Idolatry
As I promised
yesterday, today we are going to take a good long look at idolatry among the
nations. Of course, this necessarily
implies taking a look at our role among the nations. It implies taking a look at how we as
followers of God live in the world while desperately trying to remain not of
this world.
I find the first few
verses of this chapter startling. I
think them true, but they also imply that we need to take our spirituality a
bit more seriously than many of us do.
Essentially what God is saying is that He will give others the ability
to do great things knowing that they may well use those great things to lead us
away from Him. It is a test to see if we
are really loyal or if we are not loyal at all.
Perhaps an example is
in order. Let’s say that I am diagnosed
with imminent kidney failure. However, a
kidney donor is found that is compatible to me and who is willing to give a
kidney. A doctor is found to monitor the
procedure. After the procedure, I make a
comment about how good God was in allowing me to receive the transplant and
continue living a normal life. The
doctor might turn to me and tell me that God had nothing to do with it and that
rather it was human innovation and human scientific procedures to which I
should give thanks.
Now, if that were to
happen I am in a quandary. God has
clearly given the skills and intelligence to the doctor in order for Him to do
the procedure. Yet the doctor does not
see it that way. So we have a person who
has received a blessing from God’s hand yet has chosen to lift up his gift from
God in such a way to truly present a false testimony. Lord willing, I would remain faithful to God
and ignore the vain witness of the doctor.
I would continue to believe in God and would have thus passed the Lord’s
test. However, the possibility does exist
that I might listen to this doctor and begin to think that the doctor is
right. There is a possibility that I
might give credit to humanity for its innovativeness and to the doctor for his
brilliance and skill. When I do that, I
have admittedly failed the test.
This passage is a
little bit scary in that respect. God
grants all people their abilities. There
are all kinds of people in this world who are willing to use those very God-given
abilities to lead us away from seeing God as the grantor of those same
abilities. There are all kinds of people
out there who will use their God-given abilities in a means that makes them
false prophets of a false god (or false way of living at the very least). I would actually daresay that the majority of
people – even many Christians – have a desire to focus on human ability rather
than giving God the first glory. We must
be careful to understand this and not be led astray by their beliefs,
teachings, and ways of life. Lord
willing, all things should be able to lead us to the worship of the one true
God.
Dealing with People Who Turn Us Away from God
The rest of this
chapter is quite strong in terms of how to deal with those who lead us away
from God. I’m going to be rather blunt
here. Moses speaks of such people not in
terms of generalities but speaks of them in terms of community, friends, and
even family. The advice in Deuteronomy
13:9-10 leaves little room for wiggle room.
Regardless of the designation of community, friend, or family … if a
person tries to lead you away from God and into a false way of life they are to
be stoned.
Does God really want
us stoning our families and friends?
That is a really tough question and I will say this: under the legal
system of the USA stoning someone would land the perpetrator in jail with a
pretty heavy sentence. On those grounds
alone I strongly advocate against stoning someone. I would also add that on the basis of Jesus’
teaching in John 8:2-11, those who even consider picking up stones need to be
sure that their own “house is in the right order.” So no, as a religious leader in an American
congregation, I don’t advocate at all actually picking up stones and stoning
people who would lead us away from God.
I hope that comes as a great sigh of relief to anyone reading this.
However, I do
advocate keeping a constant frame of reference on those who are helping you
draw closer to God and those who are actively drawing you away from God and into
the realm of human self-glorification. I
absolutely think God wants us to allow ourselves to be influenced by those that
are pulling us closer to God. I also
absolutely think that God wants us to minister to those who would seek to draw
us away from Him; but to certainly do it in a manner that does not allow them
to influence us in return.
While I don’t
actually advocate stoning people, I do advocate the seriousness with which we
take the issue. People who lead us out
of godly habits and into ungodly habits are dangerous. There is no other way of putting it. Just because someone is family doesn’t make
them any less dangerous. Just because
someone might be nice and considered a friend doesn’t make them any less
dangerous. In fact, those who do it
subtly through our relationship with them are actually the most dangerous. Moses’ point here is to take our godliness
seriously and our ungodliness just as seriously. I think that is stellar advice to which it is
worth listening.
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