God’s
people must follow and fear Him only. They must keep His commandments, listen
to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him. To do that they must watch
out for people who would seek to lead them astray. Such people would not
only come from without, but they could also come from within them. There were
prophets and dreamers that could hail from among them to lead them astray. A
prophet was one who would speak for God to guide and point the people to honor
and serve Him. A true dreamer based his message on his dream would seek to lead
God’s people to worship and serve God.
Here
Deuteronomy 13:1-5 warned the Israelites against readily accepting messages
given by a prophet or a dreamer purported to be from God. Even when they could
perform signs and wonders, the Israelites must not be hook-winked by their
performance. They should instead evaluate a prophet or dreamer based on
who they were directing them to worship and serve. They should never
evaluate a prophet or dream based on the signs and wonders they could do. A
true prophet or a dreamer purported to speak for God would always exhort one to
worship and serve the true and living God and never to other gods.
Be
careful not to be tricked in our walk with God. How can we prevent ourselves
from being deceived? The first thing we need to do is to stay faithful to God
and be discerning. We must never forget that He had brought us out of our
bondage and redeemed us. We must learn to evaluate every message we hear and
not take every message hook, line, and sinker. Don’t be duped by performances
even when they seem miraculous. A genuine message from God always leads one to
worship and serve Him and not other gods. Verse 5 calls for a prophet to be put
to death. While it is not possible for us to put a false prophet to death in
our setting, we can dissociate and have nothing to do with him or her. We must
choose to be faithful to God and not be distracted by signs and wonders. Remember
Satan disguises himself as an angel of light!
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