The Moses Test
Remember Y2K, the colossal, highly anticipated computer catastrophe that was supposed to paralyze the universe the moment we entered the 21st century?
We were told computers weren’t built to navigate into 2000 and probably would reset themselves to 1900, creating mass chaos by crashing and corrupting data everywhere. Power plants wouldn’t function, vault doors wouldn’t open, appliances would explode, communication networks would implode, the financial system would collapse, and life as we know it all would end.
But what happened when January 1, 2000, rolled around? Absolutely nothing!
Had that prediction been made by someone who claimed to be speaking for the Lord, the Law of Moses says he should have been put to death: “The prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak . . . shall die” (Dt. 18:20).
A prophet could not be wrong—not even once. Every single prophecy had to come to pass or the individual wasn’t a prophet of the Lord. God always knows the end from the beginning. That is why fulfilled prophecy confirms that the message and the messenger are from God: “I am the LORD, that is My name; . . . New things I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them” (Isa. 42:8–9).
When wicked King Ahab of Israel persuaded godly King Jehoshaphat of Judah to help him fight at Ramoth Gilead, Jehoshaphat first wanted a word from the Lord. So Ahab gathered 400 of his idolatrous, false prophets who all predicted great victory. “Is there not still a prophet of the LORD here, that we may inquire of Him?” Jehoshaphat asked (2 Chr. 18:6).
So they found Micaiah, who said the other 400 men had lying spirits. Angry, Ahab declared, “Put this fellow in prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and water of affliction, until I return in peace,” to which Micaiah replied, “If you ever return in peace, the LORD has not spoken by me” (vv. 26–27).
When they went to battle, Ahab disguised himself. But a random arrow “struck the king of Israel between the joints of his armor,” and he died that day at sunset, propped up in his chariot (vv. 33–34).
Everything God says will happen will, indeed, happen. Everything Jesus said would occur before He died transpired, and what He said will transpire in the latter days is beginning to take shape today. When the time is right, it, too, will come to pass.
Jesus passes the Moses test with flying colors. So when He speaks to us through His Word, we would be wise to listen.
