ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

 TU’APULELULU MA’ASI 5, 2026

TEUTALONOME 17-20; HEPELU 1:1-2

We should never underestimate the magnificent, life-giving blessing that is ours by the fact that God speaks to us.

Mahu’inga ke ‘oua te tau ta’e tokanga’i ‘a e faufaua mo e tapuaki foaki mo’ui ‘oku tau ma’u ‘i he mo’oni ko eni; ‘oku lea ‘a e ‘Otua kiate kitautolu.

It doesn't take long in the biblical narrative for God to speak. After creating everything by the power of his word, God speaks directly to Adam and Eve (Gen. 1:27-28). Here are perfect people in a perfect world, with a perfect relationship to God, yet they are completely dependent on his words to make sense out of life, to be what he designed them to be, and to do what he created them to do. Shalom is shattered early in the redemptive story, when Adam and Eve decide to disobey the words of their Creator, to take their lives into their own hands, and to step outside of the boundaries that God had set for them.

If Adam and Eve, in perfection, were completely dependent on the word of the Lord, how much more were the children of Israel? They lived in a world full of evil, where lies abounded. They were about to enter a place where false gods would greet them at every turn and where magicians, sorcerers, and divinators would vie for their attention. They needed the true, pure, and trustworthy word of the Lord to cut through all the noise of false voices, so that they would not be deceived but would live as God had called them to live. It was a huge blessing, then, that God promised them not just one prophet, but a continuing line of prophet after prophet, so that God's truth and will would guide, protect, and correct them.

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- just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, "Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die." And the LORD said to me, "They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him." (Deut. 18:15-18)

What protecting, guiding, and correcting love! This promise means that God's people will never be without the word of the Lord, no matter who they are, no matter where they are, and no matter what they might face. As I read these words, I think of myself. I wouldn't have a clue as to who I am, without the word of the Lord. I wouldn't know how to live, without God's word. I wouldn't know what is true or false, apart from God's word. I would have no wisdom to offer were it not for the word of the Lord. I wouldn't know how to live with others, how to make decisions, or where to look for spiritual help and hope, were it not for the word of God. It's hard to think of a more important promise than this. And remember, this is a messianic promise. Jesus is God's final Word to us; his words and work are life to us.