:19 – General 2Ki 17:35 – charged them Ezr 7:26 – whether it be Pro 19:27 – General Jer 23:27 – think Jer 23:32 – to err Jer 29:26 – and maketh Eze 14:10 – the punishment Mat 24:23 – General Mat 24:24 – and shall Mar 13:21 – General Act 13:6 – a false Act 16:16 – possessed Gal 1:9 – than 2Th 2:2 – by spirit 2Th 2:9 – and signs Rev 13:13 – he doeth Rev 16:14 – working
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
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.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Deu 13:6. If the son of thy mother entice thee. Brother and brethren being often vague words, in this case of spiritual wickedness, the culprit must be identified. Seduction to idolatry was a sin of total ruin.
Deu 13:7. One end of the earth, should be translated, one end of the land.
Deu 13:13. Children of Belial. Benii Belijahal, most wicked men, who know not the Lord. , children of the transgressors of the law; and elsewhere, children of the devil.
Deu 13:16. Burn with fire the city. Oh Rome! Oh Rome! Here is thy sentence also, while worshipping a wafer god. The kings shall burn thy flesh with fire. Rev 17:16. Let the protestant also beware of the latent idols in his heart.
REFLECTIONS.
Having in the preseding chapter prohibited every altar, except the one consecrated by the holy fire, Moses proceeds now to pass sentence of death on any man who should dare to seduce their friends or their country to idolatry. And surely he deserved to die, who should induce Israel to forfeit their covenant, and incur the most signal vengeance of heaven.
The first and most dangerous character in the church of God is the false and fanatical prophet. Israel having received a new edition of the patriarchal or old religion from heaven, would hardly be induced to follow another without some pretended revelation. This character, despising reason, for visions from heaven and superior illumination, whom no reason or argument could reclaim, was to be tried at the bar of reason, and his own predictions admitted in evidence against him; a most impartial mode of trial. Of this test the true prophets were not afraid; for they never assumed that high office till compelled by a divine impetus. In the present age, the true religion has not less cause of fear from visionary prophets than in the age of Moses. If we cautiously review the conduct and consequences of the German, the French, and British prophets, we shall cordially subscribe to what is here asserted. Yet we must not limit the Most High, or diminish the riches of spiritual gifts at any time shed down on holy men. None can deny but the Holy Spirit, or our guardian angel may, on many occasions, suggest a thought, or inspire a dream for a mans safety; yet we may safely affirm that our prophets, so called, are more or less afflicted with religious melancholy. Pride prompts them to pry into futurity; and a heated imagination takes its own reveries for converse with angels, and visions from on high. Yea, Satan himself, taking advantage of their affliction, is not wanting to exalt their fame, and delude the weak and wondering crowd. And what are the consequences? When all their predictions prove untrue, the affrighted populace become indignant, the infidels triumph, and real faith in Gods word is derided as credulity. But what is most distressing is, a multitude of singular people in every age, who instead of seeking purity of heart and righteousness of life, suffer themselves to be led away with empty visions and lying wonders. And as arguments have no effect in reclaiming the infatuated, all the world being either blind or accursed but themselves, let us neither hear them speak, nor read their books.
Sentence is next denounced against the near kinsman or bosom friend, who should attempt to seduce an Israelite from his God. Brother must not conceal the sin of brother, nor must any treason against God and his covenant be concealed in Israel. The crime must be immediately communicated to the magistrate. God is nearer to us than father or mother, brother or sister. Whoever tempts us to wickedness, attempts to murder our soul by alienating it from God. Let us expose the designs of that man to our friends, that by mutual counsel and comfort we may reject the temptation with indignation.
The city also which should suffer itself to be seduced to idolatry by the lawless sons of Belial was to be accursed, and treated as Jericho. But before the armed tribes inflicted the tremendous vengeance, the rabbins say that two elders were sent to expostulate with them, and draw them if possible to repentance. Is our country crowded with the sons of Belial, who blaspheme the name of God, who despise marriage, and indulge in every crime? Are we in danger like Israel, in these sad cases, of forfeiting the covenant of Gods protecting mercy by supineness towards the delinquents because of their number, or of becoming partakers of their sin by a base connivance? Then without delay, those alehouses should be regulated, and the haunts of infamy made desolate as houses accursed of God and man. Then would our country have confidence towards heaven, and claim all the promises of divine protection.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
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.
“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!
Fuente: Mackintosh’s Notes on the Pentateuch
Deu 12:29 to Deu 13:1. Yahwism must be kept free from all taint of Canaanite heathenism when Israel has entered Canaan. The danger would arise from the ancient belief that everyone should worship the god of the country in which he resides. D is an uncompromising Yahwist.
Deu 12:32 to Deu 13:18. Three classes of seducers to idolatry to be put to death. (a) The false prophet (Deu 12:32 to Deu 13:5). (b) The friend or relative (Deu 13:5-11). (c) Worthless Israelites (Deu 13:12-18). In the last case the seducers and the city seduced shall be devoted (Deu 2:34*) In the Heb. Deu 12:32 rightly begins Deuteronomy 13.
Deu 13:1. Dreams are one medium of prophetic inspiration, especially in E (Num 12:6, Joe 2:28); but it is not of the highest kind (Jer 23:28).
Deu 13:2. A false prophet may foretell what really comes to pass. In Deu 18:22 he is known by the fact that what he foretells does not come to pass. On the other hand, the word of the true prophet is fulfilled (Jer 28:9). What stamps the prophet as false in the present context is the doctrine.
Deu 13:6. Read (with LXX Sam.) If thy brother the son of thy father (=a half-brother) or the son of thy mother (=a full brother), see Gen 27:29, Psa 50:20. In a polygamous (non-polyandrous) state of society (see Deu 21:15) the same man has often two or more wives. In the East the woman never marries a second time.
Deu 13:9. The convicting witness, however nearly related to the culprit, must begin the punishment.
Deu 13:10. See Exo 8:26. Stoning is the only form of capital punishment recognised in Heb. law. Perhaps it originated in the desire of avoiding blood-shedding (see Deu 12:23-25, Deu 21:22*, Gen 4:10*).
Deu 13:13. base fellows: lit. sons of worthlessness; sons of in Heb. means persons possessing the quality of (see Oent. B on Psa 79:11). Even if the Heb. word for the latter (Belial) is a proper name for the Babylonian Pluto (so Cheyne, Hommel, see Pro 6:12*) the phrase bears the same sense (see Cent. B on Psa 10:15).
Deu 13:15. See Deu 23:4.
Deu 13:16. every whit: better, as a whole offering, (cf. mg.). The Heb. word is used in Deu 33:10; it does not occur in Deu 13:6.a heap: Heb. tel (cf. Tel el-kebir = the great hill); see Jos 8:28 (Ai), Jer 49:2 (Rabbah). cf. Isa 17:1; Isa 25:2, Jer 30:18.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
JUDGMENT OF FALSE PROPHETS
(vs.1-11)
Just as Paul warned the Ephesian elders that “savage wolves” would enter in among New Testament believers, and men from among themselves would teach perverted things to draw away disciples after them (Act 20:29-30), so Moses warned Israel here of what might happen among them, and did happen. A prophet or dreamer of dreams might arise, prognosticating something about to happen and using this to back up his leading others to serve idols. The thing that he prophesied might come to pass. In this case, some would be inclined to think the prophet must be right. But actually, the fact of his prophecy being correct proved something far different. Israel was not to listen to his words (v.3), but rather firmly hold fast to the truth of God and walked in His ways (v.4).
More than that, such a prophet was to be put to death (v.5). His accurate prophecy only proved that he was influenced by satanic power. God was by this means proving Israel, as to whether they would put His word above the word of the most persuasive false prophets. Only by the death of the false prophet could the evil be put away from Israel’s midst.
Even if the closest relative, brother, son, daughter, wife or any friend were to secretly entice one to serve other gods, whether gods previously unknown or the gods of the nations of the land of Canaan, however near or far, the seducer was not only to be refused a hearing, but was to die without mercy, and that by the hand of the relative or friend he had tried to lead away (vs.6-9). At least these witnesses must be first called upon to take part in this judgment (v.9).
Such swift judgment as this would awaken Israel to “hear and fear,” to prevent any recurrence of such wickedness (v.11). Such false worship is just as abominable to God now as it was in Israel, though today is the day of grace, when God delays His judgment in desire that people will judge themselves and be saved. Yet such wickedness persisted in will eventually reap a harvest of more dreadful judgment than has ever yet been known.
CORRUPTION INVADING A CITY
(vs.12-18)
It might occur in Israel that a report would reach the ears of anyone to the effect that a city has been influenced by corrupt men to adopt the practice of worshiping false gods (vs.12-13). Then those who hear the report become responsible to check on its accuracy. They must not judge unrighteously, nor on the basis of what they first hear, but must “inquire, search out, and ask diligently” (v.14). Only when the fact was established without question that such idol worship was practiced, then the city must be attacked with the edge of the sword, with everything in it devoted to destruction, not a thing taken even as plunder (vs.15-16).
Only when the evil was judged totally in this way would the fierce anger of the Lord be abated, so that Israel would again be favored with His compassionate mercy, because in this case they had listened to the voice of the Lord to keep His commandments. Similarly, if in the Church of God evil doctrine or wicked moral practice raises its head, when there is found doubt of the evil, then it must be fully judged. If it is found only in an individual, that person must be put away from fellowship. If such evil is protected by any gathering, that gathering must be excommunicated. This is solemn work, but it is the only way to avoid the more serious displeasure of God.
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
13:1 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of {a} dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
(a) Who says that he has things revealed to him in dreams.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
LAWS AGAINST IDOLATROUS ACTS AND CUSTOMS
Deu 13:1-18; Deu 14:1-29
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 Lev 17:1-16; Lev 18:1-30; Lev 19:1-37; Lev 20:1-27; Lev 21:1-24; Lev 22:1-33; Lev 23:1-44; Lev 24:1-23; Lev 25:1-55; Lev 26:1-46, 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 any flesh 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.