“The Lord your God will raise up a prophet like me from among you from among your brothers – him you will listen to” (Deuteronomy 18:15).
At the end of Moses’ life, he told Israel that in the future God would raise another prophet like him. At Sinai, Moses had received the Word of God and brought it back down the mountain to the people. So the time will come, Moses said, when another spokesman will act as God’s representative, revealing things about God that the people could not know if God had not spoken to the Prophet, and the Prophet had not spoken to the people.
We see here the meaning of “prophet”: a spokesman or mouthpiece (Exodus 7:1,2). We often think of prophecy as predicting the future (and sometimes it does), but the basic idea is that one represents God and speaks in His name. A prophet is one through whom God reveals His word to people.
We should not forget the importance of this point. God’s will cannot be discovered by human efforts such as prophecy, mystical experience, subjective feelings, or philosophical endeavor. Everything we know about God will be true revealed By him for us – Using an official spokesperson. The prophet can say, “Thus says the Lord…” and not just, “I think it’s true.”
By the Roman era, Jews were expecting the coming of a new prophet who would be like Moses. When John the Baptist began to preach, some people thought he might be a prophet: “When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, ‘I am not the Christ.’ And they asked him, ‘What then?’ Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you a prophet?’ And he answered, ‘No'” (John 1:19-21). John’s mission was to prepare for the man Was The coming prophet, Jesus Messiah.
“This is the one you will listen to.” This is what Moses said in Deuteronomy 18:15. And when Jesus was transfigured and his disciples saw him talking to Moses and Elijah, God said from heaven, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him” (Mark 9:7)
“Moses prophesied that the Lord would raise up another prophet like himself… This promise was fully fulfilled when God finally spoke through his Son. This was Peter’s definitive claim about Christ: ‘Moses said, “The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers” (Acts 3:22)” (Charles R. Erdman).
Gary Henry – WordPoints.com AreYouaChristian.com
