신명기 Chapter 18

Translation: ESV

1

The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the LORD's food offerings as their inheritance.

Key Message

God's ministers must be served by the community. Ministry and financial support go together.

▸Regulations for the livelihood of the Levitical priests are presented.

Regulations for the livelihood of the Levitical priests are presented. Without an inheritance of land, they sustain their livelihood through the food offerings. Those who devote themselves entirely to God's work are supported by the community.

2

They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the LORD is their inheritance, as he promised them.

Key Message

If God is our inheritance, material deficiency is not true deficiency.

▸'The LORD is their inheritance'—this is the privilege of the Levites.

9

When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations.

Key Message

The supernatural methods of the pagans are paths that God's people must not follow.

▸Prohibitions concerning foreign divination and magic begin.

10

There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer

Key Message

The desire for the supernatural is natural, but dependence on beings other than God is prohibited.

▸The forbidden foreign religious practices are listed.

11

or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead,

Key Message

Attempts to communicate with the dead are prohibited by God. Only God has authority over the future and eternity.

▸The list of forbidden customs continues.

12

for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you.

Key Message

A community that does what God finds abominable cannot escape judgment.

▸All these abominable practices were the reason for the judgment of the Canaanite peoples.

15

The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—

Key Message

God himself raises up a prophet to convey his will. The ultimate fulfillment of this promise is Jesus Christ.

▸This is the promise of a prophet like Moses.

18

I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

Key Message

A true prophet speaks not his own words but God's Word.

▸God himself will put his words in the mouth of that prophet.

19

And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.

Key Message

Not listening to the one God has sent is refusing God himself.

▸Not listening to the words of the prophet God has appointed is refusing God's Word.

20

But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.'

Key Message

Speaking one's own thoughts in the name of God is a serious sin.

▸This is the regulation concerning false prophets.

21

And if you say in your heart, 'How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?'—

Key Message

Spiritual discernment is important. Do not believe every spirit but test them.

▸The question of how to recognize a true prophet is raised.

22

when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

Key Message

True prophecy is fulfilled. However, not only fulfillment but also content must be verified.

▸The criterion for distinguishing a false prophet is presented.