Seize the Moment – Day 640
The Word of the Prophet!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, December 17. Please join me in wishing a happy birthday to Vicki Thomson, Richard Kinnaird, and Pam Frazee.
How can we know God’s will for our lives?
This was a significant question for the nation of Israel, as it is for us today. Israel had been rescued from Egypt and were now surrounded by the Canaanites. The people of the ancient Near East used a variety of illegitimate sources, from which Yahweh strictly forbade His people, as in Deuteronomy 18:9-11:
When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.
In direct contrast to these practices, God speaks through His chosen people, called prophets, such as He did with Moses. Moses prophesied of the coming Messiah, and His office of Prophet, in Deuteronomy 18:15: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.” The early church quoted this promise twice, in Acts 3:22 and Acts 7:37.
Jesus is the new Moses and the fulfillment of the office of prophet. The first disciples of Jesus Christ declared it so in the Gospel of John 1:45: “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” More than a prophet, Jesus is the Living Word: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).
Seize the moment and know God’s will for your life through Jesus Christ and His Word!