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Listen To Him

             The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. (Deuteronomy 18:15)

          Today, we switch from Jesus’ claims of “I am” to prophecies made about Him. My Bible platform is starting in Deuteronomy. I’d start in Genesis, where we would learn that the one who would save us would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15), of Noah (by default), Abram and Sara(Genesis 12:1-3). Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Jacob (Genesis 25:23), Judah (Genesis 29:8), and David (II Samuel 7:12-16). There were also references to a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-32). In addition, there were prophecies about when and where the prophet/Messiah would be born and what would happen to him.

          Of course, naysayers will claim that Jesus’ life was retrofitted or reverse engineered to fit the prophecies, and/or that the Old Testament was written, retrofitted, or reverse engineered to give him prophecies to fit into. This is the conspiracy theory to top all conspiracy theories. Not only did they have to come up with the documents to support the story they wanted to tell, but they had to find all records that could convincingly disprove their version. Retrofitting the Old Testament would have required that they find the Dead Sea Scrolls – or come up with the whole collection and deposit it somewhere they believed it would be safe for several generations. And, again, make sure that no one who could spill the beans did so. It’s amazing that they managed not to miss any. And to justify themselves, they’ll quote something like the line spoken by Sherlock Holmes. “…when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?” ("The Copper Beeches" (Doubleday p. 323)) The problem is, of course, that if there is a God, the things they claim as impossible do not remain impossible. They are only so as long as their premise happens to turn out to be true.

          But, returning to Moses’ teaching, he promised that God would raise up for the Israelites a prophet like him. They were to listen to him. God did, and we, Gentiles, have been blessed with acceptance as well, as was promised to Abram. It’s been pointed out that the season of Advent was meant to be a time of preparation for the coming of the King. As we look forward to the celebration of His first coming, perhaps we should spend a little time praying about how we’re doing at listening to Him. 

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