Bible Commentaries
Deuteronomy 18

Verses 1-22

In dealing with the priest who was already found among the people by the appointment of God, the fact that he was to have no inheritance in the land was restated. Then a special provision was made for any priest whose heart drove him to some particular service. He also must be cared for by the people.

Finally, turning to the subject of the prophet, Moses enjoined the people to beware of the false and to know the true In dealing with the false prophets he described their methods. They would be the practice of secret things, of dealing with the spiritual forces of evil in a professed attempt to discover the will of God.

The true prophet was then promised and described. The description given is brief but graphic. He would be one of themselves, receiving the words of God and uttering them to the people. All the true prophets of God that followed fulfilled this ideal in measure. The proportion in which they spoke to the nation the will of God with authority was the proportion in which they did so.

As we study these words concerning king and priest and prophet, we inevitably realize that the perfect fulfillment in each case came ultimately with the coming of the Son of God. He was at once King of His brethren without inheritance in His own land; Priest, abiding in the service of God and ministered to by the people of God; Prophet of His brethren, speaking the word of God in all fulness and in all purity.