Not only was the king subject to God’s law, so too were those who claimed to be prophets of God. Not everyone could claim to speak on behalf of God and the law regarding prophets here in Deuteronomy 18 made the role very undesirable for pretenders. The test was simple. If you predicted something in God’s name and it failed to transpire then you would be put to death (vs.20). God speaks through people. From the beginning God wanted to communicate with us and he did that by speaking to people who then delivered his message to others. But God wanted to ensure that not just anyone could lay claim to such revelation. Old Testament prophets were tested as Deuteronomy 18:22 prescribes, but they were also generally expected to display the kind of signs that accompanied Moses. For example, God spoke to Moses within the hearing of the whole nation, and God enabled Moses to do great signs and wonders. There were times in Israel’s history when false prophets arose, but it was never hard to tell the real from the fake. The Bible is the sum collection of only those prophecies that were accepted as being authentic. It was a hard criteria to meet and many tried to get around it to no avail. The Bible is God’s Word to us, tested and found true both then and now as it is put into practice.
Determine to put greater value on the role of the Bible in your life.
Read Deuteronomy 18
