The most repeated event associated with the Last Days which is also warned about more than any other is deception, both in the general population of the world’s unsaved but particularly among God’s people. In the modern sense of the word, “deception” is most often associated with someone deceiving or tricking an unwitting victim. In the biblical definition it is a very long process by which the willing voluntarily and consistently choose what they know to be wrong so that the inevitable end result is that they are given over to deception. Spiritually deceived people are simply given over to the very thing they have been pursuing all along.

The basic process of deception is contained in this verse, and the first step is embracing “the teraphim“, a word for household idols. In other words, it begins with a basic abandonment of adhering strictly and scripturally to the One True God and allowing a substitute in His place at the personal level. Once God’s Word and ways are sufficiently thrown aside, it is not surprising that “the diviners” come into play — a spiritual counterfeit for true spiritual authority. Because they embrace something in God’s place personally, the next natural step is to embrace someone else in His place in general. The people do not want to hear that their personal life has gone wrong so they seek spiritual substitutes who “see lying visions“, “tell false dreams“, and “comfort in vain“. At the end of the process they find themselves without true, biblical leadership and end up as a shepherdless flock.

This all fits in with the repeated biblical pattern that people are given the leaders they deserve. Personal unfaithfulness leads to corporate unfaithfulness which ultimately results in being given false and unfaithful leaders. The state of so much of the church today is a direct result of this process. The cross and God’s Word having been replaced by such a wide variety of worldly substitutes, the personal unfaithfulness of the congregants has given rise to filling their pulpits with false teachers which in the end has given rise to a shepherdless flock. It has come about not because of some trick perpetrated on the unwitting, but because of the steadfast rejection of God’s Word and ways year after year after year.

The only cure for disobedience is obedience; the only cure for faithlessness is faithfulness. Until there is personal repentance and a return to the cross and God’s Word, the flock will continue to be given over to what it is actively pursuing in their place. _††_†

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