A PROPHET LIKE MOSES

(DEUTERONOMY 18:15-19)

There can be no question that Moses looms large over the entire Old Testament. He is the great prophet to God’s ancient people. He led them out of slavery in Egypt and continued to lead them for forty years. Moses spoke to God face to face and was able to communicate to Israel what God had said directly to him (Ex 33:11; Dt 34:10). He gave them the Pentateuch, the foundational books of the Old Testament. Almost a millennium after his death into the latest ear of the Old Testament, his writings remained at the center of Israelite faith and piety. Could there ever be another Moses? As great as many of the Old Testament prophets such as Samuel, Elijah, Isaiah, and Jeremiah were, none of them was another Moses. Yet Israel continued to look for a new Moses. Why? Because Moses said they ought to.

In Deuteronomy 18, Moses demonstrated a keen awareness that when he died there would be a perceived vacuum of communication from God. Israel might be tempted to seek spiritual guidance in the same practices (Dt 18:9-14). Yet Moses was emphatic that “the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this” (Dt 18;14). Instead Israel was to remain steadfast and wait for God to send them another prophet like Moses. In fact, Moses was quite emphatic that this coming prophet was to be heeded:

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 of him [better: I will hold him accountable[.” (Dt 18:15-19)

Moses spoke of a particular prophet to come (“a prophet,” not “prophets”; “Him,” not “them”). Moreover, this prophet would come from the Israelites (“form among you”; “from your brothers,” and “form their [the Israelites’] brothers”). The future prophet would be like Moses in that at Mount Horeb—Mount Sinai—Israel asked for God not to speak directly to them but through an intermediary. They asked Moses to be that intermediary (Dt 5:27). Moses promised that God would send another prophet, who would also hear divine revelation directly and speak to Israel. Finally, those who refused to listen to this future prophet would be held accountable for their unbelief.

At the end of Deuteronomy, a later author added a final chapter that tells of Moses’ death. Then he noted that in his day a prophet like Moses had not arisen:

And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel. (Dt 34:10-12)

This passage further defines the prophet like Moses, noting that no prophet yet had done what Moses did: Moses spoke to God face to face, had a ministry not simply to Israel but also to non-Israelites, and did manifold miracles that displayed “mighty power” and were awe-inspiring deeds. The “deeds of terror” were the plagues on Egypt.

In Jesus’ day, Israel had seen a procession of prophets. Some, like Elijah and Elisha, had performed great and impressive miracles. Some, like Jonah and Daniel, ministered to non-Israelites. Yet, in the first century the Jewish people were still looking for a prophet like Moses, who would do all these things. When Jon the Baptist appeared, there were those who wondered whether he was “the Prophet,” meaning the prophet like Moses (Jn 1:21, 25, emphasis added). John denied that he was that prophet, but he pointed to someone who was already among them (Jn 1:26-27), whom he would identify as Jesus one day later (Jn 1:29-31). On the road to Emmaus, when Jesus asked the men what they were talking about their words convey that they thought Jesus was the prophet like Moses. They spoke about him as “a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people.” Of course, Jesus would use the Scriptures to demonstrate that He was exactly that (Lk 24:27).

Moreover, after Jesus fed the five thousand, the people recognized Him as “the Prophet who is to come into the world” (Jn 6:14). Just as Moses provided food for hungry Israelites—manna in the wilderness—so Jesus gave food to a hungry crowd in the wilderness. Later, at the Festival of tabernacles, Jesus prophesied that from those who believe in Him “out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (Jn 7:38). This was a clear connection to Moses, who brought flowing water from a rock in the wilderness (Ex 17:6).

In fact, the Gospels are peppered with parallels between Jesus and Moses. For instance, Moses was with the Lord on Mount Sinai in the wilderness for forty days, where he “neither ate bread nor drank water.” Jesus fasted in the wilderness for forty days. Moses brought the people God’s Word from Mount Sinai. So also, Jesus brought the Word of God to His people from a mountain (Mt 5:1). As a result of speaking directly to God on Mount Sinai, Moses’ face shone with the reflected glory of God (Ex 34:29, 34-35). When Jesus went up on a mountain to be transfigured, His face radiated glory as He spoke with Moses and Elijah (Mt 17;2; see Lk 9:29). The transfiguration shows us Jesus not only as one like Moses but also as even greater. Perhaps most important, there are only two prophets in all of Scripture who initiated a covenant from God: Moses and Jesus. Moses initiated Israel’s covenant with Go through the blood from sacrificed oxen (Ex 24:8). Jesus initiated the new and better covenant with His blood from His Sacrificed body.

In all these things, Jesus is the prophet like Moses, and Peter would proclaim Him as that (Ac 3:22). Moreover, the Messiah is a prophet greater than Moses whose miracles and deeds only foreshadowed God’s great salvation. By contrast, the Savior’s acts accomplished the redemption of the world. Thus, John compared Jesus to Moses, indicating that Jesus was the prophet like Moses who nevertheless outshone Israel’s great Old Testament prophet: “For from His [Jesus’] fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (Jn 1:16-17).