Trinity Baptist Church

Jesus Christ B.C.

A Prophet Like Moses

Deuteronomy 18:15-19

 

Here’s a Help Wanted ad you may find interesting:

 

Spokesman needed for international firm. No experience necessary, no education required. Must be between 20-85 years old. Full or part-time. Exciting job with lots of travel. Must be willing to move often, sometimes in the middle of the night. Must be comfortable speaking to large crowds. Will meet often with the CEO who will brief you on what to say to the public. Important that you be able to move in all circles of society–from the highest to the lowest. Good vocabulary a must, ability to speak in colorful images a big plus. Job entails unusual diet, including locusts and wild honey. Must look good in sackcloth and ashes. Unlimited opportunities for advancement. Low pay but the benefits are out of this world. Must be willing to endure ridicule, persecution, slander, and occasional beatings. This job carries only one significant negative aspect: Make one mistake and you will be stoned to death.

 

Any takers?

 

That ad describes the biblical role of the prophet. If you wonder about the last sentence, I assure it is true. The test for a biblical prophet was 100% accuracy. Make one mistake and you would be stoned to death.

 

As a matter of fact, the Jews had a well-defined procedure for stoning. The victim was stripped naked, with hands bound, paraded out of town and placed on a scaffold nine feet high. The first official witness pushed the victim off the scaffold. The second witness dropped a large stone on his head and chest. Bystanders then pelted the dying man with the stones. The corpse was then buried in a special place along with the stone that inflicted the fatal blow. No mourning ceremony was permitted.

 

False prophets had to be stoned. The Law commanded it. That’s why prophecy was not a growth industry in the ancient Israel. It was a risky way to make a living.

 

Today prophecy is big business–and not nearly so risky.  Every day millions of people read their horoscopes, hoping to find guidance for the future. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent every year on astrologers, fortune-tellers and spiritists.

 

The Psychic Friends Network is celebrating the 21^st anniversary where you can go online for as little as .99 per minute to speak with a certified psychic and hear all about your future.

 

Just stop at any grocery store checkout line and for just a couple of bucks you can be completely informed about events that are set to happen in the near future.   And for the most part, what we read there will cause us to shake our head and chuckle.    

 

However, there are other prophets on the scene whose words are taken far more seriously. Down through the years we’ve heard men boldly announce that God had told them when the world was ending.  In 1988 and 89 it was Edgar Whisenant, a former NASA scientist offering his reasons for why the rapture would occur.

 

In 1994, Harold Camping predicted the Second Coming of Christ would happen between September 15 and 27, 1994. The then 72-year-old Reformed Bible teacher issued his claims on his nightly Open Forum talk-radio show, which aired the radio network he founded.

 

When the prediction didn’t come true, Camping said that God was testing the righteous to see if they would still be faithful to him. Unfortunately, many Christians believed Camping and were sorely disappointed when he turned out to be dead wrong about the Second Coming of Christ.

 

Not only that, but multitudes of unbelievers who heard about his predictions had yet another reason to dismiss the Christian faith.

 

Were these men prophets?  Well if a prophet is one who makes predictions, however wrong they may be, then, yes, they were prophets, but certainly not in the Biblical sense of the word.  And I would just say they are fortunate they didn’t live during the days of the Old Testament.

 

In fact, I would dare say there is not a professed prophet alive today who would stake his life on his predictions. But that’s precisely the biblical standard.

 

Now, false prophets have always been an issue.  In Deuteronomy 18 we find Moses warning the Israelites about false prophets.  At the same time, he makes a promise regarding a true prophet.

And then he offers them some guidance on how to tell a true prophet from a false one.

 

First,

 

 

Deuteronomy 18:9-14

 

Words could hardly be clearer. God detests witchcraft, sorcery, divination and every form of fortune-telling. God’s word here is precise, pointed, and penetrating. The people of God must utterly and completely separate themselves from every form of divination.

 

This completely rules out everything from astrology to using a psychic to black magic, superstition, consulting a Oija Board, using Tarot cars, palm-reading, ESP, voodoo, channeling, reincarnation, psychic transference, white magic, Satanism, talking to spirits, dabbling in witchcraft, omens, charms, totem poles, good luck symbols, praying to the dead, communicating with the spirit world, crystal balls, and so on. All of it is completely forbidden to Christians. These things are marks of paganism.

 

But as I mentioned, many people claim to bring messages from God.  So how can we tell when the person speaking is truly from God?

 

Verses 20-22 give us two tests we can use.

 

The first is the test of truth

 

Verse 20

A true prophet speaks the true words of God. That means you must check out a prophet’s words against the true Word of God, the Bible. His words must match both the letter and the spirit of the Bible. If anything he says contradicts the Bible in any way, forget it. That man (or woman) is not from God.

 

The second test is the test of accuracy.

 

Verses 21-22

 

Again, the test is simple. Check out his prediction against the actual results. If what he says comes true, then you can be confident he is a true prophet of God. If not, you can ignore him because he is not speaking for God.

 

So the two tests for a prophet are truth and accuracy.  A true prophet will measure up on both counts all the time.

 

The word “prophet” literally means “one who speaks on behalf of another.” Applied to the biblical prophets, it means “one authorized to speak on behalf of God.”

 

That means when men like Isaiah spoke, he could claim divine authority for his words. He was literally acting as God’s spokesman. That’s why his words had to be 100%. As long as he spoke only for himself, he could make any number of mistakes. But when he claimed to speak for God, he had no margin for error.

 

A biblical prophet had two primary functions:

 

1. He delivered God’s message to his own generation.

 

2. He predicted the course of future events.

 

In the first role, the prophet upheld God’s righteousness and condemned injustice of every variety.

 

The prophets often dealt with social issues, and condemned men on these grounds. They dealt with problems of immorality and revealed the standards of God’s holiness. They dealt with the problems of drunkenness and condemned the overuse of wine. They condemned the oppression of the poor, the fatherless and the widow. They condemned unjust extortion and interest rates, and taxation where it was not due. They condemned greed and avarice. They condemned businessmen for using false weights and improper balances.

 

Because of the boldness of their message, the prophets were often very unpopular. Many were hated and persecuted and some were put to death (Matthew 23:34).

 

In the second role, the prophets predicted the rise and fall of nations, the outcome of military battles, and the coming judgment of God on disobedient kings.

 

Sometimes their predictions were immediately fulfilled, but often centuries would pass before the predicted events would occur.

But in every case, the prophets were held to the strict standard of 100% accuracy. This meant that often the prophets themselves would not live to see their words fulfilled, leaving them mocked by their contemporaries but vindicated by time.

 

Now, in Deuteronomy 18, God promises through Moses to raise a line of godly prophets in Israel. That line would culminate in one person who would be, Moses says, “A prophet like me.”

 

 

verse 15

 

Now Moses is not being presumptuous or arrogant.  He is simply repeating what God had told him.

 

Verse 18

 

Moses was the first and greatest of all the Old Testament prophets.  After all, he spoke with God face to face.  He was the man God used to work the great miracles in Egypt and in the wilderness. No other prophet after his time would approach his greatness.

 

In fact, his obituary, found in Deuteronomy 34:10-12, says exactly that.  A lot of other notable men would come along.  Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Micah, Zechariah, and Malachi, to name only a few. Every one of them was a true prophet of God in the truest sense of the word.  But never was there another like Moses.

 

But Moses says, “One of these days, another like me will come along.”

And just in case you are tempted to ask what any of this has to do with Christ and Christmas, here is where the two intersect.  This prophecy of Moses in Deuteronomy 18:18 says the coming prophet will have four characteristics:

 

1. He is raised up by God.  That means he has a divine calling.

 

2. He will be like Moses.  That means he will have an intimate knowledge of and relationship with God)

 

3. He will be from among the people.  He would be an Israelite.

 

4. He will speak with divine authority, speaking the very words of God.

 

The Jews had always understood that this prophecy would one day be fulfilled in a literal way.  They fully expected an anticipated the coming of “the Prophet” who would either A) come just before Messiah or B) would in fact be the Messiah.

 

In fact, you see that expectation very clearly in the  dialogue between the Jews and John the Baptist in John 1:19-21. When they ask who he was, he said, “I am not the Christ.” “Who are you, then? Are you Elijah?” “No. “Well, then, are you the Prophet?” “No.”

 

When they said, “the Prophet,” both the Jews and John the Baptist understood the reference to be the prophecy of Deuteronomy 18.  The same thing happened to Jesus himself.

 

 

When he performed the miracle of feeding the 5000 in John 6, the crowd responded by saying, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world” (v. 14). Again, the reference is to Deuteronomy 18.

 

Later when he spoke to the multitudes at the Feast of Tabernacles, some of the people exclaimed, “Surely this man is the Prophet” (John 7:40).

 

John 5 records a long dialogue between Christ and his antogonists where they question his credentials to be the Messiah. At the end of the debate, he summarizes his position by referring them to Moses, who was universally revered in Judaism.

 

He basically accused them of not believing Moses’ words: “If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me” (v. 46). But where did Moses write about Christ? There are several possible answers, but none more obvious than Deuteronomy 18.

 

Then fast forward to the evening of Easter Sunday. Jesus suddenly appeared to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, but they did not recognize him. When Jesus asked what they were talking about, one of them replied that they were discussing Jesus of Nazareth, “Who was a Prophet, mighty in word and deed before God and all the people” (Luke 24:19).

 

Now think about all the words they could have used to describe Christ–Master, Savior, Lord, Redeemer–but they called him a prophet. When Jesus revealed his true identity, he called them foolish for failing to believe all that the prophets had spoken.

 

“And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (v. 27). I think He, no doubt, included Deuteronomy 18 in the discussion.

 

Let’s look at one final passage, just in case you’re still unsure.  In Acts 3, Peter heals a crippled beggar in the temple courtyards. When a crowd gathers in amazement to watch the formerly-crippled man walk under his own power, Peter preaches a powerful evangelistic sermon.

 

He tells them that this miracle had been done by the power of Jesus–the same man who had been crucified just a few weeks earlier. As part of his proof that Jesus is the promised Messiah, Peter quotes Deuteronomy 18:15, “For Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you.’”

 

Let’s consider Moses and Jesus and see if Jesus is indeed a prophet “like Moses.”  And I will tell you, I’ve always accepted that Jesus was a prophet like Moses, but as I began to examine the similarities, I was overwhelmed at the things I’d never contemplated before.

 

How was Jesus a prophet like Moses?

 

 

The opening chapter and verses of Exodus tell us about the oppression of the Israelites under Egyptian rule.  They are described as evil taskmasters and Moses was born under an oppressive, foreign rule.

In like manner, the birth record of Jesus begins with a reference to Caesar Augustus and his requirement of a census of the inhabited earth.  And once again, the people of God were under an oppressive, foreign

rule at the time of Jesus’ birth.

 

 

In both accounts a wicked king decreed that the male Jewish children under the age of two were to be killed.

 

Then think about the similarities in the Faith of the Parents

 

Moses' life was saved and preserved through the faith of his parents as his mother hid him in the ark and protected his life.

 

Jesus life was saved when an angel warned Joseph in a dream that they should take the child and leave Egypt because of the threats of Herod.

 

Both of the boys are Protected in Egypt

 

With Moses, it happened in the house of Pharaoh as his daughter raises the boy.  And in direct fulfillment of prophecy, Jesus is taken to Egypt by his parents and is protected there.

 

In a picture of what Jesus would endure at the hands of his own people, Moses was Rejected by the Jews

 

It happened as he was on the mountain with God, receiving the Ten Commandments that the Israelites asked for a god to worship because they didn’t know what had happened to Moses.  The rejection of Jesus came to fullness on the day of his crucifixion when the Jews called for his execution and for Barabbas to be released.

 

Both were Criticized by their Family

 

Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because he marries a black, African woman and they disapprove.

 

The family of Jesus accused him of being out of his mind.

 

By the way, Moses was criticized by his family because he took a Gentile wife. Jewish people criticize Jesus because, in figure or in type, He took a mainly Gentile wife, the church. The book of Ruth is read in the synagogues on the day of Pentecost.  It’s the story of a Jewish man taking a Gentile wife and man from Bethlehem who was called “the redeemer”.

 

Both men Fasted Forty Days and Nights

 

During the time God wrote the Ten Commandments we are told that Moses did not eat bread or drink water. (Ex 34:28)  In other words, Moses fasted for forty days and forty nights to bring a covenant to God's people.

 

Immediately after His baptism, Jesus fasted forty days and nights in the wilderness as He prepared to begin a ministry that would bring a New Covenant to God’s people.

 

Deuteronomy 34:10 says the Lord knew Moses “face to face.”  Moses had a face to face relationship with God as certainly Jesus did.

 

As a matter of fact, that face-to-face relationship caused the faces of both men to shine.

 

His Face Shone

 

When Moses came off the mountain after meeting with God, he glowed supernaturally.

 

After the transfiguration the Bible says the face of Jesus “shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.

 

 

In Exodus we read that God spoke to Moses directly from heaven and a voice was heard.

 

Three times during the earthly ministry of Jesus, God spoke from heaven to declare His approval of His son.

They were both Willing to Bear the Sin of their People

 

Exodus 32 tells us “Moses returned to the Lord, and said, "Alas, this people has committed a great sin, and they have made a god of gold for themselves.

But now, if Thou wilt, forgive their sin and if not, please blot me out from Thy book which Thou hast written!” (Ex 32:31-21)

 

Moses prayed to God to forgive the sins of his people and was willing to bear the consequences of their sin and their guilt.

 

But Jesus was saying, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." (Lk 23:34)

 

Jesus prayed to God to forgive the sins of His people and He was willing to receive the consequences of their sin and their guilt.

 

 

Listen to Exodus 3:13-14:  Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I shall say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?"

And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; And He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, "I AM has sent me to you." (Ex 3:13-14)

 

Moses revealed God's name to God's people.

 

I manifested Your name to the men You gave Me out of the world. And I am no more in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, the name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one even as we are. While I was with them, I was keeping them in Thy name which Thou hast given Me. (Jn 17:6, 11, 12)

 

Jesus revealed God's name to God's people.

 

 

During the wilderness wanderings, the people grew hungry and God supernaturally provided food for them.  They awoke one morning to find the ground covered with a white substance.  They asked Moses what it was.  Moses said to them, "It is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.” (Ex 16:14-15)

 

Moses fed God's people in large numbers, supernaturally.

 

Does that not remind you of the feedings of 4000 and 5000 as the Lord supernaturally fed the multitudes?

 

 

Since then no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, for all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to per-form in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh, all his servants, and all his land, and for all the mighty power and for all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel. (Dt 34:10-12)

 

Moses did miracles, signs and wonders as no other man before him had ever done.

 

But the witness which I have is greater than that of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish, the very works that I do, bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me. (Jn 5:36)

 

The Lord Jesus did works, did signs and wonders, and did miracles, as no one else has ever done

 

 

In the epistle of Jude, verse 9, we read that an angel guarded the tomb of Moses and when the women came to anoint the body of Jesus, the Bible says they were met by an angel who announced to them His resurrection.

 

 

Then he took the book of the covenant and he read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!" So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words." (Ex 24:7-8)

 

Moses went to a mountain, made a covenant with blood and covered God's people with that blood.

 

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place, once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. (Heb 9:11-12)

 

The Lord Jesus went to a mountain, made a covenant with blood and covered His people with that blood.

 

There were many great men of God in the Old Testament – Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Samuel, David - just to name a few. But there was only one prophet like Moses, the Lord Jesus Christ, the true Messiah of Israel.

 

Dear friend, I submit to you the evidence is clear and even overwhelming. Jesus is the Prophet like Moses promised in Deuteronomy 18. He is the ultimate fulfillment of a promise made 1500 years before his birth.

 

As such,

 

 

When Christ finished the Sermon on the Mount, his hearers commented that he spoke “as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law” (Matthew 7:29).

 

When I preach a sermon, I offer documentation, footnotes, references, quotes, etc. to back up what I am saying. I have to because I have no authority in my own power to teach the things of God.

But Jesus needed no footnotes! He had divine authority as the heaven-sent Prophet of God.

 

He claimed divine authority for his words.  He said his words would bring eternal life.  He declared that his words would not pass away.  He ordered his words carried around the world and He said that the ultimate destiny of men and women depended on their response to his words.

 

These are not the statements of religious leader. Only a Prophet of God can make such claims for himself. Therefore, when he speaks, we must listen because he speaks the true word s of God.

 

 

In John 3 Jesus explained why men turn away from the truth even when it stares them in the face: “Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil” (v. 20).

 

There is something evil inside every human heart that makes us instinctively hate the light and love the darkness. We turn away from the truth because it exposes the darkness inside.

 

But Jesus saved his most scathing words for the ultra-religious leaders–the Pharisees. In Matthew 23 he calls them a variety of names: “hypocrites” (13), “blind guides” (16), “fools” (17), “whitewashed tombs” (27), “snakes” and “brood of vipers” (33).

 

Because Jesus is the True Prophet of God, he understands the secrets of the human heart. Nothning is hidden from him.

Though men cover their sin with a thin veneer of religiosity, it’s does fool Christ for a sceond. He sees through the sham, exposes the sin, and calls it what it really is.

 

He knows the truth and he declares the truth, even when his words are sure to offend his hearers.

 

 

Most of us realize that Jesus made certain specific predictions regarding his Second Coming–he described in some detail the moral condition of the world in the Last Days, the attacks on Israel, and rise of false religion, and his own return to the earth. His words on this subject may be found in Matthew 24-25, Mark 13, Luke 17 and John 14. Since these events are yet future to us, we cannot check them for accuracy.

 

However, Jesus made at least five specific predictions that were fulfilled in his lifetime or shortly thereafter. These we can check for accuracy.

 

1. He predicted that one of his inner circle would betray him. That was fulfilled by Judas.

 

2. He predicted his crucifixion. That was fulfilled on Calvary’s cross in Jerusalem.

 

3. He predicted his resurrection. That was fulfilled on Easter Sunday in Jerusalem.

 

4. He predicted the coming of the Holy Spirit. That was fulfilled at Pentecost.

 

5. He predicted the fall of Jerusalem. That was fulfiilled in A.D. 70 by the Roman army.

 

Everything he predicted came true exactly as he predicted it. This is precisely what we would expect of the True Prophet of God.

 

Let’s go back one final time to Deuteronomy 18. When Moses promised a “prophet like me,” he added this important phrase in verse 15: “You must listen to him.” He also added a warning from God in verse 19: “If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him into account.”

 

If Jesus is the Prophet of God, then it would serve us well to hear His

 

 

When a prophet speaks, you only have two choices:

 

You can either listen to what he says or disregard his words.  There are no other options. If you say, “I’m going to think about it,” that’s really the same as disregarding him.

 

If Jesus is the Prophet of God, then each person must either listen or disregard his words. You have to make a choice. There cannot be neutral about Jesus. You are either with him or against him. You either follow him or you ignore him.

 

What is your verdict about Jesus? Is he really the Son of God? Can you stake your life on his words?

 

Before you answer, ponder the words of this famous essay written over 80 years ago.

 

Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty, and then for three years he was an itinerant preacher. He never owned a home.

He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never went to college. He never put his foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself.

 

While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While he was dying his executioners gambled for the only piece of property he had on earth–his coat. When he was dead, he was taken down and laid in a borrowed tomb through the pity of a friend.

 

Twenty long centuries have come and gone and today he is the centerpiece of the human race and the leader of the column of progress. I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that have ever marched, all the navies that ever were built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.

 

I urge you to consider the claims of Christ upon your life. Is the baby lying in Bethlehem’s manger really the Son of God? If he is, then you can do nothing less than give him your heart. Crown him King of your life and join the millions who willingly worship him as Savior and Lord.

 

Let’s pray