Chapter 18

Levitical priests were to be given part of the sacrifices as their food.  Specific parts - one shoulder, the cheeks, and the stomach. 

Here is the reason that God gave Canaan to the Israelites.  This is why they were the particular ones to be dispossessed.  They had a land flowing with milk and honey, yet they pursued abominable practices in that land:

9 "When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the LORD your God, 14 for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this. [Deu 18:9-14 ESV]

At this point, I am certain that even "dabbling" in these things is a serious sin against God.  Ouija boards, tarot cards, and computer games where you cast spells are all equally sin.  Big mistake to participate in such things.  And the whole world is doing these right now.

God will raise up a prophet, like Moses, to replace Moses.  There may also be some false prophets.  Here is how you tell the difference:

21 And if you say in your heart, 'How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?'-- 22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him. [Deu 18:21-22 ESV]

2021 - So the people had specifically asked that God not speak to them directly.  So God gave them Moses to relay His words, and after Moses God says he will raise up another prophet.  This seems to be singular - one prophet like Moses.  The people are to listen to this prophet since it is through the prophet that God will speak to them, because they wanted it that way.  Yet they so often disbelieve the prophets that come, because they are men, and they just claim the prophets are wrong.  The next few lines tell them that some prophets will be false.  They will say things on their own that come from them and not from God.  Then there is the test for determining who the false prophets are.  They are the ones who foretell what does not come true.  So surely we have foretelling as a characteristic of prophecy in this time.  I think we can get from this that all prophets were foretelling at this time.  And if they got one wrong, they weren't real, and if they weren't real they were to die.  But ultimately, it was the false prophets they believed because the false prophets told them what they wanted to hear. 

Does this test still work, since prophecy is no longer considered to have foretelling as a characteristic?  Is it we who have re-defined what a prophet is, or did God change it?  Why would there be no more foretelling? Yesterday's reading...or recent reading...said that God would send false prophets showing false signs but who would lead them to other gods and they were to ferret them out and not follow them.  Why not us?

2023 - This is where a future prophet, like Moses, is promised:

15 "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers--it is to him you shall listen-- ... 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. [Deu 18:15, 18-19 ESV].  Some thought John the Baptist was this prophet.  Not that there is only one promised.  God doesn't say He'll send lots of prophets like Moses, only one.  And it would seem that the distinguishing characteristic of Moses and this promised prophet is that they both speak words that come DIRECTLY from God.  These are not "studiers" who learn new things and speak them.  God gives them words, and they speak those words.

2025 - This verse:

22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him. [Deu 18:22 ESV].  Based on this, I would make the argument that any prophet who makes not predictions at all is no prophet at all.  Prophets are to be tested by the accuracy of their declarations concerning events that have not yet happened.  If they do NOT do this thing, their truthfulness, their legitimacy as prophets of God, cannot be ascertained. 

Prophets in Moses day, David's day, Malachi's day, ALL predicted the future.  In Acts, prophets were predictors.  And yet today we say you can be a prophet and not predict at all.  I believe this is wrong.  Prophets have ceased, as have apostles, healing, speaking in tongues and miracles.  We need to stop telling people they are modern day prophets if we have no means of testing their words.  It is foolish and dangerous.