The Park Forum

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Deuteronomy 18 Listen: (3:08) Read: 2 Corinthians 11 Listen: (4:46)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Read: Deuteronomy 19 Listen: (3:04) Read: 2 Corinthians 12 Listen: (3:54)
Read: Deuteronomy 20 Listen: (2:55) Read: 2 Corinthians 13 Listen: (2:19)

Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy18.18-19

18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. 19 I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name.

Reflection: Prophets Like Moses

By John Tillman

Prophets speak about the future, but aren’t fortune tellers. Prophets perform signs, but aren’t sorcerers. What is a prophet like?

God says his prophets will be like Moses. God will put his word in their mouths and tell them his commands. God will hold accountable those who do not listen. Prophets speak to people on behalf of God.

We think of prophets as having spooky supernatural visions and experiences. They sometimes do. But most of the time, prophets’ “visions” are simple observations of human wickedness. When prophets speak, they usually address problems of the moment and promises for the future.

Problems of the moment can be problems people face or problems people cause. The people faced the probem of Pharaoh’s army. Moses said, “You will never see them again.” (Exodus 14.13) The people caused problems through rebellion, idolatry, and sin. Moses issued God’s judgments. (Exodus 32.30)

Promises for the future can be blessings or cursings, conditional or unconditional. Pharaoh heard conditional promises of plagues, suffering, and death if he did not let the people go. The people heard conditional promises of life, peace, and safety if they followed God’s commands. (Deuteronomy 28.9-11) God’s unconditional promise was to save a people for himself and bring them to a good land to prosper. (Genesis 12.1-3; Exodus 6.6-8)

Prophets speak of the future based on what God says about the present. Prophets see the now through God’s eyes and hear it through his ears. Prophecy is one of the gifts described in the early church community. (Romans 12.6; 1 Corinthians 12.8-10) We still need believers with this spiritual gift today. We must hear the cries of the poor, oppressed, and vulnerable before we speak about power. We must confess the reality of today’s sins before we speak of tomorrow’s judgment or salvation.

Are you a prophet? Do you see today’s problems? Do you know God’s promises for the future?

If you do not sense a prophetic call to speak, obey your calling to listen to today’s prophets. Prophetic messages are often uncomfortable or inconvenient. Resist the urge to grumble against them as the people grumbled against Moses. Beware “prophets” who always promise comfort and safety and say “peace” when there is no peace. (Jeremiah 6.14; Ezekiel 13.10)

Remember this, too. Every believer carries at least one prophetic message—the gospel. Go. Tell of the problem of sin. Tell of the promise of freedom, forgiveness, and salvation through the cross and resurrection of Jesus. Be a prophet like Moses who sets people free. (Luke 4.16-20)

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Come now and see the works of God, how wonderful he is in his doing toward all people. — Psalm 66.4

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Tortured Prophets Department

Many who speak out against abuses in the church…of power and sexual abuse, found the track “Cassandra,” from Taylor Swift’s album, devastatingly relatable

Tortured Prophets Department — Readers’ Choice

Read more: Unworthy Prophets

May a better class of prophets speak the truth to power and to God’s people.

Unworthy Prophets

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Deuteronomy 17 Listen: (3:24) Read: 2 Corinthians 10 Listen: (2:45)

Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 17.16-20

16 The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the Lord has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.” 17 He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold. 18 When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. 19 It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees 20 and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.

Reflection: Kingly Qualifications

By John Tillman

Many places in scripture tell us God considered Israel’s request for a king an idolatrous act, a rejection of him, and a rebellion. (1 Samuel 8.6-9) Yet, knowing the request will one day come, God gave Moses a list of qualifications for kings.

The godly king Moses described is nothing like the ones Israel had and nothing like the ones we ask for today. In a poll released in July of 2024, Americans rated important traits in a president. They don’t compare well with God’s priorities.

God’s first requirement is to not build up expensive military resources. (Deut 17.16) The second requirement is sexual purity in marriage to just one partner. (Deut 17.17) The third requirement is to not enrich himself through his position. (Deut 17.17) Sounds tough already, right? But the last qualification is the kicker and most important.

God wanted kings to be biblical scholars. (Deut 17.18-20) The first task of the king was to write out his own copy of God’s law and to study and read it every day, so as to follow it without turning to the right or the left. As Tim Mackie of the Bible Project says, Israel’s king was supposed to be “a Bible nerd.”

These kingly qualifications aren’t binding on our political systems, however, we can evaluate political leaders or other kinds of leaders using these principles. It’s tempting to look at the list, despair, and complain that there’s no one qualified. We can blame the system and absolve ourselves from guilt over who we choose to support. However, there’s a twist…

In democracies similar to the United States, authority derives from the consent of the governed. You are the king. These principles are for you. The reason our leaders don’t match them is decades of us not matching them.

This is not just a technicality for citizens of democracies. It is a theological reality. With or without political power, we are the body of Christ, our king, on this earth. As regents and ambassadors of the Kingdom of Heaven, we are the rulers commanded to do these things.

To reign with Christ, develop the qualities of a godly ruler. Love and study the Bible. Do not enrich yourselves through misuse of power. Be sexually pure in marriage or chaste in singleness. Do not trust in violence or its tools but trust in the name of the Lord our God. (Psalm 20.7)

Properly representing Jesus’ kingdom will have effects on earthly ones.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Come, let us sing to the Lord; … For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. — Psalm 95.1, 3

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Kings Like Ahab

Victories don’t grant leaders a never-expiring stamp of God’s approval or mean a leader is “God’s man or woman.”

Kings Like Ahab

Read more: To Wicked Kings, Foreign and Domestic

We must abandon Jonah’s sinful wish to weaponize God’s wrath. God will not be our tool of destruction.

To Wicked Kings, Foreign and Domestic

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Deuteronomy 16 Listen: (3:25) Read: 2 Corinthians 9 Listen: (2:26)

Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 16:20

20 Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you.

Reflection: Sola iustitia – Justice Alone

By Erin Newton

What is justice? Is it simply enforcing what is legal? Or, as Christians, do we believe in a view of justice that exists beyond the bounds of the Constitution or any such government document?

Our contemporary culture has spoken at length about justice and across various topics from race to gender to politics to immigration. Justice is wrongfully withheld. Justice is woefully overused. Add the word “systemic” to justice and many heated debates ensue.

In his book, Ministers of Propaganda, Scott Coley examines various views taught from the pulpit that are founded on misleading rhetoric. In the final chapter, he states, “The persisting myth that we should regard those who demand systemic justice as false teachers or theological liberals is more than mere error: it presents a false image of who God is and what God requires of us.” Deuteronomy 16 supports such a claim.

In a series of instructions about festivals, including the Passover, God speaks of the importance of justice. He warns against accepting bribes because it “blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the innocent” (v. 19). Justice is to be protected from corruption and people are to be treated fairly—equally, without discrimination.

It is fascinating that instructions about how to govern the community are sandwiched between instructions on worship, as if God is showing the people that one must have the other. There is no proper worship of God if justice is corrupted. There is no justice for the people if idols are the center of attention.

What does it mean to follow justice and to follow justice alone?

When we define justice with our government’s version of legality, we make the justice that God commands relative. It only means something if our government has decreed it so.

When we pursue justice and our own comfort, convenience, or financial gain, we are not following God’s command to keep justice pure from corruption. That sort of justice preserves the status quo.

Following justice alone is in no way a self-seeking, self-benefiting action. Coley drives home the reality of what justice looks like: “Scripture provides not a single example of a false prophet demanding justice for the oppressed. By contrast, Scripture provides many examples of God’s prophets decrying the political or religious establishment for perpetuating systemic injustice.”

To follow justice is to be a prophetic voice, and that is always a voice for the oppressed.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus said: “As long as the day lasts we must carry out the work of the one who sent me; the night will soon be here when no one can work. As long as I am in the world I am the light of the world.” — John 9.4-5

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
 by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: What You Are Doing Is Not Good

An “outsider” came in and criticized Moses’ system of justice! “What you are doing is not good!”

What You Are Doing Is Not Good

Read more: Are There Ashtrays in Your Elevators?

Like ashtrays in elevators, there are always systemic, tangible, widespread, societal enablements of sins.

Are There Ashtrays in Your Elevators?