We have already learned about ultimate loyalties. But we learn in this chapter that ultimate loyalties are meaningless unless we learn to set them alongside certain lesser loyalties. “If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or wonder . . .” (Deuteronomy 13:1-18).
The land they are entering will not be free of temptations. One temptation will be provided by a dreamer, prophet or worker of miracles (v. 1). He has some real power, but entices the people to go after other gods (v. 2). His teaching must be ignored, and he must be executed (vv. 3, 5). This has happened because God has ordained a test of their loyalties (v. 3). God’s Word must be followed (v. 4). The false teacher has tried to turn them away from their Savior, and they must put the evil away from their midst (v. 5). The same threat can come from within the family (vv. 6-7), and the response is to be the same—you shall not listen, and you shall not pity (vv. 8-10). And all Israel shall fear (v. 11). The same temptation might come from an entire city (vv. 12-13). Diligent inquiry must be made (v. 14). If the charge is true, then this apostate Israelite city is to be put to the sword, with no possibility of financial advantage to those who conquered it (vv. 15-17). They are simply to do what the Lord requires (v. 18).
You have learned before that God has established three governments among men. They are, respectively, the government of the church, the family, and the civil order. In this chapter, we see each of them in turn set up as a possible snare to wholehearted faithfulness to God. The first temptation arises within the church—a prophet, a dreamer, a wonder worker suggests some new progressive theology (vv. 1-5). This is done openly, on the basis of certain fulfilled miracles. Or, someone in the family—someone especially dear to you—secretly wants you to worship anything at all other than Jehovah (vv. 6-11). The last temptation comes from a city (vv. 12-18), a polis.
The temptation, of course, is to go after other gods—gods the Israelites have not known. But the thing which makes the temptation work is that they are being enticed by someone they have known, but in a new guise. The false teacher in the church, the false brother in the family, the false city in the commonwealth, are all trying to use the natural loyalty that comes to them, the natural affection rendered to them, as a bribe to depart from the living God. The temptation to bow down in idolatry to blocks of stone and wood therefore begins with the temptation to love church, family, or nation idolatrously.
But there is to be no pity for the pitiless. The language is almost as strong as the language our Lord uses (Luke 14:26). The severity of the Old Testament sometimes approaches that of the New. Here it says—with regard to dear family members—that we are not to consent with, hearken to, exend pity to, hold back judgment from, or cover up for. The treacherous one is to be killed. This seems harsh to us, and it is—although not the way we expect. Consider for a moment the harshness of the family member who seeks after another god. What position is he willing to put his family in? The Lord requires us to be pitiless in faithful self-defense.
Someone might say, “But that’s in the Old Testament . . .” The apostle Paul quotes a phrase from this chapter (noting that the same phrase occurs multiple times in Deuteronomy). And in Deuteronomy, the phrase always refers to a particularly heinous capital crime. How does Paul use it? Does he wave it away as belonging to an earlier barbarian epoch? Not at all. In the absence of a godly social order, the church is still required to act with regard to her own loyalties— “But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person” (1 Cor. 5:13).
What are we to take from this? Discernment—discernment in this passage means refusal to listen, discuss, consider, or ponder. It does not encourage broad flexibility, urbane openness, sophisticated latitude. Celebrate the glory of being narrow. Idols of the heart—how are your heart loyalties ranked? What would you have done under Moses? Church, family and state—these are all creatures, and in a fallen world, creatures want to be something more than creatures. But they are to be enjoyed and honored—never worshiped.