Beware Of False Prophets

I’ve entitled our message this morning, “Beware of False Prophets.” I watch a lot of Christian programming on YouTube; and YouTube, through its algorithms, tries to tailor a watch list that lines up with my own preferences. But instead of getting sound Christian programming, the algorithm keeps showing me a bunch of videos with titles like, “God showed me this today” or “Jesus told me this in a dream.” In other words, prophecy videos! It is apparent that prophecy sells, as these videos have hundreds of thousands of views each and every day. But these videos, the people making them, and the motivation they have to make money off their prophecies; it really bothers me. I actually watched some of the 2020 election prophecies, and I can tell you right now that not one of them came true.

The word “prophet” comes from the Greek word prophetes and means, “to speak for, to proclaim,” and “to foretell.” So, one meaning of a prophet is someone who brings a message from God about current or future situations. The Old Testament Hebrew word for prophet is nabi, which means, “one who is called.”(1) The word also means to “forth-tell,”(2) as in, to proclaim the word of God. So, a prophet is not just someone who sees the future; a prophet can also be someone who is preacher or proclaimer of God’s word.

Deuteronomy 18:15-22, which we’re going to be looking at today, deals with identifying a false prophet. There are many false prophets in the world today, and there are many false and crooked preachers. This passage is going to give us some insight into identifying those who are sharing false revelations and teaching false doctrine. These “false preachers” can be identified by comparing their teachings to those of the one true Prophet spoken of in verse 18 of our passage. But we first have to identify the one true Prophet before we can point out the false prophets and false preachers. So, let’s go ahead and get started with verses 15-18.

The One True Prophet Will Rise (vv. 15-18)

15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, 16 according to all you desired of the LORD your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, “Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.” 17 And the LORD said to me: “What they have spoken is good. 18 I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.”

These words of instruction are just a small portion of what Moses shared with the Israelites as they were preparing to cross the Jordan River to possess the land of Canaan. Verses fifteen through eighteen speak of a Prophet that God would raise up. The Lord promised the Israelites that He would bring forth a Prophet from among them who would lead them. At first thought, this promise appears to be a reference to Joshua who would lead the Israelites into Canaan, but there is a strong messianic allusion contained in these verses. Matthew Henry spoke about this prophecy and its relation to Christ. He said, “We are sure that it is primarily intended as a promise of Christ, and it is the clearest promise of Him that is in all the Law of Moses. It is expressly applied to our Lord Jesus as the Messiah [who was] promised.”(3)

If we look over in the New Testament, at John chapter 6, we see how those who were present at the feeding of the five thousand realized that Jesus was the one predicted in Deuteronomy chapter eighteen. John 6:14 says, “Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, ‘This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world’.” The apostle Peter also realized that Moses spoke of Jesus, because in preaching about Christ, he said in Acts 3:22, “Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you’.” And then Stephen said in his own testimony of Jesus, in Acts 7:37, “Moses . . . said to the children of Israel, ‘The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear’.” God’s promise of a coming Prophet was true, and His Son, Jesus Christ, fulfilled the prophecy.

False Prophets Will Also Rise (vv. 19-20)

19 “And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. 20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.”