Year 7, Day 164: Deuteronomy 13

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Do you ever coma across a chapter or a teaching in the Bible that catches you by surprise because of its severity?  Deuteronomy 21:18-21 is one such place for me.  There Moses tells parents that if their child is stubborn and refuses to listen that they should stone the child and be done with him.  Matthew 18:8-9 in another such place, this one among the teachings of Jesus.  This is where Jesus tells us to pluck out our eyes and chop off our feet if they lead us into sin.  Deuteronomy 13 is another one of these places.

In this chapter, we hear that if a person comes to invite us to worship other gods that we should get up and kill him or her!  Or, if there are people within a city who are inviting others to worship other gods that we should get up and destroy the city and assume all of its plunder for ourselves!  Perhaps even most striking, if even one of our brothers, sons, or daughters invites us to worship other gods we are to get up and kill them!

At times like this, it is really easy to stop and ask ourselves what happened to the God of peace, who loves all people, who is slow to anger and quick to forgive?  I don’t really mean that mockingly.  That is a serious question.  How can examples like these come from the same God who loved a fallen humanity so much that He sent His only Son to die for our sake since we cannot save ourselves?

What passages like these do is to highlight the importance of the concepts that lie underneath them.  It is vitally important that children grow up learning the skill of listening to their parents.  It is important that human beings understand how much what we see and experience influence our proximity to sin.  In this chapter, God wants us to understand just how much other people can exert influence into our lives.

When people we trust – the local prophets and wise men – come to us and speak messages to us, we are prone to listening to them.  We need to make sure that their messages are worth listen to!  When loved ones – brothers, sisters, children – come to us and speak to us, we are prone to listen.  We need to make sure that their messages are worth listen to!  When people in neighboring towns develop a particular habit or cultural expression, it often makes its way into the neighboring towns as we imitate one another.  We need to make sure that the people we imitate are worth imitating!

I don’t truly think that God desires for us to kill everyone around us who makes a poor suggestion about worship, just like I don’t really believe that Jesus wants us to disfigure ourselves when we see something that causes us to have a sinful thought.  What I think He desires is that we always take such things seriously and don’t let ourselves become swayed by their influence.

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