Read Deuteronomy 18:15-20

Tuesday

Read Deuteronomy 18:15-20

¹⁵Instead, he will send you a prophet like me from among your own people, and you are to obey him.^q

16 “On the day that you were gathered at Mount Sinai, you begged not to hear the Lord speak again or to see his fiery presence any more, because you were afraid you would die. ¹⁷So the Lord said to me, ‘They have made a wise request. ¹⁸I will send them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will tell him what to say, and he^r will tell the people everything I command. ¹⁹He will speak in my name, and I^s will punish anyone who refuses to obey him. ²⁰But if any prophet dares to speak a message in my name when I did not command him to do so, he must die for it, and so must any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods.’

21 “You may wonder how you can tell when a prophet’s message does not come from the Lord. ²²If a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord and what he says does not come true, then it is not the Lord’s message. That prophet has spoken on his own authority, and you are not to fear him.

Think

People often complain that God doesn't speak to them as God spoke to people in the Old Testament.  Verse 16 remembers how the people asked the Lord not to speak for fear that they would die.

When God speaks to us he tends to speak in promptings, or through the scriptures.  However God speaks - it is up to us to listen.

Pray

Lord, you speak to me through the scriptures, through my experience of the world around me and by prompting me in certain directions.  Yet I do such a terrible job of listening and obeying.

Please help me today.

Amen.

---

¹⁵ 18.15: Ac 3:22; 7:37

^q a prophet ... him; or prophets ... them.

^r a prophet ... him ... he; or prophets ... them ... they.

¹⁹ 18.19: Ac 3:23

^s He will speak ... and I; or When a prophet speaks in my name, I.