Lanse Evangelical Free Church
December 17, 2023 :: Deuteronomy 18:9-22
I want start this morning with another trick question.
Everybody seemed to enjoy last week’s trick questions about baptism so much, I thought we might start this week with another question that might seem a bit tricky to begin with. Here we go.
Is Jesus a prophet?
How does that question strike you?
My initial gut reaction is to say, “No.” Because saying that Jesus is a prophet feels like a kind of downgrade from everything we’ve been reading about Jesus in the Gospel of John, especially, mostly recently, in chapter 5. No, Jesus isn’t a prophet. He’s the Son of God and God the Son! Is that your gut reaction, too?
But notice that the question is not, “Is Jesus ONLY a prophet?” That would be an easier one for Christians like you and me. No, Jesus is not JUST a prophet.
But He is a true prophet of God, is He not?
What is a prophet? A prophet is an divinely authorized spokesman for God. A prophet is a person supernaturally given actual words from God to speak to other people. Sometimes, not always, the prophet even tells the future. A prophet is an divinely authorized (from God) spokesman for God. A from-God supernatural-spokesman for God.
Now, given that definition. Is Jesus a prophet?
Let me ask this question. Is Jesus THE Prophet?
If you remember in John chapter 1, the Jewish religious authorities were investigating John the Baptist and asked John who he thought he was.
And John said that he was not the Christ, not the Messiah. And so they said, “Ok. Who are you then? Are you Elijah? “I am not.” And then they asked him, “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” (Jn. 1:21 NIVO).
What were they talking about? “The Prophet?” Well, that’s what our passage today is all about.
Deuteronomy 18 is a promise of a prophet. I almost titled this message, “The Prophet’s Prophecy of a Prophet to Prophesy,” but I thought that might be a bit much. But that’s what it is. What you have before you is an ancient passage of holy scripture that promises that God will raise up a prophet to speak for Him to His people.
And here’s how ancient it is. It was written over 3,000 years ago! Today, we’re going back more than 3,000 years. More like 3,500 years to book of Deuteronomy.
Most of Deuteronomy was written in Hebrew by Moses to give instruction to the second generation of Israelites who were actually going to get to enter into the Promised Land. Moses is getting the people ready for what they were going to experience in Canaan and telling them how God expected them to live as His people there.
By the way, you can thank Heather Joy for this sermon being so short and focused today. I’ve been thinking so much about what Jesus said at end of chapter 5 when He told them, “If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me” (Jn. 5:46 NIVO).
And I was going to do a whole sermon this week called “What did Moses write about Jesus?” And I was going to do everything Moses said about Jesus in Genesis and everything Moses said about Jesus in Exodus, and everything Moses said about Jesus in Leviticus.
And Heather was like, “You’re going try to preach the entire Torah in one message? Don’t you think that’s a bit much?”
And I’m like, “Oh yeah, I should probably just focus on one thing.”
And this is the one I landed on. I’ve never gotten to preach through Deuteronomy in the last twenty-five years, so here’s a chance to study it some together.
Before he gives the promise of the prophet, Moses warns the people to not become like the pagan nations current living in the Promised Land– especially in how they tried to predict and control the future. Let’s start in verse 9. Deuteronomy 18:9.
“When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the LORD your God. The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so” (vv.9-14).
Moses says that the people of Israel were going to be tempted to act like the people of Canaan especially in adopting these occult practices that Yahweh hated. He calls them “detestable” or “abominable.” He hates them.
He hates them for many reasons but a big one is that they all encourage relying on powers other than Him. And Moses gives a long list of them. In fact, the longest list of occult practices in the whole Bible.
Moses says that the Israelites are to reject them all. And sadly, all of these are still present in the world today. And, sadly, it must be said that the should be roundly rejected today by followers of Christ. These are not the ways to know the future or shape the future or to make decisions.
And those that practice them are playing with infernal fire. This is serious stuff. Don’t play with it. I know it’s popular. And it might seem harmless and fun. And it might even “work” sometimes because of demonic power behind it.
But it’s rebellion against the true God. Moses says it’s one of the reasons why the Canaanites are going to be judged and dispossessed and driven out of the Promised Land. Israel should not then do the same things they did!
And they don’t need to do any of that cruel and crazy stuff because God is going to give them a prophet. Look at verse 15.
“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.”
There’s the promise of a prophet. God has promised a divine spokesman for God from God to God’s people.
And that’s good news in so many ways. For one, just that God loves to communicate. He’s a talking God, a speaking God. He doesn’t leave His people in the dark. And we know that Moses is going to die. He’s really getting up there. I think he was around 120 years old when he died. But the words from God were not going to stop with Moses. God was promised to send a prophet.
Let’s look and see what this promised prophet is going to be like.
For starters, he’ll be a gift. Look at verse 15 again. “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me.”
That “for you” means that God will give this prophet to His people as a gift. He’ll be aimed at God’s people. He’ll be “for them.” They will not be left alone. They will not have to wonder what God is like or what God wants. He will raise up a prophet for them.
And from them. That is to say, this prophet will be an Israelite. Moses says, “from your own brothers.” He won’t be a foreigner. He won’t even be an angel. He will be a human. An Israelite human “brother.”
For His people, from His people and LIKE Moses. Did you catch that? Verse 15, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me...”
Moses is the model. Moses is the prototype. He’s being doing the prophet thing already, so they will be able to recognize the fulfillment of this promise, because they’ve already seen something like it.
Now, in what way will this prophet to come be like Moses?
Maybe a lot of different ways. Moses lived a pretty amazing life. Just read the books of Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. I won’t preach them all this morning to you though I’m sorely tempted!
Here’s one thing Moses did. He mediated a covenant between God and his people. He interceded. That’s where Moses goes in verse 16.
“For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, ‘Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.’”
Do you remember that (Deut. 5:23-27)? When they encountered God at Mt. Horeb (which is Mt. Sinai), the mountain on fire, and they were scared almost to death at His glorious holiness, and they asked for a mediator. And God gave them Moses. He allowed Moses to be a go-between.
Moses now says that this prophet will be a kind of go-between like that for them. They will hear from God through the prophet.
But it will be God’s own words that they hear. Look at verse 17.
“The LORD said to me: ‘What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account.”
God has promised to give to His people a prophet who has His very own true divine words placed directly in the prophet’s mouth.
Which could be a painful thing. Remember a year ago how the Prophet Jeremiah talked about it being like a fire in his mouth? It burns.
And the people were supposed to listen because these word the very words of God. And God was going to back them up. Moses warns in verses 20 through 22 that some false prophets were going to pretend to be true prophets and pretend to speak in His name. And they were not only to be rejected, but under the old covenant, they were to be executed. That’s how serious this was. Look at verse 20.
“But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death.’
You may say to yourselves, ‘How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?’
[Well, here’s one way. V.22] If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.”
Last year around this time, we met a prophet named Hananiah in the book of Jeremiah. Anybody remember him? Hananiah took that wooden yoke off of Jeremiah that he had had to wear and broke it all up. Remember that? And Hananiah said that in just 2 years, God was going to restore Judah and bring the exiles back and put the king back on the throne and break the yoke of the king of Babylon.
Remember that? That was exciting and encouraging and exactly what everybody wanted to hear.
And it was false. As false as 2+2 = -2. And within the year Hananiah was dead.
Beware of listening to people who only tell you what you want to hear.
The true prophet from God tells you what God says, whether you want to hear it or not, with God’s own true words in His mouth. And what he says comes to pass. It’s not just wishful thinking.
It is God’s Word.
So, who is this prophet who was promised?
I think it was Joshua.
And I think it was Samuel.
And I think it was Nathan.
And I think it was Isaiah.
And I think it was Jeremiah. [See Jeremiah 1:9!]
And I think it was Daniel.
And I think it was Ezekiel.
And I think it was Zechariah (that’s a crazy book. I read it this week.)
And I think it was Micah.
And I think it was Malachi. [Remind me to preach on Malachi next Advent season!]
I think that Deuteronomy 18 applies to a long line of faithful prophets whom God graciously gave to His people, from His people, mediatorially speaking God’s own true Words that God Himself placed in their mouths.
But I also think that this is a passage for Advent.
I think that not one of those prophets ever could fully fill up the promise of this prophet.
I mean, a prophet “like Moses?” The Book of Deuteronomy ends by saying that no “prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face” (Deut. 34:10 NIVO).
Nobody had reached his stature as a prophet, a divine from-God spokesman for God. Whom the LORD knew face-to-face. Somebody whom could mediate a whole new covenant.
And the Jews thought that nobody have ever reached that level either. Year after year, the Jews kept reading Deuteronomy 18 again and again and again, and they believed that God was going to one day send a prophet who would fill that bill like nobody ever had.
That’s why they asked John the Baptist, “Are you THE prophet? Are you the Promised Prophet of Deuteronomy 18?" And John said he was not.
So, who do you think it is?
Was there a prophet who was spared from death in infancy like Moses was?
Was there a prophet who taught on a mountainside and gave a new law there like Moses did?
Was there a prophet who brought a whole new covenant, mediated for God’s people like Moses did?
Was there a prophet Who was faithful in all of God’s house and even over God’s house? (To use the language of Hebrews chapter 4.)
Was there ever a prophet like Moses (or even greater?) whom the LORD knew face to face.?
Who fits this bill?
For His people. From His people. What does that sound like? It sounds like John 1 to me. It sounds like what the Clarks read to us this morning.
Like Moses. As a mediator. With God’s own true words in His mouth.
What He says comes true. If He said that He was going to die and then take His life back up again, then that’s exactly what would happen.
Who does that sound like to you?
I think it sounds like Jesus. He is not just a prophet. He is THE Prophet. And everything He says is true.
John says, He is full of grace and truth (1:14).
Jesus Himself says He is the truth (14:6).
His mouth is full of the very words of God because He is the very Word of God!
I only have one point of application for today, but it’s a big one. How should we live if Jesus is The Prophet par Excellence? What did verse 15 say?
“You must listen to Him.”
In verse 19, God says, “If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account.” There will be consequences if God’s prophet is ignored, and they will be dire.
Verse 22 says that if a prophet is false, then “Do not be afraid of him.” And so I think the opposite is also implied. If the prophet is true, then you should have a holy fear of him and what He says. “You must listen to Him.”
Listen to Jesus.
That’s what God said at the Mount of Transfiguration, isn’t it? Where Jesus “face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light: (Matt. 17:2 NIVO). And who appeared there with him?
Moses and Elijah! Two of the world’s greatest prophets.
And then there’s that voice from heaven saying, “This is my Son, whom I love [like at His baptism]; with him I am well pleased...Listen to him!" (Matt. 17:5 NIVO)
Listen to Jesus. Are you doing that? Are you listening to Jesus? In all of your life?
Are you listening to what Jesus says about Himself? That’s what we’re doing as we study the Gospel of John. We’re going hear seven major things that Jesus says about Himself. The “I Am’s.”
He’s said some mindblowing things about Himself already.
Are you listening?
Are you listening to what Jesus says about His Father? John says that “No one has ever seen God [the Father] but God the One and Only [Son], who is at the Father's side [known face-to-face1], has made him known” (Jn. 1:18 NIVO). If that’s not true prophecy, then I don’t know what is!
Do you want to know what God is like? God wants you to know what God is like!! That why He sent His Son.
“You must listen to Him.”
Listen to what He says about Himself. Listen what He says about God the Father. Listen to what He says about God the Spirit. Don’t wait until we get to chapter fourteen. Jump over there and read it for yourself.
He says, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever–the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you” (Jn. 14:16-17 NIVO).
How’s that for a prophecy?
Listen to the Prophet Jesus. Listen to what Jesus says about you.
Same chapter. Chapter 14. Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (Jn. 14:1-3 NIVO).
How’s that for a prophecy? Listen to the Prophet Jesus. Are you listening to Jesus?
I must confess that I’ve let my heart be troubled recently. I’ve listened to the world, the flesh, and the devil and they all want to tear me down. I’ve listened to my fears. I’ve listened to my own internal prophecies of how my life is going to work out. That’s what worrying is, isn’t it? Believing in your own bad prophecies? I’m a terrible prophet, but for some reason I keep coming back to listen to myself. I need to listen to Jesus.
This is the Prophet Jesus. My favorite passage of scripture. John 16:33. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (Jn. 16:33 NIVO).
Listen to the Prophet Jesus.
The second Moses has come, and He is much greater than the first one!
Listen to what the Prophet Jesus says about salvation.
Back to John 5. Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word [my prophecy] and believes him who sent me [who put the words in my mouth] has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live” (Jn. 5:24-25 NIVO).
Listen to Jesus.
“You must listen to Him.”
And have life in His name.
Are you listening?
***
Here's an extra chorus to "What Child Is This?" to correspond to today's message:
"This this is Jesus the Prophet
Whom Moses Promised That God Would Send
Haste, haste to listen to Him
The Babe, the Word of God”
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