Deuteronomy 13:8, commentary and pictures

Moses commanded Israel to give no consent, no hearing, no pity, no sparing, and no concealment to anyone who secretly enticed to serve other gods, even a brother, son, daughter, wife, or intimate friend, but to expose him to be put to death by stoning. The law of God is the test of prophets, so that even one who works signs and wonders or miracles is false and to be rejected if he leads away from that law and after other gods. Under Israel's theocracy the enticer was a traitor whose influence could destroy souls, and the unpitying command was given to restrain evil and protect the nation from idolatry and ruin. That stoning without pity, sparing, or concealment was the civil punishment inflicted by the magistrate under the added law written by Moses in a book, distinct from the final penalty of God's moral law written on stone, for which the offender must still answer at the general judgment. Obeying it does not break the command Thou shalt not kill, but carries out a special enactment beside that moral law, whose civil penalties were suspended by the Saviour's word that only the sinless should cast the first stone yet shadow forth a future execution of wrath by a sinless Being. The same death was annexed to breaking the other commandments equally with enticing to false worship and with Sabbath-breaking, so it does not prove the Sabbath merely ceremonial nor abolish or weaken any commandment it guards.

Setting and Command

The verse belongs to Moses's rehearsal of the law shortly before his death, spoken after forty years of wandering in the wilderness as Israel was about to cross the Jordan River into the promised land. It was part of his repetition of the wonderful things God had done for His people and of the chief laws connected with Israel, solemnly bringing to remembrance the lessons God had taught them. Moses had cared for the often rebellious people like a great and loving father, yet he could not go over with them because he had yielded in impatience to hasty words glorifying himself instead of God. The rehearsal was given to impress the sacred import of God's holy law and the necessity of keeping it, and it offers practical religious instruction.

It commands that when an enticer to idolatry says, Let us go and serve other gods, Israel must give him no consent and no hearing, and must show no pity, no sparing, and no concealment. The offender was not to be yielded to or protected but to be exposed and put to death by stoning with stones till death, which was the appointed punishment for enticing to idolatry. That refusal to consent or listen applies even when the secret enticer is near and dear — brother, son, daughter, wife of the bosom, or intimate friend as one's own soul — because God requires single-hearted service and can receive no divided allegiance. Undue influence by loved ones must not turn the heart from full devotion to God.

The chapter sets forth the law of God as the standard and test for discerning prophets, so that any prophet who leads away from that law and after other gods is false and to be rejected, even if he works signs and wonders or miracles. In Israel's theocracy such an enticer was a traitor whose influence could destroy souls and was to be punished under God's direction, and the unpitying law without sparing or concealment was meant to restrain evil and protect the nation from being led into idolatry and destruction. In that Mosaic law context the command belongs to a case carrying the death penalty, grouping enticing to false worship with Sabbath-breaking as offenses punishable by death. It is part of God's warning against sun-worship, forbidding Israel to follow that idolatry on pain of death.

The chapter gives directions for convicting a worker of miracles of sorcery and putting him to death, and the Jewish leaders tried to apply those directions to Peter and John after the healing of the lame man. Since the healed man stood alive before them, the fact of the miracle could not be denied. Peter's answer, dictated by the Holy Spirit, left the learned Sanhedrin with nothing to say and stopped their hope of condemning the apostles to death.

Penalty and Moral Law

The verse belongs to the added law given by the hand of Moses and written in a book, distinct from the law of God written on tables of stone. For a time the ten commandments were incorporated into the civil code of the Hebrew nation under its theocratic government, with temporal penalties to be inflicted by the magistrate for breaking the law of the commonwealth. The stoning without pity, sparing, or concealment was that civil punishment by the magistrate for offending the national constitution, not God's final penalty of His moral law. The offender still had to answer to God at the general judgment, while the real penalty, the wages of sin, was not set aside.

Obeying the verse does not break the sixth commandment, Thou shalt not kill. Placed beside that moral law as a special enactment reversing its very words, it requires execution of its penalty upon the idolater, just as the Sabbath-breaker was stoned. To call such execution wrong would make all law impossible and God unrighteous for taking vengeance. The verse typifies and shadows forth the future execution of the penalty by Christ after that dispensation. The civil penalties were suspended by the Saviour's decision that only those without sin should cast the first stone, but a sinless Being will yet punish when the hailstones of His wrath desolate the earth.

The death penalty by stoning without consent, pity, sparing, or concealment was attached to violation of the other commandments equally with the Sabbath, in this case to enticing to false worship under the first and second commandments. The same penalty was likewise attached to murder, smiting parents, blasphemy, idolatry, disobedience to parents, covetousness and theft. The fact that the Sabbath-breaker was stoned therefore does not prove the seventh-day Sabbath is merely ceremonial, positive, or bondage, for if a stoning penalty makes a commandment bondage then the other nine are bondage for the same reason. The death penalty annexed to breaking the first commandment by worshipping a strange god, like those for the third, fifth, sixth, and seventh commandments and for the Sabbath, does not abolish or weaken the commandment and gives no reason to refuse to keep it.

Breaking the first two precepts of God's law brings the transgressor under the curse. The penal death law belongs to the true magistrate to inflict, not to every saint whose part is to seek the sinner's repentance. It takes hold of presumptuous sinners, not sins of ignorance.