“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.“ – Deuteronomy 18:15
A prophet of God is a “seer,” one who beholds a vision from God, after which he becomes a spokesman for God. Easton’s Bible Dictionary states the word “prophet” comes from a root that means “to utter.” According to authors Gordon Fee and Stuart Douglas in How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, prophets had a distinct role in Scripture. God used them as “Covenant enforcement mediators,” in which they would encourage or chastise the people for their actions and whether it was consistent with the Law of God. “Their messages were not their own but God’s. They were God’s direct representatives,” and “the prophets’ message is unoriginal.” The prophets were inspired by God.
Moses fulfilled the role of a prophet by bringing God’s message of freedom from the bondage of Egypt both to the court of pharaoh and to the Hebrews, of receiving and enforcing the law that God would institute, and by acting as a representative of God as the people wandered in the wilderness. There were many prophets of God in the Old Testament who fulfilled the exact intentions of God for the people of that time, and of future times. However, after he had met Jesus, Phillip told Nathaniel in John 1:45, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
Dr. Bob Utley writes in his commentary that Jesus acted like the “new Moses: 1. Gave the law of the new covenant (Matthew 6-7); 2. Fed the people as they expected (John 6); 3. Met God on a mountain (Matthew 17), and 4. Interceded for the covenant people (John 17).” Theologian John MacArthur agrees, “Both the OT and the NT interpret this passage as a reference to the coming Messiah.” So does Bible teacher, preacher, and author Henry Ironside, who said, “Christ Jesus is the prophet who like unto Moses is the deliverer and leader of His people, freeing from Satan’s bondage, and leading in triumph to the rest that remains for the people of God.”
As you see glimpses of Jesus in the experiences and lives of people in the Old Testament, give thanks to God that He has never left people to wonder about Who He is and His love for them. Then praise Him that such love extends to you forever.
Today’s Verse: Deuteronomy 18:15
“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—
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Recommended for further reading: Deuteronomy 18:14-20
14 for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.
15 “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— 16 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.’ 17 And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. 18 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. 19 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. 20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
