Vers. 29-32.-The subtle ensnarements of idolatry. A spirit of vain curiosity is to be repressed at its beginning. So weak is human nature, and so subtle is the working of sin, that prying curiosity into evil customs works practical mischief. Human life, to be a success, must be a perpetual battle with moral evil We cannot afford to parley with the enemy nor give him a single advantage. Incessant watchfulness is our safety. • I. IDOLATRY HAS GBEAT FASCINATIONS FOR MAN'S SENSUOUS NATURE. There is in all men a yearning for visible signs of God. " Show us some sign ! " is the natural demand of the human mind. Even Moses had passionately asked, "I beseech thee, show me thy glory." Satan employs a thousand wily artifices to corrupt the spiritual impulses of the heart. Speciously, idolatry asks to be tolerated as a symbol, and then detains our faith as if it were the substantial obfect. II. IDOLATRY IS THE FRUITFUL PABENT OF VICE AND CRUELTY. We can never deal with forms of idolatry as if they were mere intellectual v~craries. The worship of material images bo.s always been associated with sensuality, obscenity, and vice. It deteriorates human nature, hardens sensibility, and clips the wing of aspiration. When the seed has grown to the mature tree, human victims are demanded as oblations. "The children were compelled to pass through the fire." Atrociollll cruelty is the last effect. Ill. -IDOLATRY IS HATEFUL IN Goo's ·ESTEEM. It is impossible for us to err if we make the supreme God our model. To the extent that we know God, we must endeavour to assimilate our tastes to his, to love what he loves and to hate what he hates. Idolatry, in any form (whether of graven image, or material wealth, or human friend) is overt treason against God. If we cannot see the inherent wickedness of idolatry, it should be enough for us to know that it is an abomination before God, "a smoke in his eyes ; o. stench in his nostrils." IV. IDOLATRY IS A SOURCE OF NATIONAL AND INDIVIDUAL RUIN, In that e:i.rly period THE DOOK OF DEUTERONOMY. [en. xm. 1-18.
of human history, the spirit of idolatry must have been rampant. It was the curse of the ng:c>. Although the Hebrews hnd seen the prnctical effects of idolatry in Egypt; althnngh they had themselvc>s been the executors of God's vengeance against idolatry in Canaan ; nevertheless the teno.encies to idolatry were, hum:rnly spanking, irresistible. 1t. had been the source of Pharaoh's overthrow. It had been the occasion of a great slaughter among the Hebrews under the peaks of Sinai. It was the parent of the vices and crimes that prc>vnilcd among the Amorites. Idolatry is doomed by an eternal decree, and if m0n pc>rsist in idc>ntit"ying themselves with it, they are doomed also, Let us be well guarded against so insidious an evil !-D.
EXP0S11'ION. s:uies try to deceive nnd mislead; and was CHAPTER XIII. permitted by God only that their fidelity to IDOLATERS AND ENTICERS TO IDOLATRY TO him might be tested and proved. '!'hey had BE PUT TO DEATH. already received God's message; they had his word; and no teaching which contravened Yers. 1-5.-The case supposed here is that, however apparently authenticated, that of one professing to have supernatural could be from him, or was to be accepted intelligence, who should, by gidng a sign by them (cf. J er. xxix. 8 ; Ge.I. i. 8, 9 ; or a wonder, endeavour to draw away the 1 John iii. J, etc.). Come what might, they people to idolatry. Such a one was to be were to walk after Jehovah their God, and keep his oommandments, and obey his voice, put to death. and serve him, and oleave unto him. The Yer. 1.-A prophet (nablii, ~•:ii); one who false prophet, as a public enemy and a speaks from God, an interpret~; to men of suborner of treason against the King of what God reveals or suggests to him (cf. Israel, was to be put to death; nnd so the for the meaning of the word, Exod. vii. I evil would be put away from among them. with iv. l(j; also Jer. xv. 19). Dreamer of Vera. 6-11.-A second case supposed is • dreams. Not by 'l'isions or immediate sug- that of temptation to apostacy proceeding gestion only, but also by means of dreame, did God communicate with men (cf. Numb. from some near relative or intimate friend. :xii. 6). The c11Be supposed here, then, is Not only was this to be resisted, but no that of one pretending to have had revela- consideration of affection or bond of friend- tions from God through those media by ship was to be allowed to interfere with the which God was pleased to convey his will stern sentence which doomed the tempter to men (cf. Hom., • Iliad,' i 62- to death; on the contrary, the person " 'A>..>..,' ~')'E li~ TI.Va µ.d.v-r,v EpEl?µ.!"· . .; • tempted was to be the first to lay he.uds 1 'fJ Jea.L OV€Lp07r0h.OJI, 1"U ')'a.p T UVa.p EiC .tl.&OS on the tempter and put him to death. This EuTw.'') was to be done by stoning, and the person Sign or a wonder. A sign wee some event he had tried to seduce was to cast the first foretold Ly the prophet, ancl the occurrence stone. of which was a token that something else wllich he announced would happen or Ver. 6.-Thy brother, the son of tby bhould be done (cf. 1 Sam. ii. 34; x. 7-9; mother; thy full brother, allied to thee 2 Kings xix. 29; Isa. vii. 11-14; xxxviii. by the closeat fraternal tie. The wife of thy 'i; 111e.rk xiii. 4, etc.). A wonder was a bosom; the object of thy tenderest affec- miracle, the performance of which gave tion, whom it is thine to protect and cherish proof of a Divine commission (cf. cb. iv. (cf. eh. xxviii. 54, 56; Micah vii. 5). Thy 24). These signs, it is assumed, should friend, which is as thine own soul; i.e. whom come to pass ; nevertheless, the people were thou lovest as thyself. The word translated not to listen to the man who gave them "friend" (PJ, for i1Jl;1.) is from a verb which to go afler other gods. The mere fact signifies to delight iu, and conveys primarily tl,at he sought to persue.de them to forsake the idea not merely of a companion, but of tl,e worship of Jehovah was sufficient to a friend in whom one delights; o.nd the prove Lim an impostor; for how could one definition of true fricndshi p is the loving wl,o sought to seduce the people from God another as one's self (Aristot., 'Etl1. Nio.,' L;, sent by God? The sign which was given ix. 5J. As commonly used, however, the to e.uthenticate such a meesage could only be word designates any one with whom one oue of those "lying signs and wonders after I has any dealing or intercourse; and so our the working of Satan," by which his emia- I Lord expounds it (Lukex. 29, etc.). Beoretly. 'l iIE MOK OF DEU'l'ERO~U\l Y. 1 mt. xiu. 1-18.)