“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:14,16 NIV
A VOICE FROM SCRIPTURE
Along our journey through scripture we are listening and looking for the Lord Jesus. We have found Him in several places where God has given us a glimpse of Him in the Old Testament and will continue to do so throughout the New.
I have been learning about listening to the voice of the Lord and I am highly intrigued about our lesson this week. You know Scripture is God’s voice in print.
We live in a very noisy world. We believe it is so different from the world in which the Israelites lived, but if we look closely we see the land that God was giving them was full of those who did not listen for the voice of the Lord God, nor did they believe in Him. In that aspect we too live in a land like they did in many ways.
Where we pick up and cling to in Deuteronomy is where Moses is telling the Israelites about the land the Lord God is giving to them. He is warning them that the people there are detestable, they follow sorcery, and even sacrifice their own children. He tells them that God commands that they do not practice the ways of the people of that land, and God will drive the people out before them.
OCCULT PRACTICES
9 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. 10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. 13 You must be blameless before the Lord your God.
God also realizes the Israelites are easily persuaded, and that they will be among these people. He knows what they will be hearing, and He tells them that He will raise up a prophet that they should listen to. So Moses instructs them further…
A PROPHET LIKE MOSES
14 The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so.15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. 16 For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.”
17 The Lord said to me: “What they say is good. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. 19 I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name. 20 But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.”
21 You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed.
God tells the Israelites that they should not only stay away from the detestable practices, but they should not hear about them. We sometimes have trouble living in a world where we hear so much about the evil of our day. All we have to do is turn on the television and listen to a half hour news program. So what do we do about that. Here we can glean from the scripture that we are to listen to the prophet like unto Moses. One God has raised up and put His words in His mouth. For us that is Jesus Christ our Lord. It is Him we are to listen to. We can even find in this passage how to test that prophet. We can look at prophecy about our Lord and from the Lord and see what has come true about Him and know that He is a true prophet. Remember also that I said that God’s word is His voice in print. We can turn down the voice of the world and turn up the voice of God by spending time like this in His word.
SUMMING UP
So to sum up our discovery of Jesus throughout scripture we will focus on each book this way:
In Genesis He is the seed of the woman.
In Exodus He is the passover lamb.
In Leviticus He is our high priest.
In Numbers He is the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.
In Deuteronomy He is the prophet like unto Moses.
Next week we will find Jesus in the book of Joshua.
Until then remember we are the light of the world so shine bright in the darkness as you listen for His voice. 🙂
Another Samaritan Woman 