Stand Your Ground
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In many US States, including ours, there are laws about your right to defend yourself, your property, and others who are in danger from a criminal. These laws are usually called stand your ground laws or the castle doctrine. The castle doctrine states that if someone comes to your property intending harm, you have the right to use reasonable force to stop them, and even to use deadly force if your life or someone else’s life is in danger.
Stand your ground laws go beyond your right to defend yourself when you are at home. Anywhere you are, you have the right to defend yourself. This morning I want to use these ideas as a metaphor for defending something even more important than human life: Biblically speaking these are things we need to defend against, both as individuals and as the church. In fact, let us go beyond saying we defend against them. The Bible actually commands us to be on the offense.
We are to be on the offense against:
Idolatry
Blasphemy
Apostasy
In other words, we are to take seriously the exclusive worship of God. By exclusive, we mean that we are to worship nothing else and no one else than God Himself. We are going to see in our passage that God takes seriously the one who tempts God’s people to idolatry, and we also should take this seriously.
When we finished chapter 12, we were already on the topic of idolatry, being warned strongly against us. As Moses continues his address to the people in Chapter 13, we see this applied specifically to the false prophet and even someone in a close relationship that would entice the follower of God to worship a false god.
“If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder,
and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’
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.
You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.
But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
“If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known,
some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other,
you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him.
But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people.
You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
And all Israel shall hear and fear and never again do any such wickedness as this among you.
“If you hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you to dwell there,
that certain worthless fellows have gone out among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known,
then you shall inquire and make search and ask diligently. And behold, if it be true and certain that such an abomination has been done among you,
you shall surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, devoting it to destruction, all who are in it and its cattle, with the edge of the sword.
You shall gather all its spoil into the midst of its open square and burn the city and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again.
None of the devoted things shall stick to your hand, that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger and show you mercy and have compassion on you and multiply you, as he swore to your fathers,
if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, keeping all his commandments that I am commanding you today, and doing what is right in the sight of the Lord your God.
We are to be on the offense against:
Idolatry
Blasphemy
Apostasy
So right off in our passage we see a person described who one may not think of at first as a false prophet. Deut13.1
“If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder,
Ok, we maybe would say “so far, so good”, right? After all, scripture tells us that some of the evidences of a true prophet of God are signs and wonders, including accurate predictions of something that is to happen. Verse 1 seems like he may be ok, but then in verse 2 it continues:
and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’
What is happening here? On the one hand, a prophetic person who has given a sign or wonder, and it has come to pass, but on the other hand, this person doing the sign or wonder is attempting to lead astray to other gods. How can this be? Well, scripture tells us that there will be those who are false prophets and yet can do signs and wonders. In Exodus, Pharoah’s magicians did some of the same miracles that Moses did, and some were close imitations. Yet the fact that these men were able to do something looking like magic was in no way an indication of their purity or authority to lead or sway God’s chosen people. In fact, they are rebuked in scripture for what they did.
In addition, there was in the book of acts Simon the magician, who apparently had convinced many that he was someone important, but he was seen to be a fraud, an imposter who was only interested in popularity, or wealth, or power over people. So in verses 1 & 2 here, we see the prophet or dreamer who does indeed seem to have some knowledge or power to perform signs and wonders, but rather than being a true prophet of God, who would urge people to pure worship of Him, this prophet tries to convince people to worship another god.
But God’s people are to reject such a person: Deut13.3
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.
So God’s people will encounter false teachers, some who seem sincere, some who seem powerful, some who seem anointed by God, but the moment they open their mouths to speak about worshiping another god, they are to be rejected. This is when we find out the zeal of the person of faith, is whether they are going to obey God or fall to temptation. And certainly people can be swayed by others. This is why the warning is here. It isn’t if, but when you will be tempted to worship something other than the one true God. Paul likewise warned believers not to believe any other way to God other than through Jesus.
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.
And he also warned that Satan has in his arsenal power and false signs and wonders:
The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders,
And Peter warned of those who turn away from the way of righteousness:
For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.
So Moses is again strongly warning the people of God not to fall into the hands of a faker, a false prophet or teacher, a villain out to steal your very soul. I mentioned in the beginning the castle doctrine and stand your ground. What is it that the believer needs to stand their ground in defense of? Spiritually speaking, it is their faith that they must stand their ground on. Defending the faith can be violent, if not physically, it is certainly violent emotionally and spiritually. God’s people are called to stand their ground. It is not only self-defense, but community defense. Just as we here in FL have laws that give us rights to use weapons lawfully to defend our own life and others, the man or woman of God is called on to stand their ground, to have a castle doctrine of sorts, that protects the faith of themselves and their believing community.
The bible says we are in a spiritual war, we fight against powers and principalities. War is ugly, and the bible uses warfare imagery to help us understand how serious it is that we keep our faith, and in an extension of that faith, to keep our worship pure. It goes hand in hand. We defend our faith in God in order that He may be glorified and worshiped properly as He is entitled to be worshiped. So as an alternative to being seduced by a false prophet to worship other Gods, Moses commands:
You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.
We see some very active language here. Walk after. Fear and keep. obey and serve. Hold fast. In other words, our faith and worship is not a passive thing. If we allow it to become passive, we may easily be swayed by every wind of doctrine, so instead we are to walk after the Lord, meaning to walk in the ways He teaches us. Fear him, meaning be reverent and full of awe before the majesty of God, but also in knowing His graciousness and lovingkindness towards us. Keep his commands and obey his voice. Serve him and hold fast to him. These are the alternatives to following a false prophet who would lead us down the wrong path.
And now we see how very severely God takes false worship. Deut13.5
But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
The punishment for a prophet who lead someone to worship other gods was death. This may sound very severe to some people, and there is an explanation to that. The explanation is that man, even a redeemed person who believes in the gospel, does not fully grasp the holiness of God. If we truly understood the holiness of God, we would have no issues whatsoever with His imposing the death penalty on a false teacher or prophet. God is imposing violence against such a person because this type of person is exhibiting violence against the holiness of God.
In human history, generally speaking, the worst offenses have been considered to be treason against one’s own king or government and murder. Moses says the false prophet teaches rebellion, or treason, against the holy God. The God who had brought them out of Egypt and redeemed them. And the only way to properly deal with this sort of rebellion or treason is to purge it through death. And this is also a warning to the people. Now, people maybe would be ok with this, a prophet trying to lead people astray from serving the living God, but now we see another situation altogether. God is going to tell his people that this seriousness about idol worship is not only towards the false prophet, but may be against someone in a close relationship, even family or a very close friend.
“If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known,
some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other,
That list of people hits pretty close to our hearts, doesn’t it? In other words, even someone you love dearly may try to turn you aside, may entice you to serve other gods, gods you have not known. Neither you nor your fathers have known. What then? What are they to do if their own family member, or your close friend, does this?
you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him.
But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people.
You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
If a close friend or family member comes to you, Moses told the people of Israel, even in secret, and tries to convince you or entice you to go along with idol worship, you are to condemn them. And you are to cast the first stone as a testimony that you are witness to his rebellion. Imagine that! Family member whom you love, friend whom you love, and your job is to testify against them, to bring their sin out into the open, and to be the very initiator of their punishment, which is capital punishment. Do you see how seriously God takes worship? How angered he is against those who would worship false gods?
In other words, the whole community is to participate in putting that person to death, but the one who was being enticed is to be the one who throws the first stone. This is how seriously God takes the worship he deserves as a holy God. And one result of this very serious consequence to the one who was doing this is that others would fear rebelling against God.
And all Israel shall hear and fear and never again do any such wickedness as this among you.
There are those who have said that extreme punishments for crimes do not deter. But the bible says that strong punishments do deter. When the community sees that sin is dealt with very harshly, there is a healthy fear to violate the law. When the consequences are light or non-existent, crime runs out of control. This is evident around the world. In areas where crime is punished severely, and the public knows this, guess what? Crime is lower. In areas where criminals are barely punished if at all, the crime is ridiculously high. It seems like this would be common sense, but the bible is clear that swift and severe punishment causes the good type of fear, the type of fear that actually protects people for their good.
If you are tempted to break the law, but you know that you will have a severe punishment, so are less likely to fall into that temptation. If you think you will get away with it, you may go ahead and give into your temptation. Paul wrote that when elders have a moral failure, it is to be made public. Why? So that other elders would fear. Fear is not always a bad thing. Some people in the world today say we should not have shame or fear, yet properly understood, both shame and fear can be our friends. If shame or fear (or fear of shame) keep you from doing something sinful, the end result is that you are not guilty of sin. That is most certainly a positive result.
Moses is clearly teaching here that if Israel properly deals with these things, then people would fear to rebel against God. If people fear the earthly consequences of violating God’s laws, they are less likely to violate those laws, and the result may be that some sins are averted that, if no punishments on earth existed, most certainly would be committed, making people liable to God’s wrath, not only the wrath of their community. We should fear the consequences of our sin, because that fear may keep us from sinning more than we already do.
Now, in the third part of chapter 13, we see the same application to entire communities who may turn to idol worship:
“If you hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you to dwell there,
that certain worthless fellows have gone out among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known,
then you shall inquire and make search and ask diligently. And behold, if it be true and certain that such an abomination has been done among you,
you shall surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, devoting it to destruction, all who are in it and its cattle, with the edge of the sword.
You shall gather all its spoil into the midst of its open square and burn the city and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again.
None of the devoted things shall stick to your hand, that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger and show you mercy and have compassion on you and multiply you, as he swore to your fathers,
if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, keeping all his commandments that I am commanding you today, and doing what is right in the sight of the Lord your God.
I won’t belabor this too much, but let us note a few things here: First, if the rumor comes that a city has done this, the first thing is not to immediately kill everyone, but to investigate. Inquire and make search and ask diligently. It needs to be established. Now, if the rumor turns out to be true, they are to be treated just as God had told Israel to run out the pagan cultures from their land. No one escapes death, there is no plunder taken, because it is a cursed place, even the livestock are to be killed, and even beyond that, the city should never be rebuilt.
Now, we may as well say it, Israel never did what Deuteronomy 13 commanded them to do in dealing with false prophets and idol worshipers in their midst. Sadly, because they did not do this, God used other nations to discipline his people for their own idol worship. It happened again and again. Even today, there is much idolatry in Israel. It is very much a pagan nation today, even though there are some there who try to pursue righteousness.
The reality: If we understood God’s holiness, we would better understand his wrath and how seriously he takes idol worship and apostasy: another reality: he demands perfection is worship and loyalty. final reality: none of us has met the standard of the perfection God demands of his creatures. That is why we need the gospel.
(Gospel briefly)
Be on offense. Castle Doctrine. Protecting our faith, personally and as a community.
