Image via Wikipedia“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.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— 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.” (Deuteronomy 18:20-22)
These words contain a serious warning to those who take it upon themselves to speak on God's behalf - and there is no shortage of people who do. It was only a few months ago when, according to Harold Camping, the Judgment Day was supposed to occur. Others might not be so bold as to make such an astounding claim. They may, instead, insist that natural disasters, such as the tornado that ravaged Joplin, Missouri on May 22, are the judgment of God.
Still others, and this perhaps proves to be the largest population of false prophets, deal with smaller, less significant, matters. Borrowing their theology from pop culture and bad tradition, they teach people a religion that has no foundation in the Bible. They create divisions within the church, cause believers to waver in their faith, and lead people away from the truth of the gospel. The New Testament writers are no less severe with their condemnation of such people (cf. Galatians 1:8-9; 1 Timothy 1:6-7, 6:3-5; 2 Peter 2:1, 12, 17).
This is not just a warning to would-be prophets, though. The concern is not so much about the consequence of speaking falsely on God's behalf. It is about preserving and protecting God's people. We know, from our own experience, that we can't simply take a man's word for it when he claims to be speaking for God. So God provides a litmus test, a way to know for sure whether the man in front of us is truly speaking God's word: if what he says comes to pass, he is genuine; if it does not, he is a liar.
But let's look a little deeper still. Are these verses, at bottom, really about the prophet at all? Aren't they really about God? Might not God be using this warning as a means to teach His people something about Himself? I think that just might be the case.
Read the verses that immediately precede the warning: "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" (Deuteronomy 18:18-19).
The warning about false prophets sits in contrast to the promise of another prophet like Moses. By giving the litmus test, God is reinforcing the truth that the new prophet would, indeed, come. And come he did. His name was Jesus Christ (Acts 3:22; 7:37), the one in whom all of God's promises are guaranteed (1 Corinthians 1:20).
All of God's promises are marked by this proof: they come to pass. There is no way to conceive of a promise from God that would fail to come true. This is so certain that God says that the one evidence that a word is counterfeit is that it fails to happen. God gives no counterfeit promises.
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