January 9, 2023: Deuteronomy 18:17-18 - I Will Raise Up For You A Prophet
“And the LORD said to me: ‘What they have spoken is good. I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.’ “ - Deuteronomy 18:17-18
These are the words the Lord God spoke to Moses, but immediately prior to this, God had told Moses, “When you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations [detestable acts] of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD, and because of these abominations the LORD your God drives them out from before you. You shall be blameless before the LORD your God. For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the LORD your God has not appointed such for you.” (Deuteronomy 18:9-14)
Prior to this, three months after God used Moses to lead His people out of Egypt through the Red Sea, they came to the wilderness of Sinai. Moses went up to God, and God called to him from the mountain saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.” (Exodus 19:4-6)
God had told Moses to bring Israel on the third day and when the trumpet sounds long, they shall come near Mount Sinai, “that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you forever.” (Exodus 19:9). God had set specific requirements and boundaries for the people when they were to come near the mountain. “And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice. Then the LORD came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain. And the LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. (Exodus 19:17-20) When God told Moses to go down and warn the people not to gaze at Him, Moses said to God that He had told them to set bounds around the mountain, preventing them from coming up it. Thus, God told Moses that only he and Aaron should come up to the mountain. Moses then went down to the people and told them the Ten Commandments that God had given to them, starting with “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” (Exodus 20:2)
“Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lighting flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. Then they said to Moses, ‘You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.’ And Moses said to the people, ‘Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you so that you may not sin.’ So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.” (Exodus 20:18-21)
Subsequent to this, Moses had called all Israel together to review the Ten Commandments with them. He told them, “The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The LORD did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive.” (Deutoronomy 5:2-3) Moses reminded them that they had told him they were fearful of the Lord and wanted Moses to go near and hear all that the Lord would tell them, and then tell it to them. Moses had done that for them when God gave him His Ten Commandments to give to the people. Moses had told them, “Then the LORD heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and the LORD said to me: ‘I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken. Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep My commandments that it might be well with them and with their children forever!’ ” (Deuteronomy 5:28-29)
The Mount Sinai experience that Moses and Israel had tells us three key points:
God - Not “Mother Earth” Controls Nature and the Environment: On the third day when God met with Moses and the people of Israel, “there were thunderings and lightings, and a thick cloud on the mountain” and “Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.” (Exodus 19:16, 18) There are many references in the Bible to “thunderings and lightnings” that refer to God and the heavenly realm. This also foreshadows the resurrection of Jesus Christ, when on the third day, He would rise, “and behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it.” (Matthew 28:2)
Several examples include:
Revelation 4:5, which describes the throne room of heaven, “And from the throne proceeded lightings, thunderings, and voices.”
Revelation 8:5, “Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.”
Revelation 11:19, “Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail.
The Power of God is Unlike Any Other: When the people of Israel saw all the things that happened when God was near, and they heard His voice, they were so terrified that they told Moses they didn’t want to hear God’s voice again nor the fire when He descended Mount Sinai because they thought they would die. Instead, they asked Moses to go near and hear the Lord God and tell them what He would tell Moses. They had the fear of God within them.
God Gave His Commandments to Keep His People and Their Descendants Well: Most people think that God’s commandments are meant to restrain us in order for Him to have control over us. However, as the Bible tells us in Deuteronomy 5:29, God wanted them to fear Him and always keep His commandments that it may be well with them - and also for all people. Oh, how far the world has fallen! On November 14, 2022, “Earlier that morning, climate activists smashed mock tablets of stone atop the mountain in reaction to world leaders' failure to follow through on commitments to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The act referenced the story in Exodus when after descending Mount Sinai, an angry Moses smashed the Ten Commandments in protest against the Israelites worshipping other gods.” (https://www.ncronline.org/earthbeat/faith/cop27-talks-stall-catholics-smash-tablets-pray-divine-intervention-sinai) Instead of obeying God’s Ten Commandments, the climate activists and the COP27 attendees came up with their own “10 Spiritual Principles for Climate Change”: https://climaterepentance.com/the-spiritual-principles/. Principle #8 is “Repent and Return”; for what are the repenting and to whom are they returning? They are not repenting for their sins and returning to God, that is clear.
Now, back to our Scripture verses for today. In the two verses that precede them, Moses had just told Israel, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, according to all you desired of the LORD your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.” (Deuteronomy 18:15-16 This was a prophecy of the coming of Jesus Christ. During Jesus’ ministry, He performed a miracle by feeding 5,000 men with only five barley loaves and two fish, and had enough leftovers to fill twelve baskets. “Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, ‘This is truly, the Prophet who is to come into the world.’ ” (John 6:14)
Jesus would in fact be raised up, as prophesied by Moses. After Jesus would be crucified and give up His life on a cross, three days later, God would raise Him up, being resurrected to everlasting life. As Moses had talked directly with God and did all that He commanded, Jesus talks directly to God, doing all that He commanded. Moses was the intercessor for Israel, and Jesus is the intercessor for all who believe in Him. “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” (Hebrews 6:25) In all the good things that he did, Moses was not perfect and committed a sin that was so offensive to God that Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land. Jesus, however, is the perfect intercessor, “For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever.” (Hebrews 7:26-27)
Finally, let’s return to the words God spoke to Moses when He was preparing Israel to enter the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 18:9-14). The land of Canaan was filled with people committing all kinds of abominations and who looked to soothsayers, people practicing witchcraft, those who interpreted omens, diviners, and sorcerers. God had given the Canaanites 400 years to turn from their wicked ways but they did not. As a result, God would bring Israel into their land. As we will read in the next few days, God gives clear instructions on how to discern who is a prophet of God and who is not. Israel would have many prophets in the days to come after they entered the Promised Land, and they needed to know who was called by God to speak and prophesy to them and who was not. True prophets of God would be commanded by Him to speak. Jesus Christ, the Prophet of all prophets, would later say, “For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.” (John 12:49-50)
As our world today grows further and further away from the one true God and turns to false prophets who are deceiving many and leading them straight to hell, let us remember the words of the apostle John: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.” (John 4:1-3) As Jesus told His disciples the signs of His second coming and of the end of the age, “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” (Matthew 24:24) Thus, may we heed the words that God gave Moses in Deuteronomy 18:18-22 so that we will not be deceived by the lies of the increasing number of false prophets who have disguised themselves as wolves in sheep’s clothing. ✝️