If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, "Let us go and worship other gods" (gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known. – Deuteronomy 13:6

Today's Scripture Reading (March 1, 2025): Deuteronomy 13

Espionage and spies have been part of public life for as long as we have divided ourselves into cities, states, and nations. I have been spending a bit of time recently studying the life of Adolf Tolkachev, a Soviet Citizen who turned into a spy for the United States. I don't think I would make a good spy; some of the pressures placed on Tolkachev would drive me crazy. Tolkachev is often referred to as "The Billion Dollar Spy," a comment about the quality of the information about the Soviet Union that he turned over to the United States. Tolkachev had become disillusioned with the Soviet Union and wanted to take revenge on his former Eurasian masters.

One of the stories that originated during Tolkachev's time as a spy regarded the signal he would send indicating that Tolkachev needed to speak to his American handlers. That signal that Tolkachev required communication was to open up a particular window in his apartment. According to one of the stories, this might not have been the best signal because there were times when his wife would open the same window because she needed to get some air to flow through the apartment. Obviously, She didn't know that opening that window was a message to a foreign spy that her husband needed to talk. As a result, she would open the window and the American handler would show up at a meeting place to connect with Tolkachev, but the Billion Dollar Spy didn't show. Why would he; he hadn't sent the message. But for me, it was also significant evidence that Tolkachev's wife didn't know what was happening. After Tolkachev's execution, his widow would spend three years in jail, but the reality, based on the window incidents, seems to be that she knew very little about what her husband was doing. 

However, this story is likely played out repeatedly all over the globe. People, for reasons that often they only know, decide to sell confidential information, becoming spies of foreign governments. But maybe the most disturbing aspect of this kind of lifestyle is that it is a very lonely one; no one can know what they are doing because the more people who know, the greater the possibility that someone, maybe even unintentionally, will sell you out. 

Israel was built as a theocracy. What that meant was that God was the political leader of the nation. Knowing this, every Israelite who worshipped other gods was weakening the fabric of the country. And their action was essentially that of a traitor or a spy. Deuteronomy makes it clear that regardless of who that might have been, it was the duty of a law-abiding citizen to identify the traitor so that they could be dealt with, even if that person was someone who resided inside the core of the family unit. 

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 14