Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Deuteronomy 18:15-19:21

“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. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.

Deuteronomy 18:15-19 ESV

These words spoken by Moses as recorded in Deuteronomy 18 have been fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. As Peter said to the people in Jerusalem after they were eyewitnesses to him healing a crippled man,

“Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?

The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him.

But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead.

To this we are witnesses. And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.

Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.

Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’

Acts 3:12-23 ESV

Dear friends, for so long I, too, was ignorant. I didn’t know the Word, and I didn’t know that Jesus was God’s only Begotten Son, fully God and fully man, whom God the Father had sent to pay the price for man’s sins by His death on the cross. I didn’t know that I could be saved by trusting in Him, turning away from my sin and turning to Him. I didn’t know.

But now I do. I’m no longer ignorant.

And just like God has different punishments for an accidental killing versus an intentional, willful murder, God’s justice will be more severe toward those who have willfully rejected His offer of salvation.

If you have read even this one blog post, you can no longer claim ignorance when you stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Like Paul said to the religious men in the Areopagus in Athens, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31 ESV)

This Jesus is the stone that was rejected
by you, the builders,
which has become the cornerstone.
And there is salvation in no one else,
for there is no other name
under heaven given among men
by which we must be saved.”

Acts 4:11-12 ESV

Reject Him no longer. I pray that today will be the day of salvation for you and your household. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

Heavenly Father, Thank You for opening my eyes, for bringing me out of the darkness and into the light. Thank You for setting my feet on the solid rock of Jesus Christ, for hiding me in the Rock that was cleft for me, for passing over my sins because the blood of Jesus Christ has been applied to the door of my heart. This is all from You and for You. All praise and honor and thanks to You. I pray for those reading this today who are still wandering lost in the dark, who need their eyes to be opened. Please, Father, please. Show them Christ. In the Name of Jesus, my Savior and Redeemer and Lord. Amen.

And click here for an article on the topic of more severe punishment in hell for those who reject Christ.