Deuteronomy 13:1-18—1 “If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, 'Let us go after other gods'—which you have not known—'and let us serve them,' 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. 5 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst. 6 If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, 'Let us go and serve other gods,' which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, 7 of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, 8 you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; 9 but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. 10 And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 11 So all Israel shall hear and fear, and not again do such wickedness as this among you. 12 If you hear someone in one of your cities, which the LORD your God gives you to dwell in, saying, 13 'Corrupt men have gone out from among you and enticed the inhabitants of their city, saying, "Let us go and serve other gods"'—which you have not known—14 then you shall inquire, search out, and ask diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an abomination was committed among you, 15 you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it, all that is in it and its livestock—with the edge of the sword. 16 And you shall gather all its plunder into the middle of the street, and completely burn with fire the city and all its plunder, for the LORD your God. It shall be a heap forever; it shall not be built again. 17 So none of the accursed things shall remain in your hand, that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of His anger and show you mercy, have compassion on you and multiply you, just as He swore to your fathers, 18 because you have listened to the voice of the LORD your God, to keep all His commandments which I command you today, to do what is right in the eyes of the LORD your God.”
Let’s talk a little about prophets. When God speaks to a people, especially His people, He does so through prophets. The prophets did not speak their own words, or whatever came into their mind, but they spoke the words given to them by God. 2nd Peter 1:21 (George Williams New Testament)—No prophecy has ever yet originated in man's will, but men who were led by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. When Ezekiel lay on his left side for three years (Ezekiel 4:5), it wasn’t because of some weird idea he had. That was what God commanded him to do. When Isaiah spoke against Moab (Isaiah 15:1-9), it wasn’t a speech he prepared the night before and carefully proofread. The words he spoke were the words given to him by God. These things that were done and spoken by the prophets seemed strange to the people at the time, but we now see that these things were done and said because God gave them the words and the actions to perform.
Today, men (and women) set themselves up as prophets, and claim to speak all kinds of things, claiming they are from God, and that the people hearing them ought to obey because they are speaking for and from God. I shared some of the “prophecies” of Benny Hinn that were blatantly false here. The fact that these prophecies did not come to pass automatically disqualifies him from being a prophet and would have caused him to be stoned to death under the Old Testament Law (Deuteronomy 18:22). But these self-appointed “prophets” include two things in their “prophecies”. The first thing they do is to make sure that they are telling the people something they want to hear—how God is going to rain down material blessings on them, that they are going to be rich and healthy and that everything they will do will succeed. So they thus grab the favor of the people. The second thing they do is to warn the people not to judge them or second-guess them or compare their “prophecies” to Scripture, or they will suffer greatly by God. The warning they give most of the time is from 1st Chronicles 16:22—"Do not touch My anointed ones, and do My prophets no harm." By setting themselves up as prophets, and by claiming to be anointed by God, they can use this verse to try to silence their critics and keep their followers in line. Whether it’s Creflo Dollar or Kenneth Copeland or TD Jakes, they all use this verse to deflect criticism of their false teachings and warn those speaking against them that they are enemies of God.
But let’s talk about the true prophets of God. The ISBE says this about true prophets:
According to the uniform teaching of the Bible the prophet is a speaker of or for God. His words are not the production of his own spirit, but come from a higher source. For he is at the same time, also, a seer, who sees things that do not lie in the domain of natural sight, or who hears things which human ears do not ordinarily receive; compare 1st Samuel 9:9, where נָבִיא (nābhı̄', “speaker, spokesman, prophet”) and רֹאֶה (rō'eh, “seer”) are used as synonymous terms. Jeremiah 23:16 and Ezekiel 13:2 are particularly instructive in this regard. In these passages a sharp distinction is made between those persons who only claim to be prophets but who prophesy “out of their own heart,” and the true prophets who declare the word which the Lord has spoken to them. In the latter case the contents of the prophecy have not originated in their own reflection or calculation; and just as little is this prophecy the product of their own feelings, fears or hopes, but, as something extraneous to man and independent of him, it has with a divine certainty entered the soul of the prophet. The prophet has seen that which he prophesies, although he need not have seen it in the form of a real vision. He can also “see” words with his inner eyes (Isaiah 2:1, and often). It is only another expression for this when it is frequently said that God has spoken to the prophet. In this case too it is not necessary that there must have been a voice which he could hear phonetically through his natural ear. The main thing is that he must have been able sharply to distinguish the contents of this voice from his own heart, i.e. from his personal consciousness. Only in this way is he capable of speaking to the people in the name of God and able to publish his word as that of Yahweh. In this case he is the speaker of Yahweh (נָבִיא, nābhı̄'), or the mouth of the Lord (compare Ezekiel 7:1 with Ezekiel 4:16).
Long story short, those gifted with the gift of prophecy can distinguish between what they simply feel in their heart or mind and words spoken to them by God.
Many think of Samuel as the first prophet, but this is not the case. For before him, Moses spoke with God “face-to-face” (or rather, “Mouth-to-mouth”, as Moses was not allowed to see God) and even Noah could be considered a prophet and his building of the Ark a sign to the people. We are seeing the prophetic office of Moses as we study the Law, so let’s talk about Noah. Genesis 6:6, 8—6 And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart…8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. The world had become altogether corrupt, save for one man and his sons. Did God give a warning to the corrupt people? Yes, He did. He had Noah build an ark as a sign to the people and to save them from the flood. Hebrews 11:7—By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. In all the days of building the Ark, he must have been laughed at and scoffed at by the wicked. “What is he building? Why is he building it? He must be a madman!” They thought nothing of the wickedness they were doing. They were just going about their daily lives, doing whatever they thought in their hearts, drinking and carousing and carrying on, not thinking about how this may have been grieving the heart of God, if they even thought of God. It was as Jesus said in Matthew 24:38-39a (repeated in Luke 17:26-27)—38 “For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away.” Noah was giving them a sign, and they ignored it. It was not only a sign to the people then, but Jesus even used it to warn us to be careful to watch for His second coming. Matthew 24:37, 39b—37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be…39 so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. We see today many who ignore God, who ignore the pleas to come to Christ that they may be saved from the wrath to come. But they don’t listen, they don’t care, they don’t know God and don’t want to know Him. They go about their daily lives, doing whatever they think in their hearts, drinking and carousing and carrying on, not thinking about how this may be grieving the heart of God, if they even think of God.
Samuel was set apart to God as a boy. 1st Samuel 1:24, 28—24 Now when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bulls, one ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the LORD in Shiloh. And the child was young…28 “Therefore I also have lent him to the LORD; as long as he lives he shall be lent to the LORD.” We have already talked about how Samuel was a Nazirite all his life. And we see in this same book that God began speaking to him at a young age (1st Samuel 3:4). The first prophecy he heard from God was not a pleasant one, for it foretold of the end of Eli (the second-to-last judge in Israel), and he had to tell it to Eli. But such was the lot of a true prophet of God—they do not always have feel-good stories to tell the people, tales of health and wealth and prosperity. Many times when God speaks through a prophet, it is to warn of impending doom. 1st Samuel 2:16-19—16 Then Eli called Samuel and said, "Samuel, my son!" He answered, "Here I am." 17 And he said, "What is the word that the LORD spoke to you? Please do not hide it from me. God do so to you, and more also, if you hide anything from me of all the things that He said to you." 18 Then Samuel told him everything, and hid nothing from him. And he said, "It is the LORD. Let Him do what seems good to Him." 19 So Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. Samuel was a true prophet of God, and what he told the people to do or to not do was to be obeyed, as the words he spoke came from none other than God Himself.
This applied not only to the lay people, but even to the king Himself. In 1st Samuel 15, he gives a command to King Saul to wipe out the Amalekites—everything living among them was to be destroyed. 1st Samuel 15:2-3—2 “Thus says the LORD of hosts: 'I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. 3 Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.'” Pretty clear and straight forward, no ambiguity there. The command was simple: Saul was to have his army wipe out every living thing of the Amalekites, including the women and children and livestock. But Saul had a better idea. 1st Samuel 15:9—But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed. “Let’s destroy the bad stuff but keep the best things alive and sacrifice them to God! What’s the worst that can happen?” Well… 1st Samuel 15:10-11—10 Now the word of the LORD came to Samuel, saying, 11 "I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments." And it grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the LORD all night. Not only did Saul’s disobedience grieve God, it grieved His prophet as well. That is how close the relationship is between God and His prophets. His heart is their heart and their heart is His heart. It is as if they were one and the same. Not only that, but the heart of the prophet is with the people his words come against. I’m sure he felt no joy about telling Eli that he and his sons were about to die. And it obviously did not tickle him to tell Saul the words that God was about to speak against him. Here, Saul thought he was doing a great thing by keeping King Agag and the best of the livestock alive. He thought he knew what God wanted better than the prophet to whom God Himself spoke. 1st Samuel 15:13, 15—13 Then Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, "Blessed are you of the LORD! I have performed the commandment of the LORD…15 They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the LORD your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.” But Samuel had told him what God had told Samuel—everything and everyone of the Amalekites was to be destroyed. “Everyone?”
Yes, everyone. Saul did not give obedience to the command of God—he gave partial obedience, which is disobedience. “I have performed the commandment of the LORD!” 1st Samuel 15:14, 18-19, 22-23—14 But Samuel said, "What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?…18 Now the LORD sent you on a mission, and said, 'Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.' 19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do evil in the sight of the LORD?"…22 Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king." Because Saul did not harken to the words of the prophet, and did what was right in his own eyes, God took the kingdom away from him and gave it to David.
Interestingly, Samuel’s final prophecy came after he died. King Saul had banished all necromancers and mediums (1st Samuel 28:3, as well he should have). But the Philistines were coming to attack Israel, and when Saul went to inquire of God, He would not answer him either by dreams or by Urim or by the prophets (1st Samuel 28:6). God had taken His spirit way from Saul, and had cut him off as king, and this attack from the Philistines was to be his final downfall. And because God did not answer him, Saul had another brilliant idea. “I’ll go to a necromancer and medium, even though I have put them out of Israel!” In other words, he did what was right in his own eyes. He went to the Witch of En Dor to have her bring up the spirit of Samuel (1st Samuel 28:8-11). Necromancers and mediums are another class of false prophets. None can speak with the dead (see Isaiah 8:19-20), and anyone who says they can are in danger of destruction. But Saul was so bent on holding on to his kingdom that he went against the word of God that he used this as his last resort, hoping that Samuel would give him a word from God that would allow him to keep it. But, alas! God did bring up Samuel, by His own hand and not by the hand of the witch. 1st Samuel 28:12—When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman spoke to Saul, saying, "Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul!" She knew that her necromancy was false, and when Samuel appeared she knew that this was of God. Many use this as an excuse to use psychics to tell them things they want to hear. When actually, this is a warning against such practices. G. Campbell Morgan:
It is strange how this story has been made to serve in defense of things occult, which, as a matter of fact, it condemns. Let it be carefully read, and it becomes perfectly patent that this woman had nothing to do with bringing up Samuel…When in response to her incantations, as it seemed, Samuel actually appeared, she was startled beyond measure. That Samuel actually did appear to Saul there can be no doubt. However, he was sent of God for the express purpose of delivering the terrible message to Saul, to which the king listened in amazement. It was the pronouncement of his doom, and the call from the other side to the spirit of the man who had so utterly and disastrously failed to fulfil his opportunity.
1st Samuel 28:16-19—16 Then Samuel said: "So why do you ask me, seeing the LORD has departed from you and has become your enemy? 17 And the LORD has done for Himself as He spoke by me. For the LORD has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David. 18 Because you did not obey the voice of the LORD nor execute His fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore the LORD has done this thing to you this day. 19 Moreover the LORD will also deliver Israel with you into the hand of the Philistines. And tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The LORD will also deliver the army of Israel into the hand of the Philistines." Even in death, the prophet of God was speaking to Saul, and not good things, but rather reinforcing what he had already told him, and that this was going to happen the very next day!
Part 2 next week
