CHAPTER 18

(1451 B.C.)

PRIESTS AND LEVITES

¹The Priests the Levites, and all the Tribe of Levi, shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel: they shall eat the Offerings of the LORD made by fire, and his inheritance. (Only one of the five Levitical Offerings was consumed wholly, which was the Burnt Offering. The other four Offerings were to be given to the Priests, with the exception of the fat and certain other things of the animal, which were to be burned on the Altar. If the people did what they should do, which means they should offer Sacrifices as they needed to, which was often, the Levites would then have sufficient maintenance; otherwise, not so!)

²Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren: the LORD is their inheritance, as He has said unto them.

³And this shall be the Priests due from the people, from them who offer a Sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep; and they shall give unto the Priest the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw (parts of the animal).

⁴The firstfruit also of your corn, of your wine, and of your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, shall you give him (a tenth of their crops were to go to the Priests and the Sanctuary, i.e., firstfruit).

⁵For the LORD your God has chosen him out of all your Tribes, to stand to minister in the Name of the LORD, him and his sons for ever (continually until the Messiah would come, Who, by His Death on the Cross of Calvary, would bring to an end the necessity of Priests, and Sacrifices, etc.).

⁶And if a Levite come from any of your gates out of all Israel, where he sojourned, and come with all the desire of his mind unto the place which the LORD shall choose (only some of the Levites were engaged in the service of the Sanctuary; the rest lived in their towns throughout the country; if they should feel led of the Lord to go and serve at the Tabernacle or Temple, they should be accepted);

⁷Then he shall minister in the Name of the LORD his God, as all his brethren the Levites do, which stand there before the LORD.

⁸They shall have like portions to eat, beside that which comes of the sale of his patrimony (having sold his home; he should not be expected to use those funds, whatever they may have been, but should share in the Offerings brought, the same as the other Priests, or Levites).

PAGAN PRACTICES FORBIDDEN

⁹When you are come into the land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not learn to do after the abominations of those nations (again and again, Israel was warned concerning this).

¹⁰There shall not be found among you any one who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire (human sacrifice), or who uses divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,

¹¹Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. (The last is one who professed to call up the dead, and from them to learn the secrets of the future. All of these things had to do with witchcraft, and were not at all to be a part of Israel, and for all the obvious reasons. Israel was to look to God, and never to these abominations.)

¹²For all who do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD your God does drive them out from before you (in other words, this is at least part of the reason that these heathen tribes were driven from Canaan).

¹³You shall be perfect with the LORD your God (the word perfect means single-hearted, that is, pure from idolatry).

¹⁴For these nations, which you shall possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for you, the LORD your God has not suffered you so to do.

THE PROPHET MESSIAH

¹⁵The LORD your God will raise up unto you a Prophet from the midst of you, of your brethren, like unto me; unto Him you shall hearken (that Prophet would be the Lord Jesus Christ);

¹⁶According to all that you desired of the LORD your God in Horeb in the day of the Assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the Voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not (the Holiness of God was more than Israel could stand).

¹⁷And the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken.

¹⁸I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto you, and will put My Words in His Mouth; and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him. (All that Christ taught and the very words He used in His Teaching were from God. There was no misgiving in the Divine Mind as to that certitude. Seven times He asserted that all His Words and Statements were given to Him by God.)

¹⁹And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto My Words which He shall speak in My Name, I will require it of him. (Israel had to answer for their rejection of Christ. They would not heed His Words. They lost that generation, plus all the generations since, and they lost their Nation. Likewise, every person now who hears the Gospel and turns Christ aside will one day answer for what he has heard. It is called the Great White Throne Judgment [Rev. 20:11-15].)

FALSE PROPHETS

²⁰But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in My Name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die (that was the sentence in Israel, and for all the obvious reasons; it is the same presently, spiritually speaking).

²¹And if you say in your heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?

²²When a prophet speaks in the Name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken, but the prophet has spoken it presumptuously: you shall not be afraid of him (how many self-anointed prophets presently are constantly giving forth prophecies, even with names and dates, which do not come to pass; and the modern Church is so jaded, they do not seem to realize that they have been hearing a false prophet).