Deuteronomy 13:4-10 –
It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him
and hold fast to him. That prophet or dreamer
must be put to death for inciting rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt and
redeemed you from the land of slavery. That prophet or dreamer tried to turn you from the way the Lord your God commanded you to follow. You must
purge the evil from among you. If your very own brother, or your son
or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other
gods” (gods that neither you nor your ancestors
have known, gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one
end of the land to the other), do not yield to them or listen to them. Show them no
pity. Do not spare them or shield them. You must certainly put them
to death. Your hand must be the first in putting them to death, and
then the hands of all the people. Stone them to death,
because they tried to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt,
out of the land of slavery.
Deuteronomy
6:13 – Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and
take your oaths in his name.
Deuteronomy
29:18 – Make sure there is no man or
woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away
from the Lord our
God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root
among you that produces such bitter poison.
Exodus 20:3 – “You shall have
no other gods before me.
Application:
- · In ancient Israel’s world, when appealed to the gods to affirm and uphold their oaths, they singled out the divine power or powers they most revered. For this reason, to take an oath in the Lord’s name was a key sign of loyalty to and trust in Him and of the rejection of all other gods, even an implicit denial that they amounted to anything or even existed.
- · “Root…that produces such bitter poison” was the poison of idolatry, involving the rejection of the Lord.
- · No deity, real or imagined, was to rival the one true God in Israel’s heart and life.
All Scripture verses taken from NIV
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