Deuteronomy 13:1-3: If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—’ and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Re’eh, meaning “See,” includes Deuteronomy 11:26 through 16:17. This Torah Portion describes the enemy of false prophets and gives us the instructions for knowing whether or not someone is a false prophet. First, a false prophet often does signs or wonders. Moses and Aaron were the first Godly prophets who gave signs and wonders in Exodus chapter four. Pharaoh’s mediums could perform the same signs and wonders until it came down to manipulating the dust of the earth, such as the plague of gnats or lice in Exodus 8.19. The false prophets stated, “This is the finger of God,” which the Bible defined as the Holy Spirit in Luke 11:20 and Matthew 12:28. The water turned to blood, and the frogs were a manipulation of the waters, not turning dust into something alive like God did in Genesis when He created humans and animals. By studying the Bible personally, we can gain enlightenment and knowledge about these truths.
Are the prophets trying to lead you away from the commandments of the Holy One? Christians do not realize how important it is not to say that Yeshua did away with God’s instructions, because according to what is written in this Torah Portion, that would make Him a false prophet, and we know that is not true. He gave us a renewed spirit so that we would be inclined to walk in the righteousness of obedience.
Deuteronomy 13:2 & 5: Saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—’ and let us serve them…to entice you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst.
Are the prophets stating that they are speaking in the Name of God? There are many times I have heard people say, “God told me this,” or “God wants me to say this.” I cannot imagine the confidence that one would need to say that. I have said something like, “I believe God is teaching me this…” or “I think the Holy One is leading me to this truth…”. I would never want someone to think that I am speaking on God’s behalf. I am only sharing what I have learned with you, as a human being on the path of learning. What I share is not written by the Finger of God. It says in this portion that we will know that God has sent a prophet with a message if what they say happens. In the Bible, the prophets spoke of judgment in the form of exile and oppression if the people didn’t stop their disobedience, repent, and realign. Whatever they said, happened. We like to apply the term false prophet to anyone who has a different perspective than us, or anyone who challenges the authority of the Vatican, the seminary, or the status quo of Biblical authority. I love that in Judaism, wrestling with the Scriptures is practiced and encouraged. We have different filters made up of experience, culture, and personality that affect how we process the written word. God made it that way. We should humbly understand that the Holy One has conversations with everyone, and we do not know the details of other people’s conversations. Let’s not be so proud that we don’t learn from someone else’s intimacy with God. If they see something differently, we don’t have to cast them aside, instead, we should get curious and ask, “Are they showing me a new way to be close to the Holy One that I have never seen or heard of before?” Using the instructions contained in Deuteronomy 13, as long as they are not leading us into idolatry-the worship of other things or people, disobedience, or keeping us from walking in covenant with the Holy One, even if someone is saying something different from the masses, you don’t have to be afraid of them. You should, however, be very particular about whom you follow, who you listen to, and to whom you personally give spiritual authority.
Three things burn up in the end: the beast, the devil, and the false prophet. I identify the beast as a consolidation of rulers who rules with his earthly nature. Remember that in Genesis 1:24-25, God created beasts out of the earth, specifically red earth. In contrast, He created humans with red earth and Divine Breath. The devil seems to be interchangeable with the wicked in the synoptic gospels of Luke 8:12 and Matthew 13:19 (the evil or wicked, not evil one, the one has been added.) The false prophet is a consolidation of anyone who deceitfully leads people away from the path of righteousness. The Greek word planao, translated as “deceived” in Revelation 20, means to cause one to stray, to lead astray, lead aside from the right way, lead into error, lead away from truth, or to cause one to sin. There are no instances in the Bible where a celestial being did any of these things. The examples we have are when someone who has influence, uses it to cause others to stumble. Balaam was a false prophet who led the Israelites into disobedience and sin. In King Hezekiah’s day, a messenger named Rabshakeh, who was a type of false prophet, visited the Israelites, telling them in their own language not to trust in Yahweh but to submit to the King of Assyria. Bar-Yeshua, whose name means ‘son of salvation’, was employed by a man named Sergius Paulus in Acts 13:6, attempted to lead his Employer away from the path of righteousness, causing Paul to blast him with the following statement, “O you, full of all deceit and trickery, son of the devil (wicked), enemy of all righteousness—will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?” (Acts 13:10).
In a recent blog post, I shared a thought about the Behemoth, or Beastly King, being on land symbolizing a King over Israel, and the Leviathan being a Beastly King of the nations. I need to clarify that they are both Beast Kings, one is called Behometh and one Leviathan, they can both muddy the waters-that means these kings influenced both realms, having access to dry land or Israel, and the seas or nations. The Beast King of Revelation 13:1 rises from the sea. I immediately think of Herod, an Edomite (red one) who rose to power over Israel and the surrounding nations in the time that John wrote Revelation. Pharaoh is called a dragon in Ezekiel 29:3 and ruled over Israel and the nations. King Nebuchadnezzar is called a beast in Daniel 4:16, and he ruled over Israel and the nations. The Scriptures describe the Assyrian king as a beast who devoured Israel as he ruled over them along with the nations (Jer 50:17 and Is 5:29). This ancient imagery of Satan would describe a world system or empire that is adversarial to the Holy One, the devil as the wicked subjects of that world system, and the false prophet as influential leaders of the world who lead people away from right choices. If there are two kingdoms—the kingdom of man and the Kingdom of God —and humans are the subjects of both kingdoms, then we will wrestle with God and humans just as the Scriptures declared that we would.
Genesis 32:28: And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.” (Bold accents added)
We need to study the instructions the Holy One gave us, as recorded in the Bible. We need to pray that our filters are clean and whole, so that we do not process the word in an unhealthy way. This can only be done by the Divine Breath, the renewed spirit inside of us that leads us into all truth.
John 16:13: But when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears, He will tell you. And He will declare to you the things that are to come.
We must remain humble on our learning path; neither we nor anyone else is an authority on the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit is “THE TEACHER” and Yeshua is the Living Word, meaning He is the only full authority on interpretation and application (Mt 23.8). The Holy One gives many people the gift of teaching and understanding that we have the honor of learning from. Still, we should not completely surrender ourselves to someone else’s interpretation. Don’t stop studying and entirely rely on a teacher, preacher, pope, or prophet to tell you what the Bible says. It is each of our responsibilities to pursue wisdom and understanding.
Deuteronomy 13:18: Because you have listened to the voice of the Lord your God, to keep all His commandments which I command you today, to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord your God.
Leave a Reply