The theme of Deuteronomy 18:15-22 is the coming of a new prophet like Moses. The passage is part of the Deuteronomic Code developed during the time of Hezekiah. This is the so‑called "Book of Law” that was "rediscovered" by King Josiah and inspired the "reform of Josiah" about 621 B.C. (II Kings 22‑23). We must read these verses in connection with the list of prohibitions described beginning in 18:9. This list of activities and behaviors, some utterly heinous (child sacrifice), some harmless (seeking oracles from the dead), all share an attempt by men and women to determine the will of God and foresee the plans of God. Staying in touch with God, knowing the intentions of God, had suddenly become a holy obsession for the Hebrew people. Deuteronomy is a Last Will and Testament of Moses. A fading leader enumerates these prohibitions. Moses is a man growing old, who knows that he must prepare his people for the day when he will no longer be there to guide and guard them. The Deuteronomic words address a people who never had to worry about hearing a word from God. No group of people had experienced such direct messages from the divine, such hands‑on guidance from God. The Israelites are not accustomed to needing methods for discernment and discovery of a delivered word.
This passage considers prophets. It leads me to offer a few reflections on the prophetic role for today. Most of us have an ambiguous relationship with the whole notion of a prophet. The genuine prophet has a lover’s quarrel with the way the world is. If they did not love the world, they would not bother with their warnings of judgment or promises of redemption. They would just let the world go on as it is.[1] The genuine prophet is more like an artist than a social critic. A social critic will often blind themselves to possibilities due to the commitment to an ideology or agenda. Prophets are more like dreamers than they are wide-awake analysts. Dreamers find their way by moonlight. The punishment for dreamers and artists alike is that they see the dawn before the rest of the world does.[2] We might even say the prophet engages in dreaming or painting a picture of a fantasy involving a future world. The prophet does not ask if the vision is practical. The prophet taps into the imagination. Competency will lead to implementation, but if we are not imagining a future world, what has our competency gained? Imagination is not so much a danger as that which keeps faith, hope, and love alive. The work of the prophet, therefore, is more like the work of the artist. That is why totalitarian regimes are so afraid of artists and religions alike. Genuine religion, true artists and prophets, tend to keep conjuring up and proposing alternative futures to the tensions revealed in the present cultural, political, and economic worldview.[3]
The prophet is at the edge of institutional life. During the sacral kingship period in the Old Testament, the Lord ordinarily spoke through the institutional leaders of king and priest. The Lord worked through institutional life. Yet, the prophet holds the difficult position structurally and personally, with wisdom and grace, at the edge of the institution. It might be easier to leave the system. It might be easier to go along with whatever game the system is playing. The difficult role of the genuine prophet is that of finding a way to love the institution while pushing it to its limits. The irony is that the prophet receives an education in the ways of the institutional life of a culture while experiencing the freedom to analyze it. One needs to know the rules of the institution to break them properly. To break the rules properly is to help people envision a future world that relieves the tensions obvious in the present. Jesus did that in the way he broke Sabbath law and purity rules. Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi are examples of those who broke the rules of the system from within. The prophet calls those in the institution to adhere to their founding documents and the vision contained in them. Calling the institution to remember its documents and heroes and that for which they stand requires the prophet to know well the very institutions the prophet hopes will envision a new future for themselves.[4]
In Deuteronomy 18:15-18, the passage suggests that the office of prophet has its founding on Mount Sinai. As Moses puts it, 15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet. This statement arises out of the concern from the people that the Lord address them as directly as the Lord through Moses. Thus, the people 16requested of the Lord their God at Horeb on the day of the assembly at the foot of Mount Sinai when they said: “If I hear the voice of the Lord my God any more, or ever again see this great fire, I will die.” Moses ascribes the institution of the prophetic office to Yahweh at the time of the revelation at Mt. Horeb, which we find in Exodus 20:19-21 and Deuteronomy 5:23-28. They think they have had far too much exposure to divine directives. The magnificent work of Moses was his combination of political, military, and religious leadership. He brought exclusive worship and service to Yahweh. Given his prominence, it is natural in that culture that the later monarchy would also confer upon him the title of prophet. Yet, the primary point is not to look back to Sinai but to the future role of the prophet. In Deuteronomy's view of history, there is an unbroken line of prophets from Moses to the present. The prophetic office is the adaptation by God to the weakness of Israel. We learn that the 17the Lord tells Moses that the people are right in what they have said. While the messages proclaimed by these prophets will change over the years, the typical characteristics of prophecy will remain the same. First, all the prophets who genuinely speak the word of the Lord will receive a personal call from the Lord to their positions. Becoming a prophet is not a position one can learn or an office one can earn. In fact, a mark of true prophets is to disclaim their worthiness. Their "chosen" quality surprises them as well as others. Thus, the Lord 18 will raise up for them a prophet like Moses from among their own people. These mouthpieces of the Lord will be the ongoing connection Israel has to the will of the Lord and to warnings from the Lord. The Lord will raise up prophets not just once or twice, but periodically, and for as long as the people need to hear the word of the Lord. Therefore, since the people cannot bear to hear God face to face and since the days of Moses are ending, the passage now promises them a continuing gift of prophets. They should never surrender to the temptation to take up the magical ways of other nations because the Lord will always commission prophets. Second, prophets need not have a concern about "coming up" with a pertinent message for the people. The Lord will put the words of the Lord in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to the people everything that the Lord command. The Prophet has the word of the Lord. The prophet does not have armies or wealth. The prophet has words. This pledge suggests that the messages of future prophets the Lord may call to proclaim will not necessarily be cheerful news, or "politically correct" announcements. However, they will be the word of the Lord. The passage forbids the prophets the luxury of editorializing. The passage charges them with the assignment to the people everything the Lord commands. Prophecy is the supreme office through which God will carry out the relationship between Israel and God. The Jewish expectation of a Messiah, a Prophet, a second Moses, has its basis on this passage. The prophet is mediator between God and humanity, the recipient of revelation, and the proclaimer of what God has revealed. It may be the text looks forward to an eschatological prophet or mediator. The portrayal of Moses as a prophet is that of intercession, suffering, and death, like II Isaiah's suffering servant. To do this, Deuteronomy goes back to ancient tradition of Israel refusing to hear God's voice directly, and Moses becoming the mediator. We can see this emphasis in Deuteronomy 5:24-31, where the people are afraid to draw near to the Lord, but ask Moses to do so. He stands beside the Lord, the Lord gives Moses the commands, and Moses teaches the commands to the people. An earlier account is in Exodus 20:19-21.
Deuteronomy 18:19-20 suggest the possibility of the corruption of the office itself. The prophet, as a mouthpiece of the Lord, has great authority. The first danger is resistance to the word of the Lord through the prophet. 19 Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in the name of the Lord, the Lord will hold accountable. The prophet needs valid authorization. This statement creates something of a problem for Israelites who would seek to follow divine mandates and directives. These prophets, those who speak in the name of the Lord, are to receive a welcome from the people. The Lord will hold accountable those who refuse to do so. In addition, the prophet is under strict orders. First, reminding us of the seductive nature of idolatry, 20any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods will die. Even in its earliest days, when Israel assumed the existence of other gods, its uniqueness was that Yahweh required exclusive allegiance to the covenant established through Moses at Mount Sinai. Second, and just as guilty, are those prophets who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak. Such prophets will take their own message before the people and pawn off their "stuff" as a word from the Lord. The Lord does not choose prophets out of respect for their opinions. The Lord calls prophets to deliver the word of the Lord rather their own ideas.—that prophet shall die.” Such false prophesy carries with it the death penalty. We read here of condemning to death anyone who would misrepresent the Lord and engage in false prophesying. This death sentence extends to two kinds of false prophets. The counterpart of the resistance by the people is the seduction of the prophet. Thus, the text subjects the prophet to the authority of the word. The passage threatens prophets with death if they add to it. Uttering false prophecies of either sort is a capital crime. Such a punishment no doubt kept the people from hearing an endless stream of would-be mouthpieces of the Lord. Taking up the prophetic mantle was a serious, even life‑threatening move. Only those genuinely called by the voice of the Lord should dare present themselves for scrutiny before the people.
Some paradigms of parish and pastoral ministry consider the roles of church and pastor in their kingly, priestly, and prophetic role. The church has an opportunity to exercise its prophetic gift. The Lord is clearly calling the church to fulfill its prophetic role today. Yet, the challenge of the church is not merely to survive; the Lord has settled that issue. To paraphrase Mark Twain, people have spread exaggerated reports of its death. Jesus, in his words to the disciples (Matthew 16:18), affirms the continued and growing strength and presence of the church in the world. The church will grow, not wither; it will march, not falter; and it will prevail, not surrender. The challenge, then, is to find out what God is doing, how God is doing it and where God is doing it! The prophets among us will attempt to follow God and be part of the action; for good or ill, the professionals among us will simply try to organize the "hell" out of the church. It is time for the church to pray the prayer of a Sudanese Christian:
Good morning, Lord!
I love you.
What are you up to today?
Well, I want to be a part of it!
Thank you, God! Amen.
[1] Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC (Harper & Row, 1973), 73-75.
[2] Oscar Wilde, "The critic as artist," in The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde (Wordsworth Editions, 2007), 1016.
[3] Inspired by Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination (Fortress, 2001), 40.
[4] Richard Rohr, "Who would want to be a prophet?" Daily Meditation for Thursday, February 19, 2015. cac.org. Retrieved August 13, 2017.
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