Deuteronomy 13 - Steve Wiggins Daily Devotional

“If a prophet or someone who has dreams arises among you and proclaims a sign or wonder to you, and that sign or wonder he has promised you comes about but he says, ‘Let us follow other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us worship them,’ do not listen to that prophet’s words or to that dreamer. For the L_rd your G_d is testing you to know whether you love the L_rd your G_d with all your heart and soul.” Deuteronomy 13:1-3

You have probably heard the term “con man”. “Con man” is an abbreviation of “Confidence man”. The best con men invoke confidence in their victims, usually by promising something a littler cheaper, faster or better than otherwise possible….slightly outside of conventional methods. Bernie Madoff is, perhaps, the most recent successful con man in history…and now he’s just a “con”, as in “convict”. I hope he becomes a “con-vert”.

The person being conned has to simply be convinced to step outside of righteousness for a moment…and that’s all a good con man needs to rob you. It’s impossible to con an honest person. In order to con someone, they have to have a spark of “con” inside them, already. There has to be the willingness to cheat, in order for someone to get lured into the con man’s scheme. Gotta’ want something a little faster, cheaper, bigger than normally obtainable…

Directly following G_d’s command to stay completely within His Torah, (not straying to the “right or left”), are His commands concerning how to handle false prophets: spiritual con men.

Assumed in Deuteronomy 13, is that Israel would stay completely within G_d’s Torah instruction. That being the case, it would be 1) Completely within their capacity to spot a con man, and 2) Impossible for Israel to be conned into following false gods.

The best way to sway a nation’s morality is to sway the morality of leaders. This is accomplished by slowly, subtly, yet deliberately steering those leaders away from G_d’s Commands. By the time of Yeshua’s earthly ministry, Israel’s complete devotion to Torah had been mainly replaced by devoutness to the teaching of the rabbis, supported by Torah. See the subtle, yet definite diversion from complete Torah observance?

With spiritual “true north” perverted by the vain opinions of men, is it any wonder the religious leaders sought to destroy Yeshua? The fact that Yeshua performed miracles meant nothing to them. G_d predicted false prophets would do this to Israel. In the opinion of the religious elite, Messiah Yeshua fit all the criteria for a Deuteronomy 13 execution! When our theology is perverted, our zeal is perverted.

Zeal check: Are you searching the Bible, in order to honor the L_rd by living according to His Word; or has your lack of Biblical knowledge increased the potential to become a victim of the latest religious con?

Blessings,
~Steve Wiggins, Associate Leader, Worship Leader
Shuvah Yisrael
Daily Devotional, Wednesday, June 25, 2014