Our community group has been studying Deuteronomy and we hit chapter 13. Initially it reads in a way that people could compare our Bible to the current events around the world and think that the God of the Bible is no different from the extremes of Islam. Three instances are there of a command to kill those who would draw people away from the Lord. They are repeated enough to be crystal clear and they are thorough. The word “purge” comes up and there seems to be a clear command to exterminate those who meet the criteria described. One is the prophet who leads people astray. Another is a brother or close friend who seeks to lead you astray. The third is a more general description of “worthless fellows” suggesting that they are neither prophet or someone close in relation. Someone reading this without properly understanding the context could react like “wow, the Bible says that unbelievers should be exterminated!” Yet we know they would be wrong. This got me thinking about how we read the Bible and how carefully people need to interpret it. I thought about the wrong ways it could be viewed.
Some might conclude wrongly that this is a broad brush command to kill anyone who is not a follower of the God of the Bible. Were that so, our faith would be no different than Islamic extremists. In each situation described, there are clear quantifiers for who these people are and how they should be dealt with. Yes, there is a death penalty involved here, but it’s not a death to the unbeliever. God is gracious towards those who do not believe but his wrath is seen against those who would mislead believers.
Others might like to think that the God of the Old Testament is not the same as the New Testament. They might even say, “well Jesus came and changed everything”. This is a bit of a cop out actually. Yes, Jesus did change things, however, he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Some folks I know who don’t believe that all of the Bible is God’s word, would write off passages such as this as not being consistent with the loving God they want to believe in. We have to consider that Jesus affirmed the Old Testament and the
n work out where the gospel fits into this. A God with no wrath leaves no need for salvation, no need for the Cross. Rebellion is something God takes seriously.
Then I noticed something in the chapter. The word “known” is repeated throughout. The evil that is being warned against is about those who would lead people away from the God that they have known. Our God is one to be known, to be loved, to be feared (and we must get the Biblical meaning of this), to be followed, and to be clung to. I actually got thinking about the epistle to the Hebrews because of phrases such as “hold fast”. We are to know this God, to know his voice and obey him. This is the one who redeemed his people and brought them out of Egypt (mentioned more than once in the chapter).
In youth ministry, our task is to make God known to a generation. We make him known so that they may follow him and not be led astray. Do we teach them about the God of the whole Bible or just about Jesus? If only the latter, we are leaving students vulnerable. If they don’t see God’s plan of redemption through the whole of scripture and fulfilled in Jesus, they won’t really know God. Then they are vulnerable to the attack that Christianity us under in our society today. They will believe the lies told to them by the media and by professors in college. What undergirds this whole chapter is that God has made himself known long before Jesus arrives on the scene! They need to see how God did this and to learn how to hear his voice.
We had a great discussion that night in our group!
Leave a Reply