Hello Beloved,
As we continue our study of the names and titles of Jesus, we are currently in the Old Testament. Last month, we considered the name of “Shiloh” and its implications in describing the Christ. This week we will consider the prophet “like Moses.” We read of this individual in Deuteronomy
18:15-18, Moses writes:
15 “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— 16 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.’ 17 And the LORD said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. 18 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.
Deuteronomy 18:15-18 (ESV)
One might initially think this that prophet would find its fulfillment in Joshua, the immediate successor of Moses, but the end of Deuteronomy nullifies this thought. We read, “And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,” Deuteronomy 34:10 (ESV) A close examination of this prophet from Deuteronomy 18 helps us to understand that like Moses, God would communicate to this prophet directly, and then this prophet would communicate directly to the people. That’s exactly what happened at Horeb (or Sinai) when the Lord spoke to the people, and the people asked Moses to intercede for them because they were petrified of God’s voice. As Ajith Fernando points out, in one sense this could be descriptive for any of God’s prophets in that the people were called to listen to God’s prophet, (v. 15) and the prophet was required to speak the words that God put in His mouth. (v. 19) However, the “face-to-face” characteristic of this prophet, which closely resembled Moses’ ministry, most clearly finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus.
In the period between the Old and New Testament, it became clearer to God’s people that the prophecy of Deuteronomy 18:15-19 referred to one single prophet as opposed to just the prophetic office in general. When John the Baptist came on the scene, the question was posed, “’Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.”’ John 1:21 (ESV) At least twice, during Christ’s ministry, the observing Jewish multitudes recognized Jesus as this prophet. In John 6:14, it was said of Jesus after the feeding of the five thousand, ‘“This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”’
John 6:14 (ESV) Further, at the end of the Feast of Booths the multitudes heard Jesus claim that through belief in Him one would expel “rivers of living water.” They then exclaimed, ‘“This really is the Prophet.”’ John 7:40 (ESV) Further, in the gospel of John, Jesus Himself could have been alluding to his fulfillment of this prophecy when he stated to the religious leaders, “For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.” John 5:46 (ESV)
It seems very clear that the Apostles recognized Jesus as the fulfillment of this prophesy. After healing the lame man at the “Beautiful Gate”, Peter proclaimed to the crowds regarding the fulfillment of Christ’s ministry, “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. 23 And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’” Acts 3:22–23 (ESV) Stephen, a deacon who was associated with the Apostles, may have been alluding to Jesus before the Sanhedrin when he said, “This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’” Acts 7:37 (ESV) Of course, as intimate as Moses was with God, meeting Him in face-to-face encounters at the tent of meeting, Jesus, the perfect God man, was much more intimate. No other merely human prophet came close to the intimacy Moses had with God, but Moses could not touch the connection of Jesus and the Father. In this sense, we could conclude that Jesus fulfilled the ideal of a perfect prophet. Of course, Jesus is more than a prophet, He is the very God-man who died for our sins. Further, in studying the life and ministry of Jesus, we discover the office of prophet was just one among three anointed ministries, including that of priest and king.
Until next time, this is Pastor Daniel writing, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.”