9-11 “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there. For example, never sacrifice your son or daughter as a burnt offering. And do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. 12-13 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the  Lord. It is because the other nations have done these detestable things that the Lord your God will drive them out ahead of you.  But you must be blameless before the Lord your God.  14 The nations you are about to displace consult sorcerers and fortune-tellers, but the Lord your God forbids you to do such things.”

15 Moses continued, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. 16-17 For this is what you yourselves requested of the Lord your God when you were assembled at Mount Sinai. You said, ‘Don’t let us hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore or see this blazing fire, for we will die.’ 18 Then the  Lord said to me, ‘What they have said is right.  I will raise up a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell the people everything I command him.  19 I will personally deal with anyone who will not listen to the messages the prophet proclaims on my behalf.” 

20-22 “But any prophet who falsely claims to speak in my name or who speaks in the name of another god must die. But you may wonder, ‘How will we know whether or not a prophecy is from the Lord?’ If the prophet speaks in the Lord’s name but his prediction does not happen or come true, you will know that the Lord did not give that message. That prophet has spoken without my authority and need not be feared.” Deuteronomy 18:9-18 New Living Translation paraphrase (English Standard Version link)

As people we often have worries about the future and what it may bring. Some go even further and turn to people who claim to be able to foretell the future. But what did God say to Israel about that (vs 9-11), and how do you think He feels about those who read horror-scopes and go to seances or fortune tellers today? (vs 12-13)

Interesting that those who peddled sorcery and omens were also the ones who sacrificed children. One hears of Satanic cults who are said to do the same thing even in our modern generation. But God declares all those practices detestable to Him. Anyone who has been part of that lifestyle needs to seek God's mercy and turn completely away from such evil. But what should we do then with our concerns about the future and finding God's will for for our lives? (vs 15 & 18)

God gave a promise of raising up a prophet who, just like Moses had been teaching them God's will, would also teach the very words of God. God's prophet would teach them all they needed to know, both for the present as well as for the future. They would discover God's will for their lives in God's word.

Verses 20-22 speak of people who would emerge and claim to be prophets, but who were deceivers whose fake-ness became obvious when their prophecies failed. So the promise of a prophet that God would raise up could apply to all the true prophets in the Old Testament. God did indeed put His words into their mouths. But the New Testament teaches us that the ultimate prophet God was referring to, who we need to listen to, was Jesus. In Acts 3:22 the apostle Peter quotes the above words of vs 15 and, in John 1:45, we read of a man named Philip who “went to look for Nathanael and told him, 'We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”

It is in Jesus Christ that we can truly know God's will for how we must live; and it is in Jesus Christ that we can know that, whatever the future holds, our lives are secure in Him. But we must remember also what God said about the prophet He would send in vs 19.

Those who don't listen to Jesus do so at their own peril. They will be accountable to God.