Deuteronomy 18 Study Notes

18:12 A major reason for the expulsion and destruction of the Canaanite nations is that they practiced these detestable acts and were therefore likely to infect God’s people with their abominable customs (7:4).

18:13-14 In the context of this verse, to be blameless before the Lord was to avoid all the pagan practices outlined in vv. 10 and 11. “Blameless” refers not to sinless perfection but to the avoidance of all that the Lord detests.

18:15 In stark contrast to the pagan prophets stood the office of the prophet of the Lord called and equipped by him alone. Such spokesmen of God had appeared sporadically throughout Israel’s history, including Abraham (Gn 20:7), Miriam the sister of Moses (Ex 15:20), and most prominently, Moses himself (Nm 12:6-8; Dt 34:10).

18:16-18 Like Moses, the prophet would be an Israelite. He would not conjure up his own message or resort to pagan manipulations but would be a vehicle of divine revelation, speaking only what God put into his mouth (Ex 4:15-16; 7:1-2).

18:19-20 Though this passage has clear messianic overtones (Jn 1:21,25), the admonition about the prophet-to-come suggests an order of prophets, primarily the “canonical” prophets, the authors of the various OT Prophetic books.

18:21-22 The question arises as to how to tell a false prophet from a prophet of the Lord. A fundamental test presented here is that any prophet whose message does not come true or is not fulfilled has spoken . . . presumptuously. He must not be feared because he has no capacity to do harm except as he misleads God’s people. A classic OT example is Hananiah, who predicted that the Babylonian exile would end in two years rather than the seventy Jeremiah had prophesied (Jr 25:11-12; 28:1-4; 29:10; Dn 9:1-2). Jeremiah confronted him with the truth that the exile would last as long as he had predicted and that Hananiah would never live to see its fulfillment. In fact, Hananiah died the very year of his false message (Jr 28:12-17).