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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Saturday, 10 May 2025:
Deuteronomy 18:1–2 — “The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the LORD’s food offerings as their inheritance. They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the LORD is their inheritance, as he promised them.”
The Levites were set apart from the other tribes to serve in the presence of God, and as a result, they were not given territorial inheritance in the land like the rest of Israel. Instead, the Lord Himself was their inheritance. Their provision came not from land ownership or wealth accumulation but from the offerings brought to God and from His faithful care. This profound reality foreshadows the calling of all believers in Christ, who have become, as Peter says, “a royal priesthood, a holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9). Revelation 1:6 declares that Christ “has made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father.” Like the Levites, we are called to live with God Himself as our inheritance, not placing our ultimate hope or identity in the accumulation of material possessions.
This truth reorients how we live and handle resources. If God is our portion, then our security is not found in worldly wealth or status. Instead, our lives should reflect radical generosity, contentment, and stewardship, using what we have to honor the Lord and bless others. As Jesus taught, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth… but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:19–20). Just as the Levites lived to serve God and depended on His provision, so we as New Covenant priests are called to live simply, trust deeply, and give freely, with hearts fixed on the eternal inheritance reserved for us in Christ (1 Peter 1:3–4).
Deuteronomy 18:9 — “When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations.”
As Israel entered a land filled with spiritual darkness, God gave clear warnings against adopting the religious practices of the surrounding nations. Such practices not only violated God’s holiness but distorted the truth about who He is and how He desires to relate to His people. For Christians today, this serves as a stark warning against modern-day beliefs and practices which claim some sort of authority over God’s revealed truth in Scripture. God’s people are to be distinct, guided not by superstition, pseudo-science, or cultural trends, but by His Word. Today, many ungodly beliefs and practices have crept into the church as human pridefulness has claimed a form of enlightenment which has claimed God’s word to be culturally irrelevant if not all together obsolete. “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” (Galatians 6:7)
Deuteronomy 18:12 — “For whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you.”
Why did God judge the Canaanite nations so severely? Because their religious practices were not neutral or benign but offensive to a holy God. His judgment was just and serves as a sobering reminder that spiritual rebellion has real consequences. God’s justice and holiness are unchanging. We are not free to shape God into our own image or adopt the values of the world around us. Instead, we are called to walk in reverent fear of the Lord, trusting His justice and submitting to His authority. While we are to show grace to those who are outside of the faith and the Kingdom, we must not allow our grace to become complacency, carelessness, callousness, or culpability. We cannot forget the consequences of unbelief to those who Christ came to offer salvation. In our pluralistic society, we run the risk of saying and doing very little in order to avoid offending those who are perishing all around us.
- Ezekiel 3:17-21 — “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul. Again, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds that he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning, and you will have delivered your soul.”
- Proverbs 11:30 — The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise.
Deuteronomy 18:13 — “You shall be blameless before the LORD your God.”
This command reflects the call to moral and spiritual purity. To be “blameless” does not mean perfect, but it does mean wholehearted—completely loyal to God, with no divided allegiance. In a culture saturated with competing ideologies and spiritual confusion, Christians are called to live with integrity, sincerity, and unwavering commitment to God. Our lives should reflect that we belong to Him alone. This blamelessness is possible not through self-effort but through Christ, who makes us holy and empowers us to live out our calling.
Deuteronomy 18:15 — “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen…”
This verse is one of the most significant messianic promises in the Torah. Moses, nearing the end of his life, points Israel forward to another prophet—one like himself—whom God will raise up from among their own people. Israel is instructed to listen to this prophet, and throughout the centuries, devout Jews would wait for the fulfillment of this promise. This is not just a generic prophet but the Prophet—Jesus Christ—who would reveal God’s will perfectly. Jesus, like Moses, was a deliverer and lawgiver, but He surpassed Moses by being the Word made flesh (John 1:14), the perfect Prophet who not only speaks God’s truth but embodies it. He exposes our sin, calls us to repentance, and brings salvation through His own sacrifice. His life and teaching are to be heeded with absolute authority, for in Him we hear the very voice of God.
Deuteronomy 18:18-20 – “And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’”
God affirms that the prophet to come will speak His very words, and those who refuse to listen will be held accountable. This elevates the gravity of responding rightly to Jesus, who is the fulfillment of this prophecy. Rejecting Him is not a trivial matter—it is rejecting God Himself. In a world full of competing voices and shifting truths, Christians must affirm and proclaim the supremacy of Christ’s words. His voice must guide our doctrine, our ethics, and our hope. Our task is not only to listen but also to lead others to the One who speaks life.
True prophets only speak the word of God given by God. False prophets speak presumptuous words that God never said nor intended.
Deuteronomy 18 calls God’s people to spiritual purity, reverence for His Word, and total allegiance to Christ. The priests were to live off God’s provision, the people were to avoid the detestable practices of the nations, and all were to wait in hope for the coming Prophet who would speak God’s words perfectly. That Prophet has come—Jesus—and our calling is to hear Him, follow Him, shape our lives around His truth, and proclaim Him. This passage reminds us that our faith must not be a mix of Scripture and superstition or cultural normalization, but rooted in the sufficiency of God’s Word and the supremacy of His Son.
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 10 May 2025: Today, recommit to walking the word wholeheartedly. Establish, or re-establish, a plan for daily Bible study, prayer, and fellowship, and also develop a plan to practice in tangible ways the truths revealed in God’s word. For example, based on what you have read today, what is the one thing you need to do in response before this day is over? Write it down and do it!
- James 1:22-23 — James 1:22, 23 — But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.
Defenders Bible Reading Plan 