Quote for the Day
“You must be blameless before the LORD your God.”
Today's Prayer
This week pray that God will keep those on the road pure. It is hard enough at home with family and friends, but while on the road, the world’s gutter is in full view. Pray for encouragement and purity of those traveling.
Deuteronomy 18:9-22
9 When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. 10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. 13 You must be blameless before the LORD your God.The Prophet14 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. 15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. 16 For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.”17 The LORD said to me: “What they say is good. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. 19 If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account. 20 But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death.”21 You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD ?” 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.
Message
We have heard God talk to the Israelites (and us) about the need to be pure and focused on Him alone. Again He stresses this point and reminds the Israelites of the despicable practices of those around them. It is a good message for us today. We need to have a pure life, and the way to do that is to be focused on God, but also to ensure we are not polluted by the world around us. It is a daily problem, and we need to re-focus every day.God also tells the Israelites that He will send prophets to talk to them with His wisdom and future plans. It is interesting to see how God tells us to determine if what a prophet says is correct or not. If someone says something and tells us it is from God, and the item or event does not come true, he is not from God. There is not a lot of slack here, and we see in other Scripture the focus is on facts: if the prophet is from God then 100% of what they prophesy comes true. Pretty tough standards, but that is what God is about, tough standards, impossible standards, standards that can only be upheld by God Himself. He is the one who makes the prophets’ predictions come true, and He is the one who makes our life focused on Him.Who are you listening to this week?