Deuteronomy 13:7

Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;

The verse forbids turning to the gods worshiped by the peoples around Israel, whether near or far, from one end of the earth to the other. That danger often comes through secret enticement by those nearest and dearest, and God accepts no divided allegiance, so the believer must neither consent to such enticers nor listen to them. Anyone who enticed another to serve those gods was to be shown no pity and no sparing but was to be stoned to death. That death penalty belonged to the civil law of Israel as a nation under God's rule, distinct from God's final penalty for breaking His moral law, and it ended with that polity while the law and its divine penalty remain. Joining death to the command against worshiping a strange god does not abolish the command, which is still to be owned and obeyed. Prophets are to be tested by that law, and any prophet, even one who works signs and wonders, who leads away from it is false.

Wording and Historical Setting

The forbidden gods are those worshiped by the peoples round about Israel, whether nigh or far off, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth, so that the warning against being enticed away from God to idolatry is extended across the whole earth. That surrounding worship was sun-worship, the universal idolatrous worship of that time and for centuries afterward. The warning against it was given under penalty of death in B.C. 1451.

The words were spoken by Moses as part of his repetition of the law and rehearsal of the wonderful things God had done for His people and of the chief laws connected with Israel. They were given before the Israelites crossed the Jordan River into the promised land after forty years of wandering in the wilderness. Their purpose was to bring to remembrance the lessons God had taught them and to impress the sacred import of God's holy law and the necessity of keeping it.

Israel was a nation under God's rule surrounded by idolatrous nations, so that enticing another to serve their gods was treachery against God and a danger to souls. The law against leading people to such worship provided for the death penalty, to restrain the spread of idolatry and protect the nation from its destructive influence. In that setting turning to such foreign worship was a capital offense under the Mosaic law.

The verse belongs to the test given in Deuteronomy 13 for trying prophets and to the warning against false prophets, even those who work signs and wonders. Prophets are to be tested by the law of God, and any prophet who leads away from that law is false. Seen against the conditions surrounding Israel, this command shows the wonderful working and superiority of the laws God gave to Israel.

Penalty and Lasting Obligation

Tempting another to serve those surrounding gods was a capital offense under the Mosaic law, and anyone in Israel who so enticed another was to receive no pity and no sparing but was to be stoned to death. That death penalty belonged to the regulations of Israel's civil law as the penalty of the Jewish commonwealth, distinct from God's final penalty for violating His moral law. The offender under that civil sentence still remained accountable to God for the crime, and while those civil penalties ended with the Jewish polity, the law itself and its divine penalty remain.

The command belongs to the added law made known through Moses and written in a book, distinct from God's holy covenant law written on tables of stone. Its work is to point out the temporal punishment due for transgression of God's law, and at the same time to point to Jesus who takes away the sin of the world. The command to surely put to death a brother who entices to serve other gods stands in reversed wording to the sixth commandment, Thou shalt not kill, as a definite later enactment granting an exception to it. Putting the enticer and the murderer to death is therefore not breaking the law but typifies the execution of the penalty to be carried out by Christ after that dispensation, just as the Sabbath offerings typified remission, for to call execution of the penalty wrong in the same sense as transgression would leave no law maintainable except through wrong.

The moral law embracing the Sabbath formed part of the civil code of the Hebrew nation, with penalties joined to most of its precepts to be inflicted by the magistrate. Those penalties point forward to the final retribution of the ungodly. Infliction of those civil penalties was suspended by Christ's decision that those without sin should cast the first stone, yet Christ did not set aside the real penalty of the law, the wages of sin, nor weaken the violated precept, and a sinless Being will yet arise to punish when the hailstones of His wrath desolate the earth. Turning to those other gods violates the first two precepts of God's law and brings the transgressor under the curse pronounced for willful disobedience.

The death penalty once joined to the first commandment for worshiping a strange god does not abolish the commandment, which is still to be owned and obeyed. Likewise the death penalty for idolatry, Sabbath-breaking, dishonoring father and mother, blasphemy, adultery, murder, striking father or mother, disobedience to parents, covetousness and theft does not set aside those prohibitions. Sameness of penalty does not prove the Sabbath ceremonial or non-moral or no longer in force, any more than priestly Sabbath labor proves the Sabbath non-moral or penalties for idolatry, murder, and cursing father or mother prove those commandments no longer in force. The danger to single-hearted service often comes not from love of gold and worldly glory but from secret enticement by those near and dear, such as brother, son, daughter, wife, or close friend, urging toward those surrounding gods nigh or far off. The verse means God receives no divided allegiance, so the believer must not consent to such enticers nor listen to them.

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