START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Deuteronomy 18:15-20
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM
OBSERVE:
Deuteronomy — which in Greek means “the second law” — is a kind of valediction speech from Moses as he addresses Israel for the last time. He has led the nation through the wilderness of Sinai for forty years, and they now stand poised just east of the Jordan River to enter the Promised Land.
Moses, however, will not enter the Promised Land with them as a consequence of his own impertinence toward God many years before. So this is his last opportunity to impress upon his people the details of God’s commandments and the importance of obeying them to the letter.
He had delivered God’s law to them for the first time some forty years before at Mount Horeb, and here he reiterates and expounds upon it.
In this passage, though, he is giving guidance about how Israel is to discern the legitimacy of the prophetic office. Unlike the priesthood, which is inherited, prophets are raised up by God, just as Moses was.
Moses reminds the people that the role of the prophet is as an intermediary between God and the people — that God would speak through the prophet. He also reminds them that this was their idea. God originally had appeared to all of them in the pillar of the fire, but because they were terrified they requested an intermediary.
But the reality is that not everyone claiming to be a prophet is a prophet. So Moses is sharing the criteria that they may use to discern the prophet’s authenticity.
First, the prophet only shares what God has commanded him to share.
Second, the people are to be completely obedient to the words of the prophet, for they are the words of God himself. They will be held accountable by God for their disobedience.
Third, and very importantly, the prophet is not to be “original,” and certainly not to speak on behalf of any other gods.
The biblical prophet is constrained to speak only what the Lord has revealed to him; and if the prophet becomes “pluralistic” and acknowledges or speaks for other gods he is obviously a fraud.
This exclusivism is grounded in the words that appear earlier in Deuteronomy 6:4, known as the Shema, for the Hebrew word “Hear”:
Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one.
Diversity in worship or creed is totally incompatible with a prophet of the Lord.
If we continue to read this passage, and read verses 21-22, we discover another clarifying criterion:
When a prophet speaks in Yahweh’s name, if the thing doesn’t follow, nor happen, that is the thing which Yahweh has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him.
Validation by fulfillment of the prophecy is the ultimate criterion.
APPLY:
There have been many persons over the course of history who have purported to be prophets, or at the very least proclaimers of God’s truth. God’s people must have sound criteria whereby they can test the validity of someone’s preaching and teaching.
Even today there are many who speak in the name of God who are charlatans or false prophets.
The criteria that we may use to determine a true man or woman of God are still the same. Do they speak only what God speaks? Do we feel a conviction from the Holy Spirit when they speak? Are we held accountable by God’s Word? Are they speaking for God’s sake alone, or is there some other hidden (or not so hidden) agenda?
The Apostle John tells the church:
Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world (1 John 4:1).
This may often be a discernment that is carried out in the community of faith, not merely by individuals. We are reminded that Moses wasn’t speaking to individuals but to a community of faith.
RESPOND:
This is not only a convicting word for those who hear from God through other people; it is also very convicting to me as a preacher of the Word of God.
How can I be sure that everything that I say is true, and consistent with what God has spoken to me? Only through prayer and study of Scripture, with humility and repentance when I speak amiss.
I’m reminded of the preacher whose little girl was watching him write a sermon one day, and she said to him “Daddy, how do you know what to say?” And the preacher smiled and said “God tells me what to say.” And then the little girl said, “Then why do you cross out so much of what he tells you?”
Our Lord, those who speak in your name bear a heavy responsibility; but so do those who hear their words. May we discern your Word by cleaving closely to your Spirit in prayer, and your truth in Scripture, as we seek your way in the community of faith. Amen.
PHOTOS:
“Deuteronomy 18 verse 15” uses the following background:
“A Piece of Parchment” by IgniX is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.
SOAR Lectionary Bible Study 