The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 240

Ver~. 1-18.-ldolatry to be treated as a capital ci·ime. This chapter reh\tee to the Israelites themselves. As the government was a theocracy, idolatry iu rmy form was freaso,; against the Divine King, and justly punishable with death. The previous chapter (1·ers. 29--32) affords timdy warning against sinful curi'.'lsity about heathen practices; and in this chapter the people are warned against all who would tempt them towards idolatry. The three cases mentioned :ire worthy of separate study. I. THE FALSE rIWPHET, WITH HIS SIGNS AND WONDERS. Moses admits the pos- sibility of signs and wonders in the interests of idolatry. This raises the whole question of miracles. These may be "helps to faith," or they may be "a trial of faith." 1 It is cYidently in the latter light that they are to be regarded when the wonder-worker wishes to lead them to idolatry. The horror of idolatry is really to forlify them against. the miracle, so that, though it may try their faith, it will not overcome it. A miracle in itself, consequently, is not decisive, but must be talrnn along with the doctrine it proposes to support. God allows the miracle to be wrought by the false prophet to prove his people, "to know whether they love the Lord their God wit.hall their heart and with all their soul" (ver. 3). The false prophet is to be taken, as a criminal convicted of a cnpital offence, and put to death. He has acted a traitor's part among God's subjects, and must suffer a traitor's doom. Dy this terrible judgment does God stamp out all tendency to idolatry. II. THE 1'"'EAR RELATIVE AS A SEDUCER TO IDOLATRY. 'Jhe false prophet might fail, and a near relative succeed. The public miracle, with its meretricious ostentation, might be withstood, while the unostentations and secret insinuation of a near relative might prc,ail. Hence the instruction in these verses, 6-11, as to how the idol-loving relative is to be treated. Not only is the insinuation to be put away, but the person making it, no matter how nearly related, is to be treated as a public criminal, and put to death. All the sympathy which blood relationship ensures is to be set aside before this crime of appalling magnitude, and the relative is to cast the first stone at the apostate, the execution being completed by" the hand of all the people." III. 'l'HE APOSTACY OF A CITY. In this collective case, after a careful investigation, the utter destruction of the city is to be carried out, the idolatrous inhabitants are to be put to death, with all their cattle, their property burnt with fire, and the city to be never afterwards rebuilt (vers. 12-18). 'l'he idolatry, in propagating itself, must be stamped out even more carefully than in the individual cases of apostacy already men- tioned. The sin must not be tolerated in the theocracy. IV. "\VE SHOULD SURELY LEARN FROM THIS HOW HEINOUS EVERY KIND OF IDOLATRY xs TO THE MosT Hwn. We may be idolaters through covetousness (Col. iii. 5), throuo-h ambition, through any disposition to look for succour to things or persons instead of to God. It may be as needful for us to be exhorted against this sin, as it was for those to whom John in his Epistle wrote, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols" (1 John v. 21). The temptation is strong to live by sense and sight instead of by faith. It will help us in withstanding temptation to remember how heinous the sin is I It is not less a sin because now idolaters are not taken out to a public place and executed. We deserve execution, though we do not receive it. For idolatry is high treason against God. When we trust, e.g. b money or in men, so as to attribute to them the powers belongin~ really to G_od, we rob ~i~ of hi~ ~ights and besto:w them upon others. If this was a capital offence m the Mosaic tunes, 1t l.S no less offensive to tlie Lord now. He 'is chano-eless in his judgments, and so must regard the iniquity as in the same s~rious lio-ht as ever. In such circumstances it surely becomes us- 1. To chumble ourselves most penitently before God because of our idolatrie.~. We La,e been guilty of greater crimes than we suspected, and consequently should enter- tain the deepest possible penitence. 2. We sl,ould carefully abstain from all tendencies to an idolatrous spirit. "Keep yourselves from idols," says John. It shows how much is in our own power. We can abstain from much idolatry, if we are only watchful. In loyalty to God, out of respect fur liis lionour and glory, we ought to keep ourselves in a trustful, humble attitude 1 Cf. Canon Mozley, ' On Miracles,' 2nd eclit., p. 26; 1\1.eo Tl\ylor's ' The Miro.oles: Helps VJ Faith, uot Hindrances.' en. xm. 1-18.] THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY. 236