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Of False Prophets in General
v. 1. If there arise among you, in your midst, a prophet, one pretending to be sent by the Lord, or a dreamer of dreams, (the latter were mediums through which the Lord had promised to make known His will, Num_12:6), and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, for the servants of Satan, with God's permission, are also able to show great signs and wonders, Mat_24:24,
v. 2. and the sign or the wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee, since the power of Satan is very great, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; that is invariably the purpose connected with the signs and wonders as they are performed by the false teachers, also the healers of our day, no matter to what extent they are genuine, namely, to lead men away from the true God, into misbelief, despair, and other great shame and vice;
v. 3. thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord, your God, proveth you, He uses the temptation of the false teachers to test the genuineness of the believers' faith, to know whether ye love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul. No matter, then, how strongly convincing the miracles of the false prophets are or seem to be, the Word of the Lord, which had been received by them and confirmed by the signs of Jehovah, should remain their one standard and criterion, from which they should not deviate.
v. 4. Ye shall walk after the Lord, your God, follow Him alone, in trustful obedience, and fear Him, and keep His commandments, and obey His voice, as it was definitely transmitted to them in the words of Moses, and ye shall serve Him, and cleave unto Him, cling firmly to the sure Revelation of His will, and make that the standard according to which all preaching in their midst should be examined and tested, also that of the true prophets, Deu_18:21-22.
v. 5. And that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, he who made use of signs and wonders to tempt the people to idolatry, shall be put to death, because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord, your God, his words and actions having the aim of stirring up rebellion against the true God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord, thy God, commanded thee to walk in. That is what the efforts of the false teachers usually culminate in: those that listen to their seductive words are suddenly, and almost forcibly, pushed off the right road and placed on the path which leads to destruction. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee. Christians will heed the warning of the Savior to beware of false prophets and will not even be shaken in their faith by the apparently great signs and wonders which they show in our days.