Monday, January 21, 2013

OT: Deuteronomy 18:15-22

Reading:

The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; According to all that thou desiredst of the LORD thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not. And the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

Commentary: 

The future Prophet which Moses here refers to is none other than Christ, who here is called "a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren". Jesus was a Jew by race, a descendant of Abraham, "unto Him ye shall hearken." As both God and man in one person, Christ would speak all the words of God the Father, and "whosoever will not hearken unto My words which He shall speak in My name, I will require it of him." This agrees perfectly with the words of Jesus in John 12, "He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not My words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken of Myself; but the Father which sent Me, he gave Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that His commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak." No man on earth then should ever dare to teach anything contrary to the sacred Scriptures, for God will require payment for this transgression. Nor should we listen to or follow any prophet whose word contradicts God's Word. "The prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him."

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