“If your brother the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or your wife whom you love, or your friend who means as much to you as yourself, secretly tries to entice you to go and serve other gods, which you haven’t known, neither you nor your ancestors — gods of the peoples surrounding you, whether near or far away from you, anywhere in the world — you are not to consent, and you are not to listen to him; and you must not pity him or spare him; and you may not conceal him. Rather, you must kill him! Your own hand must be the first one on him in putting him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the people.”-Deuteronomy 13:7-10
Next up in the category of potential persons who could deceive us into betraying the Lord our God by tempting us to follow after gods “which you have not known” is a private family member.
The first thing I want you to notice is that there is a hierarchy of family members listed here in descending order of importance starting with “your brother”.
Why does this list of family members start off with “your brother”?
The reason is since it was quite the norm in Bible times for a man to have more than one wife as well as a concubine or two, it was usual for a son to have several half-brothers.
In other words, the Scripture here is intending to make a distinction between half and full brothers…
…and thus the term “your brother” here is meant to refer to a full-blooded brother meaning one who has the same mother and father.
This is the closest sibling relationship that is possible.
Moving along, the next person on the list is one’s son followed by one’s daughter followed by one’s wife.
Finally, the last person on the list is a close and intimate friend.
The situation the Lord is describing here is that of a close family member who secretly approaches another family member and then…
…suggests that they engage in some form of idolatry whether it’s worshipping other gods or participating in some pagan festival that would also involve bowing down to other gods.
I guess a good modern example of this would be a Jew inviting another Jew to attend a typical Christian church where the whole congregation bows down to and worships a man nailed to a cross as HASHEM Himself (man it gives me the chills just thinking about this idolatry).
So here’s the thing.
Per the Torah, it is absolutely illegal to entice a fellow member of Israel to worship other gods.
But what makes matters worse is that since it’s a family member who is doing the enticing, one might just be tempted to ignore or cover up the relative’s ungodly suggestion.
God is saying…DO NOT DO THAT!
Just as in the case of the false prophet mentioned earlier, there is to be no hesitation in putting that HASHEM-betrayer to death.
And it doesn’t matter whether that family member is a…
…brother…
…a sister…
…your wife…
…or even your mother etcetera.
God is very firm in His instructions here.
Your are not to have any pity for them or feel sorry for them in any way.
God says you are NOT to protect them from what must rightfully be the consequences of their idolatrous actions.
Again, we are given the clear reason why in verse 12.
“Then all Israel will hear about it and be afraid,
so that they will stop doing such wickedness
as this among themselves.“
We’re told the method of execution is to be stoning.
Why stoning instead of some other execution method?
Because the killing of the idolater was to be something the whole community participated in.
When the whole community participated in the stoning, it demonstrated the consensual agreement of the community that they had rejected the evil that had been committed.
However, don’t misunderstand the situation here.
For instance, a father was not to take his wife, his son or his mother outside the camp and then just willy-nilly stone them to death minus a proper trial.
No…the family member who suggested worshipping other gods is to first be brought to the proper authorities.
And then, the one who was on the receiving end of the suggestion to commit idolatry is to serve as a witness against the Torah-breaking family member.
If found guilty, then the family member who was enticed (the one who also served as a witness) is to be the first person to begin the stoning process with the rest of the community to join in and complete the job.
Pretty hard words of Scripture to take in, isn’t it?
I’m sure the atheists and all the other Richard Dawkins of the world just love to point to passages like this as proof that the Bible is a barbaric and immoral book that should just be treated as an ancient relic from the dark ages that has no use for our progressive modern way of life.
Or they may be those who are religious but will say…
“Well, that’s just the Old Testament God.
The New Testament is totally different.”
Really?
I don’t think so.
The God-Principle being established here is that obedience to God and His commands supersede any allegiance to close family members including one’s parents, children, or spouse.
When faced with the hard choice of obeying God or maintaining relationships with family, the Torah is clear.
God comes first.
And yes, this principle is front and center throughout the New Testament as well.
Check out these words from the Messiah himself…
“If anyone comes to me and
does not hate his father,
his mother, his wife,
his children,
his brothers and his sisters,
yes, and his own life besides,
he cannot be my disciples.”
-Luke 14:26
Let’s not misunderstand what Yeshua is saying in those verses however.
He is in no way saying that if attach ourselves to him, we are to work on developing an active hatred for our families…
…or that accepting him equates to automatically rejecting our family.
No, that’s not what he’s saying.
What he’s saying is that if you ever find yourself in the difficult situation where you have to choose between following God or following your family, you are to CHOOSE GOD and let the chips fall where they may.
In fact, many Jews have had to make this heartbreaking decision when they chose to accept Yeshua as the Jewish Messiah.
We have been threw this, but we did not stone them, nor would I ever. We focus on Yah and try our best to follow Him, I dont feel we are to judge these people until the Messiah comes back and some will be judges. We walked out of churchs to find the truth, and lo and behold we found in the Messianic fellowship the same aggroance and pride in the church. Focus on Yah and his word, not on man and his opinions. Study His word, do your very best, love your brother, love Yah. You once walked in the evil lane yourself, and He pulled you out, so give the others the chance to be pulled out. Take the stick out of your own eye first. Keep praying for them and loving them. Very interesting, if you study you will find so many things we are not doing that Yah said to do. Keep studying and praying and watch your mouth, words destory you.
What do you mean when you say “we did not stone them”.