DEUTERONOMY 18: PRIESTS, WITCHES & PROPHETS By Sonny Islas; check out the complete teaching here!
In this chapter Moses will remind this new generation of 1. Laws regarding the Priest and the Levites. 2. To stay clear from witchcraft and the like. And 3. The difference between true and false prophets.
DEUTERONOMY 18:1-8
1 "The priests, the Levites-all the tribe of Levi-shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and His portion. 2 "Therefore they shall have no inheritance among their brethren; the LORD is their inheritance, as He said to them. 3 "And this shall be the priest's due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it is bull or sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder, the cheeks, and the stomach. 4 "The firstfruits of your grain and your new wine and your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. 5 "For the LORD your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand to minister in the name of the LORD, him and his sons forever. 6 "So if a Levite comes from any of your gates, from where he dwells among all Israel, and comes with all the desire of his mind to the place which the LORD chooses, 7 "then he may serve in the name of the LORD his God as all his brethren the Levites do, who stand there before the LORD. 8 "They shall have equal portions to eat, besides what comes from the sale of his inheritance.
The priest and the Levites were not given or allotted private property to settle or cultivate in like the other eleven tribes. The Levites lived among the other tribes (NUM 35:1-8) – and it was because they were set apart by God to rotationally serve in the House of Worship, the Tabernacle (which eventually morphed into the Temple). The priest on the other hand lived nearest the Temple. The priests and Levites were paid ministers. They were supported by the gifts, offerings and sacrifices of the rest of the Tribes.
This is true today for paid pastors and staff in local churches:
1 CORINTHIANS 9:14 says
“Even so the LORD has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.” The priest and Levites were in charge of all things worship service in the Tabernacle/Temple, and today’s paid ministers (of all kinds) are in charge of all things local church or other Christian work.
Verse 3 tells us that the priests were blessed by the best parts of the meat from the animal sacrifices. “The shoulder, the cheek, and the stomach.” We get the chuck steak from the shoulder of a bull. I read an article where world class chefs say that beef cheeks are filled with robust flavor. They are considered a rare delicacy. Flank steak comes from the stomach of the bull and it is said that it is the most popular and tasty part of the bull. Which means that the LORD saved the best for the Temple’s hardest workers.
They were even given the privilege to eat “the LORD’s portion” (the portion of the animal sacrifice that wasn’t burned, that is). Which means that they ate some of the fat of the animal – the juiciest parts.
DEUTERONOMY 18:9-14
9 "When you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. 10 "There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 "or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. 12 "For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD, and because of these abominations the LORD your God drives them out from before you. 13 "You shall be blameless before the LORD your God. 14 "For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the LORD your God has not appointed such for you.
Here the LORD through Moses warns Israel of dabbling with anything demonic. They had Yahweh, the One true God in their midst, they had the House of worship, they had the Word of God and they had each other – this was to be sufficient for all of life.
They were to avoid all things pagan because Canaan was infested with all things pagan.
Moses mentions Nine Abominations:
1. Child sacrifice aka Molech worship. Today’s equivalent of this hellish practice is abortion.
2. Witchcraft which is the practice of magic for wicked purposes, casting spells etc. The practice of witchcraft is gaining popularity in America in the form of Wicca.
According to the Pew Research Center, about 1.5 million Americans identify as Wiccan or pagan. Hollywood has glorified witchcraft for decades now. Tom Brady’s ex-wife and super-model Gisele Bundchen considers herself a white witch (and there are no such things as a good witch – white and black witchcraft is demonic)
3. Soothsayers – Those who can “see” and “tell” the future.
Demon spirits can help make some future events come true. But for the most part, this fortune tellers are lying, money hungry frauds. Soothsaying is like palm reading (palmistry) or crystal ball using, forms of divination.
4. One who interprets omens – One who can find prophetic significance about a person through pagan mediums such as tarot cards, Ouija boards etc. Franks’ trippy story about using the Ouija board on graduation day.
5. Sorcerer – a wizard – a male witch. Acts 8 speaks about a Sorcerer named Simon. He displayed impressive Satanic powers, so much so that the crowds said:
ACTS 8:10,11
10 to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the great power of God. 11 And they heeded him because he had astonished them with his sorceries for a long time.
He went as far as confessing faith in Jesus, getting baptized but showed to be a fake when he wanted to buy the power of the Holy Spirit from Peter and John – to which Peter rebukes him sharply and calls Simon to true repentance or perish.
6. One who conjures spells – which is a part of witchcraft. We see this with voodoo and voodoo dolls. Where real demonic forces are depended upon to harm people.
7. A medium – what we would call today a channeler; one through whom spirits speak.
8. Spiritist – closely associated with a medium, but who also communicates to “the dead” as well as receiving messages from them.
9. One who calls up the dead, a necromancer – yet essentially these last three are the same.
1 SAMEUL 28 tells us that King Saul went to the witch of Endor to call up the spirit of the Prophet Samuel the prophet and God allowed it at this time. Saul disguised himself and went to night because he knew that he was in the wrong. God would not speak with Saul, neither through dreams, the casting lots or through the prophets.
A woman I know did something similar to what King Saul did. She wanted answers from God regarding her husband’s terminal health condition but didn’t get any. So she went to a medium for answers (however, she repented of her evil at the time).
Never run to darkness, run to God through prayer, run to His Word, run to His people instead.
DEUTERONOMY 18:15-22
15 "The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, 16 "according to all you desired of the LORD your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.' 17 "And the LORD said to me: 'What they have spoken is good. 18 'I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. 19 'And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. 20 'But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.' 21 "And if you say in your heart, 'How shall 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 happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.
Vs. 15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet [Jesus] like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear,”
Jesus was like Moses in that:
~ Like Moses, Jesus was spared (protected by God) as a baby. Pharoah tried to kill Moses and Herod tried to kill baby Jesus.Vs. 15 continued “you shall hear Him” At the mount of transfiguration God the Father spoke audibly from heaven saying, “This is MY Son, hear Him!” And Moses’ spirit stood right next to Jesus at this time – Moses could have said “You see, I told you all this 1,400 years ago in DEUTERONOMY 18!”
~ Like Moses, Jesus spoke face to face with God the Father.
~ Like Moses, Jesus had compassion on the multitudes of Israel. Jesus was a shepherd of souls like Moses.
~ Like Moses, Jesus denied heaven’s glory to come down to earth. Moses denied the splendor of Egypt to suffer with His people in the wilderness for the same of Christ.
~ Like Moses, Jesus was The Mediator of the New Covenant (His body on the cross). While Moses was the mediator of the Old Covenant (namely animal sacrifices).
HEBREWS 1:1-4
1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; 3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
Vs. 19 And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him.”
All who rejected Jesus and His words will give an account for it at the Great White Throne Judgement (check out the TTUF article about this, and a link within it on Judgment Day by Lambert Dolphin!)!!
Regarding “the false prophets”, one could know that they were frauds when their prophecies didn’t come to pass.
That happens a lot with false prophets in America and yet many still follow them (??!!). And these false prophets of old were to be put to death because it was a capital crime to speak on behalf of God when He hasn’t spoken to them. It was a gross misrepresentation of God who doesn’t lie and doesn’t play. Plus these liars led God’s people astray from Him and His Word.
And that’s what false preachers (and teachers) do today.
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