Nathan E. Lewis

“The Covenant: The Lure of Idolatry� (13)

Moses addresses Israel in Deuteronomy 13 with the purpose of protecting her from idolatry. There are certain types of people who have the potential to lure Israel into idolatry. Moses warns Israel of three categories of people. If you were seeking to protect the church from idolatry, which categories of people would be on your list? Would you list rock stars, professional athletes, and best selling authors? Would your list of the top three most dangerous idolaters be cultists, artists, and university professors? Would you warn people against extreme environmentalists, secret societies, and success coaches? Which groups of people in our community have the greatest potential for luring us into idolatry?
Moses warns against three groups of people: spiritual leaders; family members; and civic leaders. We may be surprised at his choices, recognizing them to have potential for good, for the betterment of our community. Remember, idolatry is replacing the one, true God with any other person, object, or phenomenon. An idol need not be evil in itself. Many idols are good. Nature, money, land, family, sex, vocation, and security are all good yet they are all ranked among the top ten idols of our day. The evil does not lurk in them; the evil is in our idolizing of them. Similarly, these three categories of people are not evil, but good. We need spiritual leaders; we love family members; and civic leaders have been most helpful to us. Nevertheless, the potential of these people luring us into idolatry is high. Moses gives us some insight into why this is the case.

The first person Moses warns against is the spiritual leader. Spiritual leaders help us to connect with the divine. We perceive that they have a stronger connection to the divine than we do and so we follow them. Moses describes two such spiritual leaders: prophets and dream interpreters. Both prophets and dream interpreters claim to deliver to us the very words of God. A prophet hears God speak directly and clearly. The prophet delivers the divine message to its earth-bound audience. A dream interpreter has the ability to translate a dream sequence into a divine message. If I have a dream, the dream interpreter can tell me what God has revealed through the symbols of my dream. The dream interpreter may be one who dreams more than others, able to explain his dreams as clear messages from God. Both prophets and dream interpreters have delivered alongside their divine messages, signs and wonders, validating the divine source of the message. We may be convinced that these signs and wonders are miraculous and so we accept the message as divine. Moses says, “Be careful. Listen to the message. If the message is calling us to worship idols, then this is no divine message, but a divine test.�
Through his prophet, Moses, God has clearly commanded us to love him with all our heart and with all our soul. Through Jesus Christ, his one and only Son, the great and final prophet, we have received the command to love God with all our heart and with all our soul. If any spiritual leaders presents us with a message that would rob God of our worship of him alone, we know that this person is luring us into idolatry and thus does not speak for God. Even if this spiritual leaders is able to charm snakes, heal our uncle’s arthritis or even raise the dead, we will not follow him or her. We will worship God and God alone.
The second person Moses warns against is the family member. Moses describes family and friends using terms of endearment and intimacy. He does not ask us to consider our stepbrother, but the brother our mother birthed. He does ask us to consider the wife we ignore, but the wife we embrace, our true love. He describes a friend as close to me as my soul is to my body. Moses says that my best friend, not an acquaintance, but my close friend may take me aside secretly to persuade me toward idolatry. Moses says that my beloved wife may lace our pillow talk with idolatrous plans. Way to go, Moses. All you are doing in this address is breaking down the trust of our most intimate relationships. Actually, what Moses is doing is building up our trust in God, a trust in God alone, so that we might not become the ones who lures our close friends and beloved family into idolatry. Trust God alone and then you will encourage your loved ones to worship God alone.
Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father, mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.� What does Jesus mean by this statement? Is he anti-family? He is addressing our propensity to idolatry, the worship of good gifts from God’s hand rather than the worship of God alone. Family is good, but if you are to follow God, you must put your trust in him alone and worship him alone.
The third person Moses warns against is the civic leader. He describes a civic leader as one who wields influence in his city. The people he has in mind, he calls “worthless fellows.� The actual term he uses is “sons of belial.� The New Testament authors turn the word, “belial,� into a proper noun, a name for Satan himself. The word in Moses’ context describes destruction, especially of communities. In the name of civic and social development, some leaders in the end destroy community.
Have you ever put your trust in an elected official? A political party? A social agenda? Has a person who wields influence and power in the city, state, or nation ever broken your trust? Moses is not warning against those who break campaign promises. He warns against those who would lure us into idolatry. Moses does not warn against those who would raise our taxes or send our children to war. He warns against idolatry. Moses’ only concern in this address is the worship of the one, true God who has commanded us to worship him with all our heart and with all our soul.
Imagine the ideal civic leader, one who beautifies our community with green spaces, attracts fortune five hundred companies, improves our schools, and cuts the crime rate. Imagine this picture perfect leader announcing on prime time television, “Let’s go and serve other gods.� We are to serve God alone and so we must allow even a good leader to lure us into idolatry.
Having considered these three groups, which have the potential to lure us into idolatry, I must now address the penalties of the law. Moses commands the death of the prophet and interpreter of dreams, who lure Israel into idolatry. These false prophets have taught rebellion against the God who has liberated Israel from bondage. Moses says, “You shall purge the evil person from your midst.� Moses commands the death of any family member and friend who lures Israel into idolatry. Israel is not to pity or spare the loved one, but instead, Israel is to stone that person. The person most intimate with the idolater, who heard the whispered suggestions of idolatry, must cast the first stone. Such a penalty will be a deterrent. “All Israel shall hear and fear and never again do any such wickedness.� If civic leaders sway an entire city to worship other gods, then the entire city is to be put to the sword, devoting the entire city to destruction. The inhabitants are to be killed and the spoil is to be burned. The city is never to be re-built.
How do you react to these penalties? Many people reject the law of God considering these penalties to be cruel. What is the difference between these penalties in the Hebrew Scriptures and the penalties in the Kuran, the Scriptures of Islam? Jon Krakauer, author of the best selling, “Under the Banner of Heaven,� in his prologue, reminds us that Mormonism the great religion founded in America, is quickly becoming the first worldwide religion to emerge since Islam. This American religion, Mormonism, is just as barbaric as Islam, including laws commanding the death of infidels, her prophets commanding polygamy. How is the Bible of Christianity any different? Our Bible not only includes the New Testament, but we also confess that the Old Testament is the Word of God delivered for our good. What are we to do with these commands, these penalties, these laws that seem to be harsh, barbaric, inhumane?
Would you believe that the gospel is the answer to how we should understand and respond to these harsh penalties? Firstly, the penalties of the law, operative in Moses’ day, had the purpose of liberating Israel from idolatry and from those who would promote idolatry. Israel would be free as long as she was completely devoted to the one, true God. The freedom of the gospel is latent in the law. What about mercy? Where is the mercy of the gospel? Does not the gospel offer divine mercy to the worst of sinners, even those who promote idolatry? What if my spouse repents of luring me into idolatry, must I stone her? Doesn’t the gospel move me to forgive her?
The law of God presents God’s justice. The sin of promoting idolatry is indeed punishable by death. These stiff penalties fit the crime. The law not only administers God’s justice, but it forces all who have broken it to plead for God’s mercy. The law not only makes provision for mercy to be shown to repentant lawbreakers, it is leading us, through God’s redemptive history, to his throne of mercy. The law given by Moses is leading God’s people to the fulfillment of the law in Christ Jesus. All of us who have broken the law, not only have room to beg for mercy, we are directed by the law to discover Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of the law. He has fulfilled the law through perfect obedience, winning the blessings of the covenant. He has fulfilled the law by taking upon himself the penalties, the curses of the covenant. The penalties that we deserve for our crimes against God, Jesus Christ, our representative, has received them. On the cross Christ suffered the death penalty which we deserve.
The gospel is directly connected to these harsh penalties in the law. The gospel is good news in that it proclaims us to be free from these harsh penalties. The gospel does not declare that we have been spared the slapping of our hands for promoting idolatry. The gospel declares that we have been spared the death penalty.
Today, we still need the law of God to remind us of the seriousness of our crimes and the penalties God is just to assign to us. These penalties are the black backdrop for the brilliant coming of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer.
Do you remember the story of the Jewish leaders who brought to Jesus the woman caught in the act of adultery? They say to Jesus, “The law of Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?�
Jesus replied, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw the stone at her.� Is Jesus soft on sin? Has he added mercy to the justice of the law? Mercy is not a new concept post-law. Mercy is written into the law as we have seen. Before I cast the first stone putting to death my spouse whose pillow talk has been laced with idolatrous suggestions, must I not be sure that I have not whispered idolatrous overtures into her ears? He who is without sin cast the first stone. The law indicts us all! Jesus reminded the teachers of the law in his day that the law of God condemns all of us to death. Thus the law paves the road to mercy. Jesus said to the woman, who had broken the law of God, “Where are they? Has no one condemned you?� She said, “No, one, Lord.� Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and sin no more.�