Reflections on Deuteronomy 13

Deuteronomy 13 (Contemporary English Version)

1. Someday a prophet may come along who is able to perform miracles or tell what will happen in the future. Then the prophet may say, "Let's start worshiping some new gods--some gods that we know nothing about."
   
2. (SEE 13:1)
   
3. If the prophet says this, don't listen! The LORD your God will be watching to find out whether or not you love him with all your heart and soul.
   
4. You must be completely faithful to the LORD. Worship and obey only the LORD and do this with fear and trembling,
   
5. because he rescued you from slavery in Egypt. If a prophet tells you to disobey the LORD your God and to stop worshiping him, then that prophet is evil and must be put to death.
   
6. Someone else may say to you, "Let's worship other gods." That person may be your best friend, your brother or sister, your son or daughter, or your own dear wife or husband. But you must not listen to people who say such things. Instead, you must stone them to death. You must be the first to throw the stones, then others from the community will finish the job. Don't show any pity. The gods worshiped by other nations have never done anything for you or your ancestors. People who ask you to worship other gods are trying to get you to stop worshiping the LORD, who rescued you from slavery in Egypt. So put to death anyone who asks you to worship another god.
   
7. (SEE 13:6)
   
8. (SEE 13:6)
   
9. (SEE 13:6)
   
10. (SEE 13:6)
    
11. And when the rest of Israel hears about it, they will be afraid, and no one else will ever do such an evil thing again.
    
12. After the LORD your God gives you towns to live in, you may hear a rumor about one of the towns.
    
13. You may hear that some worthless people have talked everyone there into worshiping other gods, even though these gods had never done anything for them.
    
14. You must carefully find out if the rumor is true. Then if the people of that town have actually done such a disgusting thing in your own country,
    
15. you must take your swords and kill every one of them, and their livestock too.
    
16. Gather all the possessions of the people who lived there, and pile them up in the marketplace, without keeping anything for yourself. Set the pile and the whole town on fire, and don't ever rebuild the town. The whole town will be a sacrifice to the LORD your God. Then he won't be angry anymore, and he will have mercy on you and make you successful, just as he promised your ancestors.
    
17. (SEE 13:16)
    
18. That's why you must do what the LORD your God says is right. I am giving you his laws and teachings today, and you must obey them.
    

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    Following Moses' instructions in chapter 12 for a centralized worship in Israel and prohibition against any curiosity toward idolatry, in chapter 13 he gives three likely sources through which  temptation toward idolatry was likely to come: false prophets, family, wicked people in the community. In all three cases, the offenders were to be treated the same. They were to be stoned to death. In the third scenario where wicked people turned the whole town away from God, the entire town was to be completely destroyed as they were to do with the Canaanite towns.  One's relationship to God is to be supreme over all other relationships. However, it should be pointed out that God emphasizes family relationship next in importance. He is not into separating families but in binding them together. However, if a choice must be made, one's relationship to God comes first.
    
    The situations described by Moses were of offenders actively seeking to turn others away from God. They were not passively going their own idolatrous way, but were attempting to take others with them. In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul addressed the issue of believers married to unbelievers. This did not warrant breaking up the marriage. Only if the unbelieving mate wanted out of the marriage should they separate. He did not address the case in which the unbelieving mate tried to turn the other against God, but New Testament teaching does not include or even condone the taking of life in dealing with sin.
    
    Regarding the issue of false prophets, it should be noted that miraculous signs alone are not evidence of God's involvement. Those who seek signs in order to believe in God should beware.  Signs that are not validated with God's Word are false signs whose source is more likely Satan than God.