majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of
him in Deuteronomy 13:1-3,
"If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and
announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or
wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, 'Let us follow
other gods' (gods you have not known) 'and let us worship them,' you
must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer.The Lord your
God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your
heart and with all your soul."
Here is a sobering warning from Moses. If a prophet comes among the
people and announces a sign or wonder and if the sign or wonder takes
place and the prophet tells the people to follow other gods, they are
not to listen to him. They are to put him to death. Moses says the
Lord will be testing the Israelites. It is fascinating to me that the
Lord will either allow or cause a miracle to take place to provide a
measure of authenticity to a false prophet in order to test the
people. Apparently it is not enough to acknowledge that a miracle
takes place to authenticate the validity of a prophet.
What this means is that Israel was not to be driven in their worship
simply by miracles, signs and wonders. Moses tells them they might be
led astray if they do so, and that by God himself! God would be
testing them to see if they love him with all their heart and soul.
This means that the Israelites needed to know their God in spite of
any miracles, signs and wonders they may witness.
We live in a day where often times people look at circumstances to
authenticate, in their own minds, the things of God. If the church
building fills up, it must be from God. Therefore whatever is being
taught about God must be correct. After all, isn't God bringing the
blessing? Some are drawn away by what appear to be miraculous
healings, various manifestations of the Holy Spirit and so forth. It
is assumed that whatever group is experiencing these must be the
authentic group because God is seen as moving within that fellowship.
Otherwise, how do you account for what is seen?
If God's ways haven't changed, I'm not sure it is enough for us to
witness the miraculous. To be certain, God does engage in the
miraculous. Jesus' ministry was peppered with miracles and healings
and various signs. The physical manifestation of Jesus Christ
following his resurrection has to be the most convincing miracle of
all. The book of Acts is filled with accounts of the miraculous. If
nothing else, these miracles, fulfilled prophecy, etc. authenticate
who Jesus Christ is and all that he did. These miracles point us in
the right direction. But there is something that is required of us
once pointed in that direction. That is, we are to know God! We are to
know who he is, what he is like and we know these things from what he
has revealed to us in the Scriptures! The entire scriptural
enterprise, the writing of the original autographs by men who were
carried along by the Holy Spirit, 2 Peter 1:20-21, and the
transmission of those writings throughout the history of church up to
us today has been with a purpose. God is revealing himself to us
within its pages that we might know him. Not simply by miraculous
signs and wonders, but a more intimate knowledge as he reveals his
heart, his agenda, his intentions, who he is and what he is like.
Just as Israel might have been led astray by signs and wonders, so we
might be today as well. We need to know God as he has revealed himself
to us, that we follow him and not the imaginings of our deceitful
hearts as we witness things around us.
Today, I thank God that he has chosen to reveal himself in the
Scriptures that we not be led astray!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share
your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd
love to hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
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