NOTES for Deu 18:19

The attitude towards the prophets, as we see, from the point of view of the Torah is the parameter of faithfulness to God. There is nothing surprising here: because the prophet is after all God's witness; that is why to believe in the prophet means to believe in God. But on the other hand, the Torah itself indeed contains all which is necessary for the one who wishes to accomplish God's will! Why then it is here, in the Torah that is mentioned the prophetic service, mentioned as something, without which the Torah would not be complete? It would have been of course possible to say that it is about a special, charismatic part of the Torah, that itself, supposes a constant development, that the revelation does not end either with Moses, or with whoever of the later prophets.

Everything is like that, but there is in the prophetic service mentioned in the Torah another aspect concerning each. Of course, the prophetic service is not given to everyone. But each has, or at least should have his living relationships with God. And the Torah itself is not just the law; it is not a code of conduct or moral norms. The Torah is the description of the way leading to God. It could be likened to a map, which has value only if it is used as expected, paving the way that leads to the purpose. But, as a rule, to solve this task only with a map is not enough, the compass is also necessary here.

The relationships with God, the personal revelation are for man such a compass. And the Torah itself indicates the reader on this compass, by letting know that without direct revelation, the Torah is useless, it is impossible to observe it, basing only on the letter. And in order not to limit only on the letter, it is necessary to feel this breath of God, this spirit, about which spoke the prophets. Well then the Torah will come to life, turning from a set of laws to the living word of revelation.

The Book of Deuteronomy gives a great deal of attention to prophets, both Yahwist and pagan. There is nothing surprising about that. The pagan world was full of prophets. Today it sometimes appears to us that prophecy is an exclusively Yahwist phenomenon, that a prophet always speaks in the name of God, the one true God spoken of in the Bible. In fact, prophesying was very widespread in antiquity, and there were prophets who prophesied in the name of many different pagan gods and spirits.

Prophesying is a particular spiritual and psychological phenomenon that, at its base, comes down to an expansion of the boundaries of perception, allowing a person to see and hear what he cannot see and hear in an ordinary state. Such an expansion of boundaries is not necessarily caused by spiritual reasons and processes. It can be a purely psychological phenomenon, and then outwardly the person looks just like a true prophet, but his "prophecies" can be called prophecies only in quotation marks.

Such "prophetic" ecstasy was fairly widespread in antiquity, which is why the sacred writer proposes caution even toward those prophets who prophesy in the name of Yahweh. With pagan prophets everything is clear: to listen to them and follow them means apostasy, with all the consequences that follow. But caution was also needed with Yahwist prophets, or more precisely, with those who claimed that role. Of course, genuine prophets were to appear, and listening to such prophets was not only allowed but directly necessary, as the sacred writer says (the capital letter, with all its semantic connotations here, is purely a matter of translation; there is no basis for it in the original text).

The criterion offered was simple and obvious: if what the prophet says comes true, then the prophet is genuine; if not, then he is not. As we can see, the prophecy had to be completely clear, concrete, and unambiguous, since only in that case could the stated criterion be applied. This is understandable: a prophet was not simply preaching or reflecting on a possible future. He was proclaiming God's will and God's plan. There could be no ambiguity or double meaning here, because God is always completely concrete in His plans and purposes. The witness of a true prophet, conveying God's will and plans to people, is the same.

Israel is called God's people not only because God created it or led it out of slavery, but above all because this people must listen to the Lord's will and live by His word. Consulting soothsayers and fortune-tellers therefore becomes a betrayal of its own calling to be God's people.

We are heirs of the word given to ancient Israel. We once agreed to follow the promised Prophet (Acts 3:22) and to hear God's will through Him. If an unwillingness to hear a prophet who knew God's will only in part already leads the people away from their calling to holiness, what should we call it when we turn away from Christ and go to a “temple of fate” to listen to “psychics, fortune-tellers, and healers”? Is this not a betrayal of the Spirit of Christ, who should dwell in us too if we truly belong to God?