18:1-22

Back to Contents

Spiritual guides, good and bad

(Deut 18:1-22)

Further information is given concerning the support of priests (Deut 18:1-5; see notes on Num 18:8-20).

If a Levite from the country sold his local possessions to move to the central place of worship, he could retain the money from the sale of his goods and still be financially supported by the people, the same as other Levites (Deut 18:6-8; see notes on Num 18:21-32).

Israel’s law prohibited all forms of witchcraft and magic, whether cruel practices in which children were burnt on the altar or made to walk through fire, or common everyday practices such as fortune-telling (Deut 18:9-13).

Israelites would have no need to look for help and guidance from those who practised soothsaying, used spells and charms, or consulted the spirits of the dead. God would give the people his specially sent messengers, or prophets, to make his will known to them just as Moses had done (Deut 18:14-19).

He would punish those who were not sent by him but set themselves up as prophets (Deut 18:20-22; see also Deut 13:1-5).

Jesus Christ was the supreme prophet, the perfect messenger of God, whose life and ministry gave full meaning to the promise given here (cf. Deut 18-19 with Acts 3:22-23; 7:37).