Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: Deuteronomy 6:1-13

Theme: God provides messengers to represent Him in the world — Prophets and Preachers

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