Originally posted: 08/01/2019
“You may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?'” (18:21).
Touchstone: a test or criterion for the qualities of a thing.
God warns His children to be on guard against the detestable practices of the surrounding pagan nations. They are to discern all that is not in accordance with His Touchstone for Truth.
“When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations. 10 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, 11 or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead,” (18:9-11).
I dare say we would agree sacrificing a son or daughter in fire is certainly a detestable thing. But the LORD God equates the detestable and brutal practice of child sacrifice with the detestable practices of the occult: divination, witchcraft, omens, sorcerers, spells, mediums and spiritists; both are equally detestable things to Holy God.
These pagan rituals share as their foundation that which is most detestable to the LORD: they are rooted in the father of all lies, in untruth, deceit, and distortion of His Truth; and all defy His Touchstone for Truth.
“Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies,” (John 8:43-44).
Consider His Touchstone for Truth
- His Touchstone for Truth: God will raise up His prophet from among His own people.
- “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him,” (18:15).
- His Touchstone for Truth: His prophet will speak the words as God commands.
- “I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him,” (18:18).
- His Touchstone for Truth: What the Lord has spoken through His prophet will be fulfilled.
- “You may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’ 22 When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken,” (18:21-22).
How do we respond to His Touchstone for Truth?
When Moses spoke of “a prophet like me,” he may have been referring to Joshua, his immediate replacement, or perhaps Elijah or one of the others that God would raise up. But ultimately, God would raise up His Son Jesus as His Touchstone for Truth.
- Jesus, His Touchstone for Truth: God has raised up His prophet from among His own people.
- When He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee,” (Matthew 21:10-11).
- Jesus, His Touchstone for Truth: His prophet spoke the words as God commanded.
- “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. 50 I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me,” (John 12:49-50).
- Jesus, His Touchstone for Truth: What the Lord has spoken through His prophet has been fulfilled.
- Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, 47 and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things,” (Luke 24:44-48).
Jesus came, raised up as God’s Prophet Who spoke and fulfilled all the Father commanded.
And Jesus made it very clear: He is the Only True Way to the Father. All other “ways to God” are distortions of His Truth and are as detestable to Him as the most wicked and vile thing imaginable.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me,” (John 14:6).
God has made it very clear: we are to listen to Jesus, His Son.
Then a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him!” (Luke 9:35).
And if we will not listen, we will be held accountable.
“It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him,” (18:19).
“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him,” (John 3:36).
However, if we submit to His Touchstone for Truth we will hear His voice.
“Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice,” (John 18:37).
Lord Jesus, as we daily come to You in Your Word, may we hear Your voice that sets us free from the lies of the enemy and from any desire to imitate the world. Strengthen us by Your Holy Spirit to continue in Your Word of Truth that we may grow to love You, serve You, and worship You without restraint; that we would be made free indeed, in You, our Touchstone for Truth.
So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free… 36 So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed,” (John 8:31,36).