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.’”

The Lord promises to “require” it of those who will not listen to His spokesmen. That’s not a very clear warning, but it has, we can agree, an ominous tone to it. We might imagine ourselves standing before the Lord of glory at some point to give an accounting of our stewardship of His Word. Do we, at that time, want to say only, “I have read your Word faithfully and understood it as best I can”? And if the Lord should ask, “Were you faithful in listening to the voice of My prophets?” how shall we reply.

Faithful preachers, teachers, commentators, and devotional writers are a treasure we should make good use of, listening and reading carefully, reflectively, and in the Spirit of Christ, so that we might gain the benefit God intends for us through them. Each of us must consider the meaning of that command to “listen” to the Lord’s spokesmen and take up a regime of doing so that will enable us to search the Scriptures daily, that we might know and love Him as we should (Acts 17.11).

As for those who assay to speak the Lord’s Word in His Name, the warning is even more dire. They must speak only what God has made known to them (1 Cor. 4.6). They must not depend on their own wisdom or art in communicating to the people of God, but must determine to search the Scriptures daily and to divide the Word of God as He intends, bringing to the people in their charge that which will edify and equip them for service.

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