Deuteronomy 18.15-20

“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 – 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.’ And the LORD said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. 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. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’”

For their part, the people of God must listen to the Lord’s spokesmen. Certainly we must all make use of the Word of God – reading, meditating, studying – but not in isolation. None of us is adequate, in and of himself, to make clear or full sense of the Scriptures. The Bible is best understood in community, where pastors and teachers equip the saints for ministry by teaching us the Word of God faithfully (Eph. 4.11, 12; Jms. 3.1).

Moreover, the saints have a duty toward one another, to let the Word of Christ dwell in them richly, so that they might teach and admonish one another (Col. 3.16). In addition, both pastors and those they teach must not neglect the vast resources of the larger church in their reading and study of God’s Word. In our day we are blessed to have available the great heritage of Christian literature from every age of the Church to guide us in hearing the voice of the Lord in His Word. We are not wise if, having such a great treasure, we fail to make good use of it.

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