Future Prophet

Notes:

True Prophets: From Daniel Block

(1) A true prophet never undermines loyalty to Yahweh or encourages allegiance to any other god (13:1–5[2–6]).

(2) A true prophet functions within the Mosaic paradigm, being commissioned by Yahweh and receiving messages from him. Therefore, true prophetic utterances will always be in accordance with and not contrary to the Torah of Moses.

(3) True prophecies come to the prophet at God’s initiative rather than through professional manipulation of humanly devised means.

(4) True prophets speak only in the name of Yahweh. Just as all other claimants to the status of deity are false (cf. 4:28), so all who claim to speak on the authority of another god are deluded and their utterances are lies.

(5) The utterances of true prophets are always fulfilled; the nonfulfillment of a prediction confirms the inauthenticity of the predictor.

Role: “Content didn’t change, but the context did.”

Introduction:

Foreshadowing a Future King

“If you need a king, I’ll appoint one for you.”

“I will send a prophet like me.”

Preparing for his Death:

You will receive a King when you want it.

And the Lord will pass along another prophet like me.

Prevent false Prophets

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 18:10–11 “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 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead.”

“I brought you into this world, and I can take you out.”

And that’s exactly what they were doing.

Don’t be superstition. Or like, Michael Scott says, don’t even be a “Little Stitiuos.”

Today’s Versions of Fortune-Tellers:

Sports Casters: Before the game, they have a whole conversation about over/under

Predictors of the future

But we also have fortune-tellers right here!

Yelp: Top Ten Fortune Tellers in the Raleigh Area

A close family member of mine is a spiritual healer…

Transition: “The Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.”

Prepare for a Future Prophet

15 “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—

Must be Blood Related

Like me, from among you, from your brothers

“Among you, from your brothers”

Same Criteria of the Future King:

17:15: One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you.

Ethnic Israel because God chose Israel, God chose to give them the Law, therefore the interpreters and preachers of the Law must come from Israel.

v. 16: Most interesting part of this passage:

Must be Like Moses

“Like Me”

What does Moses mean ‘like me’?

Description of Moses

Deuteronomy 34:10–12 “10 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.”

As Mediator

16 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.

Like Moses How

Mediator at Horeb

Block: “(a) his mediatorial role; (b) access to the presence of Yahweh and membership in his council (Num. 12:7; cf. Jer. 23:16–22); (c) participation in clear, unambiguous, and direct conversation with God (Num. 12:8); and (d) his divine endowment with the spirit of prophecy (cf. Num. 11:25–26). This paradigm of prophecy contrasts starkly to indirect, obscure, and ambiguous divination.

Must be Held Accountable

19 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. 20 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.’

v. 19: God will make sure prophets speak what He says.

“I myself will call him to account.”

Must Preaching what is True

21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— 22 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.

By his own criteria, if what he says doesn’t come true, then what kind of prophet is Moses?

Many prophets came after Moses…

What he says must come true

v.20:

1. “I have not commanded him to speak.”

2. Speaks in the name of other gods.

What happens if the prophecy comes much later? (like the prophet Moses was talking about here?)

“Mses does not answer this dilemma but concludes this discussion with counsel regarding the proper disposition toward prophets whose words do not come true…” then they spoke presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

Deuteronomy 13:1–5 “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. 5 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.”

Other examples: Exodus 7:22 “22 But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts. So Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.”

Acts 8:9 “9 But there was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great.”

Initial Deliverer of the Word: Mediator: Medium=Mountain and man

Recognizing the Prophet

Fulfillment of Jesus for each part

Matthew and Luke go into massive detail about the geneology about Jesus:

They are in line of a Kingship

But from among the brothers

Mediator:

Shorter Catechism 24: A. Christ executeth the office of a prophet, in revealing to us, by his Word65 and Spirit,66 the will of God for our salvation.

But it’s interesting:

Like Moses=Mediation from the Holiness of God. We needed someone strong enough to bring the LAW to us!

“Listen to Him”

Who are you Listening to?

Who are you listening?

AC/DC:

Why? Why do you want to listen to them?

I don’t listen to their message, I just like the sound…

Who are we listening to?

Culture of Lies: But we listen to them.

Who are our false teachers?

Listen to him means listen to him?

When do we listen to the TRUE Teacher?

Listen to a podcast of the Bible every day.

Busyness? I’m in the car.

Are you listening to Jesus the Prophet?

Jesus is not your Fortune Teller

Look at list of

What voices are you listening to?

Fake voices

Unspiritual truths.

Today’s False Speakers:

Block: “1 John 4:1 warns Christians not to believe every spirit, “but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” Similarly, Paul encourages the believers at Thessalonica that even as they welcome prophetic utterances, they must be vigilant in testing all messages, holding fast to what is good and rejecting all that is evil (1 Thess. 5:20–22). In Paul’s letter to young Timothy we hear the most explicit warning to reject presumptuous persons who oppose the truth and are corrupted in their minds (2 Tim. 3:1–8).”

During intertestamental period: “eschatological messianic figure”? Block