Post by Mark on Aug 15, 2009 5:47:17 GMT -8
Why is it that in the middle of teaching on how we handle our finances (Deuteronomy 12 and 14), Moses inserts a warning about false prophets? It could be that where you will find one, you will find the other.
Did not Messiah Yeshua justify Himself by His miracles?
And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
(Mar 16:17-18)
Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die. Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way.
(Joh 4:48-50)
If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.
(Joh 10:37-38)
The people of Israel did not believe in Moses because of the
miracles he performed. Indeed, one who believes because of
miracles retains a measure of doubt in his heart, since a "miracle"
can be done by trickery or sorcery. Rather, all the miracles he
performed in the desert were by necessity, not to prove his
prophesy: it was necessary to drown the Egyptians, so he split the
sea and submerged them in it; they needed food, so he brought
down the manna; they thirsted so he split the rock; Korach and his
company denied [his authority], so the earth swallowed them up;
and the same with all the miracles.
So why did they believe in him? Because when we stood at
Sinai, our own eyes saw and our own ears heard the fire, the
sounds and the flames, and how Moses approached the cloud
and G-d's voice called to him, and we heard it say: "Moses!
Moses! Tell them such and such..." As it is written
[Deuteronomy 5:4]: "Face to face G-d spoke with you" and [ibid.
5:3], "Not with our ancestors did G-d make this covenant..." The
event at Sinai alone is the proof that Moses' prophesy is true
without the shadow of a doubt, as it is written [Exodus 19:9],
"Behold, I shall come to you in a thick cloud, so that the people
should hear Me speak to you and also believe in you forever."
From this we see that prior to that, they did not believe in him
with a faith that is everlasting, only with a faith that leaves a
possibility for doubts and second thoughts.
Thus, the ones to whom Moses was sent, they themselves are
the witnesses that his prophesy is authentic, so that he needn't
perform any proofs for them. He and they both witnessed [his
prophesy] together, like two witnesses who witnessed
something together, each one of whom is a witness that his
fellow is saying the truth, and neither of whom requires any
proof of the other's honesty...
So if a prophet arises and performs signs and great wonders
and seeks to deny Moses' prophesy, we do not listen to him,
and we know with certainty that these sign are by trickery and
sorcery. For Moses' prophesy is not based on proofs, that we
should weigh these proofs against those proofs. Rather, we saw
it with our eyes and heard it with our ears, just as Moses did.
This is as if witnesses would testify to a person regarding
something he saw with his own eyes that it was not as he saw it;
this person would take no heed of them, but know surely that
they are false witnesses...
(Mishneh
, Laws of the Fundamentals of 8:1-3)
