context - our lesson’s teaching gains full significance when viewed against verses 15-22. In the preceding verses, Israel is instructed not to practice any of the seven current methods for discerning the future. Such an enumeration begs the question: then how can we discern guidance in our life? The answer is clear: guidance for life and the future is based on two things: 1) divine initiative (vs. 10-11; note the emphasis on the divine "I"); and 2) "Word" (Heb.: debar) as the overarching category though which God communicates via the prophet God’s present and future intentions.

the rise of prophets - "Prophets consistently and regularly appeared as charismatically endowed, and often richly eloquent, speakers and preachers. Their authority was claimed to be, and was usually accepted as, direct, God-given, and unconfined to any one family, locality, or tribal group. To outsiders and opponents, prophets appeared to be self-appointed speakers, but to their followers they were God-appointed revealers of truth that came through no other avenue of spiritual knowledge." [1]

origen [test the prophets] - "We can be prepared to find some prophet even of impiety-and perhaps not just one but several-who will tell us of a word of the Lord, which the Lord has not at all commanded, or a "word of wisdom" which has nothing whatever to do with wisdom." [2]

 

Would it frighten or delight you to be a prophet?

How would you contrast the role of the prophet with that of the priest?

Why did the writer find consulting other options for guidance utterly disgusting?

Who might come closest in your view today as a prophet?

 

Research the practices in verses 15-22 mentions;

Name current practices that we use to discern guidance and the future;

Shift to the passage and contrast the two qualities that the text holds out as the way God seeks to guide us to the movement of God in our lives-present and future.

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[1] New Interpreter’s Bible II (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998), page 429.
[2] Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture III (InterVarsity Press, 2001), page 304.