Be careful not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it become a snare among you.
Then a spirit stepped forward and stood before the Lord. He said, ‘I will deceive him.’ The Lord asked him, ‘How?’
He replied, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.’ The Lord said, ‘Deceive and overpower him. Go out and do as you have proposed.’
So now, look, the Lord has placed a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours; but the Lord has decreed disaster for you.”
Moreover, I, the Lord, warn you not to deceive yourselves into thinking that the Babylonian forces will go away and leave you alone. For they will not go away.
This is what the Lord says:
“Because Judah has committed three covenant transgressions –
make that four! – I will not revoke my decree of judgment.
They rejected the Lord’s law;
they did not obey his commands.
Their false gods,
to which their fathers were loyal,
led them astray.
This is what the sovereign Lord says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit but have seen nothing!
They see delusion and their omens are a lie. They say, “the Lord declares,” though the Lord has not sent them; yet they expect their word to be confirmed.
“‘This is because they have led my people astray saying, “All is well,” when things are not well. When anyone builds a wall without mortar, they coat it with whitewash.
God made two great lights – the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night. He made the stars also.
Jesus answered them, “You are deceived, because you don’t know the scriptures or the power of God.
And many false prophets will appear and deceive many,
For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
Guard against self-deception, each of you. If someone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become foolish so that he can become wise.
For the wisdom of this age is foolishness with God. As it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness.”
For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
The arrival of the lawless one will be by Satan’s working with all kinds of miracles and signs and false wonders,
and with every kind of evil deception directed against those who are perishing, because they found no place in their hearts for the truth so as to be saved.
Consequently God sends on them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false.
But you, brothers and sisters, do not grow weary in doing what is right.
But exhort one another each day, as long as it is called “Today,” that none of you may become hardened by sin’s deception.
But be sure you live out the message and do not merely listen to it and so deceive yourselves.
If we say we do not bear the guilt of sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
We are from God; the person who knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.