Deuteronomy 13:1-18
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 turna 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.
6 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 secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;
7 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;
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; thine 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 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.b
11 And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you.
12 If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the LORD thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying,
13 Certain men, the childrenc of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known;
14 Then shalt thou enquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you;
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, for the LORD thy God: and it shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be built again.
17 And there shall cleave nought of the cursed thing to thine hand: that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and shew 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 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.
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 (Deuteronomy 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 (Deuteronomy 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.
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