Deuteronomy 13:12 - Meaning and Application

Here Moses gives the case of a city that rebels against the God of Israel and serves other gods.

The crime is first supposed to happen in one of Israel’s own cities, one that falls under the authority of their courts. The church then judged only those inside its own fellowship (1 Corinthians 5:12-13). Even when God had commanded them to keep their religion pure and to spread it by force, that still applied only to those under their rule. People born under a king’s authority are treated as traitors if they rise against him, but foreign invaders are not judged in the same way. This city had once worshiped the true God, but had now turned to other gods. That shows how serious the sin is, and how severe the punishment will be for those who, after knowing the way of righteousness, turn away from it (2 Peter 2:21).

The law also assumes that most of the city has gone astray. If a significant number had stayed faithful, then only the guilty would have been destroyed, and the city would have been spared for the sake of the righteous in it. After all, will not the Judge of all the earth do right? He surely will. The people are said to have been led into idolatry by certain men, “children of Belial,” that is, worthless men who will not bear any restraint. They fear neither God nor people, and they throw off all rule of conscience and law. These are the men who say, “Let us serve other gods,” and who not only tolerate evil, but encourage it. Belial is used here for the devil (2 Corinthians 6:15), and the children of Belial are his children. Such men draw a whole city away, because a little of this old leaven, once allowed in, soon spreads through the whole lump.

The matter was to be examined with great care (Deuteronomy 13:14). They were to investigate and search it out. They were not to act on rumor or hearsay, but to test the facts and judge only when the proof was clear. God himself, before destroying Sodom, is said to have come down to see whether the charge was true (Genesis 18:21). In legal matters, time, care, and hard work are needed to discover the truth, and the search must be done without anger, bias, or favoritism. Jewish writers say that while individual idolaters could be judged by lower courts, the rebellion of a whole city had to be tried by the great Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish court. If it seemed that the city had been led astray into idolatry, two learned men were sent to warn and reclaim them. If they repented, all was well. If they refused, then all Israel was to go up against them in war, to show disgust at idolatry and stop it from spreading.

If the crime was proved and the sinners remained stubborn, the city was to be destroyed completely. If a few righteous people lived there, they would no doubt leave with their families from such a dangerous place. Then all the people, men, women, and children, were to be put to death (Deuteronomy 13:15). All the spoil of the city, both goods from the marketplace and furniture from the houses, was to be gathered and burned, and the city itself was to be reduced to ashes and never rebuilt again (Deuteronomy 13:16). The soldiers were forbidden, under penalty of death, to take any of the plunder for themselves (Deuteronomy 13:17). It was set apart for destruction, and it was dangerous to touch it, as Achan’s case shows.

This severity teaches several things. First, God shows how jealous he is for his worship, and how great a sin it is to serve other gods. Men must know that he will not give his glory to another or his praise to idols. Second, rulers receive their honor and power from him, so he expects them to defend his honor and to use their authority to terrify evildoers. Otherwise, they bear the sword for nothing. Third, those who truly worship the living God should show strong anger against idolatry, and even more against atheism, unbelief, and irreligion. Fourth, the passage teaches that one of the best ways to turn away God’s anger from a land is to carry out justice against the wicked (Deuteronomy 13:17). Otherwise, his fierce anger was ready to break out against the whole nation because of the sin of that one city.

God also promises that if they root wickedness out of their land, he will multiply them. They might think it unwise, even harmful to the nation, to destroy a whole city for a sin about religion, and especially to shed Israelite blood. But Moses tells them not to fear: God will multiply them the more. The nation would not be weakened by cutting out this corrupt part. In the history of Israel, we do not find this law carried out in every case. Gibeah was destroyed, but not for idolatry, rather for immorality. Yet because the smaller cities that served idols were not dealt with as they should have been, God himself later carried out this judgment by the army of the Chaldeans on Jerusalem, the chief city. Because of its turning away from God, it was destroyed, laid waste, and left in ruins for seventy years. Even if idolaters escape human punishment, and even though this law is not binding in its exact form under the gospel, the Lord our God will not let them escape his righteous judgment. The New Testament says that fellowship with idolaters is a sin that especially provokes the Lord to jealousy, as if we were challenging him and acting as though we were stronger than he is (1 Corinthians 10:21-22).