8. (6 Readings)
Exodus 23:13
13 Be careful to obey everything that I have said to you. Don’t call on the names of other gods. Don’t even mention them.
Deuteronomy 13:11
11 All Israel will hear about this and be afraid. They won’t do that sort of evil thing among you again.
Deuteronomy 13:9
8 Don’t give in to them! Don’t obey them! Don’t have any mercy on them! Don’t have compassion on them and don’t protect them!
Deuteronomy 7:2
2 and when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy.
Exodus 23:33
33 They shall not live in your land, or they will make you sin against me; for if you worship their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.
Deuteronomy 12:2
2 You must completely destroy every place where the nations that you are displacing worshipped their gods—whether on high mountains or hills or under leafy green trees.
Question 8. Who is a misleader, and
what is a misleader’s offense that is so worrisome?
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9. Leviticus 18:21
21 You must not give any of your children to offer them over to Molech so that you do not defile your God’s name: I am the Lord.
Question 9. Are there things we do in our own time that have the feel of what we understand to have been the ancient practice of turning children over to Molech?
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10. (9 Readings)
Leviticus 20: 23
23 You must not follow the practices of the nations that I am throwing out before you, because they did all these things and I was disgusted with them.
Leviticus 26: 1
26 You must not make any idols, and do not set up any divine image or sacred pillar. You must not place any carved stone in your land, bowing down to it, because I am the Lord your God.
Deuteronomy 16: 21-22
21 Don’t plant any tree to serve as a sacred pole next to the altar you make for the Lord your God. 22 Don’t set up any sacred stone either, because the Lord your God hates such things.
Deuteronomy 22: 5
5 Women must not wear men’s clothes, and men must not wear women’s clothes. Everyone who does such things is detestable to the Lord your God.
Leviticus 19:28
28 Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put marks on yourselves; I am the Lord.
Deuteronomy 14:1
1 You are the Lord’s children. Don’t cut yourselves and don’t shave your foreheads for the dead,
Leviticus 19:27
27 You must not cut off the hair on your forehead or clip the ends of your beard.
Deuteronomy 32:38
38. Who ate up the fat of their sacrifices, who drank their sacred wine? They should stand up and help you!
Numbers 15:39
39 This will be your fringe. You will see it and remember all the Lord’s commands and do them. Then you won’t go exploring the lusts of your own heart or your eyes.
Question 10. While we don’t engage exactly in these same ancient practices, do they teach us about modern ways that might habituate us to idolatry? How, and in what ways?
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11. (8 Readings)
Deuteronomy 17: 16
16 Even so, he must not acquire many horses for himself, or return the people to Egypt in order to acquire more horses, since the Lord has said to you, “You must never return that way again.”
Deuteronomy 23: 7
7 You shall not abhor any of the Edomites, for they are your kin. You shall not abhor any of the Egyptians, because you were an alien residing in their land.
Deuteronomy 7: 2-3
2 and when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy. 3 Do not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons,
Deuteronomy 20: 16-17
16 But as for the towns of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not let anything that breathes remain alive. 17 You shall annihilate them—the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites—just as the Lord your God has commanded.
Deuteronomy 23: 3
3 No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation.
Deuteronomy 23:6
6 You shall never promote their welfare or their prosperity as long as you live.
Deuteronomy 7: 21
21 Have no dread of them, for the Lord your God, who is present with you, is a great and awesome God.
Deuteronomy 25: 17, 19
17 Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey out of Egypt
19 Therefore when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies on every hand, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; do not forget.
Question 11. Are there ways of heathens that we risk assuming for ourselves through associating with them? If so, how do we make our way in the modern world where heathenism may be more prevalent than we might wish?
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12. (6 Readings)
Deuteronomy 18: 20, 22
20 However, any prophet who arrogantly speaks a word in my name that I haven’t commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods - that prophet must die.
22 Here’s the answer: The prophet who speaks in the Lord’s name and the thing doesn’t happen or come about—that’s the word the Lord hasn’t spoken. That prophet spoke arrogantly. Don’t be afraid of him.
Deuteronomy 13: 3
3 you must not listen to that prophet’s or dream interpreter’s words, because the Lord your God is testing you to see if you love the Lord your God with all your mind and all your being.
Deuteronomy 6:16
16 Don’t test the Lord your God the way you frustrated him at Massah.
Deuteronomy 18:15
15 The Lord your God will raise up a prophet like me from your community, from your fellow Israelites. He’s the one you must listen to.
Leviticus 19:4
4 Do not turn to idols or make gods of cast metal for yourselves; I am the Lord your God.
Deuteronomy 12:4
4 You shall not worship the Lord your God in such ways.
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Question 12. What is meant by “false prophets,” and what might the warning here mean to us in our own time?
13. (6 Readings)
Deuteronomy 18: 10
10 No one shall be found among you who makes a son or daughter pass through fire, or who practices divination, or is a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer
Leviticus 19: 31
31 Do not resort to dead spirits or inquire of spirits of divination—you will be made unclean by them; I am the Lord your God
Deuteronomy 18: 11
11 or one who casts spells, or who consults ghosts or spirits, or who seeks oracles from the dead.
Exodus 22: 18
18 “Do not let a woman who does evil magic stay alive. Put her to death.
Leviticus 19: 26
26 You must not eat anything with its blood. You must not participate in divination or fortune-telling.
Question 13. What’s the serious flaw with mistaking the created for the Creator? What's wrong with divination and similar practices? Don’t we do this ourselves, often innocently? Is there a problem here? What is it?
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