seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Deuteronomy 13:1 [a]If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, 2 and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” 3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 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. 5 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.
a. Deuteronomy 13:1 In Hebrew texts 13:1-18 is numbered 13:2-19
Remember, there was some pretty good magic around. When Moses went to see Pharaoh, there were magicians who would try to match, explain, or cure whatever Moses threw at them. Remember, Exodus 7, when the magicians threw down their staffs and they became snakes. Remember when Moses's staff turned into a snake and swallowed up the other snakes. That took place about 40 short years before Moses addressed the troops. So there were a lot of people around the Israelites who could make signs [like the snakes] and they were very very good at what they did.
This is from the easy English site.
Not all prophets were true prophets. A prophet might try to persuade people not to give honour to God. But people should not listen to him. Even if his prophecy came true, they must not listen. God would use this situation. God would see what the Israelites would do. God would see whether they were loyal to God. The people must not refuse to obey God. Instead, they should obey the Lord and worship him loyally. They should kill the false prophet who tried to persuade them away from God.
This is from Studylight.org.
Ancient Israel was a unique situation, where the civil government was also directly appointed by God and charged with maintaining spiritual order as well as civil order. Therefore, such heresy and deception was a capital crime - punishable by execution.
It occurs to me that the Pharisees and the Sadducees might have been afraid that Jesus was inciting a rebellion. The difference is that Jesus was drawing people to God not away from God.
