Sunday School Lesson

1. Deuteronomy 18:15-22
Revealed
February 9, 2020
First Baptist Church
Jackson, Mississippi
USA

2. What’s the number one thing?
The Glory of God!
1 Corinthians 10:31 NKJV
31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever
you do, do all to the glory of God.

3. References
• Ackland, Donald F., Studies in Deuteronomy, Convention
Press, Nashville, Tennessee, 1964
• Bromiley, Geoffrey W., The International Standard Bible
Encyclopedia, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,
Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1979
• Craigie, P. C., The International Commentary on the Old
Testament, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand
Rapids, Michigan, 1976
• Honeycutt, Roy L., Layman’s Bible Book Commentary,
Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, 1979
• Jones, Robert E., Explore the Bible Adult Commentary,
Deuteronomy, Winter 2001-02, Lifeway, Nashville, TN

4. References
• Kalland, Earl S., The Expositor’s Bible Commentary,
Frank E. Gaebelein general editor, The Zondervan
Corporation, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1992
• Von Rad, Gerhard, Deuteronomy, The Westminster
Press, Philadelphia, 1966
• Watts, John D. W., Commentary on Deuteronomy, The
Broadman Bible Commentary, Broadman Press,
Nashville, Tennessee, 1970
• New American Standard Bible, (A. J. Holman Company,
Philadelphia, 1976) Study Edition - Outline and Survey
by Harold B. Kuhn, Ph.D.

5. Setting and Date
• The book states that it is authored by Moses.
• Clearly, the conclusion of the book that provides
details of his death and burial was added by others,
perhaps Joshua.
• The book states that it was presented at Mt. Nebo
on the edge of Moab east of the Jordan River and
the Dead Sea.
• The telling took place in 1451 BC or 1406 BC or
1260 BC depending on the Rabbinic school being
asked.

6. Disclaimer
• There may be no Old Testament book that has
generated more debate with regard to its date of
composition.
• Traditional scholarship puts its composition at the time
of Moses and Joshua.
• Modern scholarship might credit the sermons as
coming from Moses, but most believe the composition
we have today was assembled during the time of
Hezekiah (715-687 BC) or Josiah (640-609 BC).
‒ All or portions of Deuteronomy were read to begin the
revival under Josiah.

7. Deuteronomy - Overview
• Deuteronomy is the 5th Book of the Law or the 5th Book
of Moses or the 5th Book of the Torah.
• The name “Deuteronomy” refers to the “Second Telling of
the Law”.
• The generation of adults that had come out of Egypt had
died off.
• Moses had watched the audience before him grow up.

8. Deuteronomy - Overview
• They were like his children or grandchildren, and his
instructions reflect that.
• Moses was giving them “final instructions” before they
part.
• He was retelling the history, the law and the rules, but
also providing the why.
• The entire ministry of Moses depended on this
audience “getting it”.

9. Deuteronomy - Overview
• Deuteronomy shares many traits with the Gospel of John
in the New Testament.
‒ Moses was 120.
‒ The Apostle John was close to 90.
‒ Moses was one of the few surviving eyewitnesses.
‒ So was John.
‒ Moses and John retold what happened but included the
theology behind it.
‒ Moses and John told their stories on a huge (cosmic)
canvas of time.

10. Deuteronomy - Overview
● “Deuteronomy is a book about a community being
prepared for a new life. Hardship and the wilderness
lie behind; the promised land lies ahead. But in the
present moment, there is a call for a new commitment
to God and a fresh understanding of the nature of the
community of God’s people.”
‒ Peter C. Craigie

11. Outline of Deuteronomy
• Preface and Historical Statement (1:1-5).
• First Address of Moses (1:6 -- 4:40).
• Historical and Transitional Statement (4:41-49).
• Second Address of Moses (5:1 -- 26:19).
• Third Address of Moses (27:1 -- 30:20).
• Moses’ Closing Days and Activities (31:1 -- 34:12).
‒ Many scholars believe all three sermons were given
on the same day.

12. A Quick Dash through Moses’ 2nd Address
• Deuteronomy 5
‒ The 2nd address begins with a re-statement of the
Ten Commandments.
‒ He reminds them that this was part of a covenant
that God made with them, and that they and their
parents had pledged to keep it.

13. A Quick Dash through Moses’ 2nd Address
• Deuteronomy 6
‒ “Obey God and Prosper”
‒ This was taught last week.
‒ This is the heart of faith.
‒ Jesus said that it is the greatest commandment.

14. A Quick Dash through Moses’ 2nd Address
• Deuteronomy 7
‒ Moves on to Warnings:
‒ Destroy God’s enemies utterly.
‒ Do not intermarry with them.
‒ Destroy their holy places.
‒ Why?
‒ Chapter 7:6-8, 12-13
‒ How?
‒ Chapter 7:22-26

15. A Quick Dash through Moses’ 2nd Address
• Deuteronomy 7-10
‒ These chapters are primarily admonition to keep
God’s laws and warnings to those who might ignore
His law.

16. A Quick Dash through Moses’ 2nd Address
• Deuteronomy 12
‒ This chapter opens with another instruction focusing
on acceptable worship.
‒ Deuteronomy 12:2-7
‒ One place of worship and sacrifice.

17. A Quick Dash through Moses’ 2nd Address
• Deuteronomy 13
‒ Gives 3 examples of rejecting idolatry and seduction
to worship false gods.
‒ If it is from a prophet or dreamer-of-dreams (13:1-
5).
‒ If it is from a family member, tell the neighbors, but
you are to be the first to cast a stone (13:6-11).
‒ If it is a city that turns to false worship (13:12-18).

18. A Quick Dash through Moses’ 2nd Address
• Deuteronomy 14
‒ Clean and Unclean Animals.

19. A Quick Dash through Moses’ 2nd Address
• Deuteronomy 15
‒ The Sabbatical Year.

20. A Quick Dash through Moses’ 2nd Address
• Deuteronomy 16
‒ The Feast of Passover.
‒ The Feast of Weeks.
‒ The Feast of Booths.

21. A Quick Dash through Moses’ 2nd Address
• Deuteronomy 17
‒ The Administration of Justice.
‒ Deuteronomy 17:2-5
‒ Slay the idolater.

22. A Quick Dash through Moses’ 2nd Address
• Deuteronomy 18
‒ Deuteronomy 18:9-14.
‒ Spiritism Forbidden.
‒ The Alternative.
‒ Deuteronomy 18:15-22.
‒ God will raise up a prophet.

23. Spiritism Forbidden
• Deuteronomy 18:9-14 NASB
9 “When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall
not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations. 10 There shall
not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass
through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or
one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who casts a spell, or a
medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. 12 For whoever does
these things is detestable to the LORD; and because of these detestable
things the LORD your God will drive them out before you. 13 You shall be
blameless before the LORD your God. 14 For those nations, which you shall
dispossess, listen to those who practice witchcraft and to diviners, but as
for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do so.

24. Spiritism Forbidden
• Demons and examples of spiritism in the Old Testament:
‒ Satan in the garden.
‒ Pharaoh’s magicians who could turn their staffs into serpents.
‒ Balaam who could bless or curse.
‒ Saul conjuring the spirit of dead Samuel with the help of the witch of
Endor.
‒ The contest between Elijah and the priests of Baal and the Asherah.
‒ The O.T. writers didn’t spend time distinguishing among demonic
sources chiefly because they knew Jehovah was superior and would,
through His Messiah, destroy them.
‒ The Greeks, on the other hand, studied their evil spirits because they
feared them and felt that they were unavoidable.

25. Spiritism Forbidden
• The New Testament is filled with references to evil
spirits.
• The term for “demon” is used 67 times alone.
• Nowhere in scripture are demons, evil spirits, diviners,
sorcerers, soothsayers or astrologers denounced as
phony.
• Instead, they are treated as dangerous and to be
destroyed or avoided.
• Not because they are fake, but because they are real
and exist in opposition to God.

26. Spiritism Forbidden
• When Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians and told them about
various spiritual gifts, one gift may have been the ability to discern
or distinguish the nature of spirits. (1 Corinthians 12:10)
‒ Evil spirits are in this world.
‒ We are foolish to delude ourselves and think the warnings of
God through Moses do not apply to us.
‒ We are not so educated, sophisticated or modern that spiritism
cannot be a snare to us or those we love.
‒ If you don’t believe me, at the very least, acknowledge that it is
not compatible with the worship of Almighty God.

27. God Will Raise Up A Prophet
● Deuteronomy 18:15-19 NASB
15 “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from
among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him. 16 This
is according to all that you asked of the LORD your God in Horeb
on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the
voice of the LORD my God, let me not see this great fire anymore,
or I will die.’ 17 The LORD said to me, ‘They have spoken well. 18 I
will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I
will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I
command him. 19 It shall come about that whoever will not listen to
My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it
of him.

28. God Will Raise Up A Prophet
• Deuteronomy 18:20-22 NASB
20 But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name
which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in
the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ 21 You may say in
your heart, ‘How will we know the word which the LORD has not
spoken?’ 22 When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the
thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the
LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously;
you shall not be afraid of him.

29. God Will Raise Up A Prophet
• Four aspects of Old Testament prophets help us understand the
nature of prophecy in Israel. First, the prophet was not self-
appointed but raised up (called) by the Lord. Second, prophets
would follow closely the pattern modeled by Moses. Third, the
prophet would speak God’s message, not his own, “I will put my
words in his mouth”. This aspect could be tested by whether the
prophet’s words came true. Fourth, the Lord’s prophet would
speak with God’s authority. As a result, the Lord would call into
account anyone who failed to heed His message. Prophets who
proclaimed false messages or spoke for other gods would be
executed.
‒ Robert E. Jones, page 102

30. God Will Raise Up A Prophet
• The Children of Israel have no need for sorcerers,
soothsayers, necromancers, or mediums. God has
provided a prophet and promises to provide His own
Word.
‒ Gerhard Von Rad
• Peter Craigie writes that this promise of a prophet was
seen by early Judaism as being fulfilled in each of the
line of prophets sent by God. It was later in Judaism
that the promise was seen as referring to Messiah.

31. God Will Raise Up A Prophet
• John the Baptist questioned:
‒ John 1:21 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
21 They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” And
he *said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he
answered, “No.”
‒ John 1:26-27 NASB
26 John answered them saying, “I baptize in water, but
among you stands One whom you do not know. 27 It is
He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I
am not worthy to untie.”

32. God Will Raise Up A Prophet
• Phillip spoke these words to Nathanael:
‒ John 1:45 NASB
45 Philip *found Nathanael and *said to him, “We have
found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the
Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of
Joseph.”

33. God Will Raise Up A Prophet
• Jesus was probably making reference to this passage
as He responded to skeptical Jews in John 5.
‒ John 5:45-47 NASB
45 Do not think that I will accuse you before the
Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom
you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses,
you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. 47 But if
you do not believe his writings, how will you believe
My words?”

34. God Will Raise Up A Prophet
• After Jesus fed the Five Thousand:
‒ John 6:14 NASB
14 Therefore when the people saw the sign which He
had performed, they said, “This is truly the Prophet
who is to come into the world.”

35. God Will Raise Up A Prophet
• After Jesus taught on the final day of the feast:
‒ John 7:40 NASB
40 Some of the people therefore, when they heard
these words, were saying, “This certainly is the
Prophet.”

36. God Will Raise Up A Prophet
• In Jerusalem for His final Passover, Jesus told His
disciples:
‒ John 12:48-49 NASB
48 He who rejects Me and does not receive My
sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is
what will judge him at the last day. 49 For I did not
speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself
who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to
what to say and what to speak.

37. God Will Raise Up A Prophet
• Peter in his second sermon delivered at the Beautiful
Gate:
‒ Acts 3:22-23 NASB
22 Moses said, ‘THE LORD GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU
A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BRETHREN; TO HIM YOU
SHALL GIVE HEED to everything He says to you. 23 And
it will be that every soul that does not heed that
prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the
people.’

38. God Will Raise Up A Prophet
• Stephen in his defense before the Sanhedrin:
‒ Acts 7:37 NASB
37 This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel,
‘GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM
YOUR BRETHREN.’

39. Conclusion Drawn from Deuteronomy 18:9-22
• God has charged His children to guard themselves
from the occult, from mediums, and all forms of
spiritism.
• We are to defeat it when we can and flee from it when
we can’t.
• In its place, God has provided His Word, first through
His prophets and finally through His Son, Jesus, the
Christ.
• Our survival depends on pure holy worship of God on
His terms.

40. The Plan of Hope & Salvation:
John 3:16-17 NKJV
16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not
perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send
His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that
the world through Him might be saved.”
John 14:6 NKJV
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the
life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

41. The Plan of Hope & Salvation:
Romans 3:23 NKJV
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Romans 6:23a NKJV
23a For the wages of sin is death,
○ Death in this life (the first death) is 100%.
○ Even Jesus, the only one who doesn’t deserve death, died
in this life to pay the penalty for our sin.
○ The death referred to in Romans 6:23a is the “second
death” explained in Revelation 21:8.

42. The Plan of Hope & Salvation:
Revelation 21:8 NKJV
8 “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral,
sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns
with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
● Anyone who’s lifestyle is one or more of the sins listed in Revelation
21:8, will experience the “second death,” if they do not repent.
■ To Repent means to turn around, to go in the opposite direction, to
turn away from sin and believe in Jesus.
Romans 5:8 NKJV
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still
sinners, Christ died for us.

43. The Plan of Hope & Salvation:
Romans 6:23b NKJV
23b but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ
Jesus our Lord.
Revelation 21:7 NKJV
7 “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and
I will be his God and he shall be My son.”
● Romans 10:9-10 explain to us how to be
overcomers.

44. The Plan of Hope & Salvation:
Romans 10:9-10 NKJV
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and
believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the
dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one
believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation.
Romans 10:13 NKJV
13 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be
saved.”

45. The Plan of Hope & Salvation:
Do you have questions?
Would you like to know more?
Please, contact First Baptist Church Jackson at 601-949-
1900 or http://firstbaptistjackson.org/contact/