Deuteronomy 13

False prophets, however spiritual they may seem, are not safe for us to follow. Even if they perform miracles, if they would lead Israel away from the Messiah toward the worship of other gods, they are not helping the Lord's cause. We must not listen to these deceptive spiritualists, no matter how much they amaze us with their marvels.

The Lord does test His people. He trains us up in discernment. He expects us to turn away from evil by His grace. Our prayer is still the one that Jesus taught His disciples: “Lead us not into temptation.” Where we have already tarried too long as hearers of what God hates, we say, “Deliver us from evil.”

False prophets in Israel were to receive the death penalty. Those who led people away from the worship of God and away from his commandments were not safe for the life of the Lord's people. The people of conquest needed to purge them from their midst.

Even if a close relative urged an Israelite to worship other gods, it would not be charitable or loving to overlook the danger of his suggestions. The law of God for Israel was clear. That person was to be killed. Your hands, the hands of the witnesses who brought forth the evidence, was to be first in stoning this family member or friend.

If this false word ever took hold in one of the cities in Israel, the rest of the nation was to take decisive action against that place. After due examination, the city was to be devoted to destruction. All the people, all the cattle, all the spoil, everything in that city, was to be a whole burnt offering to the Lord God, and that city was never to be built again.

What nation of the world could survive under this law? Yet this teaches us what we deserve. It tells us of the holiness of God who will come in judgment.

What city, what family, what individual could stand before the Lord in His anger against sin? Our God is a consuming fire.

What then becomes of the promises of the Lord to Israel? What becomes of his covenant faithfulness and His mercy that endures forever?

But now one Man has been found who kept the Law of God. He did perform great signs and wonders, but He never enticed Israel in the direction of any sin. Even the weightiest matters of the Law were kept by Him with a full obedience of heart and life.

This same obedient Messiah then faced the wrath of His Father that Israel (and we) deserved. Without His death as our substitute, no one could survive the justice of God. In the glory of His resurrection, we have an abundant hope, and power for living now.

False teachers are still dangerous, and we cannot allow them to have a place of authority within the Lord's congregation. But the new era of the gospel has come. If we reject Jesus, and seek to put to death faithful preachers of salvation, how will we stand before the Lord when He comes to judge the living and the dead?

When Jesus came to die for us, He spoke woes against false teachers, but He did not organize His disciples to stone the Pharisees. Something new has come with the coming of our Messiah King. The miracles He performed were in accord with the Scriptural signs of the true Messiah. See Isaiah 35. See also Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22, and admit honestly that His death was in accord with the prophecies that God had given to Israel so that they might recognize the true eternal King when He came.

He has given us a new kingdom. We do not stone false teachers today, or burn cities where false religion has had an undue influence. We take every thought captive in our own hearts, and we suffer for the Word of the King. This is the way of the cross and the resurrection.

Our God is surely able to change even a persecutor of the church into an ambassador of grace and truth. This is His glory and our hope. See Acts 9.

Jesus died for me. He is the true teacher. He is not a false prophet. It is safe to follow Him. He is the way to life.