Deuteronomy 18:15 (New Living Translation)
Moses
continued, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me
from among your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.
Maybe
I should start with a wee apology for the length of Wednesday’s offering but writing
about the Way, the Truth and the Life surely demands an extra couple of lines!
In
today’s verse, Moses is addressing the Israelites that will soon be entering
the land God promised to them after forty long and difficult years wandering in
the wilderness.
Elsewhere
in this chapter the Lord forbids His people from engaging in all aspects of
occultic trickery, including witchcraft, soothsayers, fortune-telling,
conjurers, spirit mediums, séances, and necromancy (black magic or dark arts). It brought back a memory of Dr Salmond
preaching on this chapter many years ago and I can honestly say; I haven’t read
my horoscope since that day so his delivery of God’s message on that particular
Sunday morning certainly had some impact upon me and, who knows how many
others?
I
know that many of us will have had those special moments when God has spoken to
us during times of prayer, times when we hear or read his word or even through
the deeds or actions of another.
In
this chapter in Deuteronomy, God has given Moses the prophecy that points to
the coming of Jesus and it also says that when he comes, we have to listen to
him.
I’m
sure that in the lead up to previous Christmases, we have all heard the appeal
to ‘put Christ back into Christmas’. I
heard a variation on that this year which went along the lines of ‘putting
Christ back into Christians’.
I
have witnessed work that has been going on at Church of Scotland level,
Presbytery level and even at Congregational level where, in all honesty, there
appears to be little evidence of Christ’s presence. A variety of work is carried out under the
banner of the church at all levels by well-intentioned individuals who are so
busy doing ‘church work’ that they seem to overlook the hope, faith, joy, peace
and light of advent.
As
today’s reading reminds us, it is not enough to acknowledge the coming of
Christ, we must listen to him.
Prayer Our Lord and our God, we thank you
for this season of advent when we contemplate the circumstances surrounding
your birth from the prophecies in the old testament right up to the wonderful
nativity in Bethlehem. Help us listen to
you when you speak to us and we pray that the ways in which we live our lives
and behave towards others will reflect what we have heard. Amen
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