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Deuteronomy 13 · a question people ask

If a prophet's sign comes to pass, does that settle whether to listen to him?

In the text

Not in the case this chapter describes. The sign coming to pass is part of the case (13:2), and still "you shall not listen to the words of that prophet" (13:3), because his message is "Let’s go after other gods" (13:2). The chapter says he "has spoken rebellion against the LORD your God" (13:5). It doesn't say how the sign came to pass; it says what the LORD is doing: "testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul" (13:3). Moses used the same verb of the wilderness: the LORD led Israel "to test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not" (8:2). Brown-Driver-Briggs gives the verb as "test, try, prove, tempt [but not in the modern sense of the word]".

The verses

“You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, to test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.”
Deuteronomy 8:2 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Deuteronomy 13

Deuteronomy 13: Walk after the LORD your God

In Deuteronomy 13 a prophet's sign can come to pass and still not be the test; where he leads is (13:2-3). The answer is six things, and in Hebrew each puts him, his commandments or his voice before the verb: walk after, fear, keep, obey, serve, and "cling to him" (13:4), the same verb as "Nothing of the devoted thing shall cling to your hand" (13:17).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions