The LORD said to me: “What they say is good. 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. If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account. 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.” (Deut 18:17-20)
In this Christmas season, many of us say, “Keep Christ in Christmas.” And I agree with that. In Deuteronomy, God told the nation of Israel that He would raise up a prophet from among them. In other words, this was to be God among us in the form of a man. The Israelites were still smarting from the last time God had appeared to them as a great fire: they feared they would die. God went on to say that He would, "… call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name.”
Now there is something to give one pause: He would send us a prophet, and that prophet, being a representative of God and His words, would basically be their indictment, and condemnation. God was not playing around, or being glib: He meant exactly what he said. He himself would come down as man, and walk among us, and talk among us, and tell us what was on God’s heart. But be not deceived: when God speaks, his words will not only comfort, but judge. The severity of God’s announcement is made very clear when he said, 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.” This in, fact, is a good thing, because the best one for the job of representing God is God himself. Jesus fit that bill precisely.
Another thing to consider is, that if God holds prophets -- or those who represent him --directly accountable, even to the point of being put to death for misrepresenting him, how much more should we listen to the Prophet he sent us for 33 years, born in a manger in an animal barn in Bethlehem, and nailed to a cross in Jerusalem that fateful Good Friday thirty-three years later. Jesus was born as one of us: a human being, yet Jesus is the one who gave us God’s word: himself, so that we could know the Father via a personal relationship. But ironically, this prophet was put to death anyway. However, his death was his Father’s wish, so that we fellow human beings could be reconciled to the father, not by anything we could do, including devising a religion, which only points out how far we are from the Father. Jesus died willingly, and was raised from death three days later, to give us access to Heaven and to eternal life. John 13:37 says, “…Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” He was telling Peter that He had to ascend to Heaven from this earth, so that we could do the same.
The prophet Jesus, came to earth from Heaven, to be among us as one of us, to proclaim what was on the heart of the Father, so that we would know eternal life through him. He never sinned, nor misrepresented God, yet died willingly at the hand of those who he called his own because of the ‘joy set before him.’
Our challenge is to maintain the words of the Prophet, knowing that people will not want to hear them. Just as Christmas has evolved into the Winder Holidays, I am reminded of 2 Timothy 4:3,4: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths." The world cannot stand he who challenges their evil hearts to turn away from the sin that entices them to follow their own selfish desires. But then, as Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his hometown.” Or in our case, ‘…his own society,’ which in the global neighborhood is this world.
Merry Christmas, and may the joy of the prophet from God fill your hearts with the truth as we celebrate his birth, and his upcoming death and resurrection in three or four months.
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