Deuteronomy 18:15 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
Proverbs 29:12 says, “If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked.” Why is that true? It is true because if a ruler listens to lies, he rewards lies. If he rewards lies, guess what his servants will do? They will lie. So, you get what you reward. That is something you see in Deuteronomy 18 where the Bible talks about to whom the children of Israel should listen. There are those to whom they should not yield and those to whom they should yield. There are those they should ignore and those to whom they should hearken.
Deuteronomy 18:9 says, “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.” The people of Israel were a holy people separated to God going into a pagan land, and they were not to learn what those nations learn. Someone says, “Knowledge is power.” That is only the case if the knowledge is true. God tells them not to listen to this knowledge.
He goes on to say in verse 14, “For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.” The very reason God was giving Israel this land was because the inhabitants rejected God. They did not listen because of their abominations, their utterly detestable behavior based on the fact that they listened to the wrong people.
In contrast, verse 15 says, “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.” Deuteronomy 34:10 says there was never a prophet like Moses. He was one of a kind. Yet, the ultimate fulfillment of this prophet God would raise up is God’s own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. In Matthew 21 when Jesus was making His triumphal entry, the multitude wondered, “Who is this?” The answer is, “This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.” So, Jesus is not just a prophet; He is the Prophet.
Verse 18 says, “I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee [Moses], and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.” There are entire nations, like the nation of Israel, who were at a threshold. To whom would they listen? Even today, if a nation has listened to Karl Marx or Sigmund Freud, that is obvious in its ethic, attitude, and actions. If a nation has been influenced by the Word of God, that likewise is obvious. Is America a Christian nation? We can debate that all we want. We are not a perfect people; we never were. I do not claim as much, but common law and much of what we inherited from Great Britain over two hundred years ago is based upon Bible principle.
It is true of nations, but more importantly it is true of you. You get what you reward. Again, Proverbs 29 it says, “If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked.” So, you get what you reward. That is true of a king, a pauper, and you.
What are you getting today? The answer, which is sometimes hard to believe, is that you get what you reward. For instance, if people are constantly gossiping to you, it may well be, even unintentionally, that you are rewarding that. Now, I can reward something actively by jumping in or I can reward something passively by not pushing back against it. If I am continually hearing the complaints of other people, that may well be because that is what I am rewarding.
I noticed a long time ago there were certain people who have a lot of influence or authority but are very good at removing themselves from the authority of a church, business, or family. Consequently, people come to them all the time to cry on their shoulders. It is not wrong to be of comfort to people, but if you are continuously the person to whom people come to complain or to cry on your shoulder, it may be wise to take a moment and ask, “What am I doing that is rewarding this?” You should be a listener, but are you changing the situation or are you justifying them in a grumbling attitude? Are people gossiping or grumbling to you?
Are people lying to you? It may well be if people are constantly lying to you, it is because you are rewarding that is some way. Ultimately, your phone knows you better than your own mom. Haven’t we all experienced times when we search for something, maybe a product, and several days later on a completely different platform an article or advertisement comes up that is about exactly what you searched? I don’t understand all the algorithms, but my point is, even your phone knows what you are listening to because that is what it is cultivating for you. I don’t want gossip, grumbling, lies, or perversion. I want the truth. The more light I have accepted, the more light I will receive. The more light I reject, the more darkness I receive. Why? It is because you get what you reward.