Direction of Greatest Rebuke

God’s People Rebuked

Deuteronomy 12 and 13 — Chapter 12 focuses on being different than the people that Israel is moving in to replace. (12:8) They are not to follow their gods, and not to worship however/wherever they want. Instead they are to worship one God in one place, the place set aside by the one God. The people that they are going in to displace, and all of their animals and possessions, are to be turned over to God and not to remain in the hands of the Israelites. Chapter 13 looks at what should happen if someone within Israel is still led away to follow idols and leads others astray as well. A prophet or dreamer “among you” that leads others to follow idols is to be killed. (vs. 1-5) A family member that leads others to follow idols is also to be killed. (vs. 6-11) And finally anyone “in one of your cities which the Lord your God is giving you to dwell there” — in other words, any Israelite — leads other inhabitants of those cities to follow idols, they are also to be killed. (vs. 12-18) It’s interesting to note that “the foreigner among you” or “the foreigner over there in the neighboring country” are not part of this list. It’s also interesting to note that simply following idols was not apparently cause for the community to kill a person. It was when they led others astray that was cause for purging the evil.

Deuteronomy 17:2-7 — Idolaters that were to be stoned were those “found among you, within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you….” The focus of our judgements should be inward. Are we holy? Are we set apart? Are we different than the world around us?

Isaiah 30:12-14 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them, therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant; and its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a shard is found with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.”

Jeremiah 2:26-27  “As a thief is shamed when caught, so the house of Israel shall be shamed: they, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets, who say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their back to me, and not their face. But in the time of their trouble they say, ‘Arise and save us!’

Jeremiah 3:10-11 “Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense,” declares the Lord. And the Lord said to me, “Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.

Jeremiah 12:1-2 Righteous are you, O Lord, when I complain to you; yet I would plead my case before you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive? You plant them, and they take root; they grow and produce fruit; you are near in their mouth and far from their heart. [This was either directed to Judah and Jerusalem (Jeremiah 11:2) or specifically those from Anathoth (Jeremiah 11:21), which was a community very near to Jerusalem, but within Judah. The wicked spoke frequently of God. He was “near in their mouth.” Just because someone is always talking about God doesn’t make them God’s.]

Jeremiah 14:15-16 Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name although I did not send them, and who say, ‘Sword and famine shall not come upon this land’: By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed. And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and sword, with none to bury them—them, their wives, their sons, and their daughters. For I will pour out their evil upon them.

Jeremiah 24:8-10 “But thus says the Lord: Like the bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, so will I treat Zedekiah the king of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt. I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a reproach, a byword, a taunt, and a curse in all the places where I shall drive them. And I will send sword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.” (The entire chapter is worth reading. Essentially those who were taken into exile by Nebuchadnezzar would be refined, drawn closer to God, and eventually planted and blessed. It was not their homeland. But they would humble themselves, put down roots in the new land, and God would bless them. On the other hand, the leaders and the people left behind who didn’t leave the place that was comfortabe to them and who didn’t repent, they would continue to cling to their false gods and would fail to thrive – even to the point that they would become a horror to other nations.)

Lamentations 4:13 This [the destruction and capture of Israel] was for the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed in the midst of her the blood of the righteous.

Jeremiah 23:1-4 “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord. Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord.

Amos 2:6-8 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals—those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted; a man and his father go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned; they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge, and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined. [God saved his harshest rebuke (review Amos 1-2) for Israel. He rescued them from Egypt and they profaned his name by trampling the poor, being sexually immoral, and serving idols. The other nations (Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, and Amon) were all horrific, too. And they would all be punished as well. But God’s most upset with Israel. They are his people and they, of all people, should certainly not be behaving like the nations around them.]

Revelation 2:2 I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. [Note that “those who are evil” refers not to unbelievers in this case, but to leaders of believers who were false.]

Revelation 2:9 I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

Revelation 2:14 -16 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. [It wasn’t those who didn’t claim to be believers that were the problem. It was those within the church in Pergamum. They were putting stumbling blocks before their fellow believers. See this page on Nicolaitans.]

Revelation 2:20-23 But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. [Jezebel is within the church and seducing others within the church.]

Revelation 3:9-10 Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you. Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth.

Those Outside of Israel or Judah Rebuked

Deuteronomy 18:9-14 When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this. [God drove the other nations out due to their detestable practices.]