Deuteronomy 13:1-5; 18:14-22

Introduction

      One of the reasons that I enjoy flying is that you get a much better perspective on things than you do from earth. I watch the cars drive along and I can see far ahead of them. Imagine what it would be like if we had a screen in our cars that would give us an airplane perspective on things. If we were driving along a curving highway and wanted to pass a slow moving vehicle, we would just look at the airplane perspective screen and know that there were no cars coming and safely proceed.

      What if we had such a perspective to help us see what was coming along on the road of life? When we are young, we could see if the boy or girl we like would be a good person to get to know. When contemplating marriage, we would know if it would be a good match. When looking for a job, we would know if it was the best one. When selling grain, we would know the best time to sell. Life is full of decisions that would be much easier to make if we had a view from above that would help us with guidance.

      This is not a new problem. Throughout history, people have needed guidance. Kings have needed guidance for going into war, couples have needed guidance about marriage and home and farmers have needed guidance in planting their crops. Israel needed guidance as they were about to enter the promised land. As long as Moses was around, there was no question about where they received their guidance. He had spoken to God and continued to speak for God. God led them through Moses, but now Moses was no longer going to be with them. Where would they get guidance from? In Deuteronomy 18:14-22, we have an answer to that question, which also teaches us about divine guidance.

I.                   The World's Spiritual Guidance

A.                 What "The Nations" Did

      As Israel would enter the promised land, they would encounter all kinds of methods of guidance which the nations around them were practicing. We read about them in Deuteronomy 18:10. From this verse, we see that there were a broad range of practices that the pagan nations were using in order to gain some kind of perspective from beyond. Moses knew that Israel would be tempted to follow these practices. And they did as we know from the story of King Saul in I Samuel 28. He wanted to know about a battle he was about to engage in and he went to a medium at Endor to inquire of her what he should do. What a surprise when God actually used this method to warn Saul that because He had forgotten God, as demonstrated by seeking this method of guidance, he would die in the battle. Another similar list occurs in 18:14 and right after mentioning what the nations do, Moses said to the people, "But as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so." The use of the word "But you" at the beginning creates a sharp distinction between what the nations do and what God's people were supposed to do.

B.                 What Many Are Doing Today

      In our society, there are all kinds of practices by which people are looking for answers from beyond.

      Have you ever taken a fortune cookie at a Chinese restaurant as a message of guidance?

      We get the paper each Saturday and each week there is a horoscope which many people use for guidance. Last week I read this interesting one which shows that some people have a confusion between seeking God and reading their horoscope. The one writing the horoscope said, "Your foresight and vision capture dedicated believers. Religious studies interest you...." Do you ever read the horoscope and follow what you read there?

      I went on the Internet and the multitude of methods of guidance available to people are amazing. One site hosted by Craig and Jane Hamilton Parker declared that several times a week, they would be on line to do mediumship in order to give guidance. Mediumship is contacting the dead to find out. They told of one incident in which a woman had received a warning from a dead grandmother that her husband was trying to sell the family business in order to run away with the money.

      Another site offered Tarot Readings by Email. And the list goes on.

      To us, God's message is the same as to Israel. "But as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so." We should not look to any of these things - tea leaves, omens, tarot cards, horoscopes, fortune cookies, mediums or any other thing like that for guidance in our lives.

II.               God's Provision For Guidance

A.                 God Will Provide Guidance  18:16, 17

      The reason that Israel did not need to look to any of these things is that God had something much better for them. The text does not discuss whether or not such things work. The point is that God promises that He, the creator of the world, the one who knows the beginning from the end, the one who is Lord of all, the one who has demonstrated compassion for his people, will personally give guidance to his people.

      Whenever we look for help, we look for the most reputable help possible. We wouldn't buy a used car from a guy who whispers and asks for cash, we wouldn't buy seed grain from a guy who has the dirtiest fields in the country, why would we want to get guidance from a source that is suspect and that we don't know? Why not seek guidance from the best source possible - our creator. This is why God did not permit Israel to seek guidance from anywhere else, because He was going to continue to guide them.

      The text goes on to indicate to Israel how that would happen.

      One of the things I have always wished for is that God would speak to me in a clear audible voice so that I would know exactly what decisions I need to make. That would make things much easier. There was one day when God did speak to Israel in just that way. He gathered them at the foot of Mount Sinai and spoke to them in an audible voice. But when God spoke, they were terrified of Him and could not stand listening to Him. They asked that God not speak to them any more. We read about this in vs.16. God affirmed that request and promised that He would not speak to them directly, but would send prophets to give them His guidance.

      Throughout their wilderness wanderings God spoke to them through Moses. Now that Moses was not going to be there any more, God promised that He would continue to provide prophets to speak to them. As we read the history of Israel, we find that God did continue to send prophets and guide His people through them. There were the judges, Samuel and later Isaiah, Jeremiah and many others. In fact, God says in Amos 3:7, "Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets."

      Throughout the history of Israel if people wanted to know God's guidance, He provided it through the prophets.

B.                 What About NT Prophets?

      What about today? Does God still reveal His guidance through prophets or does He reveal it in other ways?

      The first method of guidance that God uses today is still through the prophets of the Old Testament. Those prophets whom God sent in the past wrote down what God revealed and what they wrote still speaks to us. The words of the prophets who gave guidance to Israel in the past, still guide us. They still have God's word for us and that is why we need to study the whole Bible. We need to hear God's word for us from those who have spoken it in the past.

      We read that Moses said to Israel, "I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers." In the New Testament, this verse is used several times in reference to Jesus. In Acts 3:22 it says, "For Moses said, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you." Hebrews 1:1 says, "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe." God's guidance still comes to us through what Jesus has said. His words are recorded in the Bible and we can find guidance for many questions of life from His words.

      But there are also other ways in which God guides us. He guides us through the wisdom and direction which we get from other people. He guides us through the direction of His Holy Spirit and furthermore, He guides us through circumstances in life.

      But since this passage speaks about prophets, I want to explore this aspect of guidance a little more. We are not used to the idea of prophets today and we might wonder if they still speak. Does God still guide us through prophets as He promised to Israel in Deuteronomy 18? The New Testament speaks to this issue.

      In Joel 2:28, God promised a day when He would pour out His Spirit on all people and one of the things that would accompany that outpouring of the Spirit was prophesy. On the day of Pentecost, Peter announced that the day Joel had spoken of had come. Therefore, we should expect that God will continue to speak through prophets.

      As we read the New Testament we see that this continued to happen. When Paul was going to Jerusalem, he was told several times by prophets that when he got to Jerusalem chains and imprisonment faced him.

      I believe that this ministry of prophecy continues today because the Bible says in I Corinthians 14:1, "Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy."

      Russ Toews was telling me about an experience which he had. A number of years ago, He was reading his Bible and Amos 3:7 which says, "Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets." struck him, but he did not know why. During the next week, he was praying about this and wondering about it when a pastor from another church called him and told him that he wanted to have coffee with him. While having coffee, the pastor told him, "I have a word from the Lord for you, God is going to pour out His Spirit on your church." He gave him portions of Isaiah 42 as a Scriptural promise. Russ didn't know what to make of this. When he got home, he found out that someone Sharon had met that day had given her a Scripture, which is something that does not usually happen. The Scripture given her was also Isaiah 42. They continued to pray about this experience and wondered about it a number of times, but did nothing about it. About three years later, Russ began to think about it again and began to think that if this was from God, he ought to do something about it. At a Wednesday evening prayer meeting, he told the prayer group about the experience, but he couldn't remember which passage it was that the other pastor had given him. Between Wednesday and Sunday, he began to wonder if it was too late and if he had missed the opportunity. On Sunday, a lady from the church told him that she had discerned that the passage he was thinking of was Isaiah 42. She was not a lady given to this sort of thing, but did so because she felt it was right. That confirmed for Russ that it was not too late and so He began to pray more intensely and also told the church about the experience. This was last fall and since that time, God has begun to do what He promised. Many new people have been coming to church and others have made new commitmnts, including Gerry & Linda Enns who many of you know.

      From these things we see that God guides us in many ways and we need to continue to be open to the work of those who have the gift of prophecy.

III.            Discerning The Prophets

      But you will say to me, "how do we know if someone who claims to be a prophet is speaking God's words?" That is a very good question. It seems that there are two extremes. There are those who reject that God could speak through prophets and there are those who accept any prophetic claim as coming from God. The Bible teaches us to be open to prophetic words, but also to discern if these words are from God because there are false prophets. Jeremiah 14:14 says, "Then the LORD said to me, "The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds." In the New Testament, Jesus warned about the presence of false prophets. Matthew 7:15 says, "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves."

      Therefore we are warned to test the prophets. I John 4:1 says, "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world."

      God leads, but we need to be very careful if someone claims any revelation as "God's Word." In the Old Testament, it was a serious thing to be claiming to speak God's word. The penalty for making this claim falsely was death. It is still a serious thing to claim to speak God's Word.

      So how do we discern if someone is speaking for God? Moses Ggve Israel two tests which we can also apply to any guidance today.

A.                 Test Of Fulfillment

      The first test is found in verse 22. If someone claims to be a prophet, but what he says does not come true, then it can be known that he is a false prophet. The reason we can recognize them as false prophets is that God's word is always accomplished. If God speaks, it will happen and so we can recognize a false prophet if what they say does not happen.

      I have heard from some that if a person prophesies and 60 or 70% of what they have said comes true, they should be trusted as a true prophet. According to what God says in His word, that is nonsense. If someone speaks for God, they will be 100% accurate or else they are not a true prophet of God.

B.                 Test Of Truth

      But that is not the only test. It is possible that someone could make accurate predictions and appear to be a true prophet. John warned that the false prophets masquerade as an angel of light and so some of their predictions and some of their words could also come true.

      In Deuteronomy 13:1-5, the passage we looked at last week, we already heard about the second test of true prophets. If a prophet speaks and does signs and wonders and they come true, but what they say does not line up with the Word of God already revealed we know that they are false prophets. Moses warned Israel if such a prophet came and enticed the people to leave the God who had brought them out of Egypt and had revealed himself as their God, they should not listen to such a prophet. So the other test for a prophet is, does what they say line up with the Word of God.

      We need to be open to God's guidance through prophets, but we must always test the prophets to make sure that they are speaking the words of God.

IV.             Obey What God Reveals

      We do not need to go to mediums, horoscopes, tarot card readings, crystal balls or anything else. God has promised that in His love, He will reveal His will to His people.

      But there is another significant aspect to God's guidance. As we read His word, listen to His prophets or discern His will in any other way, one thing is very important and that is that we must do what God says.

      Moses warned the people in Deuteronomy 18:19, "If anyone does not listen to my words ... I myself will call him to account."

Conclusion

      We all desire guidance and God's word helps us with the matter of finding true guidance. We have learned today that:

1.The one who made us is the best source for guidance and the only one from whom we should seek guidance.

2.God provides guidance in many ways including prophets. We need to look to God and seek His guidance and be open to His word even through prophets.

3.We should not accept at face value what anyone who claims to be a prophet says. It must be tested and two of the tests are does what this prophet has said happen and does it line up with the word of God.

4.When God has spoken, we must certainly obey.

      There is a view of the world which says that God is like a watchmaker who created the world, wound it up and let it go. How thankful I am that that is not true. God always has been and continues to be intimately involved with the world He has created. He has demonstrated His love for us by sending Jesus into the world and seeing such love, we know that He will continue to guide us. What do you need God's guidance for today? I want to encourage you to look to the one who made you. He will guide you.