(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
Deuteronomy 13:12–18, “If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the LORD thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying, Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known; Then shalt thou enquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you; Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword. And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every whit, for the LORD thy God: and it shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be built again. And there shall cleave nought of the cursed thing to thine hand: that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and shew thee mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers; When thou shalt hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep all his commandments which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the LORD thy God.”
The entire process of protecting Israel from an individual trying to lead his neighbours, friends and family astray had another failsafe measure. If this individual was able to persuade the people who knew him to go after other gods then the people from the next town would be in a better position to judge the situation. As soon as they heard that something was wrong they were to search out the truth and deal with the people in the town who had gone astray. This was important so that they wouldn’t be led astray by a person with persuasive skills because they were meant to check out the evidence before they could be influenced by a skilful person. The people who were seeking to keep Israel from going astray were to deal quickly and completely with the problem before it had time to take seed and grow. Sadly, even this failsafe method failed because Israel didn’t take the Lord’s injunctions seriously and they were all, eventually, led astray. However, when the Lord finally sent Israel into exile no one had any excuse for they had killed the prophets who preached to them and refused to deal with any issue collectively.
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