- 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. Deuteronomy 13:10 – You don’t have to be a biblical scholar to see how God feels about someone seeking to lead His people into the worship of idols. Moses sets up a clear outline of what to do when anyone began to draw another away from the sole worship of God. Death. It didn’t matter if they were your closest friend, your child, or even your spouse, if they were working to get you to worship other gods the punishment for them was death. Certainly that seems to us quite extreme, but I also believe if we saw how dangerous that person’s actions were we’d agree with God’s directions. For imagine your young child is playing in the backyard when you notice there is a rattlesnake heading towards the child. In that space there is no “making space” for the snake to remain, you are getting that child far from that snake and that snake is a goner. In the Lord’s eyes someone coming in and seeking to lead His children away from worship of Him is like a rattlesnake in His backyard. In Moses’ day the Lord had no patience for that, and in our day it’s the same. Whatever the enemy is using to pull you away from a sole worship of God the Lord demands we destroy. No, this is not giving us a license to kill someone, but it is giving the direction to sever relationships and sacrifice whatever “idols” we began to follow. In summary, if there is something in your life pulling you away from the worship of God, don’t make space for it in your backyard. Make it gone. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3452
- 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. Deuteronomy 13:5 – The heartbeat of this chapter can be found in that last phrase of this verse. Purge the evil from your midst. We see God speaking clearly on how we should handle anything that is trying to lead us away from following after Him. We are to purge it and remove it completely and immediately from our story. Often though our habit is purging it partly and purging it eventually. What then is something in your story that you know clearly isn’t helping your walk with God? A certain mindset? Some habit? A relationship? If it’s hurting your walk, God says to begin removing it. Know today I’m praying for you in that process of removing the things that need to be removed from your story. Please be praying the same for me. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac -Daily DEVO 1308
- Deuteronomy 13 – Pastor Mac Daily DEVO 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. Deuteronomy 13:6-9 – Yikes. Truly after reading this whole chapter that was my first response. First it was with dreamers trying to lead people astray, but this second group is a whole different level. If your brother, or the wife you held close, or your closest friend was to try and lead you astray from the Lord to serve other gods, the command was clear. Death. What we see here is how serious God is about our worship to Him and Him alone. While today we do handle the law differently, it is revealing and guiding to us on how we should handle such sin when made present in our story. We should kill it. If some activity is leading us away from worship of God, our choice should be to end that activity. If a person is seeking to lead us away from the Lord, then a death to that relationship may need to be taken. If something is directing our worship elsewhere than God, our posture should be to end such a thing. God alone is worthy of our worship. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2438
Daily DEVO 