“Adonai will raise up for you a prophet like me from among yourselves, from your own kinsmen. You are to pay attention to him, just as when you were assembled at Horev and requested Adonai your God, ‘Don’t let me hear the voice of Adonai my God any more, or let me see this great fire ever again; if I do, I will die!”-Deuteronomy 18:15-16
Verse 15 tells us that God will raise up a prophet in Israel for the purpose of communicating to them future events the Lord has deemed important for His People to know.
Notice it says “a prophet like me from among yourselves, from your own kinsmen”.
We’re talking about a Hebrew prophet here.
In fact, I don’t think there is any such thing as a gentile prophet in all of Scripture.
Next, it is made crystal clear that Israel is to pay attention to this prophet.
However, in sharp contrast to these instructions, verse 20 goes on to say…
“But if a prophet presumptuously speaks a word in my name which I didn’t order him to say, or if he speaks in the name of other gods, then that prophet must die.”
Wow!
If a prophet proclaims something that the Lord didn’t tell him to say or speaks in the name of other gods than HASHEM, then that “prophet” is to be killed.
This leads us to the following $64,000 question.
How can we tell the difference between a false prophet and a true God-sent prophet when both claim to be loyal believers of the God of Israel?
The answer is given to us in verse 22:
“When a prophet speaks in the name of Adonai, and the prediction does not come true — that is, the word is not fulfilled — then Adonai did not speak that word. The prophet who said it spoke presumptuously; you have nothing to fear from him.”
Pretty simple.
If what a prophet predicts does NOT come true, then he is a false prophet and not to be feared or listened to.
However, what to do if the prophecy made is about something that is to happen so far in the future that for the time being we have no way of knowing if we’re dealing with a false prophet yet or not?
This opens up a whole new can of worms and should be a clear warning to us to not be so quick to say to others “I received a word from the Lord for you”.
Do you realize when you do that you’re pretty much making yourself out to be a prophet?
I would think twice before putting yourself in that position because Deuteronomy makes it crystal that the Lord has given us zero wiggle room in this area.
If you have truly received a message from God, it must take place EXACTLY as given.
I mean precisely down to the very jot and tittle.
If it doesn’t, the message was NOT from God.
Period.
You got it from another source and have just lost credibility with whoever you shared that “word of the Lord” with.
And it doesn’t matter if you correctly predicted something 10 times in the past.
If you miss even once, you’re toast.
Any message or word that really comes from God is infallible and will come to pass PRECISELY as delivered.
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