The Prophet like Moses

I truly believe that one could walk up to a Bible for the first time, read its pages, and glean wonderful things from it. That is the nature of God's word - living and active, cutting between joints and marrow, killing and making alive. But the fact remains - his revelation to us is a cohesive unit, meant to be understood as a whole. In line with this frame of thinking, what makes so many of the things Jesus says so shocking to the Pharisees and Saducees is that it sounds so familiar to them - Jesus is re-scripting the drama of Moses and the prophets. And he is declaring himself the one in whom they all anticipated. One such example is when Moses foretells of the prophet to come, who will speak the very words of God. Hear what Moses says from Deuteronomy 18:15-18,

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."

Moses receives the Law from the voice of the LORD at Mt. Sinai (or Mt. Horeb). Fearing this voice, the people request that Moses speak to them. So Moses, as the representative prophet and lawgiver, enunciates the Law to Israel and pronounces its blessings and cursings. In Deuteronomy 18, however, the voice of the LORD says that there will be another prophet like Moses who will come bearing the very words of God in his mouth. The impression given is that this prophet will be greater than Moses - his capacity for revealing the mysteries of the commands of God to man will surpass that of his predecessor. The scene is set at a time when the people know they have not listened to Moses and all he communicated to them of God's law. But the LORD assures them that they will listen to this prophet.

Fast forward about 1400 years to another mountain overlooking the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus now speaks to the crowds (Matthew 5:1-7:29). He expounds to them both the deeper meaning and the reality of the commands of God. He tells them that he came to fulfill all that the Law and the prophets spoke. Preceding each explanation with a series of "you have heard that it was said...", he clarifies what the imperatives of the Law actually meant and the extent of obedience the righteousness of God required of them. And after Jesus finished speaking, "the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority..." (Matthew 7:29). Whereas Moses speaks with a derivative authority, declaring, "the LORD your God says...", Jesus speaks with the authority that no man possesses - " I say to you..."

It seems the greater prophet who comes after and supersedes Moses is the same voice that spoke with such authority that afternoon on the mountain overlooking the Sea of Galilee. The voice of the LORD that spoke to Moses at Sinai came down in the flesh and dwelt among men (John 1:14).

SDG