Deuteronomy 18:14-22

Who knows the answer? Who can help? Who can get us out of all our troubles? And we have a list of troubles, don’t we? Shall we list a few? How much thousands of people laid off of work this week. Poor people getting poorer. Health care getting more expensive. False religions growing stronger. Debt getting deeper. Who knows the answers to these problems?

Well, it seems like everyone has an answer. At least to hear our leaders talk, to read editorials and commentators, to watch the people on the news. Everyone has the answer to the problem. We hear them say things like, “What we need to do is…”, fill in the blank. What we need to do is give more money to corporations. What we need to do is lower taxes. What we need to do is make friends with other countries. What we need to do is drill for oil in Alaska. What we need to do is make electric cars. Everybody has an answer, but who knows THE answer.

When there’s a lot at stake, we really need to know where to find the answer. When our jobs and our homes and our health and our lives at stake, we are almost desperate to find the wisest person with the most experience and the best brains, and listen to them. But who is the wisest, the most experienced, the smartest person? Who really knows?

Is it comforting to know that we’re not the only ones who wonder about jobs and homes and health and income? Does it help to know that God’s people, here in Deuteronomy, had the same worries and concerns, the same huge questions, the same desire to find the answer? The people have spent the last 40 years wandering in the desert. This was not a prosperous time. Now, God provided for them well. God made sure they had the food and the water and the clothes to survive. But living hand to mouth for 40 years can be a little tiring. They really want to settle down in a nice place to call home. And remember, before those 40 years, they were slaves in Egypt, for over 400 years. 400 years of oppression. That’s twice as long as we’ve even been a country. The Israelites are nervous. They really need to know that they’re going to be okay. They really need to know who has the answers.

And everybody seems to know the answer. Every other nation knows who to go to with their questions. Verse 14:

The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination.

Sorcery is such an old word, to us who are so enlightened. We know there’s no such thing as sorcery. That’s for movies like The Lord of the Rings. But the people of this time didn’t see things the same way. They knew, they were absolutely positive that these professionals could see the future. They had been trained to read the tea leaves, or look into the crystal ball, or whatever they would do to read the future. People knew, they just knew they could trust their advice.

So when it came to deciding which crops to plant where, or which fertilizer to use, when it came time to decide to build a new house, or when there was a threat to their tribe, it made perfect sense to consult the professionals. They had the answers. They knew what to do, and for a small fee, they would share their wisdom.

And before God’s people had a chance to participate, before they were lured by the voices, God tells His people, verse 14:

But as for you, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so.

God knows how tempted His people will be. He knows how much they want to be assured. He knows that when it comes to their homes, their businesses, their lives, they will be looking for answers wherever they can find them.

But God knows something else, too. He knows there is only one place to find the right answer. He knows that, even though people sound so convincing, they sound so sure of themselves, that He, only He has the right answer. He doesn’t want His people turning to these sources of help, because He knows that they’re really no hope at all. He doesn’t want His people to get hurt, so He keeps them from listening to other voices.

But He also wants to give His people the assurance they’re looking for. They need to know that they’re safe and secure, so He gives them a voice they can trust. He gives them a voice that is speaking for Him, someone who will tell them the truth. Verse 15:

The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.

Hear the urgency in this command. You must, you must, you must listen to him, and only him.

For the people’s own good, and for His own glory, God would provide prophets, spokesmen, voices for the people to listen to that would give them both assurance and correction. The prophets would bring God’s wisdom and God’s warnings, and if the people would listen to these prophets, and only to these prophets, then life would go very well. They would know how to run their businesses and what to do to stay safe. They would have answers to their questions, real, true, dependable answers.

And God did exactly what He said would do. Out of the humans that were His people, He set aside certain humans to speak for Him. He called people like Samuel and Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Hosea, Micah and Habakkuk, people who were given the authority to speak for God. Verse 18:

I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.

And for the next 1000 years, God’s word would be spoken by the prophets. The people would hear the truth. They would hear, from Zechariah, 2:3

Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the LORD’s anger.

They would hear Isaiah speak with the voice of the Lord, in chapter 1:19,20:

If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

They would hear Jeremiah speak the words of assurance, in chapter 29:11:

I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you

The prophets would speak, and the people needed to listen. Back to our text, verse 19:

If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account.

They would know that the prophet was from the Lord if what he talked about actually happened. If it was true, then it was from the Lord. If the person was just babbling, and none of it ever came true, then they knew that this person was not actually speaking for God.

All through the history of Israel, God gave them His prophets, to speak for Him. But even these prophets weren’t perfect. They couldn’t speak for God, but only with human voices. At the end of this long line of prophets would come One who spoke more clearly, more effectively than anyone else. After Samuel and Isaiah and Haggai and Malachi came the last Prophet, the best Prophet, the final Prophet who spoke the final word. Jesus, the Prophet, the Voice of the Lord, the Son of God came, speaking. And God’s people had to, they simply had to listen to Him.

But God’s people have not always listened to the voice of the Lord. We go wondering. We want the assurance and advice we can get from the professionals. The people of Israel didn’t completely throw out God, they just went to the sorcerers and diviners, AND they went to God.

And still today, God’s people hear those other voices. We don’t throw God out, we don’t ignore Him, we just listen to other opinions as well. We feel like we have to. We need the assurance. We need the safety, the security, the wisdom. So we listen to the voices. They tell us how to plan our futures. They tell us what the prices for crops will be a year from now. They tell us when this recession is going to end, and what will bring back our prosperity. We hear the voice of Rush Limbaugh, telling us what’s wrong with the government, because Rush knows. He must know. We listen to the voice of Oprah, because she’s so wise. They must have the answers, and we need the answers, so we listen.

And God speaks, louder than all the voices. He speaks, and He says, “You must not listen to the voices. I sent a prophet, a person who would speak for Me. Listen, listen, You must listen to Him. Listen, as the Prophet speaks. Jesus said, in Luke 12:27:

“Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ²⁸ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!

Those are the words we need to hear in a recession, as incomes go down and prices go up and jobs are in jeopardy. Listen, you must listen to the voice of the Prophet.

Listen, as Jesus says, in Matthew 28:20:

surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age

Those are the words we need to hear when the world seems to big, and our questions are too complicated, and there doesn’t seem to be any answers. This is the answer, that Jesus is with us. And that might not answer every question, but really, that’s enough. We don’t really need to know all the answers, it’s enough to know that Jesus is always, He’s always with us. Listen, we must listen to the voice of the Prophet.

Jesus spoke the clearest, He spoke the loudest, He spoke the redeeming word of God when, at the end of a six hour execution, He shouted out, “It…is…finished.” He had killed sin and death, as He was killed. He brought eternally abundant life, when He came back to life. Listen, we must listen, we HAVE to listen to the Prophet that God has given to us.

There are lots of voices, and it’s impossible to shut them all out. In fact, we are given the task to evaluate these voices, to point out truth and point out lies. So we listen to Rush and we listen to Oprah and we read the editorials and we consider the opinions. But Rush and Oprah and all the other voices had better be sounding like THE voice, the voice of THE prophet, the voice of Jesus. And if the voices don’t sound much like the voice of Jesus, then we’d better ignore them. What they say, won’t come true. What they predict, just won’t happen. The answers they offer only give false hope, and lead only to disaster.

But in a scary, sinful world that never, ever works right, there is one voice, speaking clearly, speaking calmly, speaking wisely. And when we listen to that Voice, when we listen to the voice of the Prophet, then we begin to see things clearly, we begin to grow calm, we begin to act wisely. God gave us His word. We need to read it. God gave us His Son. We need to, we have to, we must listen to Him.