Mid-Lent 5
Dt
18:15-22
4/10/19
To whom do you listen? It’s not so simple anymore. The events of the last decade have left many
wondering whether they can trust anything the mainstream media has to say.
There was a time when you knew that a news source might have some political
inclination, but you could also assume that there were journalistic standards
that kept things basically accurate.
However, those days seem to be gone.
News outlets are certainly aligned with particular worldviews and
agendas, and it has become clear this trumps standards and objectivity.
On the other hand, while there is
now a very large group of other news sources on the internet, how do you know
which of them you can trust? We are constantly warned about “fake news,” and it
is definitely out there. We don’t want
to fall victim to this. Who can you trust?
To whom do you listen?
Our text for tonight addresses the
question of the one to whom Israel was to listen. As Yahweh prepares Israel to enter into the
promised land, he warns them that there will be many voices among the pagans
that claim to have a divine authority.
Just before our text Yahweh said, “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. 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, 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.”
Notice that almost all of these
pagan practices involve receiving information from a source claiming to provide
knowledge that goes beyond normal human understanding. Israel would easily be drawn to these things.
They were common in the Near Eastern world.
And people want knowledge that goes beyond their own experience. We want to know what will happen in future or
to have guidance in making decisions. There is a desire to communicate with
loved ones who have died and are no longer with us. However Yahweh was clear. Moses told them, “You shall be blameless
before the LORD your God, 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.”
It was one thing to know those to
whom Israel was not to listen. On the other hand, they needed assurance that
they would continue to hear from Yahweh.
Moses had been God’s spokesman.
He had delivered the word of the Lord.
But now, he was not going to be crossing over with them into the
promised land. How were they going to
hear from Yahweh?
Moses told them, “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-- 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.’” God promised that he would raise up another
prophet like Moses.
It is important to recognize why
Moses had taken on his unique role in the first place. When Yahweh entered into the covenant with
Israel, he descended on Mt. Sinai. There was thunder, and lightning, and thick
clouds. Then the mountain was wrapped in smoke as Yahweh descended on it in
fire. The whole mountain trembled, and the sound of a trumpet grew louder and
louder.
The people found themselves in the
presence of the holy God, and the author of Hebrews was not kidding when he
wrote, “Our God is a consuming fire.” It
was too much for the people and they told Moses, “Let me not hear again the
voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.”
The book of Hebrews reminds us that
God has not changed. He is the holy
God. He is a consuming fire. His wrath destroys sinners who sin. In ourselves, that is exactly what we are. We
are sinners in thought, word and deed. Because of the Fall we are by nature sinful and unclean. Our sin is
a product of our corrupted nature – the old Adam within us.
Yahweh
granted Israel’s request. In fact he
said it was right. And so Moses became
the one who delivered Yahweh’s word to Israel.
Now, Yahweh promised that he would raise up a prophet like Moses. He declared, “And I will put my words in his
mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And
whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself
will require it of him.”
Initially,
Yahweh kept his word by providing figures like Joshua and Samuel who spoke his
word to the people. But none of them
were on the same level of Moses. In fact
the last words of Deuteronomy state: “And there has not arisen a prophet since
in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, 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, and for all the mighty
power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all
Israel.”
In the
first century A.D. God finally did raise up the
prophet like Moses, Jesus Christ. He
was raised up from Israel’s brothers as he was born to Mary. But he was more
than just a man. He was also the eternal
Son of God. As true God and true man he
came to speak God’s word to his people. Though more than just a prophet, he did
come as a prophet – the prophet like Moses.
Moses was
an impressive figure. Yet in spite of
this, the Israelites made his life hard.
They complained at Moses and blamed Moses for their difficulties. On occasion they were so agitated that they
were almost ready to stone Moses. As a prophet, Moses was rejected and
suffered. And he wasn’t alone. This became the lot of prophet after prophet
like Elijah and Jeremiah. Some prophets were even killed.
Jesus
Christ was the prophet like Moses promised by God. And it was as a prophet that he was rejected,
suffered and died. During Lent we are
preparing for Holy Week. Matthew tells
us in his Gospel that during Holy Week Jesus said: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets
and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your
children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would
not!”
Jesus, the prophet like Moses, was
killed. He carried out God the Father’s
saving purpose for you as he bore your sins.
He was wounded for
your transgressions; he was crushed
for your iniquities. The Lord laid on
him the iniquity of us all. And after he cried out, “It is finished” and died,
they put his body in a tomb.
Anyone
could claim to be a prophet speaking for Yahweh. So in our text, Moses provides two criteria
by which the Israelite could discern between a true and a false prophet. The first was if a prophet led the people
toward false pagan gods. The second was
that if a prophet spoke in the name of the Lord and that thing did not happen, the
Israelites would know for sure that he was no prophet.
As Jesus
was about to enter Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he said to his disciples: “See, we
are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the
chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him
over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be
raised on the third day.” Jesus Christ said he would be crucified, and he
was. Jesus Christ also said that he
would be raised up on the third day … and
he was.
By his
resurrection Jesus has demonstrated that he is the true prophet like
Moses. He has received God’s judgment
against your sins to win forgiveness for you.
And in his resurrection he has begun the life that will be yours on the
Last Day. He has been vindicated as the
true prophet to whom we must listen. We
listen to him in faith, for his words bring us salvation and eternal life.
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