DEUTERONOMY 18
The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so
(Deuteronomy 18:14).
Having given rules for magistrates and for the king, Moses turned his attention to the priests and Levites (Deuteronomy 18:1–8) and to the prophets (18:9–22). In ancient Israel, the priests served God in connection with the sacrifices and the people were to support this ministry with firstfruit offerings. In the Mosaic period, some of the Levites assisted the priests, but others lived in the towns as pastors of local worship assemblies (Leviticus 23:3). They too were to be supported by tithes and offerings. Today the priestly (sacramental) and Levitical (teaching) ministries are combined in the pastoral office in the church, which is to be supported by tithes and gifts.
Turning to the prophets, Moses began by condemning witchcraft in all its forms and manifestations. The purpose of witchcraft was to acquire knowledge, especially about the future. Believers were required to use the available Scriptures (the Pentateuch) alone as a source of information about the present and future.
I once visited a church where the people held seances to talk with departed relatives. When I pointed out that the Bible forbids this, they replied, “Oh, that was just for the Old Testament.” Not so. Since the Bible says that God destroyed other nations for doing such things, God’s law against witchcraft was not something peculiar to Israel. Moreover, the New Testament condemns any attempt to add to the Word of God (Revelation 22:18; Galatians 1:8). Anything that God “detested” in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 18:12) and punished with death (Exodus 22:18) is surely an evil in all times and places.
God promised through Moses to provide prophets for the people. The prophet would speak God’s word and would be a reliable source of information. There were two tests to determine if a man were a true prophet. First, a true prophet would never contradict the written Word of God as it had been delivered. Second, God would give the prophet the ability to predict certain specific things that would come to pass, and these events would confirm his ministry. If he made predictions that failed to happen, he was to be put to death as a false prophet.
CORAM DEO
Esther 1–3
Acts 5:1–20
WEEKEND:
Esther 4–8
Acts 5:21–6:7
As we approach the year 2000, there will be many false prophets. Some will claim that the Virgin Mary has told them of events to come. Others will predict the specific time of the second coming of Christ. Others will prophesy specific events. Is it possible that as generous Christians we are far too tolerant of this kind of activity? Discuss with a friend how you can separate yourself from such ungodly practices.
For further study: Deuteronomy 13 • 1 Samuel 28 • 2 Chronicles 33:1–9
WEEKEND
Psalm 90—From Everlasting To Everlasting
by Derek Kidner
“God, Even Our Own God” (1–2)
This majestic psalm will expose us quite unsparingly to the eternity and holiness of God; therefore, we can be all the more grateful that it hails Him at the outset as our own dwelling place. The amazing boldness and intimacy of such a claim stands in utter contrast to the secularist’s sense of human insignificance in face of a vast, impersonal universe. “The heavens frighten us, they are too calm; In all the universe we have no place; Our wounds are hurting us; where is the balm?” So wrote Edward Shillito in the aftermath of the First World War, capturing the mood of many; but he himself could go on to say, “Lord Jesus, by Thy scars, we claim Thy grace.” In the Psalms, although the Lord had yet to show us the scars of our redemption, the message was already clear that we are not homeless or ignored. Our verse 2 reminds us that the universe is His, a thing of time, while He is “from everlasting.” And as for its prospect, so far from enduring “to everlasting,” it will “perish” and “be discarded,” while (as Ps. 102 declares) “You (Lord) remain, … and the children of your servants will live in your presence.” It is only a step from knowing this everlasting God, to being assured of everlasting life, as our Lord pointed out to the Sadducees. He is no temporary dwelling place!
But now the psalm must show us how greatly we need, and how little we deserve, this divine embrace.
Man, Fragile And Fallen (3–6, 7–12)
It is a somber scene now, dominated by God’s sentence on our fallen race: “Dust you are, and to dust you will return” (Gen. 3:19). At first, all the emphasis is on the swiftness of our passing. Every metaphor of verses 3–6, every comparison, brings home to us some aspect of it: our crumbling bodies, our tiny life span (even, we may now reflect, when that of a Methuselah is measured against galactic time, let alone eternity as in verse 4), our dreamlike evanescence (if “sleep” is used somewhat in the sense of Ps. 73:20), and the fading of life’s morning glory. It is the lesson so relentlessly enforced in Ecclesiastes, where, as in this psalm, we are conscious of eternity (Eccles. 3:11) but prisoners of mortality—a tension only resolved in the closing verses of these two writings.
Meanwhile, that tension mounts. In verses 7–12, not simply death but wrath broods over us as members of a rebel race. What we call our human failings are given their right name as iniquities, stripped of all concealment, judged with vehement indignation. Notice, though, that all of this is said to God, as an inspired confession of what our sinfulness deserves. We face, for once, what familiarity usually conceals from us: the enormity of trifling with our Maker and of expecting only mild disapproval of our little ways.
This deep acknowledgment opens the way toward the fervent petitions which will crown the psalm.
“Beauty For Ashes” (13–17)
In a sustained crescendo the prayer now explores more and more boldly what it can mean for us that the God who is from everlasting to everlasting has taken us under His wing. We pick up some of the saddest words of the preceding stanza, now stirring with fresh hope. In verse 13 the once ominous word return (“Return to dust” in verse 3) is echoed back to God in humble invitation: “Return, O Lord” (interpreted as “Relent” in niv). Then the morning, which had only introduced our fading glory in verse 6, becomes the dawn of redemption in verse 14: “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love.” And we ask in verse 15 that the grief-filled days and years of verses 9 and 10 may be balanced by as many days and years of gladness.
Yet that modest prayer is immediately outrun by the closing pair of verses, which know no limits as they look forward to the great “deeds” which God has still to show us, the “splendor” yet to be revealed, the divine “favor” (literally “sweetness” or “pleasantness”) which, we pray, may “rest” upon us as His glory rested on the tabernacle. Not least, we dare to pray that our labor may be not in vain in the Lord—a prayer to be answered one day in no uncertain terms (1 Cor. 15:58).
These are not pious hopes. Phrase by phrase they explore in faith, and invite us to appropriate, what is implied for us in the twin facts of the psalm’s great opening declaration: that God is for ever, and that in His embrace we are no longer transient or lost, but at home, with everything to live for. ■
Derek Kidner, a leading Old Testament scholar and former warden of Tyndale House in Cambridge, England, has written three volumes for The Bible Speaks Today series.
monday
june