“The Lord your God will raise up for a prophet like me…I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet who shall speak them everything that I command…But any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods or presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak – that prophet shall die” (Deuteronomy 18:15-20)
Modern Prediction
One morning you get a random email. It says, “the stock market will rise tomorrow.” It does. The day after that you get another one saying the same thing. The market continues to rise. The following day another email appears but this time says the opposite. The market falls. The very next day a new email appears where the anonymous writer identifies themselves and offers to handle your investments. What do you do? Do you believe this person can predict the market? What I just described is an investment con scheme. It works on a random drop of contradictory letters. And I should add it is very illegal.
True or False Prophets
There are lots of people predicting the future in some way or other. Experienced pitchers have a reasonably good chance of knowing what will happen when the ball leaves their hands. Other people predict financial gains, election outcomes, sports victories, and speculate in other ways. This is a big component of all gambling. Some people are good at it. And when they get it wrong, they hope the mistake is quickly forgotten. Illegal scams or legitimate trades on futures are not prophecies. What makes the false prophet really a false prophet?
Presumption and False Prophets
All false prophets claim to speak for God. Or false prophets will indicate some secret divine knowledge has been given to them from God. The existence of false prophets is a big deal in both Testaments. The reason is simple. A true prophet has only one source of authority – the Word of the Lord.
Moses relied on this authority once he was called. Until then he relied on his best guesses. The book Deuteronomy ends with the death of Moses. The natural question of succession – who will lead us now- is being answered in this book.
The presumption of divine authority, inspiration from the Holy Spirit, or divine calling leads to the worse kinds of spiritual abuse. Some of these people are scammers who take advantage of the spiritual naivety of good people. Almost everyone here would know of an example of that in a relative or a friend’s life. Appeals to faith or accusing someone of not having enough faith are sometimes manipulative methods. Nothing good ever comes from them.
Spiritual Protection From A False Prophet
You may ask, “are we spiritually protected?” Here are a couple of readings about false prophets. “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” (Matthew 7:15) “First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophet ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false prophets among you…” (2 Peter 1:20-2:1a) Saint Paul says we are to test the words of the prophets and “hold fast to what is good.” (1 Thessalonians 5:20-21).
How do we do that? Deuteronomy says it is very simple. “You may say to yourself, ‘how can we recognize a word the Lord has spoken?’ If a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord but the thing does not take place or prove true, it is a word the Lord has not spoken.” (18:21-22)
A Bad Example
A good example of this is found in Jeremiah 28 where a false prophet claims God told him the Babylonians are going to lose the battle and the war. He claimed, “in two years” God would bring back all the vessels taken from the Temple. Jeremiah, on the other hand, wishes Hananiah was correct.
Jeremiah then says, “The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries. As for the prophet who prophecies peace, when that word of the prophet comes true, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet.” Jeremiah later says, “Listen Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you and you made this people trust in a lie. Therefore, thus says the Lord; I am going to send you off the face of the earth. Within this year you will be dead because you have spoken rebellion against the Lord.” That was said in the fifth month. Hananiah died in two months later. Nebuchednezzer did not bring the vessels to the Temple. He made sure there was not a temple to bring them back to.
The False Prophet Tempts
Why did the people believe the lie? Because they wanted to believe it. In 1 Kings 22, there is a story about King Ahab of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah. These kings consulted prophets who assured them victory in the upcoming battle against Syria. Jehoshaphat asks to hear one more prophecy. Ahab says to him, “There is still one other whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah son of Imlah: but I hate him, for he never prophesies anything favorable about me, but only disaster.” Ahab prefers to listen to all the other prophets. He does not survive the battle.
Humility
What if the prediction does not take place immediately? What if the fulfillment is conditioned on the response of a human being? How do we figure that one out? These are good questions.
I think the key here is a humble desire to obey God. Paul says in 2 Timothy, “proclaim the message, be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itchy ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.” (4:2-3)
Two important question are involved here. Am I listening only to what I want to hear? Prophecy is not a matter of personal preference.
The other question is, “Is the word something merely designed to be contrary?” Is it about “bucking the trend?” If it is not, there will be enough truth ringing within it. I am always careful about people claiming special knowledge. I try to find out what ordinary knowledge they have.
The Christian Prophet
There is another important Christian interpretation to this passage from Deuteronomy. Moses is said to be the only prophet who spoke to God “face to face as a person speaks to a friend.” No other Hebrew prophet makes that claim. Moses is special. He is the Lawgiver.
We believe and teach that Jesus Christ fulfills this prophecy in two ways. He also gives laws. And he not only knows the face of God; he is the face of God. Prophecies we hear today are going to be rooted in him or be deemed false by Christian believers.
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