I was skeptical. But I did not want to quench the faith and determination of this young believer.
We received permission from the head of the maternity ward to go in and pray. I thought that we
would go through the entire ward and pray for babies one by one. But the head doctor had a
different idea. She only allowed us to pray for the babies who were terminal. The first day we
went there were three babies prepared for us to see: two of the babies had the same disease as
Rezas and the third baby had meningitis. During the course of the week, one of the babies died.
The baby with meningitis had had a successful operation and went on to recovery. The third
baby gained health steadily each day. What was remarkable about this latter baby was that it was
not receiving any treatment. Due to the impoverished conditions, health care was on a pay as you
go basis. Since the parents of the child assumed it was going to die they stopped paying for
treatment and abandoned the baby to die. The baby was sitting in an incubator with no other
care. After we prayed the baby experienced steady growth back to health. After a few days the
parents were informed that the baby was recovering. They began paying for care and after a
week the baby was sent home well. This caused quite a stir in the hospital. For the next three
months, Hossein and I were called to the hospital once a week to pray for the sick. Each week at
least one person was healed and some were very dramatic. Today Hossein pastors a church in
Tajikistan, many of his family members are saved, and his son Reza is a healthy eight-year-old
boy.
These case studies show that missionaries, biblical scholars and others from the church in the
West are often challenged when they minister in third world contexts. Often times the local
people have much different assumptions about and higher expectations of the supernatural
activity of God. Let us now look at Deut 18 as an example of a text with a worldview that
confronts a Western Enlightenment one. Deut 18 is significant because it contains the longest
list of prohibited magic and occult practices in Scripture.
III. Deuteronomy 18 as a Paradigm for a Supernatural Worldview
Introduction
This passage is neatly divided into three parts: 1) instructions for caring for the priests of the
tribe of Levi who serve the people by ministering in the presence of the one true God, Yahweh
(vv. 1-8); 2) the prohibitions about not participating in detestable and illegitimate ways to
contact Yahweh or any other gods or spirits (vv. 9-14); 3) and the primary means by which
people can receive guidance and power from Yahweh: the prophetic (vv. 15-22).
A. The Priests 18:1-8
A significant block of the nation of Israel, the Levites, are to be dedicated to the exclusive
worship of Yahweh. Yahweh is their inheritance (v. 2); they are to minister in His name always
(v. 5); there will be Levites who will have a longing to minister to Yahweh at the central
sanctuary. They may sell what they have and move in order to go and minister there (vv. 6-8).