Again in chapter 16 we have the principal annual feasts covered. The Passover (verses 1-8); the Feast of Weeks (verses 9-12); and the Feast of the Tabernacle (verses 13-17). Then in verses 18-22 God assures the people that the judges and officers that are to judge the tribes will give the people just judgment.
In verse 1 of chapter 17 we notice the offerings that were sacrificed to the Lord must be unblemished or they were an abomination unto the Lord. Verses 2-7 cover the condemnation of all idolators. Their condemnation was death by stoning, before witnesses. God tells the people in verses 14-20 that "when thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shall possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me." The kingdom came some 400 years later (see I Samuel 8). Samuel told the people that in asking for a king they were rejecting God. This is not a contradiction, it is just the fact that God foreknew that they would want a king. He is not approving their actions here in Deuteronomy, but He is foretelling them that generations later they would desire a king over them and would reject the form of government which God had given to them.
Chapter 18 contains one of the most specific predictions of Christ found in the Old Testament. Jesus Himself understood it (John 5:46) and so did Peter (Acts 3:22).
The Hebrew nation was being founded of God as the medium through which one day all nations would be blessed. The statement concerning the Messiah definitely tells us that we would be given another Prophet (Jesus, Who would bear God's message to all nations). Judaism was to be superseded by Christianity (the day of grace). God's plan of salvation is found in Ephesians 2:8,9: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." We are not saved by keeping the Law, but by faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, who completely fulfilled the Law.
