Hear Ye, Hear Ye :: Deuteronomy 18:15-19

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Deuteronomy 18:15-19

I don’t know if you were listening a few minutes ago, but we have a listening problem. We think we listen. Some of us even think we are good listeners ... but very rarely, do we ever really listen. If when we do, listening actually takes skill ... like deer hunting or playing major league baseball. It requires us to be patient, and silent, even as the world around us screams for our attention. 

There are all kinds of reasons we don’t listen. Most often, it’s because we think too highly of ourselves. We convince ourselves that we are right and therefore others must be wrong. We convince ourselves a problem is someone else’s fault; that others are treating us unfairly. We think others will manipulate us in our listening, and so we don’t listen. 

Truth is, we have a listening problem ... we don’t want to listen. 

Listening scares us. 


This problem is as old as mankind. Adam and Eve didn’t listen. The world didn’t listen to Noah. The Israelites wandered and were exiled because they refused to listen. Our kings don’t listen. Our priests don’t listen. We don’t listen. 

Have you already stopped listening to me?


The prophets warned us to no end about this problem. You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear, although the Lord persistently sent to you all his servants (Jer 25:4) ... You dwell in the midst of a house of rebels who have eyes to see, but see not, who have ears to hear, but hear not (Eze 12:2).

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what are we to do? 

How do we listen? 

TO WHOM SHOULD WE LISTEN? 

The people dying to know the answer. Well ... listen carefully because the Advent of our Lord is nigh!

Moses writes, A prophet, from among you, from your brothers, like me ... YHWH your God will raise up for you; to him you will LISTEN because of all that you asked of YHWH your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, “Don’t let me HEAR AGAIN the voice of YHWH my God, and don’t let me see this great fire, so that I don’t die.” 

And the Lord said to me, it is good what they’ve SAID. A prophet I will raise for them, from among their brothers, like you. And I will give my words in his mouth, and he will SPEAK to them all that I will command him. 

And it will come to pass that the man who doesn’t LISTEN to my words which he will speak in my name, I myself will call to account from him. 

1.     These days it seems everybody’s whispering something in our ear ... pastors and politicians, the media and the mob on Facebook. 

They want us to listen. Half of it we don’t believe, and the other half, well, we’re wary of what they have to say. So we pick and choose what we listen to ... and God said it is not good. To whom will we listen?


So I think you can begin to understand the problem Moses is grappling with in our text, and why this text is so important for us today ... especially during this penitential season of Advent. Moses ... the prophet God has used to share his Word for the past 40 years ... is about to die. The people need to continue hearing the voice of God. They need to continue being reminded of where they’ve come from and where they are going ... who they are and who God expects them to be.

The result is the book of Deuteronomy. In it, Moses recalls for the people the history of Israel. He expounds on the Law. This was necessary because unholy people can’t be near a holy God. 

Listen, he told them, God has chosen you to be like him. You are his people. He is your God. And the world around you will tempt you to listen to a new voice ... their voice. As for you, the Lord, your God says, don’t do it (18:14). 

Well then, to whom should we listen?

2.     As Moses warned, there are plenty of false prophets we would rather listen to ... They tickle our ears with promises of prosperity. 

Israel was about to enter the Promised Land, where the inhabitants promised anything but a faithful word from the Lord (vv 9–14a). The Canaanites who occupied the Promised Land were lustful and idolatrous. They relished listening to psychics and ghosts. They sacrificed their children so they could have better lives. They devoured the word of their self-made gods to get every advantage they could in life.

Sounds just like our country today. 

All of these practices God says are an abomination. You can’t even watch the morning news today without them playing to your lust for more. These practices are all an abomination. Trusting in anyone or anything but God alone is an abomination.  Abominations are unadulterated sin. And these sins ... whatever yours is ... killing you.

You understand what your sin is, don’t you? 


I will warn you there are some pretty slick false prophets all within your earshot: And I know you have on occasion listened to them. Televangelists and even pastors down the street all proclaim such false teachings as ...

  • giving your heart to Jesus, and listening to your heart 

  • having faith that God will give to you whatever you desire, 

  • teachings that God only expects you to do the best you can, and that baptism and the Lord’s Supper don’t actually forgive your sins and thus don’t actually deliver to you life and salvation.


There is no doubt many of these false prophets think their word is sincere. Some of them really do mean to pass on faithfully what they think God wants us to hear. But words that are ripped out of context are words that are false and dangerous. We need to stop listening to them. 


So to whom do we listen?

The problem, as you know, is God’s word can be difficult to listen to. 

Have you read Deuteronomy lately? Reading the Law sometimes feels unbearable. How can we hear it? Moses constantly teaches and stresses works, and through the Law he makes everyone guilty of death and subject to the punishment for sin. He demands, and demands, and demands ... 

How can we listen to it? 

Like the people at the base of Mount Horeb, which we also call Mount Sinai, when the people of Israel heard the voice of the Lord, when they saw the great fire of God’s presence, they also became terrified ... because sinners cannot stand in the presence of a holy, righteous God and his demands. 


So to whom shall we listen?. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, God has heard our plea. And he has given us an answer. 

3.    Moses writes, The Lord our God will raise up a prophet like Moses to whom we should listen.

Jesus is our prophet like Moses. Jesus did something that only God could do. Jesus came to us to speak the words we could listen to ... words of grace, mercy, and peace ... words of righteousness and renewal of all things ... words of life and salvation. 

Jesus was a son of the tribe of Benjamin, born in the city of David ... truly one of us ... our Brother ... the true Israelite, just as God had promised. He spoke to us gently, lovingly, in a way we could hear, executing justice and righteousness silently on the cross. No longer do we have to tremble at the sound of the Lord’s voice. Jesus has fulfilled the Law for you. 

Now we can incline our ear to the saving word of our Lord. God has come to us ... in the flesh ... to be with us ... to be one of us ... to be like us. The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy. 


God ... in all his righteousness and holiness ... is with us, with no curtain separating us. He draws us to himself. 

He has called each of you and united himself with each one with you ... through baptism. He has destroyed the sin within you ... drowned it in the flood ... and raised you into eternal life, making you new in his righteousness ... so that we could bear the Word of the gospel. 

Let the earth now praise the Lord, who has truly kept his word, and at last to us did send ... Christ, the sinner’s help and friend.


This gentle voice of our God was possible only because we heard the loud cries of his agony as this prophet like Moses was beaten and crucified, humiliated and raised upon a cross, where he suffered the full wrath of God. Jesus ... the only sinless one ... took our iniquity from us to bear God’s fury for all those times we didn’t listen, for all those times we don’t listen, for all those times we won’t listen. 

He silently faced the agony of the cross so that through his sacrifice we can now stand before him face-to-face and not only listen to his Gospel ... but hear it and receive it with joy. Brothers and sisters in Christ, the forgiveness of sins is yours. 

Hear it and believe it ... the kingdom of heaven is yours all on account of Jesus.


This is the Word we can listen to. ... Jesus the Christ fulfilled the law for you, died under the law for you, and overcame the punishment of the law for you ... all so that he could proclaim to you the Gospel, that death has no more dominion over you ... eternal life is yours. This you can listen to. It is finished. The Lord is near all who call on him.


This is the Word we still hear today when Moses is read in our midst. ... 

This is the Word we hear as we return to our baptisms. ... 

This is the Word we hear as Absolution is pronounced. ... 

This is the word we hear when Jesus says, through me, that at this altar you are receiving his very body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins. ... 

It is the word of peace that surpasses all understanding. 


Brothers and sisters in Christ, I pray you hear this Gospel ... because now there is no need to be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

He will hear you. 

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