THE IDOL'S ENTICEMENT
(DEUTERONOMY 12:1-13:18)
"You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. You shall not worship the LORD your God with such things." -Deuteronomy 12:2 & 4
The history of much of the world's religions is basically a history of humanity "creating" gods according to their perception of whom they think God is or what they wish He was. The religious concepts of Canaan included what may appear to us as unimaginable. Everything from fertility cults that practiced sexual rites as a form of worship to sacrificing their own children on the outstretched bronze hands of the idol Molech that brought to such a fiery heat that their child would be burned to death.
Because of these horrible and demonic acts of worship, God made it very clear that the revelation He had given of Himself to Moses on Mount Sinai was not to be compromised in any way. By these religious practices, God restricted exposure of anything associated with these demonic places or methods of worship (12:1-9). Worship is to be confined to the Almighty God.
At first glance it may appear that modern humanity has changed their way of thinking about God compared to ancient pagans. But taking a closer look, things may not have changed as much as we think. Today we may not join a fertility cult to worship the power of sexuality, but look how many do so in replacing God with the sensual pleasure of sexuality outside of marriage. God's guidelines for sexual expression have been replaced as "each man does whatever is right in his own eyes" (12:8). Our children are not offered up to the god Molech, but we offer them up to abortion by the millions to support a life of convenient thoughtless sex. The inconvenience of a condom for our sexual pleasure has placed millions of unborn babies into the hands of an abortionist.
In today's world, we obviously cannot remove all these "new gods" and their ways as Israel was to do when they entered the Promised Land. But we have the Holy Spirit to enable us to make a covenant with our eyes, our ears, and our hearts before God. We also have a moral responsibility to teach about why we must protect our children, as much as possible, from the enticement of the gods of this age. As disciples of Christ, we must discover for ourselves and teach our children how to be in this world but not of it. We will be around the practices of a fallen world until Christ returns. We cannot live in a cave. We must therefore have strength with power by the Holy Spirit in our inner being to not come under the sway of the gods of this age. Instead, let us live under subjection to the one and only true and living God.
NKJV BIBLE TEXT
Deuteronomy 12:1-13:18
A Prescribed Place of Worship
1 "These are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which the LORD God of your fathers is giving you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. 2 You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3 And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. 4 You shall not worship the LORD your God with such things.
5 "But you shall seek the place where the LORD your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go. 6 There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. 7 And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the LORD your God has blessed you.
8 "You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes— 9 for as yet you have not come to the rest and the inheritance which the LORD your God is giving you. 10 But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety, 11 then there will be the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the LORD. 12 And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion nor inheritance with you. 13 Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; 14 but in the place which the LORD chooses, in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.
15 "However, you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, of the gazelle and the deer alike. 16 Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it on the earth like water. 17 You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or your new wine or your oil, of the firstborn of your herd or your flock, of any of your offerings which you vow, of your freewill offerings, or of the heave offering of your hand. 18 But you must eat them before the LORD your God in the place which the LORD your God chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all to which you put your hands. 19 Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.
20 "When the LORD your God enlarges your border as He has promised you, and you say, 'Let me eat meat,' because you long to eat meat, you may eat as much meat as your heart desires. 21 If the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock which the LORD has given you, just as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates as much as your heart desires. 22 Just as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat them; the unclean and the clean alike may eat them. 23 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life; you may not eat the life with the meat. 24 You shall not eat it; you shall pour it on the earth like water. 25 You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD. 26 Only the holy things which you have, and your vowed offerings, you shall take and go to the place which the LORD chooses. 27 And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of the LORD your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the LORD your God, and you shall eat the meat. 28 Observe and obey all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God.
Beware of False Gods
29 "When the LORD your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, 30 take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.' 31 You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.
32 "Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.
DEUTERONOMY 13
Punishment of Apostates
1 "If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, '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 that dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. 5 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst.
6 "If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, 'Let us go and serve other gods,' which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, 7 of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, 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 against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. 10 And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 11 So all Israel shall hear and fear, and not again do such wickedness as this among you.
12 "If you hear someone in one of your cities, which the LORD your God gives you to dwell in, saying, 13 'Corrupt men have gone out from among you and enticed the inhabitants of their city, saying, "Let us go and serve other gods"'—which you have not known— 14 then you shall inquire, search out, and ask diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an abomination was committed among you, 15 you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it, all that is in it and its livestock—with the edge of the sword. 16 And you shall gather all its plunder into the middle of the street, and completely burn with fire the city and all its plunder, for the LORD your God. It shall be a heap forever; it shall not be built again. 17 So none of the accursed things shall remain in your hand, that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of His anger and show you mercy, have compassion on you and multiply you, just as He swore to your fathers, 18 because you have listened to the voice of the LORD your God, to keep all His commandments which I command you today, to do what is right in the eyes of the LORD your God.
| A Prescribed Place of Worship v. 1 be careful to observe – Chapter 12 contains important ordinances given to Israel concerning their worship of God. Here He will instruct them to utterly destroy the pagan places of worship when they find them in Canaan, and to begin bringing all of their sacrifices and offerings to the specific place to which the Lord will direct them. v. 2 you shall dispossess – Israel discovered that Canaan was filled with territories that the pagans had named after their gods (e.g. Bethshemesh, Bethpeor, and others). These cities abounded with temples and altars to false gods. In this passage, the Lord directs Israel to tear them down and destroy them so that no trace is left of the false, demonic religions. Many of the idols were situated on the top of high mountains, for the pagans believed that their various gods had power over any territory they could see. Others were worshipped under shady groves of trees where the environment was more pleasant. Wherever Israel found these places devoted to false worship, they were to cleanse them of any trace of demonic invasion, lest the remnants of false religion lead them astray. | v. 5 seek the place where the Lord your God chooses – Once they were in the Land, God directed them to a specific place at which they were to set up the Tabernacle and later the Temple in order to bring their sacrifices and worship Him. This place that God chose was foreshadowed in Genesis 22, when Abraham prophesied on Mount Moriah after being tested by the Lord's command to sacrifice his son — "in the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided" (v. 14). This was a foreshadowing of the sacrifice which God would make of His own Son on that same mountain. In the meantime, however, the Temple would be situated on Mount Moriah, as explained in 1 Chronicles 21. v. 6 you shall take your burnt offerings – All of these sacrifices and their particular aspects and significance are described in detail in Leviticus 1-7. v. 7 there you shall eat – Certain sacrifices that Israel used in their worship of God included eating a portion of the offered meat. However, in some cases, like the burnt offering, the worshipper ate none of the sacrifices. All of it was offered upon the altar. In other cases, such as that of the peace offering, the worshipper ate a portion, and the priest who officiated over the sacrifice ate a portion. |
| v. 8 every man doing what is right in their own eyes – Israel had not yet taken possession of Canaan, and a city was not yet set up for the official worship of Jehovah. So the people made sacrifices all over the wilderness rather than in the organized fashion they would enjoy once they were living in the Promised Land. | v. 12 the Levite who is within your gates – Because the Levites had no territory of their own and could not own land privately, they depended on the offerings of the people during their worship for their livelihood. God constantly reminded Israel throughout the Law that the Levites depended on them for support in this way. |
| v. 15 you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates – Up until this point in chapter 12, God has been describing the ordained place of worship at which they were to bring their animals for sacrifice. Here, however, He informs them that as for the animals that are necessary for their food, they may slaughter and eat them anywhere they desire. He further clarifies this by advising them that a person does not need to be ritualistically "clean" in order to eat a slaughtered animal, as long as the slaying was not connected in any way to worship. The issue is one of keeping their worship of God separate from their everyday slaughtering of animals for physical sustenance. v. 16 only you shall not eat the blood – Leviticus 17:11 is the foundation for Israel's understanding of blood and its importance to God. There He tells them that the blood of an animal is actually given to them in order to represent life, which in turn represented the penalty owed to God for sin. It is blood that the Lord says actually has the ability to make atonement for sin, and so it is that blood is sacred to Him. Therefore, it was not to be taken without significance by the Hebrews, and they were never to eat or drink blood as part of their daily sustenance. Rather, they were to meticulously pour it out on the ground before cooking or eating any slaughtered meat. v. 20 enlarges your border – Rather than living on a small piece of ground in the wilderness without ever owning any of it, the Lord is about to lead them into a large country which they would, for the first time in their nation's history, be able to call their own. The verse goes on to say that once they are settled in the land, they will be able to eat their fill of mea, something they had experienced very little of up until this point. | v. 21 too far from you – Most commentators interpret this verse to say "because" or "since the place... is too far from you." In other words, the verse is meant to communicate to the Hebrews that because the Tabernacle will end up being situated too far away for most of Israel to travel to on a daily basis, it is again permissible for them to slaughter animals for food right where they live, rather than making the journey to the place of worship every time they needed food. v. 22 as the gazelle and the deer are eaten – Gazelle and deer were considered "clean" animals, and yet they were not sacrificial animals. Therefore, they could be slaughtered and eaten anywhere in Israel without being ritualistically slain in the Tabernacle or Temple. Moses reiterates the fact that even animals that were considered sacrificial animals (bulls, goats and sheep) were also good for food. Therefore, as long as they were not being sacrificed in worship anyone in Israel could eat them anywhere they wished, just as were the gazelle and the deer. v. 26 only the holy things – Moses repeats the importance of taking anything which could be considered sacrificial or that was dedicated to be offered up in worship in the Tabernacle and later the Temple, rather than slaughtering them there in the place in which they live. This was in contrast to the religions of the Canaanites, who regularly held animal sacrifices to their gods right in their own backyards. The admonition, repeated in verses 25 and 28, is that honoring these statutes will be an important way of ensuring that Israel walks with God and remains in His favor so that He might bless them and prolong their days in the Promised Land. |
| Beware of False Gods v. 30 do not inquire after their gods – Through Moses, the Lord issues a very important command here: Do not look into the worship of the pagans that you are about to displace. Once they were in the Promised Land and had begun to encounter all kinds shrines, altars, and temples built by the Canaanites to honor false gods, the children of Israel could be tempted to investigate those pagan forms of worship simply out of curiosity or the desire to incorporate other types of spirituality into their own worship. The Lord cautions them in this passage, however, against inquiring at all into the worship of false gods. They could easily be drawn into apostasy by the demonic forces that lie behind the pagan idols (1 Cor. 10:20). Paul reiterates this same basic exhortation to us as New Testament Christians in Romans 16:17-20, advising us to "be wise in what is good and simple [or "innocent"] concerning evil." Chapter 13 Punishment of Apostates v. 1 if there arises among you – The main emphasis of this chapter is God's instruction to Israel on how to handle those who intend to draw them away from the worship of the one true God. The Lord instructs them on how to discern and know a true prophet from a false one, and what punishment to administer when they inevitably encounter the false. God tells them here that such people need to be dealt with severely because of the enormity of the potential consequences in drawing even a part of Israel away from God into false religions. a prophet or a dreamer of dreams...a sign or a wonder – Prophecies and dreams were often legitimate channels of communication between God and His people, even in Old Testament days. However, both of those gifts can be imitated or abused, and a false prophet may even perform miracles as signs to draw people away into error. Therefore, visible spiritual gifts are not the only test of authenticity that God's people should apply when attempting to discern the true source of a word. And so, the following verses describe further proofs that must be employed. | v. 2 "let us go after other gods and serve them" – Again, the Lord reveals that a false prophet may even be able to perform miraculous signs and wonders, and even be genuine. He may also be able to relate to the people prophetic words that come to pass and therefore seem to be true. However, none of these things are the true test of a prophet's legitimacy. The true test is their devotion to the one true God whose person and heart has been revealed to us in the Scriptures. The prophet must lead people closer to the one true God, rather than away after new gods or even new and strange ideas about God. As well, all that the prophet says must line up with the Bible. Therefore, God reveals to His people that no matter how impressive a leader's ministry may seem, the message is the main point and the test of all things. v. 3 the Lord your God is testing you – The Lord may be allowing the false prophet to come into their midst to test them and see if they love and seek after Him more than they do signs, wonders, and new and strange things. Jesus said in Matthew 12:38-42 that only an evil and adulterous generation seeks after signs and wonders, rather than exhibiting a soft heart toward God and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. |
| v. 6-9 if your brother – The Lord so abhors idolatry that He instructs the people of Israel to deal severely even with members of their own family who attempt to overthrow the people's faith and lead them away from Him. The Lord says this, in part, because He knows that our love for family is so strong that it could play a part in leading us away from Him. In verse 8, God tells them that they must not listen to them, not have pity on them, nor try to hide what they have done. But as verse 9 says, the person who hears a family member attempting to turn other Hebrews away from the knowledge and pursuit of the Lord should be the first to raise his hand to put the apostate to death. Although the circumstances are somewhat different today, and we are not called to carry out such extreme measures in the New Testament, Jesus did tell His disciples in Matthew 10:34-39 that He came to earth to bring a sword, even to the point of dividing up families if necessary. And, anyone who does not love Him more than his own family is not worthy to be called His disciple. v. 10 you shall stone him – Beginning with an ordinance in Leviticus 20:2, stoning became the most common form of capital punishment in Israel in that day. It usually consisted of casting large stones on a person until he dies. v. 11 so all Israel will hear and fear – Another purpose behind the command to carry out such exacting punishment for apostasy is that the rest of the people of Israel would hear of what transpired and develop a healthy fear of evil. Although these commands seem harsh to us at times, the result was tremendously effective in keeping false prophets away from the congregation of Israel. | v. 12 if you hear someone in one of your cities– The Lord begins to deal with the possibility that an entire city in Israel might be drawn away from Him and fall into apostasy. v. 14 you shall inquire, search it out, and ask diligently – The Lord is careful to ensure that all due diligence be applied in making sure that no innocent Hebrews were indicted and punished on false charges of apostasy. There was to be no rash sentencing or acting on a rumor of guilt but a thorough, careful inquiry into the matter before action was taken. However, verse 15 informs them that if the accusation of guilt is proved true, the children of Israel are to put to death all of the people of the offending town in order to prevent the spread of apostasy. v. 17 none of the accursed things shall remain in your hand – Verse 16 requires Israel to burn the offending city, including all of its goods, in the middle of the central street in order to remove from Israel any trace of that which could lead them into the bondage of false religion. Here God strictly instructs them to leave no trace of the city intact, and to make sure that none of them are left at the end holding a single piece of the treasure of the city for themselves. This likely had the affect of guarding against false accusations that might be raised against a city in the hopes of looting it for personal gain. show you mercy – The reason behind the commands in this chapter is God's desire to draw Israel close to Himself and remain in an intimate father-child relationship with them. As written in 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1, we must come away from all that is unclean so that God may be the Father to us that He desires to be. |
