Handling Hashem with Care

On the "prophets" who presume to speak in the Lord's name

Deuteronomy 18:15-20

The Old Testament lectionary text for this Sunday is from the Book of Deuteronomy:

The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet. This is what you requested of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said: "If I hear the voice of the LORD my God any more, or ever again see this great fire, I will die."

Then the LORD replied to me: "They are right in what they have said. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command.
Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable. But any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, or who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak--that prophet shall die."

The Lord’s warning about the danger and indeed ubiquity of false prophets feels timely. Jesus has a serious PR problem in America in no small part due to the preachers, prophets, and prayer-warriors presuming to speak in THE NAME so holy Jews abstain from uttering it.

Hashem (Hebrew: השם‎‎ hšm, literally "the name"

Here’s the question posed to Christians by this Sunday’s passage:

• How do you assess that this self-styled prophet (and those like her) is a false one?

• How do you discern that the spirit she cites as her ecstatic authorization is not the spirit that is holy— the only spirit that is the Spirit of the Father and the Son?

Like Deuteronomy 18, John in his first epistle instructs the church not to believe every spirit, “but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” The exhortation is a clear indication that there are more spirits at work in the world than the Holy Spirit. Again, though, how do you so test the spirits? How do disciples distinguish between the spirit of _______ and the Spirit that is the third person of the Triune God? Remarkably, the task is not at all difficult for scripture straightforwardly supplies the criterion for discerning true prophecy.