Deut. 18:15-22, The Mosaic Messiah: The Prophet (8)

Deut. 18:15-19

In John 1:45 we read: Philip found Nathanael and said …, ‘We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’  Jesus told the Jews, Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you – Moses in whom you trust.  For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me.  But if you do not believe his writings, who will you believe My words (Jn. 5:45-47).  

In his sermon after healing the lame man by the gate Beautiful, Peter proclaimed this warning: For Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren.  Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you.  And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people’ (Ac. 3:22-23).  Those words of Peter come from today’s passage.  Stephen, in his sermon that led to his martyrdom, also referred to the Prophet prophesied by Moses (Ac. 7:37).

This Messianic prophecy given through Moses is the last one.  What Moses said was that after he was gone there would be another Prophet like him that God would send.  The people, at Mt. Sinai, had told Moses that he should speak for God.  They were so afraid of God they didn’t want to hear directly.  Whatever you think of the motivation of the people, this defines a prophet.  He comes between God and man, and speaks to the people what God tells him to say.  (The priest also comes between God and men, and offers sacrifices to God to appease Him, so that the priest can then pray, or speak to God on behalf of the people.)

How do we know Moses was talking about the Messiah?  After all, God sent many prophets after Moses before Messiah came.  Some we know, like Samuel, Nathan, Elijah and Elisha, and those whose names are on Old Testament books.  There were others whose names we don’t know.  There was even a School of the Prophets (1 Sam. 19:18-24), whose attendees were called “sons of the prophets” (1 Ki. 20:35).  Their purpose was, as v17-18 says, to tell everything I command him. 

As you read today’s passage however, it should be clear that Moses has one particular prophet in mind.  The word in Hebrew is singular.  This was how the Jews understood the promise.  And as we noted in the beginning of this post, this was how the earliest believers in Christ understood Moses’ words.  Don’t be confused.  The Jews often referred to Jesus as “a prophet” (e.g. Jn. 9;17).  But He was preeminently the Prophet, the One who not only spoke the Word of God but was the Word of God.  He ended the need for others to speak God’s words in any “original” sense.  New Testament prophets only spoke what Christ had already said.  Hebrews 1:1-3 makes this clear.  God, who spoke through the prophets in previous times, in Christ spoke with finality.