““When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there. For example, never sacrifice your son or daughter as a burnt offering. And do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord. It is because the other nations have done these detestable things that the Lord your God will drive them out ahead of you. But you must be blameless before the Lord your God. The nations you are about to displace consult sorcerers and fortune-tellers, but the Lord your God forbids you to do such things.” Moses continued, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. For this is what you yourselves requested of the Lord your God when you were assembled at Mount Sinai. You said, ‘Don’t let us hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore or see this blazing fire, for we will die.’ “Then the Lord said to me, ‘What they have said is right. I will raise up a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell the people everything I command him. I will personally deal with anyone who will not listen to the messages the prophet proclaims on my behalf. But any prophet who falsely claims to speak in my name or who speaks in the name of another god must die.’ “But you may wonder, ‘How will we know whether or not a prophecy is from the Lord?’ If the prophet speaks in the Lord’s name but his prediction does not happen or come true, you will know that the Lord did not give that message. That prophet has spoken without my authority and need not be feared.”
Deuteronomy 18:9-22 NLT
The ancient world is different than the modern world. In the ancient world, the main dilemma in rooting your faith in a deity, was not in overcoming rationality. Our modern sensibility is that we can explain everything away including supernatural things. It was not theirs. They assumed outside forces were at play. They had no hubris in their epistemology of the world. The question for them, was which god should they choose. With our modern hubris, we believe we can understand everything with only empiricism. Our choice is whether to believe in a god at all, before we can believe in the god. Though they were prone to belief, God, progressively, didn’t want their irrationality. His standard required them to find him to be a logical choice. To know that he was God, he wanted them to observe it. This secured his place as n the pantheon, despite how you would choose to allow for its existence, but it also instilled important virtues in those with faith. His faithful would be discerning, rational and patient. They would value history, nature and previous prophecy as a standard by which to judge truth. They wouldn’t be prone to idolatry, and therefore sin, despite their sinful nature. Our faith ought to be of equal caliber.
Ancient vs. Modern Faith: Ancient people accepted the existence of gods and focused on choosing the right one, while modern people often question the existence of any god.
God’s Expectation: God wanted people to recognize Him as a logical choice through observation, promoting rationality and discernment in faith.
Importance of Rationality: Modern faith should be equally rational, valuing history, nature, and prophecy to discern truth and avoid idolatry.
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