Where to Find the Truth (Deuteronomy 18:15)
Preacher: Bryce Morgan Series: Our Bible Reading Plan (2024-2025) Topic: One Truth: Your Word is Truth Scripture: Deuteronomy 18:5
Children's Lesson (click here)
I. Drowning in Information
In the 2021 book “The Wisdom Pyramid”, cultural critic Brett McCracken introduces his intro-duction with these thoughts about the 'information waters' in which all of us currently swim:
Our world has more and more information. but less and less wisdom. More data, less clarity. More stimulation, less synthesis. More distraction, less stillness. More pontificating, less pondering. More opinion, less research. More speaking, less listening. More to look, less to see. More amusements, less joy. There is more, but we are less. And we all feel it.
He goes on to add, “Everyone has a megaphone, but no one has a filter... We are resigned to a new normal where the choice seems to be: trust everything or trust nothing.” Finally, several pages later, he adds this related quote from the poet T.S. Eliot: “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”
II. The Passage: “To Him You Shall Listen” (18:15)
Those are sobering words for... today; for a new season that many have called a “post-truth era”. But look with me at words spoken and written for... not today, but a time long ago. Look with me at Deuteronomy 18, verse 15. Listen to how Moses reassures the younger generation of Israelites who came out of Egyptian slavery, those who are now the older generation of Israelites, ready to finally return the Promised Land. This is the reassurance he gives 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...”
So as we seek to understand this verse, and the importance of this verse, the first thing we should do (as many of you know) is think about the verse in its context. For example, look with me at the verses right before verse 15, starting in verse 9...
“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. [10] 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 [11] or a charmer or a medium or a necro-mancer or one who inquires of the dead, [12] 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. [13] You shall be blameless before the LORD your God, [14] for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, [they] listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this.” (18:9–14)(and then into v. 15)
So as you can see, when Moses announces in verse 15 that God will indeed, at some point, raise up for his people another prophet, like Moses, he does this in order to reassure those who will be tempted by [what claim to be] truth-getting alternatives. Of the list of idolatrous and occultic and truly poisonous practices listed in verses 10 and 11, two are specifically mentioned again in verse 14: fortune-telling and divination. Now...
There's no need to unpack all of this terminology. All you really need to know is that practices like the ones listed in verses 10, 11 (and again in 14) were voices that offered some measure of control over one's life and some measure of enlightenment concerning one's future. If some secret and supernatural knowledge could be acquired, knowledge that could bless your fields, or ensure victory in a battle, or lead you to wealth, or protect your family, or secure for you an exalted position, then who wouldn't be tempted to do whatever it takes to discover that know-ledge? Even if it meant payment needed to be made. Even if it meant a foreign god needed to be sought or spirits needed to be called forth. Even if it meant, horrifically, that a child needed to be sacrificed. Clearly, these truth-getting alternatives were extremely costly.
But wonderfully, God, through Moses, speaks directly to this temptation. In light of 18:15, along with 18:18, the listeners were to be reassured by God's truth-giving promise. As we think again about the context, consider with me what follows our main verse. Starting again with v. 15,
“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 [16] 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.’ [17] And the LORD said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. [18] I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. [19] And who-ever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.”
When the Hebrews first arrived at Mount Sinai (called “Horeb” here) after their deliverance from Egypt, the trumpet-heralded, thunder-wrapped sound of God's voice terrified them. So they asked in Exodus 20:19 that Moses alone would hear from God, and then speak to them as a prophet and a mediator. Here in Deuteronomy 18, God commends that earlier request and reassures them that even after Moses is gone, there would be no need to turn to fortune-tellers or diviners. His people would continue to hear from him. They would continue to be led by Him.
So how was this promise fulfilled? Well, though there were prophets here and there in the book of Judges, it was the final judge, Samuel, who began to embody this promise of a prophet like Moses. And of course, the rest of the Old Testament (OT) is filled with prophets who, like Moses, heard from God, and spoke for God, and even performed miracles. But interestingly, when we arrive in the New Testament (NT) period, many Jews were still waiting for this prophet. That's why the Jewish authorities questioned John the Baptizer with these words: “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” (John 1:21)
But five chapters later, in John 6:14, after hearing his words and seeing his miracles, said this about Jesus, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” Of course, Jesus identified himself as a prophet (Luke 4:24), and the earliest disciples used this same language (Luke 24:19). But was he that prophet, the one Moses predicted? Yes! As you read last week, Peter confirms this in Acts 3. In verses 17-26. Peter speaks to the unbelieving Jews, declaring...
“And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. [18] But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. [19] Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, [20] that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, [21] whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. [22] Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. [23] And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’ [24] And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days. [25] You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ [26] God, having raised up [that's the language of Deut. 18:15] his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”
III. Can We Hear Him?
Fellow disciples of Jesus, brothers and sisters, the Redeemer who delivered us, the King who rules over us, the Shepherd who leads us, the High Priest who intercedes for us is also the Prophet to whom we must listen; the Prophet to whom we should be eager to listen, each day. As Peter himself recognized months or years before Acts 3 (again in John 6), “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life...” (v. 68). If that's true, and we truly believe it, then there are at least couple things we should. The first is this...
We should, you should, think very carefully about how today, you are tempted by truth-getting alternatives. I don't suspect many of you are tempted by fortune-tellers, mediums, psychics, etc.. I don't know anyone who bought a house or got married because a shaman threw bones or talked with Uncle Carl's ghost. Do you? But please hear this: all of us are, nevertheless, still tempted by voices that offer some measure of control over one's life and some measure of enlightenment concerning one's future. We are told, “This is what you must know to be well-informed. These are the stories you need to hear. These are the trends you need to follow. These are the battles you need to fight. These are the marks of real success.”
But we have to be vigilant about these voices. What does that mean? It means that you may need to turn the radio or TV off. You may need to log out or put your phone or your controller down. You may need to silence your news feed or close that book series, the one that is dominating your attention. You may need to set aside the podcasts or audio books or the streaming music service that is your default. You may need to do these things... if... they are drowning out the daily voice of Jesus, the Prophet predicted by Moses; if... they have, in all honesty, become a means of worldly empowerment or a means of escape, maybe something that prevents you from working with Jesus through things he's calling you to face.
Listen: I'm not here to set up a new law concerning media in your life. To be clear, we could also talk about that worldly friend who has your ear or some trauma that whispers (or screams) daily in your heart. But in this digital information age, I am here to speak the truth in love to you about what we might call, 'the noise'. Remember what Moses said and Peter repeated: “to him you shall listen” (2x). Are you? Every day? Or is there too much... 'noise'?
Please pray for me. I'm attempting to do some of this in the new year. I've made too many justifications about 'the noise' in my life. Thankfully, I already feel like I'm benefiting from more frequent breaks from this... 'noise'. Unlike fortune-telling and divination, many of these voices/platforms today are not inherently wrong. But we need to be careful and we need to be honest about the extent to which they dominate our time and attention.
In contrast to the 'noise', and in light of God's word this morning, we, as God's people, should seek daily reassurance today in God's truth-giving gospel. Jesus, the Prophet predicted through Moses, began his ministry by proclaiming the good news of the kingdom (Mark 1:14). And guess what? He's been preaching it ever since, first with his own lips, then through his body, the Church. Why the gospel? Because the gospel is God's definitive word through God's promised Prophet. It is not only a word of saving grace. It is also a word of sustaining grace.
I have good news this morning. In light of who He is, in light of his death and resurrection, if you have trusted in (i.e., embraced in faith) Jesus Christ as your only hope for this life and the next, then “failure” is not the definitive word in your life. “Disappointment” is not the definitive word in your life. “Success” is not the definitive word in your life. “Cancer” is not the definitive word in your life. Neither is “death”. “Layoff” is not the definitive word in your life. Neither is “promotion”. “Recreation” is not the definitive word. Neither is “romance”, nor “respect”, nor “regret”. That word is not “comfort” or “pain”. It is not “trauma” or “achievement”; “struggle” or “approval”. The gospel is God's definitive word through God's promised Prophet. And it is that convicting message, that reassuring message, that liberating and empowering and trajectory-setting message that is at risk of being drowned out by worldly noise. But...
Thanks be to God this morning that in an age of information overload, the truth that matters most, that real knowledge and wisdom, has been given to us by God's promised Prophet; the final prophet, Jesus Christ. He not only spoke the word, he was and is the Word (John 1:1). He not only declared the Good News of forgiveness, freedom, and forever with God, he secured it with his own blood and his own glorified, resurrected life. Whether you need to the hear the words of this Prophet of prophets for the very first time, or you need to turn down the noise, lean into the Bible and biblical encouragements from others, and hear from him again, he is absolutely what he said he was in John 14:6... “the truth”. In a world desperate for the truth, may we be faithful to show the way, not only in the way we speak, but also in the way we live.
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