God Tests Us
Deuteronomy 13
Have you ever had a pop-quiz? I hated those in school. It always seemed to be when I did not read the assignment but when I did read, there was never any pop-quizzes. I hated those days because I knew that I would not do that well.
In this chapter of Deuteronomy God gives Israel a heads up that there will be some pop-quizzes. I guess it would not be a pop quiz since they know it will happen. There will be a couple different areas in life where they will be tested. The first one will be with false prophets, the next will be family members and lastly there will be people within the city that cause you to stumble.
False Prophets
God warns Israel that there will be false prophets that will lead them astray. They will predict things and they will come true but then they will tell Israel to worship these false gods. If they love the Lord with all their heart and soul then they will be able to pass the test. God tells Israel that they will be a test for them and they need to test the false prophets. They are commanded to put the prophets to death because of them leading God’s chosen people away in spiritual death.
The Family
Family members are hard sometimes to please and sometimes they can be manipulative. God warns Israel that even some of their family members will try to lead them astray. They will want them to worship these other false gods. They were commanded to stone the family members to death who was trying to stumble them. God tells them to not pity them or yield to their requests because they are family. He is their father who loves them and his ways are best. As this may sound harsh to have to put to death your family member, they were doing greater harm by stumbling them into a spiritual death.
Members of society
When you get a bunch of people together in a movement others can join in because of it either being popular or because it is a phase. God warns them that their will be groups in the cities in which they live in that will try to stumble them. We see that today in our history even with the many different groups that people join and follow. They will try to lead a Christian astray. God tells Israel that those who lead them astray need to be put to death by the sword and all their belongings need to piled up and burned. Let that serve as a reminder to everyone to not cause someone to stumble.
God Tests Us
In 1st John 4:1 we see that there will still be false prophets in this world. Today there are many out there that seem to be spreading “good things” but they contradict everything that God’s word says. In 1st Thessalonians 5:21 we are commanded to test everything and in James 1:12 we will be tested ourselves. It is not bad that we will be tested in our Christian walk. This is good because than we can know that we are learning and growing in our walk. Just like teachers give tests to see how a student is doing in their education; God wants to see how we are doing in our spiritual growth. We will be tested by false prophets who will lead us into something that does not point to Jesus being the author and finisher of our faith.
We also will be tempted by our family. There will be members in it that will frown upon you for being a Christian. There will be ones that will tempt you to do things that make you leave the Lord or turn away. There will also always be the temptation of society. They will say certain things are ok when the Bible talks bad about it not being ok. Society can be very powerful when it comes to making a movement seem popular. 2nd Timothy 3:1-7 talks about how the world will be. They can make you seem like you are evil for not conforming to their ways. If I can leave you with this- 1st Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” STAND FIRM!
