Or We Will Die

Deuteronomy 18:16-19 – 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.” The Lord said to me: “What they say is good. 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. I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name.

Exodus 20:18-20 – When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”

Hebrews 12:25 – See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?

2 Kings 2:24 – He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys.

Application:

• ·         The Israelites requested a mediator to stand between them and God, a role fulfilled by Moses and subsequently by priests, prophets and kings—and ultimately by Jesus Christ.
• ·         Do not think that God’s display of His majesty is intended simply to fill you with abject fear. He has come to enter into covenant with you as your heavenly King.
• ·         Him who warns us from heaven is Christ, who is both from and in heaven. Since we have greater revelation, we have greater responsibility and therefore greater danger.
• ·         Elisha’s first acts indicated his ministry that would follow: God’s covenant blessings would come to those who looked to Him, but God’s covenant curses would fall on those who turned away from Him.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Prophet Like Me

Deuteronomy 18:14-15 – 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. 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.

Luke 2:30-32 – For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.”

Exodus 20:18-19 – When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.”

John 1:24-25,45 – Now the Pharisees who had been sent questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”… Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

John 5:46 – If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.

John 6:14 – After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

Application:

• ·         At Horeb the people requested that Moses take the message from God and deliver it to them. But now that Moses is to leave them, he says that another spokesman will take his place, and then another will be necessary for the next generation. This is therefore a collective reference to the prophets who will follow. As such, it is also the basis for later Messianic expectation and receives a unique fulfillment in Jesus.
• ·         As a Gentile himself, Luke was careful to emphasize the truth that salvation was offered to Gentiles as well as to Jews.
• ·         The Israelites requested a mediator to stand between them and God, a role fulfilled by Moses and subsequently by priests, prophets and kings—and ultimately by Jesus Christ.
• ·         In Old Testament times anointing signified being set apart for service, particularly as king or priest. But people were looking for not just an anointed one but the Anointed One, the Messiah.
• ·         The authors of the New Testament books sometimes expressly stressed and assumed that the Old Testament, rightly read, points to Christ.
• ·         In the Gospel of John, Jesus applies this truth specifically to the writings traditionally ascribed to Moses.
• ·         Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand pointed people to the Son of Man and the food for eternal life that He gives, but they thought only of the Prophet, i.e., the prophet who would be like Moses. Through Moses, God had provided food and water for the people in the wilderness, and they expected the Prophet to do more than this.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Sacrifices Their Son Or Daughter

Deuteronomy 18:10-13 – 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, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 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. You must be blameless before the Lord your God.

Leviticus 18:21 – “‘Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.

1 Samuel 15:23 – For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”

Psalm 119:1 – Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord.

Matthew 5:48 – Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Application:

• ·         Whatever blatantly violates God’s revealed will desecrates His name because it fails to honor His holiness.
• ·         A king who sets his own will above the command of the Lord ceases to be an instrument of the Lord’s rule over His people, violating the very nature of his theocratic office.
• ·         Blessed are those whose ways are blameless.
• ·         Christ sets up the high ideal of perfect love—not that we can fully attain it in this life. That, however, is God’s high standard for us.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Detestable Ways Of The Nations

Deuteronomy 18:4-9,15 – You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the first wool from the shearing of your sheep, for the Lord your God has chosen them and their descendants out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the Lord’s name always. If a Levite moves from one of your towns anywhere in Israel where he is living, and comes in all earnestness to the place the Lord will choose, he may minister in the name of the Lord his God like all his fellow Levites who serve there in the presence of the Lord. He is to share equally in their benefits, even though he has received money from the sale of family possessions. When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there…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.

Exodus 28:1 – “Have Aaron your brother brought to you from among the Israelites, along with his sons Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, so they may serve me as priests.

Psalm 118:26 – Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord we bless you.

Isaiah 8:20 – Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.

Application:

• ·         The priests were to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins, to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, to read the law of Moses to the people and remind them of their covenant obligations.
• ·         “Who comes in the name of the Lord” was the one who with God’s help had defeated the enemies “in the name of the Lord”.
• ·         The people were not to resort to magical or spiritistic arts for their information, guidance or revelation. Rather, they were to listen to the Lord’s true prophets.
• ·         At Horeb the people requested that Moses take the message from God and deliver it to them. But now that Moses is to leave them, he says that another spokesman will take his place, and then another will be necessary for the next generation.
• ·         Only by heeding the Lord’s word through Isaiah—reinforced by the “signs and symbols” that Isaiah and his sons represented—would the light dawn for Israel.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Firstfruits

Deuteronomy 18:2-5 – They shall have no inheritance among their fellow Israelites; the Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them. This is the share due the priests from the people who sacrifice a bull or a sheep: the shoulder, the internal organs and the meat from the head. You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the first wool from the shearing of your sheep, for the Lord your God has chosen them and their descendants out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the Lord’s name always.

Numbers 18:12 – “I give you all the finest olive oil and all the finest new wine and grain they give the Lord as the firstfruits of their harvest.

Exodus 23:19 – “Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God. “Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Numbers 15:20 – Present a loaf from the first of your ground meal and present it as an offering from the threshing floor.

Application:

• ·         Since the best items of produce were to be given to the Lord, these became the special foods of the priests and their families.
• ·         Firstfruits were representative of the whole harvest. The offering of firstfruits was an acknowledgment that the harvest was from the Lord and belonged wholly to Him.
• ·         This concept of the firstfruits is a symbol that all blessing is from the Lord and all produce belongs to Him.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Reign A Long Time In Israel

Deuteronomy 17:19-18:1 – It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel. The Levitical priests—indeed, the whole tribe of Levi—are to have no allotment or inheritance with Israel. They shall live on the food offerings presented to the Lord, for that is their inheritance.

1 Kings 2:2-4 – “I am about to go the way of all the earth,” he said. “So be strong, act like a man, and observe what the Lord your God requires: Walk in obedience to him, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and regulations, as written in the Law of Moses. Do this so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go and that the Lord may keep his promise to me: ‘If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’

Jeremiah 33:17-18 – For this is what the Lord says: ‘David will never fail to have a man to sit on the throne of Israel, nor will the Levitical priests ever fail to have a man to stand before me continually to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings and to present sacrifices.’”

Application:

• ·         The king was not above God’s law, any more than were the humblest of his subjects.
• ·         Walk in obedience to him was a characteristic expression for obedience to covenant obligations.
• ·         The priestly covenant with the Levites was an integral part of the Lord’s dealings with His people. That ministry was and is being fulfilled by Jesus, who administers a higher and better priesthood.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Astray

Deuteronomy 17:17-20 – He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold. When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.

1 Kings 11:2 – They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love.

Isaiah 2:7 – Their land is full of silver and gold; there is no end to their treasures. Their land is full of horses; there is no end to their chariots.

Deuteronomy 4:10 – Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when he said to me, “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.”

Application:

• ·         Foreign women indeed did turn the Israelites hearts after their gods.
• ·         Accumulating large quantities of “silver and gold…horses” was forbidden to the king. They usually led to a failure to trust in God.
• ·         The divine call to Israel to remember the Lord’s past redemptive acts—especially how He delivered them from slavery in Egypt—is a common theme in Deuteronomy and is summarized: “Remember the days of old”.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV