Final Words: Revealed and Revealing

Moses was considered the greatest prophet Israel ever had. After Moses’ death, Joshua pens the closing of Deuteronomy saying, “ ... there has not arisen a prophet since like Moses.” Now that’s a high compliment considering some of Israel’s later prophets ... Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Jeremiah, and Hosea. When we think of prophets, we generally think of men like this ... men who speak of events that will occur long after they speak of them. Indeed, some prophetic utterances of the Old Testament prophets have yet to take place, but will at the End of Days, and coming of God’s Kingdom.

On the other hand, the Old Testament prophets did far more forth-telling than fore-telling — a whole lot more preaching than prophecy. These were men of God who had their finger on the nation’s moral pulse, and spiritual attitude, and their ears open to the voice of God. They primarily preached against the idolatry, injustice and immorality they saw taking place among God’s people. God still speaks through His Prophets and Preachers today. The question is, are we listening?

I. THE NEED FOR PROPHETS - vs. 15-17

1. when the people of Israel were camped at Mt. Horeb, they witnessed the spectacular manifestations of God in the form of thunder, lightening and smoke

a. the awesome presence of God produced such fear that the people petitioned Moses to ask the Lord not to speak to them directly lest they die

“just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ 17 And the LORD said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken.” (Deuteronomy 18:16–17, ESV)

2. God agreed, and promised to speak to the people through His prophets — men, (and even a few women) called of God, to speak the words of God to His people

a. Moses was the first, and greatest, of Israel’s prophets

b. while Abraham is Israel’s progenitor, and is affectionately referred to as father Abraham, Moses is considered its Israel’s founder, for his role in establishing Israel as a nation

3. he is considered a prophet because God appointed Moses to speak for him, first to Pharaoh and then to the Israelites

a. he spoke with God’s authority, and he taught the Israelites what God desired most — that Israel love God with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their strength, and to love their neighbor as themselves

b. of all Israel’s prophets, Moses was the only one who regularly met with God face-to-face

1) Deuteronomy closes by reminding us of Moses’ legacy

“And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, 11 none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, 12 and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.” (Deuteronomy 34:10–12, ESV)

2) through Moses, God laid the foundation for pretty much everything else that happens in the Bible

4. God wants His people to hear His voice and raised up prophets through whom He would speak

A. RAISING UP PROPHETS

“ “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—” (Deuteronomy 18:15, ESV)

1. vs. 15 carries a dual fulfillment

a. initially, it refers to a line of prophets like Moses, whose prophetic service would stand in mark contrast to the practices of the Canaanites

b. prophetically, however, Deuteronomy 18:15 points to a single individual who would fill the prophetic role in a way no other could

1) the early Christians certainly recognized this verse as messianic

2) in his sermon to the Jewish leader, the deacon Stephen quotes Deuteronomy 18:15 and applies it to the Christ

3) Jesus is Prophet, and Priest and King!

c. through His prophets, God promises to deliver a message worth hearing and heeding

2. God is the One who calls men to prophetic ministry

a. vs. 18 clearly teaches that God will rise up those whom He chooses to speak for him

1) they will be like Moses in the sense that they will reveal God’s truth to God’s people with fidelity and accuracy

2) when the prophets speak God would be speaking, thus the command in vs. 15 to him you shall listen

b. Prophets did not inherit the calling from their fathers, nor did they receive it by human appointment

c. the initiative in making a prophet rested with God alone and all true prophets received a specific and personal call from him

"And he said, "Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream." (Numbers 12:6, ESV)

B. REVEALING TRUTH THROUGH THE PROPHETS

1. this passage reveals the key difference between how the Canaanites received truth and how Israel received truth

a. in vs. 9-14 we catch a glimpse at how Israel’s pagan neighbors attempted to perceive the will of their gods

“ “When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the LORD your God, 14 for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this.” (Deuteronomy 18:9–14, ESV)

b. Moses speaks of four ways they attempted to hear the voice of their gods

1) divination — interpreting the will of the gods through natural phenomenon like patterns of flight in flocks of birds or in the frequency of crickets chirping

2) omens — interpreting the will of the gods by extraordinary natural events — an earthquake or a tornado or strange behavior of animals

3) fortune tellers — interpreting the will of the gods from people who went into trances or examined a sheep’s liver or the entrails of a pig

4) mediums and necromancers — interpreting the will of the gods by speaking to the spirits of the dead

c. none of that for Israel!

2. Moses tells Israel “You won’t need such pagan nonsense because your God will clearly speak to you through His prophets and reveal Himself and His truth to you through them”

C. RECEIVING TRUTH THROUGH THE PROPHETS

“And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.” (Deuteronomy 18:19, ESV)

1. God commands His people to listen to the prophets and preachers He sends them

a. to listen to a prophet is to hear the voice of God speaking

b. to ignore a prophet is to ignore the voice of God

2. through the voices of His prophets, God has laid out His plan for the ages

a. some of His plans are clear as crystal — He has not kept them secret

1) Jesus clearly prophesied that he will come again to establish His Father’s kingdom

b. some of God’s plans are not so clear — He has kept some things a secret

“ “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (Deuteronomy 29:29, ESV)

1) just as Jesus clearly prophesied that he will come again to establish His Father’s kingdom, he was equally clear that no one but the Father knows the date and time of his appearing, and God is holding that piece of knowledge “close to the vest”

3. that said, there is much that God has told us about His nature, and His character, and His will so that anyone who wants to know God can know God

a. and he is known most perfectly through His only begotten Son, Jesus who is the Christ

“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,” (Hebrews 1:1–3, ESV)

... God is Clear About Our Need for Prophets

II. THE NATURE OF PROPHECY - vs. 18, 20

1. prophecy is about speaking and listening

a. God speaks and we listen

ILLUS. Some of you might remember the old E.F. Hutton commercials that aired in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Here is a sample of one ... (play commercial).

b. any time we read in the Old Testament thus saith the Lord, or any time we read in the New Testament Jesus said we need to be like those people in the E.F. Hutton commercials — we shut up and turn our full attention to what is about to be said

2. the God of the Bible is not some mysterious reclusive God whose people had to make up stories about him

a. He has clearly spoken of Himself in the Scriptures, and when God speaks it behooves us to pay attention

b. the theological word for this is revelation

3. one of the great biblical truths that is that God speaks to His people

a. He speaks in order to reveal Himself, to reveal His purposes and to reveal His ways

1) God speaks, the question is: "Are we listening?"

b. Jesus is quoted by the apostle John as saying, "He who belongs to God hears what God says"

1) if the Christian does not know when God is speaking, he or she is in trouble at the heart of his or her Christian life

c. in the passage I read from the Book of Hebrews a moment ago, the author tells us that in the Old Testament God spoke at many times and in many ways

1) that simply means that God does not limit Himself to one way of communicating truth to His people

2) a review of the Old Testament shows that God used angels, visions, dreams, symbolic actions, a gentle whisper, and miraculous signs to speak to people

4. what is most significant is that God chooses to speak to us at all!

A. PROPHETS DON’T GET TO SPEAK ON THEIR OWN

1. in vs. 18 God says, “ ... And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.” (Deuteronomy 18:18, ESV)

a. it’s a two-fold process

1) first, God reveals his message — I will put my words in his mouth

2) then the prophet would accurately relay everything the Lord commanded

b. consider the call of Moses himself

1) when Moses objected to serving as God’s spokesman because he stuttered, God declares to him,

“And the LORD said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. 2 You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land.” (Exodus 7:1–2, ESV)

2) in speaking to Pharaoh in Moses’ stead, Aaron functioned as his brother’s prophetic mouthpiece

2. in the same way, a genuine prophet acts as God’s mouthpiece

a. we never hear one of God’s prophets say, “Let me tell you what I think you ought to do” rather we hear them thunder thus saith the Lord

3. but there is also a dire warning in this passage — woe to the prophet who speaks on his own accord, but claims to be speaking for God

“But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’” (Deuteronomy 18:20, ESV)

a. the word presumes in that verse literally means to bubble up and is the same word used in Genesis 25:29 of Jacob cooking a stew

1) in Hebrew culture the word came to refer to a self-inflated ego, and an exaggerated sense of self-importance

2) in other word, some men go into preaching ministry, not because they feel a sense of calling, but because it feeds their ego

4. Israel had to contend with counterfeit prophets who told the people what they wanted to hear, and didn’t tell the people what they needed to hear

a. the Body of Christ today remains plagued with counterfeit preachers who tell the people what they want to hear

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,” (2 Timothy 4:3, ESV)

B. GOD HOLDS ACCOUNTABLE THOSE WHO WILL NOT LISTEN TO HIS PROPHETS

“And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.” (Deuteronomy 18:19, ESV)

1. but in these last days, God has chosen to speak through His Son and the record of his life and his teachings are found in the Scriptures

ILLUS. Early last week I saw a cartoon posted on Facebook. It shows a man, all alone, praying to the heavens, “God, I really need to hear from you.” The next captions shows this large hand reaching through the clouds, and the hand is holding a bible. Go figure.

III. LESSONS AND APPLICATION

A. GOD STILL SPEAKS THROUGH HIS PROPHETS AND PREACHERS

1. the ministry of God’s Word remains the highest calling a person can receive

a. it’s a ministry that is not to be entered into lightly

1) the Apostle James in his letter warns ...

“Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” (James 3:1, ESV)

b. few callings have such eternal consequences

2. the good news is that God has provided us His perfect revelation in His Scriptures

a. everything God wants us to know about gaining eternal life and living for Him is found in the book we call the Bible

1) God is no longer giving the world new truth through prophetic revelation

b. we have all of God’s revealed word in the pages of the Scriptures

1) you’ll not find God’s truth through a daily horoscope, or a familiar spirit channeled through a medium, or a psychic reading or meditating with a crystal

3. the role of today’s prophets — let’s call them preachers — is to faithfully teach the truth that God has given us

a. and woe to the man who teaches the people something other than the Scriptures and claims it’s a word from God

B. GOD EXPECTS HIS PEOPLE TO LISTEN TO HIS PROPHETS AND PREACHERS

1. the issue of the morning is this: God is through through His Word, but are we listening?

2. there are sins that keep us from hearing the voice of God

a. when we do not hear God's voice it is not because God has become disinterested in our lives or stopped speaking to us

b. when we do not hear God's voice it is because we have become disinterested in God and have stopped speaking to Him

c. when that happens we cannot be blessed by God

"Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear." (Isaiah 59:1 -2, ESV)

d. the Bible mentions seven sins specifically related to unanswered prayer

C. ROADBLOCKS TO HEARING GOD

1. Anger is the first roadblock to hearing God speak

"desire then that in every place the men should pray, lining holy hands without anger or quarreling;" (1 Timothy 2:8, ESV)

a. the anger of God is not like the anger we experience

1) God's anger is a holy, unchanging part of His nature

2) God is eternally angry at sin, unrighteousness and injustice

b. but our anger is unholy

1) it is usually sudden and vindictive

2) when we become angry we often lose control of our emotions and our actions

3) we hold grudges and seek retribution over and above those actions perpetrated upon us which caused the anger

c. our anger hinders our hearing God

2. Idolatry is another roadblock to hearing God speak

a. most of us assume, "O, that's an easy sin for me to avoid. I don't worship Buddha or Mohammad or Krishna."

b. our God is not merely jealous of godlike images in stone and wood and metal which we may create

1) He is jealous of anything which takes up more room in your heart than He does

c. what God want's more than anything else is to be your greatest heart's desire

"My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways." (Proverbs 23:26, ESV)

1) God does not accept any competition for your loyalty

2) anything you love more than God is an idol in the heart, and hinders prayer

ILLUS. When the elders of Israel came to consult Ezekiel, the Lord told the prophet, "Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I let them inquire of me at all?" Ezek. 14:3

3. Indifference to Needs is the third roadblock to hearing God speak

"Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered." (Proverbs 21:13, ESV)

a. indifference to the needs of the weak and helpless is sin

b. the Bible is very clear that God loves the poor, the oppressed, the widows, the orphans and the imprisoned

1) to close our eyes and our hearts to the needs of those around us, is the same as closing our eyes and hearts to God

c. if you are indifferent to the cries of the needy, your cries for help will not be heard

4. Hypocrisy is the next impediment to hearing God

a. hypocrisy IS NOT failure to live up to holy expectations when we earnestly try to do so

b. hypocrisy is intentionally putting on a false front

c. Jesus especially condemned hypocritical prayer

"And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward." (Matthew 6:5, ESV)

1) the problem is exactly what Jesus said it was — they want the approval of people rather than to honestly hear from God

5. Unforgiving Spirit is the fifth roadblock to hearing God speak

a. failure to forgive others will interfere with your prayers

"And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses." (Mark 11:25, ESV)

6. Broken Relationships is the final hindrance to hearing God speak

“So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:23–24, ESV)

a. allowing broken relationships to exist between yourself and others is similar to an unforgiving spirit

b. in fact, an unforgiving spirit usually results in a broken relationship

c. if you want to hear from God you cannot allow a broken relationship to continue to be broken

Con. Let me close be saying two things: 1) Hearing from God and following His will doesn’t have to be so complex. Basically, we hear from God by reading our Bibles and hearing it preached. 2) The most important revelation that came through the voice of the Prophets was the announcement of God’s Anointed One ... the Messiah who would come into the world to save His people from their sin. This is the most important prophetic message that any preacher can tell — Jesus came into the world to save sinners!

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