Page 107 - Pentateuch - Student Textbook

God also anticipates certain problems that might arise. How can his people distinguish between a
genuine and a false prophet? He has already warned them about prophets who encourage them to
follow other gods. Even if such a person foretells by dreams in connection with a “sign or wonder” that
takes place, they are not to listen (13:1-3). We can imagine the temptation. Someone we know well,
someone we might admire, foretells an event or seems to cause an event to happen. With the event
they give instructions on how to live and worship. We are tempted to follow them if only because the
event happens. A person is healed. The year’s crop fails. A spring bubbles up out of the ground. We are
impressed. Yet their instructions accompanying the sign do not line up with what God has already said.
In some way they contradict his word, diverting attention to another god, either by implication or
outright directive. God’s people are not to listen. The OT law requires the death of the prophet.

In Deuteronomy 18 the situation is a little different. “Someone presumes to speak in my name (v. 20),”
says God. They may use the phrase, “thus says the LORD,” or they may simply claim, “I have a message
from God for you.” The message may even line up with what God has already said in his word. Here a
second test is given. “If what a prophet claims 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, so do not be
alarmed (v. 22).” Once again some type of prediction is made. Now, however, the prediction fails. Since
God knows the future and knows exactly what he intends to do in the future, his true prophets will not
fail either.

Throughout OT history these principles hold true. God did provide a series of prophets who spoke his
word. Isaiah refers to God’s call, “Go and tell this people (Is. 6:9).” Jeremiah claims, “The word of the
LORD came to me (Jer. 1:7).” His experience of God’s presence is vivid. “Then the LORD reached out his
hand and touched my mouth and said to me, ‘I have put my words in your mouth’ (1:9).” Amos protests
when people told him not to prophecy. “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a
shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the LORD took me from tending the flock and
said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel’ (Amos 7:14-15)”

On a rare occasion, genuine prophets of God “changed” their
message. Two classic instances come quickly to mind. Through
miraculous circumstances Jonah is brought to Nineveh with a
message. “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown (Jon.
3:4).” The people repent, and God spares the city. In this case
everyone involved seems to know the prophecy carries with it the
possibility of a different ending than the one announced. The
Ninevites wonder if “God may yet relent and with compassion
turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish (3:9).” Jonah
anticipated this very possibility and did not want to go in the first
place (4:2).” His message carried with it such a hint, even if none
is written in the text. God tends to be far more merciful than we Fig. 70: Ancient wall of Ninevah
humans are.

A second example is found when the prophet Isaiah told King Hezekiah “This is what the LORD says: Put
your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover (Isa. 38:1).” Hezekiah prays to
God, and YHWH tells Isaiah, “I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to
your life (v. 5).” God adds to the message his intention to protect the city of Jerusalem from the army of
the king of Assyria that is surrounding them. The reversal is remarkable, so remarkable that God gives a
sign of its truth. The shadow of the sun would reverse itself on the stairway (v. 7-8). The writer of 2 Kings

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