Deuteronomy 18:15-20

Deuteronomy 18:15. THE ONE MEDIATOR.

The connection between these verses and the preceding is well illustrated by Isaiah’s question (Deuteronomy 8:19): “And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?” Or, as the angels turned the phrase on Easter morning, “Why seek ye Him that liveth among the dead?”

(15) The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet. — Namely, Him of whom St. Peter spoke in Acts 3:22. “Unto you first God, having raised up His son Jesus, sent Him to bless you.” It must not be forgotten that the prophetic office is still continued to our risen Lord. He still “speaketh from heaven.” But He “descended first into the lower parts of the earth.” He has “the keys of hell and of death;” and knows all their secrets. They who can draw near to Him have no need to look downward, to consult dead relatives, or seek knowledge from spirits whose character, even if they are accessible, is beyond our discernment. The Holy Spirit, our Comforter and Advocate on earth, and the Prophet, our Advocate that speaketh from heaven, are enough for all human need. What we cannot learn from them, or from the light they give us, it is better not to know.

(16) According to all that thou desiredst... in Horeb. — It should never be forgotten that the Prophet like to Moses was promised on “the day of the assembly.” The Holy Spirit, who is Christ in us, was promised on the day of the delivery of the “letter that killeth.” (See also on Deuteronomy 5:28.)

(18) He shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. — “The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself” (our Lord, in John 14:10). “He shall not speak of Himself. He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you” (the Holy Spirit, John 16:13).

(19) Whosoever will not hearken... I will require it of him. — “For if they escaped not who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven: whose voice then shook the earth.” (Hebrews 12:25.)

(20) That prophet shall die. — Rashi illustrates this by the case of Hananiah (Jeremiah 28) who prophesied that Jeconiah, and all that went with him to Babylon, should return within two years. He was sentenced by Jeremiah to die that year; and he died accordingly, within two months.