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The fifth commandment
5.2 Honor God’s Prophet and His prophets
Hear and obey those who speak God’s Word in the tradition of Moses, the prophets, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the apostles.
Deuteronomy 18.15-20
“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 – just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ And the LORD said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. 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. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. 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.’”
Romans 15.4; 1 Corinthians 4.6; 2 Corinthians 3.12-18; 1 John 2.1-6
The Lord promises to “require” it of those who will not listen to His spokesmen. That’s not a very clear warning, but it has, we can agree, an ominous tone to it. We might imagine ourselves standing before the Lord of glory at some point to give an accounting of our stewardship of His Word. Do we, at that time, want to say only, “I have read your Word faithfully and understood it as best I can”? And if the Lord should ask, “Were you faithful in listening to the voice of My prophets?” how shall we reply.
Faithful preachers, teachers, commentators, and devotional writers are a treasure we should make good use of, listening and reading carefully, reflectively, and in the Spirit of Christ, so that we might gain the benefit God intends for us through them. Each of us must consider the meaning of that command to “listen” to the Lord’s spokesmen and take up a regime of doing so that will enable us to search the Scriptures daily, that we might know and love Him as we should (Acts 17.11).
This series of In the Gates we present a detailed explanation of the Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, and working through the statutes and rules that accompany each commandment. For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the practice of ethics, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.