#DailyDevotion God Is All Merciful But Particular As To Where He Gives It
October 15th
Read Deut 13:1–18
Deu 13:1-9 “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, (2) and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ (3) you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. (4) You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. (5) 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. (6) “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, (7) 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, (8) 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. (9) 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…17 None of the devoted things shall stick to your hand, that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of his anger and show you mercy and have compassion on you and multiply you, as he swore to your fathers,….
Wow, Lord, that’s pretty harsh. Good thing for some of us that the Church is no longer under Old Testament Law. Here we see how the 1. The Lord our God is a jealous God. 2. He won’t put up with others enticing His children into destruction and 3. He wants to turn from anger and wrath towards you to instead showing mercy and compassion on you.
So even if a prophet predicts something and it comes true or does some wonder, if they teach apostasy, a turning away from worshipping and serving the Lord, the Living God to other gods they are not to be trusted but stoned to death. If a relative tries to entice to you other gods, kill them. If an Israelite town turns to other gods, it is to be destroyed along with everything in it. For the Lord God is jealous for His people and He does not want to see other enticed away from Him unto destruction. Jesus said, Mar 9:42-45 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. (43) And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. (45) And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell.”
But it’s not that that Lord God or as He is known in the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ just don’t want you to have fun or is just out looking to wop people over the head. To turn away from Him, from trusting in Him for every good thing, for life and for salvation isn’t good for us nor for those who watch us do that. More than that, the Almighty and Living God, the Father of Lights wants to show us mercy, forgiveness and kindness. But He is exclusive has to where that can be found. It is only found in Him, in His Son Jesus Christ, in the Lord of the Old and New Testaments. God’s mercy, kindness, love, faithfulness and forgiveness is only found in Jesus. But it is offered to all and it is offered freely.
Lord Jesus Christ, help us to learn from Israel’s apostasy and from your grace, mercy and peace from the cross and the empty tomb, to look to You alone for every good thing. Amen.