Deuteronomy 18

What is it that gives you your identity, your worth, your sense of belonging to something that is true and good? For many people, their possessions define them, particularly their land and housing that they own and can pass on to the next generation.

It could not be that way for the Israelites. The Lord was the ultimate owner of the land that He gave them to live in. But especially the Levites, the tribe of priests and tabernacle servants in Israel, had a different arrangement concerning the land. They did not have a triba1 territory of their own. The priests had a participation in the Lord's offerings and all the Levites had the Lord Himself as their inheritance.

When the Messiah came, He testified to the fact that the Son of Man had no place to lay His head. His Father was His portion. So many who were not descendants of Jacob have now found their identity and portion in Him. He has won a new land for us, and we are citizens of that land, heaven. We would rather be servants of the Lord in that country than have the most opulent mansions in a city that will one day perish. Jesus is our High Priest forever, and the great Servant of the Lord.

In this dying world, we cannot take all our direction for spiritual living from the customs around us. The Lord, our Prophet, Priest, and King, has told us how we should live.

The people of Israel could not safely imitate the Canaanites that they would soon dispossess. The Canaanites offered up their own children as burnt offerings to God. They inquired into spiritual realms through the use of diviners, enchanters, fortune tellers and those who communicated with the spirits of the dead. All of these defiling practices were prohibited by God.

The way to know the will of God and the truth about spiritual realms would come from the Lord's Word. As Moses gave this exposition of the Lord's will to the tribes of Israel, he was the appointed prophet of God, the authoritative spokesman of God's Word. But his days on earth would soon be done. He pointed Israel to another prophet who would one day came.

This coming prophet would come from their own number, “from your brothers,” the Israelites. Moses recognized the obvious possibility that a fellow Israelite might arise claiming to be this great prophet presumptuously. How were they to tell whether this man was the true prophet?

“When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.”

The true prophet would speak the truth. If he spoke of what would come, claiming to speak for God, and what he promised did not come to pass, he was not the one to come.

Think of the promises that Jesus made. He told His disciples about His suffering, death, and resurrection on the third day. He told them about the establishment of His church, that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. He told them about the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. He told the disciples that they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.

These things have all happened.

This Jesus is more than a prophet. He is the fulfillment of thousands of Old Testament expectations concerning a coming One who would be Savior and Lord.

Anyone claiming to be the prophet of Deuteronomy 18, though he may speak well of the Law and the Gospels, if He does not acknowledge the promises of Jesus that have already been amply fulfilled, he loses all credibility of being a true prophet in the line of Moses. If that man is not even a descendant of Jacob, he is obviously not the prophet of Deuteronomy 18.

You need not be afraid of him.

Jesus is the Word made flesh. He is our portion. He is our life.