Behold the severity of God

 Christ in all the scriptures

Test of loyalty    Deuteronomy 13

"The Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul"-Deuteronomy 13v3 (refer also Deuteronomy 8v2).

The Lord puts to the test all who are of faith.  This is a major biblical truth.  The apostle James wrote, "...the trying of your faith worketh patience (endurance)"-James 1v3.  The apostle Peter said the same, "Salvation...wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations (trials): that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth..."-1st Peter 1v6/7.  Paul adds, "...we glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation worketh patience (endurance).."-Romans 5v3.  One of the pictures used for this inevitable divine process with His people is of the testing of metals, the refining of gold and silver to remove impurities and enhance the value of the product.  The testing in this chapter is particularly severe, and the Lord brings three situations that will call for utmost loyalty from His redeemed people.

Deuteronomy 13v1-5  The emergence in their midst of false prophets and visionaries.

Deuteronomy 13v6-11  Ungodly influence from close family members.

Deuteronomy 13v12-18  Morally corrupt men, in the wider community, enticing many to separate in order to follow them.

In each case, the intention is to cause them to follow other gods.  Note the repetition of this in the chapter: v2 "let us go after other gods"; v6 "let us go and serve other gods"; v13 "let us go and serve other gods".  This was an enticement from three groups to compromise their devotion to God to follow other gods, in direct opposition to the first and second commandments.  The "harmless" suggestion to relax a little, risked bringing the wrath of God upon them.  God opposes all sin, but particularly the sin of idolatry.  Every form of idolatry is abomination in the sight of God.  As we have said before, idolatry is the practise of replacing God with things or people lesser than God.

In each case, the judgment is severe, so severe it would bring loud protests from our modern generations.  Yet the severity is to demonstrate how serious God considers idolatry.  The condemnation of God in this is stated as follows:

"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"-13v5.

"Thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is like thine own soul, entice thee secretly saying let us go and serve other gods...thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him, neither shalt 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..."-13v6-10.

"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 shall 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"-13v15/16.

The people of God were to effect this severe judgment themselves, so that they understood the Divine attitude to it.  This has been preserved in God's word that we might know the feelings of God in the matter.  We learn in Romans 1v18 that "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold (suppress-hold down) the truth in unrighteousness".

The world is still full of idolatry, and the constant enticement is for believers to succumb to it.  However, there is no mandate to kill idolaters today.  That was given to the state of Israel so that men would know the severity of God's estimate of it, but there is no call for Christians today to do the same.  At worst the discipline is temporary excommunication from the church community as per 1st Corinthians 5.  What has happened, has God's attitude changed?  Not a bit of it, He still views idolatry as abomination.  What has changed is that Christ has come, and taken all the wrath of God against sin, and has satisfied the demands of God.  He has ushered in a "dispensation of grace" so that all who come to Him in Jesus are forgiven, and reconciled.  God is dealing with the world in grace, not by law, which has been fully met in Christ.

All of us, alive today, were born into the greatest age (the age of grace), when God is dealing with the world according to grace and not according to law.  This is because Christ fulfilled the law.  Were it otherwise, few of us would be still alive.  We should be thrilled that we were born in this privileged day, a day which has lasted almost 2000 years.  However this day will end soon, and the throne of grace (Hebrews 4v16), now operating in grace, will become the throne of wrath (Revelation 4v2-6), when God vents His anger on a rebellious world, and begins the process of exterminating all sin and idolatry.

We will never be called upon to display the loyalty demanded of Israel.  This is because Jesus gave His all for us to God.  Perhaps in light of that, we may decide to love Him more in practical reality.  There is no doubt, in the words of the song,..."Bye and bye, when I look on His face, beautiful face, thorn-shadowed face; bye and bye when I look on His face, I'll wish I had given Him more!.  More so much more....and so on.