Deuteronomy 18

Deuteronomy 18:1-8

In this chapter, (1.) The revenues of the church are settled, and rules given concerning the Levites’ immigration and maintenance, ver. 1—8. (2.) Cautions against the idolatrous customs of the brethren, ver. 9—14. (3.) A promise is given them of the force of prophecy to continue among them, and to centre or left in Christ the great prophet, ver. 15—18. Wrath threatened against their that deftly prophecy, ver. 19. or counterfeit it, ver. 20. and a rule given for the trial of it, ver. 21, 22.

1. THE priests and Levites, and all the tribe of Levi, ‘shall have no part or inheritance with Israel: they shall eat the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and his inheritance. 2. Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren: the LORD is their inheritance, as he hath said unto them. 3. And this shall be the priests due from the people, from them that offer a sacrifice, whether it be or or sheep; and they shall give unto the priests the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw. 4. The first-fruit wife of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thy oil, and the first of the fleece of thy sheep shall thou give him. 5. For the LORD thy God hath chosen him out of all thy tribes: to stand to minister in the name of the LORD, him and his sons for ever. 6. And if a Levite come from any of thy gates, out of all Israel, where he so mourned, and come with all the desire of his mind unto the place which the LORD shall choose; 7. Then he shall minister in the name of the LORD his God, as all his brethren the Levites do, which stand before the LORD. 8. They shall have like portions to eat, beside that which cometh of the sale of his patrimony.

Provision is made for the support of a godly ministry, 1. They were to have no inheritance among their brethren, nor any worldly care to draw them off from attendance to the duties of their function. God was to be their portion, and they who have his love in time, and the hope of his glory in eternity, need not with a greater. Nies, A worldly-minded priest is a scandal to his profession, and a living lie. Nor that they should want to competency, though they were debarred from getting gain by agriculture or commerce. As servants at God’s altar, they had a part of every sacrifice for their maintenance, v. 3. and the first-fruits of the corn and wine, and the fleece

of the sheep were given them, that they might have both food and raiment sufficient for them. Nies, He that loves God’s altar, will never grudge a liberal contribution to support those who are chosen of God to minister before him. Whom God honours, we must honour. 2. If a Levite, from a holy meal for God’s service, desired out of his course to go up and serve at the altar, he might, and share the work and wages with his brethren there: for in settling a certain number always to minister, no exclusion was put on those who voluntarily offered themselves. His patrimony in the city of the Levites continued still his own, and he might dispose of it. Nies, Besides the generally established service, a zealous minister will delight to be employed for God, not of common reasons, as well as in season; and though his colder brethren may count this step irregular, God will regard it as highly commendable.

9. When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. 10. There shall not be bound among you any one that makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch. 11. Or a charmer, or a confather with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. 12. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations, the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, 13. Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God. 14. For these nations which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto dividers: but as for thee the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.

Deuteronomy 18:9-14

One should think they needed not such repeated charges, to avoid abominations so good and ardent. Yet what evil will not a corrupted heart be prone to after-experience proved them for from needless. Malach was the idol which represented the sun, and to him the children were dedicated, by pushing between two fires; sometimes they were burnt in them: such unnatural and impious rites, God’s Israel must abhor. Nor must they use any divination, or enchantment, or conflate those who pretended strange knowledge of future events; all these are an abomination, as ascribing that power and wisdom to the devil, which alone belongs to God. We need not wonder, that such delusions should be then in old, when even among ourselves there shall remain some profane enough to pretend to powers of charms and fortune-rolling, and many deluded enough to have faith in their predictions; a shocking proof of the dreadful blindness, which remains even in the midst of gospel-day. Such practices as these round the Canaanites; but they had been better taught; so much therefore would their guilt be increased, should they give into them. God had kept them hitherto, and his grace would not be wanting, if they fought him, and defend to walk in holiness before him. Nies, If ever we are preferred from the greatest abominations, we owe it not to any good dispositions in ourselves, but to the preventing and rethinning grace of God.

15. The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken. 16. According to all that thou defiendst of the LORD thy God in Horeb, ‘in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God; neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not. 17. And the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. 18. I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. 19. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. 20. But the prophet which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. 21. And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken? 22. When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously; thou shalt not be afraid of him.

Deuteronomy 18:15-22

Christ which is to be found in the law, and which is strongly pleaded by the Apostle, Acts iii. 22. and vii. 37.

1. God promises to raise up a Prophet, and such was our Divine Lord, mighty in word and deed, sprung from the flock of Israel; like Moses, both as a redeemer and ruler, but greater, as his deliverance and rule are spiritual and eternal, commissioned of God for his office, whom all must hear, on pain of answering for their contempt to God. The voice from the cloud repeated the solemn warning, and we to that God that refuses to hear his doctrine, and receive his gospel, for there is salvation in no other.

2. This prophecy was given at Sinai, on the people’s request, that God would speak to them by Moses, and not in his own terrible Majesty; and intimated a design of making a new and farther discovery of himself, and that in a different manner from what they there beheld. Accordingly God hath spoken to us in these last times, by his son become incarnate, that his terror might not make us afraid. Full of great and truth be appeared; but they who rejected Moses, crucified his Lord; and God to this hour is requiring their rejection of his salvation at their hands.

3. False prophets must be punished with death, on conviction before the Sanhedrim, and God lays down the mark where, by the cheat might be easily discovered. If the prophet spake contrary to God’s revealed will, or tempted them to idols, this was sufficient evidence of his impolitic: or if his prophecy, given in proof of his mission, came not to pass, then they might be forced to wear a liar, and need not fear his circumstances, nor be backward to execute sentence upon him. Nate, (1.) Whatever is repugnant to the written word of God, we may be sure comes from a lying spirit. (2.) Pretenders to prophecy, who would terrify God’s people, deserve the severest punishment.