If there arise among you a prophet, or one that dreameth dreams, and he give thee a sign or a wonder,
Moses has just finished telling Israel how to worship the true God. Now he raises a disturbing possibility. Someone inside the camp stands up with a message from beyond, backed by a sign that works. So every generation faces the same question. Is supernatural power by itself proof that God is speaking?
The case is deliberately built at its strongest. The man is not a fraud whose prediction collapses; what he foretold happens.
Paul warned the Ephesian elders that "fierce wolves" would come in among New Testament believers. He said men from among their own number would teach twisted things to draw away the disciples after them (Acts 20:29-30). In the same way, Moses warned Israel here of what might happen among them — and did happen. A prophet or dreamer of dreams might arise. He predicts something about to happen, and uses this to back up his leading of others to serve idols. The thing he prophesied might come true. In that case, some would think the prophet must be right. But in fact, his prophecy being correct proved something very different.
What settles the matter is not the wonder but where it leads. When a sign pulls people away from the true God, one writer traces it to its real source.
Supernatural power has not the smallest value. In fact, keep well away from it if it weakens consciences about the true God. The same Spirit who has the power of miracle is the Spirit of truth and the Holy Spirit. If truth is abandoned, that shows the power of Satan is the source, and not the true God.
This gives an ordinary person a usable rule. You do not need to explain the marvel before you refuse it.
So reject at once any pretended miracle, or apparent work of power, that backs up what is not the truth of the word. I may be unable to explain them: that changes nothing; they are not of God. He can only give testimony to the truth. Let the sign be one of real power, as we have seen in Deuteronomy 13. If it denies the Lord or His word, it condemns the worker. But it does not deceive the one who knows the Lord and walks with Him.
Why would God let such a test come at all? The answer lies in what He had already made known to them.
God had already claimed their allegiance as the true and only God. They could not give that up, whatever happened. It was a trial of allegiance to Him. So in the New Testament, "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed" (Gal. 1:8). For God had already revealed the true gospel.
If a wonder can be real and still come from the wrong source, what protects a person? Not intelligence or education.
But, blessed be God, all the resources of Satan are powerless against a heart governed by the love of the truth. The craft, the subtlety, the signs and lying wonders, all the machinery of hell — none of it can touch such a heart. God Himself shields, shelters and preserves a little child who knows and believes and loves the truth. Such a child is safe from the blinding and deceiving power of the wicked one. Suppose ten thousand false prophets were to arise and perform the most extraordinary miracles ever seen. Suppose they did it to prove that the Bible is not the inspired word of God, or that our Lord Jesus Christ is not God over all blessed for ever, or to set aside any other precious truth revealed in holy scripture. It could have no effect at all on the very simplest babe in Christ whose heart is ruled by the word of God.
So how far does this go today? One writer marks carefully what carries over from Israel's law and what does not.
Have we learned to tell apart the ways of God in different ages? From Moses until Christ was the age of law. Among other righteous rules, death was the penalty for false teaching. It is otherwise in this day of grace. We must sternly refuse those who would mislead souls about the fundamentals of the faith. John, in his Second Epistle, warned even a widow and her children not to show such people the courtesies of life. But beyond this we have no authority to go.
- Sign. A wonder can be real and still come from the wrong source; fulfilment alone proves nothing.
- Direction. Test any claimed message by where it leads — toward the God who spoke, or away from Him.
- Test. God allows the counterfeit as a trial of loyalty to what He has already revealed.
- Safeguard. Love of the truth, not cleverness, is what makes a believer unshakeable.
- Response. Under the law the false prophet was put to death. Today we refuse him — and go no further.
and the sign or the wonder come to pass that he told unto thee, when he said, Let us go after other gods, whom thou hast not known, and let us serve them,
Moses raises a case that unsettles many readers. A prophet appears, predicts a sign, and the sign comes true — yet he calls Israel to serve gods they have never known. So which decides: the wonder, or the message that comes with it?
The verse does not describe a failed prediction or a cheap trick. It grants the prophet his success and still refuses him a hearing.
A prophet or dreamer of dreams might arise, predicting something about to happen and using this to back up his leading others to serve idols. The thing that he prophesied might come to pass. In this case, some would be inclined to think the prophet must be right. But the fact that his prophecy came true proved something far different.
Some will insist that real power must come from God. Commentators answer that a work you cannot explain is still no reason to follow it.
So pretended miracles, or apparent works of power, if used to confirm what is not the truth of the word, are to be at once rejected. I may be unable to explain them: that alters nothing; they are not of God. He can only give testimony to the truth. Suppose the sign is one of real power, as we have seen in Deuteronomy 13. If it denies the Lord or His word, it condemns the worker. But it does not deceive the one who knows the Lord and walks with Him.
What settles the case is not the wonder but where it takes you.
There are, indeed, two kinds of prophecy. One is true, the other false. One is divine, the other satanic. One is of God, the other of the devil. Spiritual help will draw the person nearer to God, strengthen him in the truth, and lead him in the paths of righteousness. Satanic deceit will lead him away from God and the truth, draw him into evil paths, entangle his soul, and lead him to eternal destruction.
Another writer names the goal the sign is serving, and where it ends.
The false prophet, or dreamer of dreams, confirms his claims by a sign or a miracle, yet his aim is to lead people into idolatry. False teaching, which leads away from God, is an abomination. It ends in the most awful moral corruption.
Israel's protection lies in a refusal to listen at all, before any debate begins. Writers tie that refusal to something inward — affection for God Himself.
"You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams" — even though the sign or the wonder had come to pass. "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." … Then, now, and always, the true moral security is having the heart fortified with the love of the truth. That is only another way of saying the love of God… If the enemy does not get the ear, he is not likely to reach the heart.
Nobody has to out-argue a miracle worker. The one who holds Scripture is already settled, whatever the display.
Suppose ten thousand false prophets were to arise and perform the most extraordinary miracles ever seen. Suppose they did it to prove that the Bible is not the inspired word of God, or that our Lord Jesus Christ is not God over all, blessed for ever… It could have no effect whatever on the very simplest child in Christ whose heart is governed by the word of God.
The danger did not end with Israel. Commentators point forward to the last days, and to one final deceiver.
Satan can work signs and miracles. He does so in the deceptive systems of the last days, and God permits it to test His people… The false prophet to come, the personal and final Antichrist, will do lying wonders. The many who did not receive the love of the truth will be permitted to believe the lie. One does well to be on guard whenever teachers claim some special power or signs.
- Sign. The wonder may come true. A prediction that comes true proves nothing about its source.
- Message. The sign carries an invitation: gods Israel never knew. That turn away from the LORD is what decides the case.
- Direction. True prophecy draws a person nearer to God and into righteousness. Deception leads away from Him and ends in ruin.
- Heart. The answer is not analysis but refusal to listen. God's test is whether the heart loves Him.
- Word. Let God's word govern the heart, and ten thousand miracle-workers cannot shake it — not even the last false prophet.
-- thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams; for Jehovah your God proveth you, to know whether ye love Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Here Israel meets a hard case: a prophet whose sign comes true, yet whose message pulls the nation toward other gods. The verse tells them to shut their ears, and gives a startling reason — the whole thing is God's test of their love.
A sign that comes true carries weight with almost anyone, and religion sharpens the effect.
We all know how easily anything that looks like a sign or a wonder leads the poor human heart astray. This is even more so when such things are tied to religion. It is not confined to the nation of Israel; we see it everywhere and at all times. A prophet rising up among the people, and backing his teaching with miracles, signs and wonders, would be almost sure to get a hearing and gain influence.
The verse assumes the sign comes true and still forbids listening. Power, then, is not the same thing as truth.
A false prophet may do signs and wonders to prove by them that what he teaches is truth. Signs and miracles are therefore no evidence of the truth. Spiritualism and Christian Science claim to be the truth. They often point to supernatural displays and miraculous healings in their cults as evidence. Satan can work signs and miracles. He does so in these deceptive systems of the last days, and God permits it to prove His people by it.
Since the miracle settles nothing, the direction of the teaching becomes the test.
Do not take even miracles as unanswerable proof that God sent the person who performs them... Someone may give a sign or wonder that really does come to pass, with the object of turning men from their loyalty to the true God... But the aim in each of these cases is to draw men away to what is apostate and evil. So test miracles by where they lead before you accept them as signs from God.
Another writer puts the rule in a familiar image.
A fulfilled prophecy is to be judged not by the bare fact of its fulfilment, but by its teaching, by the moral and spiritual influence it has on the individual. In other words, a tree is known by its fruit.
So what did the accuracy prove? Not that the prophet came from God.
More than that, such a prophet was to be put to death (v.5). His accurate prophecy only proved that he was influenced by satanic power. God was by this means proving Israel, as to whether they would put His word above the word of the most persuasive false prophets.
If God knows the outcome in advance, the trial is not for His information.
His threats, no less than the blessings He holds out to them, are there to prove what is in their hearts. He declares this again elsewhere (Deut. 8:2; Ps. 7:9; Jer. 17:10). But why test the creatures He has made, when He knows them perfectly and knows the outcome of every trial? Ah, it is the need of man himself and not of God.
What holds a person steady here is not brainpower.
It is the love of the truth that keeps us from error — however persuasive the error, however fascinating, however strongly backed by the powerful evidence of "great signs and wonders." It is not cleverness, intellectual power, mental grasp or wide learning. All these things are powerless in the presence of Satan's schemes. The largest human intellect must fall an easy prey to the schemes of the serpent.
The command is simply not to listen. There is a reason behind that order.
Then, now, and always, the true moral security is a heart fortified with the love of the truth. That is only another way of saying the love of God. Think of the faithful Israelite who loved the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul. He would have a ready and final answer for all the false prophets and dreamers who might arise... "You shall not listen." If the enemy does not get the ear, he is not likely to reach the heart.
One writer links this refusal to how the Lord Jesus answered Satan.
Does this not show it plainly? No claimed message from God could ever set aside that memorable word with which the Lord Jesus defeated Satan in the wilderness — "It is written."
- Test, not accident. A sign that comes true is no slip in God's control. It is His test of whether Israel loves Him with all their heart and soul.
- Test needed by us. God already knows the outcome; the proving meets the need of man, not of God.
- Test of direction. A wonder proves nothing by itself. Judge a prophecy by its teaching and its moral influence — the tree by its fruit.
- Test failed by cleverness. Intellect and learning collapse before great signs and wonders. Only love of the truth holds.
- Test passed by the ear. "You shall not listen" is the whole defence — no claimed message from God can overturn what is written.