Yahweh your God will raise up to you a prophet from among you, of your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him. This is according to all that you desired of Yahweh your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, “Let me not hear again Yahweh my God’s voice, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I not die.”
Yahweh said to me, “They have well said that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you. I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him. It shall happen, that whoever will not listen to my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.”
You may say in your heart, “How shall we know the word which Yahweh has not spoken?” When a prophet speaks in Yahweh’s name, if the thing doesn’t follow, nor happen, that is the thing which Yahweh has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv15, 18, 19, 22 Meaning, a continual succession of Prophets, till Christ the…
Meaning, a continual succession of Prophets, till Christ the end of all Prophets come.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv15, 18, 22 Deu 18:15 The LORD thy God will raise up…
Deu 18:15 The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
Ver. 15. Like unto me.] Both in the participation of nature and of office: a true man, and a true Mediator. Similes they are, but not pares: Christ being "worthy of more glory than Moses," and why, see Heb 3:3-6; Heb 7:22; Heb 9:15.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv15, 16, 18, 19, 22 Will raise up, i.e. will produce and send into…
Will raise up, i.e. will produce and send into the world in due time.
A Prophet: those words may be understood secondarily concerning the succession of prophets which God would raise for the instruction of his church, both because this is alleged as an argument why they need not consult with diviners, &c., because they should have prophets at hand whensoever it was needful to advise them, and because this Prophet is opposed to the false prophet; and a general rule is hereupon given for the discovery of all succeeding prophets, whether they be true or false, Deu 18:20-22; but they are chiefly to be understood of Christ, as the following words show, which do not truly and fully agree to any other; particularly where he is said to be
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like unto Moses, which is simply denied concerning all other prophets, Deu 34:10, and therefore it is not probable that it should be simply affirmed concerning all true prophets succeeding him. But Christ was truly, and in all commendable parts, like him, in being both a Prophet and a King, and a Priest and Mediator, as Moses was, in the excellency of his ministry and work, in the glory of his miracles, in his familiar and intimate converse with God, &c. And this place is expounded of Christ alone by God himself in the New Testament, Act 3:22; 7:37. See also Joh 1:45; 6:14.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v15 Here is, I. The promise of the great prophet,…
Here is, I. The promise of the great prophet, with a command to receive him, and hearken to him. Now,
1. Some think it is the promise of a succession of prophets, that should for many ages be kept up in Israel. Besides the priests and Levites, their ordinary ministers, whose office it was to teach Jacob God's law, they should have prophets, extraordinary ministers, to reprove them for their faults, remind them of their duty, and foretel things to come, judgments for warning and deliverances for their comfort. Having these prophets, (1.) They need not use divinations, nor consult with familiar spirits, for they might enquire of God's prophets even concerning their private affairs, as Saul did when he was in quest of his father's asses, Sa1 9:6. (2.) They could not miss the way of their duty through ignorance or mistake, nor differ in their opinions about it, having prophets among them, whom, in every difficult doubtful case, they might advise with and appeal to. These prophets were like unto Moses in some respects, though far inferior to him, Deu 34:10.
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2. Whether a succession of prophets be included in this promise or not, we are sure that it is primarily intended as a promise of Christ, and it is the clearest promise of him that is in all the law of Moses. It is expressly applied to our Lord Jesus as the Messiah promised (Act 3:22; Act 7:37), and the people had an eye to this promise when they said concerning him, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world (Joh 6:14); and it was his Spirit that spoke in all the other prophets, Pe1 1:11. Observe,
(1.) What it is that is here promised concerning Christ. What God promised Moses at Mount Sinai (which he relates, Deu 18:18), he promised the people (Deu 18:15) in God's name. [1.] That there should come a prophet, great above all the prophets, by whom God would make known himself and his will to the children of men more fully and clearly than ever he had done before. He is the light of the world, as prophecy was of the Jewish church, Joh 8:12. He is the Word, by whom God speaks to us, Joh 1:1; Heb 1:2. [2.] That God would raise him up from the midst of them. In his birth he should be one of that nation, should live among them and be sent to them. In his resurrection he should be raised up at Jerusalem, and thence his doctrine should go forth to all the world: thus God, having raised up his Son Christ Jesus, sent him to bless us. [3.] That he should be like unto Moses, only as much above him as the other prophets came short of him. Moses was such a prophet as was a law-giver to Israel and their deliverer out of Egypt, and so was Christ: he not only teaches, but rules and saves. Moses was the founder of a new dispensation by signs and wonders and mighty deeds, and so was Christ, by which he proved himself a teacher come from God. Was Moses faithful? So was Christ; Moses as a servant, but Christ as a Son. [4.] That God would put his words in his mouth, Deu 18:18. What messages God had to send to the children of men he would send them by him, and give him full instructions what to say and do as a prophet. Hence our Saviour says, My doctrine is not mine originally, but his that sent me, Joh 7:16. So that this great promise is performed; this Prophet has come, even Jesus; it is he that should come, and we are to look for no other.
(2.) The agreeableness of this designed dispensation to the people's avowed choice and desire at Mount Sinai, Deu 18:16, Deu 18:17. There God had spoken to them in thunder and lightning, out of the midst of the fire and thick darkness. Every word made their ears tingle and their hearts tremble, so that the whole congregation was ready to die with fear. In this fright, they begged hard that God would not speak to them in this manner any more (they could not bear it, it would overwhelm and distract them), but that he would speak to them by men like themselves, by Moses now, and afterwards by other prophets like unto him. "Well," says God, "it shall be so; they shall be spoken to by men, whose terrors shall not make them afraid;" and, to crown the favour beyond what they were able to ask or think, in the fulness of time the Word itself was made flesh, and they saw his glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, not, as at Mount Sinai, full of majesty and terror, but full of grace and truth, Joh 1:14. Thus, in answer to the request of those who were struck with amazement by the law, God promised the incarnation of his Son, though we may suppose it far from the thoughts of those that made that request.
(3.) A charge and command given to all people to hear and believe, hear and obey, this great prophet here promised: Unto him you shall hearken (Deu 18:15); and whoever will not hearken to him shall be surely and severely reckoned with for his contempt (Deu 18:19): I will require it of him. God himself applied this to our Lord Jesus in the voice that came out of the excellent glory, Mat 17:5, Hear you him, that is, this is he concerning whom it was said by Moses of old, Unto him you shall hearken; and Moses and Elias then stood by and assented to it. The sentence here passed on those that hearken not to this prophet is repeated and ratified in the New Testament. He that believeth not the Son, the wrath of God abideth on him, Joh 3:36. And how shall we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven? Heb 12:25. The Chaldee paraphrase here reads it, My Word shall require it of him, which can be no other than a divine person, Christ the eternal Word, to whom the Father has committed all judgement, and by whom he will at the last day judge the world. Whoever turns a deaf ear to Jesus Christ shall find that it is at his peril; the same that is the prophet is to be his judge, Joh 12:48.
II. Here is a caution against false prophets, 1. By way of threatening against the pretenders themselves, Deu 18:20. Whoever sets up for a prophet, and produces either a commission from the true God, shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of high treason against the crown and dignity of the King of kings, and that traitor shall be put to death (Deu 18:20), namely, by the judgment of the great sanhedrim, which, in process of time, sat at Jerusalem; and therefore our Saviour says that a prophet could not perish but at Jerusalem, and lays the blood of the prophets at Jerusalem's door (Luk 13:33, Luk 13:34), whom therefore God himself would punish; yet there false prophets were supported. 2. By way of direction to the people, that they might not be imposed upon by pretenders, of which there were many, as appears, Jer 23:25; Eze 13:6; Kg1 22:6. It is a very proper question which they are supposed to ask, Deu 18:21. Since it is so great a duty to hearken to the true prophets, and yet there is so much danger of being misled by false prophets, how shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken? By what marks may we discover a cheat? Note, It highly concerns us to have a right touchstone wherewith to try the word we hear, that we may know what that word is which the Lord has not spoken. Whatever is directly repugnant to sense, to the light and law of nature, and to the plain meaning of the written word, we may be sure is not that which the Lord has spoken; nor that which gives countenance and encouragement to sin, or has a manifest tendency to the destruction of piety or charity: far be it from God that he should contradict himself. The rule here given in answer to this enquiry was adapted chiefly to that state, Deu 18:22. If there was any cause to suspect the sincerity of a prophet, let them observe that if he gave them any sign, or foretold something to come, and the event was not according to his prediction, they might be sure he was not sent of God. This does not refer so much to the foretelling of mercies and judgments (though as to these, and the difference between the predictions of mercies and judgments, there is a rule of discerning between truth and falsehood laid down by the prophet, Jer 28:8, Jer 28:9), but rather to the giving of signs on purpose to confirm their mission. Though the sign did come to pass, yet this would not serve to prove their mission if they called them to serve other gods; this point had been already settled, Deu 13:1-3. But, if the sign did not come to pass, this would serve to disprove their mission. "When Moses cast his rod upon the ground (it is bishop Patrick's explanation of this), and said it would become a serpent, if it had not accordingly been turned into a serpent, Moses had been a false prophet: if, when Elijah called for fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice, none had come, he had been no better than the prophets of Baal." Samuel's mission was proved by this, that God let none of his words fall to the ground, Sa1 3:19, Sa1 3:20. And by the miracles Christ wrought, especially by that great sign he gave of his resurrection the third day, which came to pass as he foretold, it appeared that he was a teacher come from God. Lastly, They are directed not to be afraid of a false prophet; that is, not to be afraid of the judgments such a one might denounce to amuse people and strike terror upon them; nor to be afraid of executing the law upon him when, upon a strict and impartial scrutiny, it appeared that he was a false prophet. This command not to fear a false prophet implies that a true prophet, who proved his commission by clear and undeniable proofs, was to be feared, and it was at their peril if they offered him any violence or put any slight upon him.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv15–21 According to all that thou desiredst of the Lord…
According to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God at Horeb,.... This was promised them, in answer to their request at Horeb or Mount Sinai, when the law was delivered to them in the terrible manner it was: in the day of the assembly; in which the tribes were gathered together to receive the law, when they were assembled at the foot of the mount for that purpose:
saying, let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God; which was such a voice of words, attended with so much terror, that they that heard entreated the word might not be spoken to them any more, as the apostle says in Heb 12:19,
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neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not; out of which the Lord spoke; the congregation of Israel is here represented speaking as if a single person.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv15, 19, 22 Will raise up - Will produce and send into…
Will raise up - Will produce and send into the world in due time. A prophet like unto me - Christ was truly, and in all commendable parts like him, in being both a prophet and a king and a priest and mediator, in the excellency of his ministry and work, in the glory of his miracles, in his familiar and intimate converse with God.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv15, 22 Verse 15. The Lord thy God will raise up…
Verse 15. The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet] Instead of diviners, observers of times, c., God here promises to give them an infallible guide, who should tell them all things that make for their peace, so that his declarations should completely answer the end of all the knowledge that was pretended to be gained by the persons already specified.
Like unto me] Viz., a prophet, a legislator, a king, a mediator, and the head or chief of the people of God. This was the very person of whom Moses was the type, and who should accomplish all the great purposes of the Divine Being. Such a prophet as had never before appeared, and who should have no equal till the consummation of the world.
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This prophet is the Lord Jesus, who was in the bosom of the Father, and who came to declare him to mankind. Every word spoken by him is a living infallible oracle from God himself and must be received and obeyed as such, on pain of the eternal displeasure of the Almighty. See De 18:19, and Ac 3:22-23; and see the conclusion of this chapter. See Clarke on De 18:22.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv15, 22 Deu 18:15. Will raise up — Will produce and…
Deu 18:15. Will raise up — Will produce and send into the world in due time. A Prophet of thy brethren, like unto me — These words are very remarkable, and deserve our very particular attention. Moses was now about to leave his people, and therefore informs them, for their comfort, that God would raise them up another prophet, who should speak unto them God’s words, and instruct them in his will. He has been understood by many eminent persons as foretelling hereby that God would raise up a succession of prophets in the Jewish Church for the instruction of his people. And, perhaps, this interpretation is not to be altogether rejected,
1st, Because this prediction is alleged here as a reason why they need not consult with diviners, as they should have prophets at hand to advise them whenever it was needful.
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2d, Because the prophet here spoken of is opposed to the false prophets, and a general rule is hereupon given for the discovery of all succeeding prophets, whether true or false, Deu 18:20-22.
3d, Because, as is here threatened, whenever the people did not hearken to, and obey these prophets, God required it of them, punishing them repeatedly, and that in a signal manner, by the sword of their enemies, by famine, and by captivity, especially the captivity of the ten tribes under Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria, and the captivity of Judah and Benjamin by Nebuchadnezzar, with the awful calamities preceding and following.
The prediction, however, must of necessity be primarily interpreted of the Messiah. 1st, Because the text speaks of one prophet only, in the singular number, and not of many. 2d, Because the Messiah alone can with propriety be said to have been a prophet like unto Moses, it being simply denied, and that repeatedly, that any other prophet did, or should arise, like unto him. See Deu 34:10; Num 12:6-8. God spoke to the other prophets in dreams and visions, or by the appearance of angels, but he conversed with Moses in a free and familiar way, mouth to mouth, and face to face, as it is expressed, as a man converses with his friend, Moses having his light in the divine will immediately from God, without the intervention of dreams, visions, or the appearance of angels. They only expounded and enforced the laws of God already given, none of them being, properly speaking, lawgivers, in the intermediate space between Moses and Christ. But Moses was properly a lawgiver, and that in a very extraordinary sense, delivering a law which was in general entirely new, and that with such authority and attestations from God, as had never been witnessed on earth before. Not many of these prophets wrought miracles, and those who did, can with no propriety be said to have resembled Moses in that respect. The first and the last of these instances of dissimilitude are particularly noticed in one of the passages above referred to. “There arose not a prophet in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face; in all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt; and in all that mighty hand and great terror which Moses showed in the sight of all Israel.” Add to all this that Moses was a mediator and a king as well as a prophet, in the former of which characters none of the ancient prophets resembled him, and none, except David, in the latter. But Christ was truly like him in all these greater, and in a variety of lesser respects. He was not only a prophet, but a priest and mediator, a king and lawgiver; and not only fully equalled, but infinitely surpassed Moses in the excellence of his ministry and work, the glory of his miracles, and in his familiar and intimate converse with God; being in the bosom of the Father, and the wisdom and word of God incarnate. 3d, The awful threatening denounced in this passage, (Deu 18:19,) was most signally fulfilled with respect to those of the Jews that did not hearken to this prophet: the Lord most terribly required it of them, and continues to require it. For wrath came upon them to the uttermost, (1Th 2:16,) by the Roman armies, in the siege and destruction of their cities, and especially of Jerusalem their capital city, and the utter ruin of their country; and the sad effects of that wrath they have felt for upward of seventeen hundred years, and continue to feel to this day. But, 4th, What perfectly places the matter beyond all doubt, this prophecy is expounded by God himself of Christ, and of Christ alone, in the New Testament. See Act 3:22; Act 7:37; Joh 1:45; Joh 5:45-46; Joh 6:14.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv15, 20, 21 The ancient fathers of the Church and the generality…
The ancient fathers of the Church and the generality of modern commentators have regarded our Lord as the prophet promised in these verses. It is evident from the New Testament alone that the Messianic was the accredited interpretation among the Jews at the beginning of the Christian era (compare the marginal references, and Joh 4:25); nor can our Lord Himself, when He declares that Moses “wrote of Him” Joh 5:45-47, be supposed to have any other words more directly in view than these, the only words in which Moses, speaking in his own person, gives any prediction of the kind. But the verses seem to have a further, no less evident if subsidiary, reference to a prophetical order which should stand from time to time, as Moses had done, between God and the people; which should make known God’s will to the latter; which should by its presence render it unnecessary either that God should address the people directly, as at Sinai (Deu 18:16; compare Deu 5:25 ff), or that the people themselves in lack of counsel should resort to the superstitions of the pagan.
In fact, in the words before us, Moses gives promise both of a prophetic order, and of the Messiah in particular as its chief; of a line of prophets culminating in one eminent individual. And in proportion as we see in our Lord the characteristics of the prophet most perfectly exhibited, so must we regard the promise of Moses as in Him most completely accomplished.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22 Prophet. This passage plainly proves, that the Scripture may…
Prophet. This passage plainly proves, that the Scripture may have many literal senses: for the context insinuates that God would supply the wants of his people, so that they should not need to go far in order to consult diviners, since they should have leaders and prophets, after the death of Moses, who might explain to them God’s will, as they had desired; but, at the same time, it clearly refers to the Messias, as it is explained by St. Peter, (Acts iii. 22.; Worthington) and by St. Stephen, Acts vii. 37. The Jews, at that time, were convinced of the truth of this application: but they only denied that Christ was the Messias. They have since gone a step farther, and deny that it regards the Messias, some referring it to Josue, others to Jeremias, &c. (Ap. Munster and Fag.) But surely what other prophet could be compared with Moses? (Chap. xxxiv. 10.) What other man reunited in his person the qualifications of lawgiver, chief of God’s people, mediator, &c., or who was like him? Hence prophet is written in the singular, to denote his eminent dignity. (St. Augustine, contra Faustus) --- St. Philip recognized the claim of Jesus, as did the people after the multiplication of bread, John i. 45., and vi. 14. God the Father seems to allude to this passage, according to the remark of Tertullian, (contra Mar. iv. 22,) when he says hear ye him, (Luke ix. 35,) as St. Cyprian believes our Saviour does also, John v. 46. St. Athanasius (contra Arianos 2) condemns the error of the Jews, who would apply this passage to any other prophet but to the Messias. If they could be excused for denying him this latter claim, they surely cannot in calling in question that Jesus was a true prophet, since he has all the marks of one; (Grotius) and if they would once acknowledge this, they must soon confess that he is also the Messias, and the Son of God, as these truths are so necessarily connected. (Calmet) --- The miracles of Moses were far exceeded by those of Jesus Christ, and the latter conversed more intimately with this eternal Father, &c. (Menochius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv15, 19 CHRIST THE PROPHET IS TO BE HEARD. (Deu 18:15-19)
CHRIST THE PROPHET IS TO BE HEARD. (Deu 18:15-19)
The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet--The insertion of this promise, in connection with the preceding prohibition, might warrant the application (which some make of it) to that order of true prophets whom God commissioned in unbroken succession to instruct, to direct, and warn His people; and in this view the purport of it is, "There is no need to consult with diviners and soothsayers, as I shall afford you the benefit of divinely appointed prophets, for judging of whose credentials a sure criterion is given" (Deu 18:20-22). But the prophet here promised was pre-eminently the Messiah, for He alone was "like unto Moses" (see on Deu 34:10) "in His mediatorial character; in the peculiar excellence of His ministry; in the number, variety, and magnitude of His miracles; in His close and familiar communion with God; and in His being the author of a new dispensation of religion." This prediction was fulfilled fifteen hundred years afterwards and was expressly applied to Jesus Christ by Peter (Act 3:22-23), and by Stephen (Act 7:37).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22 THE TRUE PROPHET, Deu_18:15-16.
THE TRUE PROPHET, Deu_18:15-16.
This is one of the most profoundly interesting passages in the whole book. The different views that have been held as to the scope of its meaning place it among the vexed passages in the history of biblical interpretation. The theories held are mainly the following: —
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(1.) That the word translated prophet is to be regarded as referring to a particular person, who was to be specially prominent in the nation’s history. Some applied it to Joshua, who had been solemnly installed Moses’s successor; others thought David might be intended, or Jeremiah.
(2.) That the word was used collectively, of the entire body of Hebrew prophets. (3.) That the prophet is an ideal person, including the Messiah and all true prophets who appeared between Moses and him; that Moses does not speak of the prophets as a collective body, to which Christ belonged as one among many, but comprehends the plurality of the prophets in an ideal unity, knowing by the revelation of the Holy Spirit that the prophetical order would at some future time culminate in Christ. See Heng., Christ, vol. i, p. 124. (4.) That the passage relates directly and exclusively to the Messiah. (5.) That, while the passage contemplates a succession of prophets, so that Israel should never be left in any great exigency without a prophet, the Messiah is referred to primarily and distinctly. The last view is, we think, fully sustained by the passage under consideration, and by the context.
15. The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me — The clause may be rendered, A Prophet, as I am, Jehovah thy God will raise up for thee, from the midst of thee, of thy brethren. While the people are forbidden to employ the methods the heathen used to pry into the future, and to learn the will of their deities, Moses assures Israel that Jehovah will provide for them those who will be the medium of communication between him and them as he has been hitherto.
A Prophet — The word translated prophet, first occurs in Gen_20:7, where Abimelech is warned in a dream to restore Sarah to Abraham: “For he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live.” In Exo_7:1, Jehovah is represented as saying to Moses: “See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh; and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.” These passages suggest some of the prominent meanings of the word — interpreter, messenger, mediator. Moses is expressly called by Paul, in Gal_3:19, μεσιτης, mediator.
From the midst of thee, of thy brethren — There was to be no occasion for the people to consult foreign soothsayers and diviners. There was to be no need of their sending to distant nations, as Balak sent for the”diviner” Balaam. God would raise up from their own nation those who would make known his will. Deu_17:14, where the king is to be “from among thy brethren.”
Like unto me — Moses had been commissioned to speak and to act for Jehovah. In Horeb he received his call at the burning bush, when God revealed his Covenant Name. None of his successors was so highly honoured, so fully endowed. Jehovah had said of him, (Num_12:6-8,) “If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth.” The circumstances under which Jehovah had promised to raise up a Prophet like unto Moses are referred to in the following verses. At the giving of the law, when “the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet,” they besought Moses to act as a mediator between God and themselves. They said, “Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” Exo_20:18-19; see also Deu_5:22-27.
The promise is completely fulfilled in Christ. Moses, as a legislator, is the founder of a dispensation; so is Christ. Moses knew Jehovah face to face. Of Christ it is written, (Joh_1:18,) “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” Of Moses it is said, “There arose not a prophet like unto Moses in all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to do.”
Deu_34:10-11. Christ said of himself that he had done the works which none other man did. Joh_15:24. The application of this passage to Christ in the New Testament is too definite to leave any room for doubt. Philip said to Nathanael: “We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth.” Joh_1:45. Peter quotes this as fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Act_3:22. Stephen saw its application. Act_7:37. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews seems to have this passage in mind when he writes: “Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.” Heb_3:1-2. The woman of Samaria says to the Saviour: “I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.”
Joh_4:25. The Samaritans founded their expectations of a Messiah on the Pentateuch, for that constituted their Scriptures. The Messiah who was to tell them all things was evidently suggested by this prophecy of Moses.
Unto him ye shall hearken — Compare these words with the words Moses himself heard on the mountain when Christ was transfigured: “This is my beloved Son: hear ye him.” Not hear Moses and the law, nor Elijah and the prophets, but Christ the Son. The “hear ye him” and the disappearance of the two heavenly attendants may be viewed as symbolically connected, and as signifying that God who had “spoken in times past to the fathers by the prophets, henceforth would speak by his Son.” See Alford on Mat_17:5.
16. In the day of the assembly — Comp. Deu_9:10, and Exo_20:19. Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not. Comp. Deu_5:23-26, and Exo_20:19. The thought of the verse is, Let not Jehovah speak any more directly to us; let us have a prophet to announce to us his commands; let this awful splendour of the manifestation of God cease: we cannot bear it; we shall die. It was the feeling that man has in the presence of the Infinite — the consciousness of guilt in view of the holiness of God. So Isa_6:5, awestruck at the sublime, and to him terrible, manifestation of Jehovah, exclaims, “Woe to me, for I perish: for the King Jehovah of Hosts mine eyes have seen.” Compare what Job is represented as saying: “But now mine eye seeth thee: wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Job_42:5-6. So in the case of Manoah, who said to his wife, “We shall surely die, because we have seen God.” Jdg_13:22.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 15. A prophet from the midst [of thee] of…
15. A prophet from the midst [of thee] of thy brethren like unto me shall the LORD thy God raise up to thee] Such is the emphatic order of the original, missed by EVV. A prophet—not individual but collective1[143], i.e. a succession of prophets, for the whole spirit of the passage is that God shall never fail to speak directly to His people—is placed at the head of the sentence in forcible contrast to the diviners and necromancers just described, a speaker for God as Aaron was spokesman for Moses (J, Exo_4:16; Exo_7:1). Like the king (Deu_17:15) he must be an Israelite (Sam., from the midst of thy brethren); (LXX B etc. from thy, Act_3:22; Act_7:37, from your, brethren); diviners and necromancers were foreign (Isa_2:6, Nah_3:4, Isa_47:9; Isa_47:12). Like unto me, i.e. (as the next v. shows) in being the mediator of God; the phrase does not imply equality in rank with Moses; according to Deu_34:10, there hath not arisen a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, cp. Num_12:6-8.
[143] Cp. the use of the sing, king in Deu_17:14 ff., and judge in Jdg_2:18. ‘A Prophet is used by enallage for a number of prophets. Moses is here treating of the continual manner of the Church’s government. Not at all more correct is their opinion who apply it strictly to Christ alone, for it is well to bear in mind what I have said respecting God’s intention, viz. that no excuse should be left for the Jews, if they turned aside to familiar spirits or magicians, since God would never leave them without prophets and teachers. But if He had referred them to Christ alone, the objection would naturally arise that it was hard for them to have neither prophets nor revelations for two thousand years.’ (Calvin.)
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv15, 22 Deu_18:15-20. THE ONE MEDIATOR.
Deu_18:15-20. THE ONE MEDIATOR.
The connection between these verses and the preceding is well illustrated by Isaiah’s question (Deu_8:19): “And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?” Or, as the angels turned the phrase on Easter morning, “Why seek ye Him that liveth among the dead?”
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(15) The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet.—Namely, Him of whom St. Peter spoke in Act_3:22-26. “Unto you first God, having raised up His son Jesus, sent Him to bless you.” It must not be forgotten that the prophetic office is still continued to our risen Lord. He still “speaketh from heaven.” But He “descended first into the lower parts of the earth.” He has “the keys of hell and of death;” and knows all their secrets. They who can draw near to Him have no need to look downward, to consult dead relatives, or seek knowledge from spirits whose character, even if they are accessible, is beyond our discernment. The Holy Spirit, our Comforter and Advocate on earth, and the Prophet, our Advocate that speaketh from heaven, are enough for all human need. What we cannot learn from them, or from the light they give us, it is better not to know.
(16) According to all that thou desiredst . . . in Horeb.—It should never be forgotten that the Prophet like to Moses was promised on “the day of the assembly.” The Holy Spirit, who is Christ in us, was promised on the day of the delivery of the “letter that killeth.” (See also on Deu_5:28.)
(18) He shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.—“The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself” (our Lord, in Joh_14:10). “He shall not speak of Himself. He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you” (the Holy Spirit, Joh_16:13-14).
(19) Whosoever will not hearken . . . I will require it of him.—“For if they escaped not who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven: whose voice then shook the earth.” (Heb_12:25.)
(20) That prophet shall die.—Rashi illustrates this by the case of Hananiah (Jeremiah 28) who prophesied that Jeconiah, and all that went with him to Babylon, should return within two years. He was sentenced by Jeremiah to die that year; and he died accordingly, within two months.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21 Vers. 15-22. There should be no need for Israel…
Vers. 15-22. There should be no need for Israel to turn to heathen soothsayers, or diviners, or such like, because from amongst themselves, of their own brethren, would God raise up prophets like unto Moses, who, as occasion required, would reveal to them what God willed them to know.
A Prophet. The Hebrew word so rendered (aybin) is a derivative from a verb (abn), which signifies to tell, to announce; hence the primary concept of the word is that of announcer, or forth-speaker; and to this the word "prophet" (Greek profhthv from profhmi, I speak before or in place of) closely corresponds; the prophet is one who speaks in the place of God, who conveys God"s word to men, who is an interpreter of God to men. (As illustrative of the meaning of the word, cf. Exo_7:1 Exo_4:16) Hence Abraham is called a prophet, (Gen_20:7) and the term is applied to the patriarchs generally; (Psa_105:15) God conveyed his mind to them, and they spoke it forth to others. (Amo_3:7) Like unto me. When the people heard the voice of God speaking to them at Sinai, and from the midst of the fire uttering to them the Ten Words, they were struck with terror, and besought that they might not again hear that awful voice, but that Moses might act as mediator between God and them might hear what God should say, and speak it unto them. (Deu_5:22-27) Moses thus became God"s prophet to the people; and of this he reminds them here, as well as of the circumstances amid which he entered specially on this office (cf. vers. 16, 17). The phrase, like unto me," does not necessarily imply that the prophet who was to come after Moses was to be in every respect the same as he; all that is indicated is that he would act as Moses had acted as a mediator between God and the people in the way of conveying his will to them.
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Vers. 15-22. God speaking to man through man.
The Exposition, as well as the Commentaries of Jameson and Keil, may, with great advantage, be consulted on this passage, and also Hengstenberg"s "Christology," vol. 1. pp. 96-107. Our brief homiletic sketches assume that the student has already mastered the exegesis, and comprehended the intent of the passage. Its connection with the preceding paragraph is obvious. The people had been warned against having recourse to familiar spirits, etc., on the ground that such practices were an abomination unto the Lord their God. But Moses would not only warn the people off the wrong ground, he would direct them to the right, by showing them the completeness of the Divine arrangements for supplying them from time to time with all the religious teaching they would require, in a way far more adapted to their condition and circumstances than by any unveiling of the secrets of the invisible world. They are reminded that when God came in grandeur to speak to them at Mount Sinai, they could not bear the sight nor the sound. They begged that Moses would speak to them, and not Jehovah; "lest we die," were their own words. So that it was clear they would be entirely unable to bear anything approximating to a full disclosure of the Divine. It must be toned and tempered within the limits of their capacities of reception and of their powers of endurance. Otherwise, it would fail of its end, by crushing those whom it was meant to train. Hence he who knoweth our frame" graciously promises to speak hereafter to the people in their own dialect, as it were, and on their own level, by "raising them up a Prophet, from the midst of them, of their brethren, like unto Moses;" and thus would the needful messages from God be kept up, making it quite unnecessary for them to make use of unauthorized means of getting supernatural light. There would be, from time to time, one prophet raised up after another, culminating in him to whom they all gave witness. Thus our theme is," God speaking to man through man.
I UNLESS A DIVINE REVELATION WERE ATTEMPERED TO OUR WEAKNESS, WE COULD NOT BEAR IT. The cry of Israel at Sinai, "Let not God speak with us, lest we die," is a "touch of nature." No man could bear the full blaze of God"s glory. Unless there were a "hiding of God"s power," we should be crushed by the revelation of it. We could no more endure the full disclosure of the Divine than our eyes could bear to gaze on the splendors of a noonday sun. Hence God, "who knows our frame," and who, therefore, knows what we can bear, meets our weakness by his tender mercy.
II IN ORDER THAT THE REVELATION MAY BE SUCH AS WE CAN RECEIVE, GOD HAS SPOKEN TO MEN THROUGH MAN. AS Sinai"s terror, with the voice of Jehovah, was too much for Israel, Moses says, "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me." Each of these phrases is emphatic, and is intended as the antithesis to the notion of overwhelming force. The meaning of Moses is twofold.
1. There shall be from time to time a prophet sent to you, through whom you may hear the voice of God.
2. There shall be hereafter a great Prophet, who shall be to you as the living Voice of God; but he shall be also "of your brethren, like unto me." We know how true both are. There was from time to time a line of prophets who spake for God. There has come to earth a Prophet greater than all beside. They always pointed onward to another; he, never, save as a heavenly gift from him was by him held in reserve, even the gift of the Holy Ghost. Thus God has come into communion with our race, to reveal his mind and will.
III NEW MESSAGES, COMING IN A WAY SO SUITED TO US, FROM SO CONDESCENDING A GOD, BRING THEIR OWN AUTHORITY WITH THEM. (Ver. 19.) The message is not to be set at naught because the voice which speaks it is but human. If a prophet speaks only what the Lord hath spoken, though he may be a weak and frail instrument, though the burden of his message may be almost more than he can bear, yet, being borne along by the Holy Ghost to utter such words, they come with Divine authority. "The treasure is put into earthen vessels;" but though the vessel is earthy, the treasure is Divine.
IV THIS AUTHORITY REACHES ITS CLIMAX IN THE MINISTRY OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. Such, surely, is the import of the scene known as "the Transfiguration". (Mt 17) Moses and Elias are there the representatives of the Law and the prophets. They speak of thedecease which Christ should accomplish at Jerusalem. Presently they vanish from the spot, and no one is left with the disciples save "Jesus only." Then a voice out of the cloud said, "Hear him." in Act_3:20-26, we have the Apostle Peter"s application of the very passage before us to the Lord Jesus Christ as the Prophet to whom all the rest did point. (See also Heb 1; and for New Testament teaching as to the authority of Christ, and the importance of hearing and obeying him, see Heb 2:, Heb 9:, Heb_9:10) So full is the revelation of God by Christ, that it is not only, revelation through him, but in him. (Joh_1:1-18)
From these four principles involved in the paragraph, there are four inferences which may be safely and profitably drawn.
1. If the voice of God speaks to us suitably and. adequately through the medium of human voices, then it is utterly needless for us to seek information and light by any forced attempts at gaining messages from the invisible world (see preceding Homily).
2. We are here furnished with a test as to what is truly a Divine message or no. There is, in fact, a twofold test. It is partly moral and partly physical.
(1) Partly moral (ver. 22, "When," etc.). It is as if Moses said, You only require a guide in case a "prophet speaketh in the Name of the Lord," for if he does not, you know what to do. (cf. De 13) If he speaks in the name of other gods, you must reject him at once." Note: Any supposed message from God which violates the dictates of enlightened reason and conscience, must be set aside.
(2) Partly physical. If a prophet speaks in the Name of the Lord, they are then to watch and see if the thing comes to pass; and if not, then they may be sure that the prophet is a mere pretender; "he hath spoken presumptuously.
1. Here is an antidote to fear. "Thou shalt not be afraid of him." What is the connection between this and the preceding? Is it not this? Suppose that the "prophet" declares that this or that is about to happen, do not give way to excitement and alarm. Follow the voice of God, of which you are sure, and obey that, and come what will, all is well with you. You can afford to do this; "Study to be quiet, and to do your own business," and whether what the prophet declares come to pass or no, you are sure to be safe, if you have maintained unswerving loyalty to God. Nothing can harm you. So with us under the New Testament dispensation. Many affix dates to this or that. We heed them not. We have but to "wait for the Son of God from heaven.
2. The reception of the Divine message is a part of that obedience which every man owes to high Heaven. Its acceptance is not merely the adoption of a number of opinions. Oh no! Opinions are one thing, convictions are another. A man "holds" opinions, but convictions "hold" a man. His conscience is held fast in their grip. Even so it is with those who receive the words of the living God as their guide through life to immortality. Their whole being is held firmly in their strong yet loving and tender hold. A skeptic once said to the writer, "I tell you candidly, that if I wanted to point out the best specimens of humanity, I should point to some of your way of thinking." So he put it, "of your way of thinking." How little does the outsider or unbeliever dream of the hold the Father"s words have on-us! Our whole being takes shape and outlook from them. Our fealty to him whom we know and love supremely, makes "the law of his mouth to be better to us than thousands of gold and silver.
Vers. 15-22. The promised Prophet.
From speaking of the paltry expectations about divination, Moses goes on to speak of the general plan of Divine revelation. The people had had the splendid chance of direct communion with God, without any mediation. God spoke to them from heaven at Sinai; but so afraid were they of immediate revelation that they implored Moses to mediate the message for them. He became consequently, with God"s full approval, the human medium through which the Divine will was conveyed, which means God"s prophet. They had had no difficulty in accepting the Divine messages through him. Now, Moses assures them that this method of mediation through human beings will continue. He puts the promise in comprehensive form, and says that through a Prophet like to himself will God continue to speak to them after he has gone, and his message they will reject at their peril.
I LET US OBSERVE THE APPROPRIATENESS OF GOD REVEALING HIMSELF THROUGH A HUMAN BEING. For man is in the Divine image; if this be not the case, we can have no knowledge whatever of God. Man is the image of God; and hence God reveals himself to men through a man. The office of prophet is the most appropriate way of revealing God"s will. And when we carry on this line of thought, we are landed in the idea that an incarnation of God alone could adequately convey to man the mind and nature of God. If any one wishes to follow out this line, he will get splendid help in Mr. R. H. Hutton"s admirable essay on "The Incarnation and Principles of Evidence.
II IT SEEMS CLEAR FROM THE PROMISE THAT A SINGLE PROPHET AFTER THE SIMILITUDE OF MOSES IS TO BE THE MEDIATOR FOR THE AGES. Now, only one Person answers this description, and this is Jesus Christ. He was and is incarnate God. His Spirit he alone could take, and through its gift to men in the different ages make them the channel of God"s revelation. As a matter of fact, "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy;" and the prophets were his instruments in the history of the Church. God has spoken in the last days by his Son; and the prophets between Moses and Christ were really the inspired messengers of the one Great Prophet of God. This is the idea of Peter that the Spirit of Christ spoke in the prophets. We thus see one Person embracing the mediating work of the different ages, and accomplishing it through holy men.
III THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JESUS, THEREFORE, BECOME THE CLIMAX OF DIVINE REVELATION. The previous revelations were but foreshadowings of this perfect manifestation of God. A human history became the embodiment of Divine thoughts, mercies, self-denials, and self-sacrifice. The blaze of divinity that was intolerable at Sinai becomes not only bearable but entrancing in the face of Jesus Christ. The blinding brilliance has been so toned down that man can rejoice in Jesus as "God manifest in the flesh." "We beheld his glory it did not blind or scare men as at the holy mount.
IV THE DISREGARD OF THE WORDS OF JESUS IS PUNISHABLE BY DEATH. This is the penalty pronounced. We see it in another form in the Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha." If disobedience to Moses was visited in many cases by death, how much more disobedience and disloyalty to Christ! (cf. Heb_10:28-31) The gospel has penalties of the severest kind for its rejection, as well as bliss beyond compare for its reception. The alternative is thus clearly set before us.
V THE PROPHETS SENT OF GOD SUBMIT TO THE TEST OF FULFILLMENT, WHILE FALSE PROPHETS ARE TO BE DETECTED BY THEIR FAILURE. God"s method being a human mediation, is liable to be imitated, and men from time to time will profess to be prophets, when they have no real commission. Now, God has such a control of the future that no unassisted, uninspired man can forecast it successfully. Sooner or later he is found out. Happy guesses soon run out, and the person is discredited. Hence it was the duty of Israel to weigh well the communication of the professed prophets, and to see wherein they were confirmed by subsequent events. The true prophets had their word fulfilled, and were Christ"s messengers; the false prophets had their word discredited, and were acting presumptuously.
Let us hear the Great Prophet, and give him credit for all the predictions of the minor and but human prophets. R.M.E.
Vers. 15-20. Prophecy.
The term "Prophet" covers the whole series of Old Testament prophets, culminating in Christ, the Prophet like unto Moses par excellence (see infra).
I PROPHECY IN GENERAL. The prophet what? Etymologically, one "boiling or bubbling over" with the Divine inspiration. No mere religious genius, but one truly and supernaturally inspired. A revealer and declarer of the will of God. Future events were foretold:
1. As signs.
2. In warnings and appeals.
3. In denouncing God"s judgments.
4. In administering comfort.
5. In unfolding the Messianic hope.
6. In unfolding the Divine purpose underlying providential developments.
Prediction is thus a true and vital element in prophecy, but it is far from being of the essence of it. It is the function of the prophet either to declare new truth truth gained by direct revelation, and given forth with the authority of Heaven as a "word of the Lord," or, taking up truth already revealed, to revive and enforce it with supernatural power and fervor, applying it to the circumstances, exigencies, and evils of his particular time. The prophets were men who, when facing the people, stood as it were before God, and thus spoke fore and for him" (Morison).
II PROPHECY AND MOSAISM. It is noteworthy that Mosaism contemplated the rise of prophecy from the first, and left room for it in the arrangements of the economy. It even required it for the carrying forward of its objects to completion. The dispensation was not a final one. The kingdom of God had a future which it was the task of prophecy gradually to disclose. The Law enclosed innumerable spiritual germs, which it was the function of prophecy to expand and develop. It had, moreover, underlying its ceremonialism, a spiritual basis, which it was the business of the prophets to bring to light, and to recall to people"s minds when they appeared in danger of forgetting it. Prophecy was thus a standing witness to the life, freshness, and power which lay in the heart of a religion largely wrapped up in legal forms. Then there was the necessity for new light and guidance under the conditions of advancing national life, and in times of national emergency. The Law left not a little scope for extended applications of its fundamental principles, and it lay with the prophets to furnish the direction required. All this, in addition to their more general function of rebuking, warning, and testifying, in times of declension, which, with the carrying forward the development of revelation in its relation to Christ and his kingdom, may be regarded as the chief part of their work.
III PROPHECY AND HEATHEN MANTICISM. The connection shows that prophecy is given in lieu of the heathenish practices that are forbidden. If God forbids divination, necromancy, consultation of familiar spirits, etc., he gives something better some-thing that will lawfully supply the craving which these superstitions unlawfully sought to gratify. The soul:
1. Craves for a knowledge of God"s will.
2. Desires guidance in critical times of life.
3. Ponders anxiously its relations to the invisible world and to the future.
4. Feels its personal unfitness for intercourse with God.
These cravings were the strength of heathen sorcery, etc., and they were provided for in prophecy. This, it may be noticed, is throughout a characteristic of revelation it does not simply remove the bad, but provides for the supply of the cravings to which the bad appeals. J.O.
Vers. 15-19. The Prophet like unto Moses.
These chapters bring before us prophet. priest, and king offices pointing forward to and culminating in Christ. Christ is distinctively, and in the complete sense, the Prophet like unto Moses, (Act_3:22) Christ and Moses were alike
I AS FOUNDERS OF DISPENSATIONS. It was the greatness of Moses that he was employed by God in inaugurating a new era in the history of his kingdom in introducing a new order of things in settling the foundations of a new economy. In this respect he stood at the head of the Old Testament line of prophets, and in a sense stood apart from them. "The Law was given by Moses". (Joh_1:17) He had the ordering and settling of the "house" of God in the form in which it was to last till Christ came, who, as a Son over his own house," would revise its arrangements and reconstitute it on a new and better basis. (Heb_3:2-7) Prophets subsequent to Moses stood within the lines of the economy already established. They could enforce and maintain, but while predicting the advent of a new age in which great changes would be wrought, they had no authority of themselves to introduce such changes. It was reserved for Christ to "change times and seasons," and so to alter and remodel Mosaic institutions, or supersede them by new ones, or abolish them by giving the substance for the shadow, as to place the Church upon a permanent and moveless basis, and adapt it for the reception of the Gentile nations.
II IN THE FREEDOM OF INTERCOURSE WHICH THEY ENJOYED WITH GOD. Moses enjoyed, as was necessary, the freest intercourse with heaven. God spake with him, not in a vision, or dream, or in dark speeches, but mouth to mouth", (Num_12:6-9) "face to face". (Deu_34:10) This is made, in the passage last quoted, a feature of distinction between Moses and later prophets in Israel. In Christ, this peculiarity of the relation of Moses to God reappears in higher form. Intercourse with the Father reaches the highest degree of closeness and intimacy, the Son being in the Father, and the Father in the Son. (Joh_14:10) Christ"s insight into his Father"s will was perfect. (Joh_5:20, Joh_5:21) His communion with the Father was habitual and uninterrupted. The New Testament apostles, in an inferior degree, shared in this higher footing, were habitually possessed by the Spirit, and spoke and wrote under his calm and abiding influence.
III AS MEDIATING BETWEEN THE PEOPLE AND GOD. (Vers. 1618.) It was when the people were deeply conscious of their need of a mediator that this promise was vouchsafed. It had only, as regards mediation, a very inferior application to the Old Testament prophets. The fullness of its meaning comes to view in Christ.
These points involve others, as e.g. the resemblance between Christ and Moses:
1. In the degree of authority with which they were clothed, and in the mighty signs and wonders which authenticated their mission. (Deu_34:11)
1. In the fullness and grandeur of the revelations made through them.
2. In the severe penalties attaching to disobedience to their words. J.O. (ver. 19; Act_3:23; Heb_2:1-5 Heb_10:28, Heb_10:29)
Vers. 15-22. Presages of the true Prophet.
Captious men of the present day complain that they cannot see God cannot hear his voice. In their heart they do not wish to see him. He will not reveal himself, as an object of curiosity, to the eye of speculation. He reveals himself to the conscience and to the loyal heart. But men do not wish to see him as the embodiment of righteousness. They shudder and flee away. Yet in no other way can they see him than as he truly is. In this circumstance of mutual estrangement there is need of a mediator prophet.
I GUILTY MEN DEBAR THEMSELVES FROM PERSONAL FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD. There is nothing in common between unrighteous men and a righteous God. They are mutually repellent. The heart-language of such men is this, Let us not hear again the voice of the Lord our God; neither let us see this great fire any more." To them, his voice is the thunder of war; to them, his presence is a consuming fire. They have no eye except to see his burning anger. Hence they flee to hide themselves. Their wish projects itself into reality; he removes himself.
II MEN"S DESIRE TO HOLD COMMUNICATION WITH GOD THROUGH A MEDIATOR CONCEDED. The gracious disposition of God towards men yields to his creatures" necessity. Ask what they will, if righteousness be not dishonored, it shall be done. The all-wise God candidly admits that the Jews had, in this matter, spoken well. But the mediator must be a prophet. He must convey the thoughts and dispositions and will of God to men. Human obedience, to have any worth, must be intelligent the fruit of choice and purpose.
III THE PERFECT PROPHET IS INTRODUCED BY SUCCESSIVE STAGES. Our moral instincts often outrun our clear intelligence. The Jews desired an intermediate agent, who should convey God"s will to them; but they scarcely knew what it was they asked for. Could any mortal man clearly reveal the mind of the Eternal? Would not the pure stream be defiled by the impure channel? Nevertheless, God will do the best for them in their present condition. As yet the perfect Prophet will not be understood nor appreciated. Knowledge of God"s character and purpose sufficient for the present shall be revealed by imperfect men types of the coming perfect Mediator. By easy gradations, the human family must be divinely educated.
IV THE TRUE PROPHET IS A PERFECT VEHICLE OF GOD"S THOUGHTS. "I will put my words in his mouth." Unless the prophet be a mere mechanical automaton, his words must be the result of his thoughts. If God shall use a human person to reveal himself to men, he must use his mind, heart, and will: yea, his entire being. This has been realized only in the person of Jesus Christ our Lord. Hence he could say, "The words that I speak, I speak not of myself: but that Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." Hence, again, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father also." For the advent of this real Prophet, humanity stood for centuries on the outlook, on the watch-tower of hope.
V CONTUMACY OF THE TRUE PROPHET IS CONTUMACY AGAINST GOD. Such is the value of this Divine gift, that to treat it with indifference is heinous crime. No human penalty may be annexed, but God himself undertook to punish the deed. Hunger is God"s voice within the body, and he who disregards that voice shall surely die. Pain is God"s voice in human nerves, and he who neglects that summons shall die. Truth is everywhere the voice of God, and to turn deaf ears to truth is to deprive one"s self of life. And, by parity of reasoning, the voice of God is heard more clearly and more authoritatively yet, in the person of his dear Son: it is his prerogative to give to men eternal life. Hence, to turn a deaf ear to him is folly, contumacy, despair, ruin. God will exact a most fitting retribution.
VI GOD SUPPLIES A TEST BETWEEN THE FALSE PROPHET AND THE TRUE. The eagerness of men to discover the Prophet of Jehovah, led many to impersonate him for the purpose of personal reputation and gain. Every true prophet of God came with sufficient credential, so that no candid mind need have been deceived. They had the power to read the near future: this was a token of their heavenly commission. But better still, their message commended itself to the conscience of the hearers; and thus might every hearer find in an honest conscience that the herald was from God. If the prophet summoned men to repentance and assured them of a share in the mercy of God, they could readily ascertain for themselves whether relief came to their burdened consciences whether better feelings arose in the heart. The truth is never very far distant if we really wish to find it. D.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v15 A Prophet . . . like unto me.
Deu_18:15
A Prophet . . . like unto me.
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Christ the greatest of the prophets
I. The office of a prophet in ancient Israel. He was the voice of God to the nation.
1. Prophets are found from the earliest times in Israel (Gen_20:7; Psa_105:15). In the times of the Judges (Jdg_4:4; Jdg_4:6; Jdg_4:14; Jdg_6:7). Samuel the founder of a settled order of prophets (Act_3:24). Continued now in Christian ministry.
2. Note that God appoints prophets (or speakers), not the priests, as His representatives and specially commissioned messengers.
3. The awful responsibility of the speaker for God to say only what God has commanded.
4. The word of the prophet was to be tested by its fulfilment (verse 22).
II. The promise of the text permanently fulfilled in Christ. Applied by Christ and His apostles (Act_3:22; Act_5:37; Joh_5:46).
1. Christ and Moses alike in some points.
(1) Both founders of Gods kingdom.
(2) Both received Gods will from immediate and direct communion with God; not in visions, dreams, etc., like the other prophets.
2. Christ and Moses contrasted in other respects.
(1) Moses a sinful man; Christ absolutely holy.
(2) Moses gave the law which kills; Christ brought grace and truth, which take away sin.
(3) Moses founded an outward worldly theocracy, which could only be imperfect and temporary; Christ a spiritual kingdom of God, which overcomes sin and death, and is eternal.
(4) The relations of God to Moses were given among the terrors of Sinai, which men could not bear. Christ came veiling the splendours of God in His lowly humanity, and drawing men to Him.
III. Imperative duty to hearken to Christ (Mat_17:5). (Cunningham Geikie, D. D.)
The similarity between Moses and Christ
As Moses, in the early part of his, career, refused the Egyptian monarchy, because it could be gained by him only by disloyalty to God, so Jesus turned away from the kingdoms of the World and the glory of them, because they were offered on condition that He would fall down and worship Satan. As Moses became the emancipator of his people from their house of bondage, so Jesus lived and died that He might save His people from their sins; as Moses, penetrating to the soul of the symbolism of idolatry, introduced a new dispensation wherein symbolism was allied to spirituality of worship, so Jesus, seizing the spirituality of the Mosaic system, freed it from its national restrictions, and ushered in the day when neither at Jerusalem nor at Gerizim would men seek to localise the service of Jehovah, but the true worshipper would worship the Father anywhere, believing that the character of the worship is of infinitely higher importance than the place where it is offered; as Moses was preeminently a lawgiver, so Jesus speaks with authority, and has, in His Sermon on the Mount, laid down a code which not only expounds, but expands and glorifies, or, in one word, fulfils the precepts of the Decalogue; as Moses stood the mediator of a covenant between God and Israel, representing God to the people, and representing the people to God, interceding for them when they sinned, while at the same time he admitted and condemned their guilt, so Jesus is the Mediator of the New Covenant, standing between God and man, and bridging, by His atonement and intercession, the gulf between the two. We cannot wonder, therefore, that, in the vision of the Apocalypse, they who have gotten the victory over the beast and his image are represented as singing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
The prophet like unto Moses
I. The necessity for a Mediator.
1. There was a necessity for a mediator in the case of the Israelites, first, because of the unutterable glory of God, and their own inability to endure that glory, either with their eye, their ear, or their mind.
2. This sufficient reason is supported by another most weighty fact, namely, that God cannot commune with men because of their sin.
II. The person of the appointed Mediator. Dwell upon this fact, that our Lord Jesus was raised up from the midst of us, from among our brethren. In Him is fulfilled that glorious prophecy, I have exalted One chosen out of the people. He was not one who boasted His descent, or gloried in the so-called blue blood, or placed Himself among the Porphyrogeniti, who must not see the light except in marble halls. He was born in a common house of entertainment where all might come to Him, and He died with His arms extended as a pledge that He continued to receive all who came to Him. The main point, however, upon which I want to dwell is, that Jesus is like to Moses. There had been no better mediator found than Moses up to Moses day; the Lord God, therefore, determined to work upon that model with the great prophet of His race, and He has done so in sending forth the Lord Jesus.
1. I can only mention in what respects, as a Mediator, Jesus is like to Moses, and surely one is found in the fact that Moses beyond all that went before him was peculiarly the depositary of the mind of God.
2. Moses, to take another point, is the first of the prophets with whom God kept up continuous revelation. To other men He spake in dreams and visions, but to Moses by plain and perpetual testimony.
3. Moses is described as a prophet mighty in word and deed, and it is singular that there never was another prophet mighty in word and deed till Jesus came.
4. Moses, again, was the founder of a great system of religious law, and this was not the case with any other but the Lord Jesus.
5. Moses was faithful before God as a servant over all His house, and so was Jesus as a Son over His own house. He is the faithful and true Witness, the Prince of the kings of the earth.
6. Moses, too, was zealous for God and for His honour. Remember how the zeal of Gods house did cat him up. When he saw grievous sin among the people, he said, Who is on the Lords side? and there came to him the tribe of Levi, and he said, Go in and out, and slay ye everyone his men that were joined to Baal-peor. Herein he was the stern type of Jesus, who took the scourge of small cords, and drove out the buyers and sellers, and said, Take these things hence: it is written, My Fathers house shall be a house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves; for the zeal of Gods house had eaten Him up.
7. Moses, by Divine grace, was very meek, and perhaps this is the chief parallel between him and Jesus. I have said, by Divine grace, for I suppose by nature he was strongly passionate. There are many indications that Moses was not meek, but very far from it, until the Spirit of Cod rested upon him. He slew the Egyptian hastily, and in after years he went out from the presence of Pharaoh in great anger. Once and again you find him very wroth: he took the tables of stone and dashed them in pieces in his indignation, for Moses anger waxed hot; and that unhappy action which, occasioned his being shut out of Canaan was caused by his being provoked in sprat so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips. Divine grace had so cooled and calmed him that in general he was the gentlest of men. But what shall I say of my Master? Let Him speak for Himself! Come unto Me, all ye, etc.
8. Our Lord was like to Moses in meekness, and then to sum up all--Moses was the mediator for God with the people, and so is our blessed Lord. Moses came in Gods name to set Israel free from Pharaohs bondage, and he did it: Jesus came to set us free from a worse bondage still, and He has achieved our freedom.
III. The authority of our great Mediator; and let this be the practical lesson--Hear ye Him. If sin had not maddened men they would listen to every word of God through such a Mediator as Jesus is. Alas! it is not so; and the saddest thing of all is that some hear of Him as if His story were a mere tale or an old Jewish ballad of eighteen hundred years ago. Yet, remember, God speaks by Jesus still, and every word of His that is left on record is as solemnly alive today as when it first leaped from His blessed lips. Note how my text puts it. It saith here, Whosoever shall not hearken unto My words which He shall speak in My name, I will require it of him. Today God graciously requires it of some of you, and asks why you have not listened to Christs voice. You have not accepted His salvation. Why is this? You know all about Jesus, and you say it is true, but you have never believed in Him: why is this? God requires it of you. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Of Christs prophetical office
This passage foretells the Saviour; it is spoken of Christ. There are several names given to Christ as a Prophet: He is called the Counsellor in Christ alone the angel of the Covenant is completed; the Messenger of the covenant, a Lamp, the Morning Star. Jesus Christ is the great Prophet of His Church.
I. How doth Christ teach?
1. Externally, by His Word (Psa_119:105).
2. Christ teaches these sacred mysteries inwardly by the Spirit (Joh_16:13).
II. What are the lessons Christ teaches?
1. He teaches us to see into our own hearts. The heart of man is a great deep, which is not easily fathomed. But Christ, when He teacheth, removes the veil of ignorance, and lights a man into his own heart; and now he sees swarms of vain thoughts, he blusheth to see how sin mingles with his duties, his stars are mixed with clouds, he prays, as Austin, that God would deliver him from himself.
2. He shows us the vanity of the creature. A natural man sets up his happiness here, worships the golden image, but he that Christ hath anointed with His eye-salve hath a spirit of discerning, he looks upon the creature in its night dress, sees it to be empty and unsatisfying, not commensurate to a heaven-born soul.
3. The excellency of the things unseen. Christ gives the soul a sight of glory, a prospect of eternity.
III. How does Christs teaching differ from other teaching?
1. Christ teaches the heart. All that the dispensers of the Word can do is but to work knowledge, Christ works grace; they can but give you the light of the truth, Christ gives you the love of the truth; they can only teach you what to believe, Christ teacheth how to believe.
2. Christ gives us a taste of the Word. The light of knowledge is one thing, the savour another. Christ makes us taste a savouriness in the Word.
3. Christ, when He teaches, makes us obey.
4. Christ teaches easily. He can with the least touch of His Spirit convert; He can say, Let there be light; with a word He conveys grace.
5. Christ, when He teacheth, makes men willing to learn.
6. Christ, when He teacheth, doth not only illuminate, but animate. He doth so teach, as He doth quicken.
Use--
1. See here an argument of Christs Divinity: had He not been God He could never have known the mind of God, or revealed to us those secrets of heaven, those deep mysteries, which no man or angel could find out. Who but God can anoint the eyes of the blind, and give thee not only light but sight?
2. See what a cornucopia, or plenty of wisdom is in Christ, who is the great Doctor of His Church, and gives saving knowledge to all the elect. The body of the sun must needs be full of clarity and brightness, which enlightens the whole world: Christ is the great luminary, in whom are hid all treasures of knowledge.
3. See the misery of man in the state of nature.
4. See the happy condition of the children of God, they have Christ to be their Prophet: all thy children shall be taught of the Lord: God is made to us wisdom. Labour to have Christ for your Prophet; He teacheth savingly, He is an interpreter of a thousand, He can untie those knots which puzzle very angels. Till Christ teach, we never learn any lesson; till Christ is made to us wisdom, we shall never be wise to salvation.
IV. What shall we do to have Christ for our teacher?
1. See your need of Christs teaching. You cannot see your way without this Morning Star.
2. Go to Christ to teach you. And that we may be encouraged to go to our great Prophet--
(1) Jesus Christ is very willing to teach us. Why else did He enter into the calling of the ministry but to teach the mysteries of heaven?
(2). There are none so dull and ignorant but Christ can teach them. Everyone is not fit to make a philosophers scholar of--a Mercury is not made out of every block of wood; but there is none so dull but Christ can make a good scholar of. Even such as are ignorant, and of low parts, Christ teacheth them in such a manner, that they know more than the great sages and wise men of the world.
(3) Wait upon the means of grace which Christ hath appointed. Though Christ teacheth by His Spirit, yet He teacheth in the use of ordinances. Wait at the gates of wisdoms door.
(4) If you would have the teachings of Christ, walk according to that knowledge which you have already. Use your little knowledge well, and Christ will teach you more. (T. Watson.)
Our great Prophet
I. First, consider the prophetic office of Christ in His Church, for which He was preeminently qualified; and the first feature of His qualifications for that office which we shall mention is His Divine prescience. He sees the end from the beginning. Moreover, orthodox teaching pertains to the prophets office, and here also our blessed Lord hath the preeminence, for He taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes. The sum of His teaching when on earth, as well as by His Spirit to this day, is life in Himself alone.
II. Now proceed to the union and affinity described; like unto Moses, and of their brethren. This sets forth Moses eminently a type of Christ, and we will name a few particulars in which the type and antitype are alike, though the latter infinitely surpasses the former. Moses was a man of fame, he was proclaimed king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together. Jesus was proclaimed King of Zion by God the Father, saying, I have set My King upon My holy hill of Zion, and there He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet; but here the antitype infinitely exceeds the type, for Moses could only reign over the people, but Jesus reigns both over and in their hearts. Moses was famed as a warrior, and Amalek and Moab felt his prowess--Sihon and Og fell before him; hut Jesus, as the Captain of our salvation, has spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them, yea, He has vanquished death, hell, and the grave, and is still going forth upon His white horse (Gospel truth) from conquering to conquer. Moses was famed for meekness (Num_12:3). Jesus, our Prophet, was like unto Moses, meek and lowly, and His meekness never failed, even when He endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself. The faithfulness of Moses is also recorded by the apostle to his honour, Moses, verily, was faithful in all His house as a servant. He was faithful to God for his people, and he was faithful to the people for God. So our glorious Prophet was like him, and far surpassed him, as a Son over His own house: His very name is Faithful and True, as the Holy Ghost tells us in the Apocalypse; and by His servant Isaiah He says, Faithfulness is the girdle of His reins.
III. Notice his being raised up supernaturally--The Lord thy God raised Him up. In fact, everything pertaining to Christianity must of necessity be supernatural; and all that religion which originates with fallen nature, and which fallen nature can comprehend, must be spurious. The question which our Lord put to the Jews respecting the ministry of John fixes the standard of real religion--Is it from heaven or of me? Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and, consequently, is supernatural--every act of faith, as well as the gift of it, is supernatural; yea, the very life of godliness in the soul is supernatural life.
IV. This brings us to show that our great Prophet is entitled to obedience, yea, that it is demanded, Unto Him ye shall hearken. Without this we cannot be reckoned among His sheep, for He says, My sheep hear My voice; when He speaks in His Word, by His ministers, or in the secret whispers of His love; they hearken to Him in these communications, whether they be for instruction, reproof, or comfort. As a Prophet He hath graciously said, I will instruct thee, and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. It is, therefore, our privilege, and must be our wisdom, to sit at His feet and hearken to His words. By hearkening to Him I understand the embracing of His embassy, as the sent of God the Father on the great errand of salvation; and this will include the receiving of every doctrine He preached--every privilege He bestows--and every precept He enjoins; all which requires great grace from Him. Again, in embracing His embassy, and so hearkening to this Prophet, there will be a settled reliance upon His person and work as the great subject of Old Testament prophecy; so that whoever reads the prophecies without an eye to Jesus, will find them but a dead letter without spirit or life. (J. Irons.)
The need of a Mediator between God and man felt and acknowledged
I. On this great occasion God was dealing with the children of Israel as the moral governor of men, the Lawgiver and Judge of His accountable creatures.
II. This grand publication of Gods holy law and sovereign will to the assembled Israelites, was accompanied with suitable attendant circumstances of awe and majesty.
III. The Israelites, by these symbols of awful power and holiness, were filled with solemn dread and made application to Moses, that immediate communications from God might no more be given; but that he would be their Mediator, receive the commands of God, and declare them to the people.
IV. Observe Gods approval of the application of the people and His compliance with it. (Essex Remembrancer.)
The resemblance between Moses and Christ
I. Consider Moses as a leader and lawgiver. You are to observe that both Moses and Christ proved their commission by miracles--a thing that cannot be affirmed of any among the prophets of Israel. They both came to an enslaved race; they both set loose the prisoners; and, when proof of their authority was demanded, they both wrought wonders beyond human power--wonders which equally showed their dominion over the elements, and over life and death. Though one used his might in destroying, and the other only in works of benevolence, yet there was much the same opposition raised against the one and the other--the magicians contending with Moses, and evil spirits contending with Christ. And the deliverances effected by the two were singularly alike, bearing evidently the one towards the other, the relation of type and antitype. Moses broke the yoke from the necks of the captive people; Christ the yoke from the necks of the whole human race. But when Moses made a passage for Israel out of Egypt, all danger was not escaped, nor all difficulties surmounted. The former tyrants pursued the free tribes, and sought to recover the ascendency they had lost; and though Christ hath redeemed us from the power of Satan, and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers, who knows not that evil spirits, eager to regain their former dominion, pursue those that follow the Captain of Salvation, and strive, with ceaseless energy, to prevent their final escape? When Moses led Israel out of Egypt, he did indeed tell them of a rich and goodly land, which God appointed as their inheritance, but he did not at once put them in possession of it; on the contrary, he conducted them into a dreary wilderness, where they were exposed to continual trials, and harassed with various afflictions. Is it not thus, also, with regard to our redemption? By Christ we hear of a mighty Canaan, reserved for the followers of the Redeemer, but there is not an immediate entrance; a wide desert has to be traced, set with snares and peopled with enemies, and it is only through much tribulation that we can take possession of the heritage. It is not only as a leader, but equally as a lawgiver, that Moses bears a striking resemblance to Christ.
II. But we do not think that it was in his capacity as a leader and a lawgiver that Moses most eminently typified Christ. We go on to observe that Moses acted as a mediator between God and the Israelites; and if as mediator, then was he indeed like the Lord our Redeemer. The name of mediator is expressly given by St. Paul to Moses; for you will remember that, in writing to the Galatians, be says, The law was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. The reference here is unquestionably to Moses; and, therefore, his claim to being reckoned a mediator rests upon evidence which admits of no dispute.
III. Observe, more minutely, the particulars of Moses life. With regard to the very infancy of the two whom we wish to set before you as type and antitype, you will remember that Moses was wonderfully preserved when in childhood--preserved from Pharaohs order; and thus was Christ preserved when Herod slew all the children in Bethlehem. Moses fled from his country to escape the wrath of the king, and then there came to him a message, Go, return into Egypt for all the men are dead which sought thy life. Christ fled in like manner, and then there came a message, in almost the same words, to Joseph, Return, for they are dead which sought the young childs life. Moses, as we before said, contended with the magicians, and forced them to acknowledge his power--Christ contended with evil spirits, and obtained from them a similar confession. Immediately before the emancipation of Israel, Moses instituted the Passover--immediately before redeeming mankind, Christ instituted the Lords Supper. When Moses had to appoint elders, he appointed seventy--when Christ chose His disciples, He also chose seventy. Into the land that was to be conquered Moses sent twelve men as spies--when the world was to be subdued, Christ sent twelve men as apostles. How did Moses overcome Amalek? By extending both his arms, and keeping them stretched out. How did Christ subdue all men? Only by suffering His hands to be nailed to the Cross. As a prophet, Moses had to deal with a barbarous generation, who were not to be won over to the obeying of God; and who, consequently, with the exception of two, all perished in the wilderness, in forty years. And was not Christ sent to an obdurate people? Moses had to endure ill-treatment from his own family--his brother Aaron and his sister Miriam rebelled against him; and we are told of Christ, Neither did His brethren believe on Him. Moses fed the people miraculously in the wilderness; Christ fed thousands miraculously in the desert. And, in making a covenant of blood between God and the people, did he not again represent the Redeemer, who, by His own blood, hath brought nigh those who were sometime afar off? It was not until Moses was dead that the people could enter the promised land; it was only by the death of Christ that the kingdom of heaven was opened to believers. It was, in one sense, for the iniquities of the people that Moses died. The Lord was angry with me for your sakes, and sware that I should not go over Jordan, and that I should not go in unto that good land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance; but I must die. We need not tell you that it was for the sins of the world that Christ poured out His soul unto death, in the fulness of His strength, when His eye was not dim nor His natural force abated. Did Moses go up in the sight of the people to the top of Mount Nebo, on purpose to die? and when Christ was yet in the flower of His age, unworn by any sickness, did He go up in the presence of the nation, to the summit of Calvary, on purpose to endure death? Before he went up to die, Moses comforted the disconsolate tribes with an assurance that God would raise them up another prophet; before He went up to die, Christ said to His desponding disciples, I will not leave you comfortless; I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter. And, to add but another point of correspondence, Moses was buried, but no one knew where his body lay; Christ was buried, and yet were not His remains in vain sought for by the Jews? (H. Melvill, B. D.)
The prophetic office of Christ
1. The prophetic office of Christ is one of a peculiarly gracious and encouraging nature to sinners.
2. The prophetic office of Christ is one of infinite dignity, inasmuch as He transacted in it with God for our salvation, and was able to sustain that manifestation of the Divine glory and holiness which no mere man can behold and live.
3. The text presents us with an interesting view of the security and blessedness of all who enjoy an interest in the benefits of Christs mediation. They shall not hear Gods voice nor see His face as the holy, and righteous, but deeply offended arbiter of the destinies of the moral universe, taking vengeance upon His enemies--they shall not have to encounter a conflict with His outraged holiness, and violated justice, and insulted power; but as He shall look upon them through the medium of a Saviours imputed righteousness and merits, so shall they, on the other hand, sea Him in the attractive and winning light of a Saviours compassion, benignity, and love. (J. Forbes, D. D.)
Moses the type of Christ
I. If we survey the general history of the Israelites, we shall find that it is a picture of mans history as the Gospel displays it to us, and that in it moses takes the place of Christ.
II. Christ reveals to us the will of God, as Moses did to the Israelites. He is our Prophet as well as our Redeemer. Favoured as he was, Moses saw not the true presence of God. Flesh and blood cannot see it. But Christ really saw, and ever saw, the face of God, for He was no creature of God, but the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father. Christ has brought from His Father for all of us the full and perfect way of life.
III. Moses was the great intercessor when the Israelites sinned. In this he shadows out the true Mediator between God and man, who is ever at the right hand of God making intercession for us. Moses was excluded from the Promised Land, dying in sight, not in enjoyment, of Canaan, while the people went in under Joshua. This was a figure of/the that was to come. Our Saviour Christ died that we might live; He consented to lose the light of Gods countenance that we might gain it. Moses suffered for his own sin; Christ was the spotless Lamb of God. His death is meritorious; it has really gained our pardon. (J. H. Newman, D. D.)
Moral and typical character of Moses
I. Consider Moses in his moral excellencies.
1. His vigorous faith in the declarations of God.
2. His cheerful obedience to the commands of God.
3. He was distinguished for a spirit of fervent devotion.
4. He was distinguished for enlarged and unwearied benevolence.
5. He was celebrated for astonishing meekness.
6. His religion was characterised by its constancy and perseverance.
II. Consider Moses as an illustrious type of the Lord Jesus Christ.
1. The wonderful preservation of both in infancy.
2. The intellectual qualifications of both.
3. The voluntary poverty and reproach of both.
4. The offices which both sustained.
5. The signs and miracles which both wrought.
6. Both fasted forty days and forty nights.
There are many other traits of likeness between Moses and Jesus, but the above must suffice. In many things there was a great disparity between them.
(1) Moses was a frail man, he had his infirmities. Jesus was free from all sin, and guile was never found in His mouth.
(2) Moses was a servant; Jesus a son.
(3) Moses received power from God to do the works he did; Jesus possessed all power both in heaven and earth.
(4) The spirit of prophecy dwelt largely in Moses, but wholly in Christ.
(5) Moses was a leader, but Christ a Saviour.
(6) The rewards Moses principally offered were temporal; Christs spiritual and eternal.
(7) Moses established a perishing economy, one that waxed old, and is now abrogated. Christs kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and of His rule there shall be no end.
Application:
1. We may admire Moses; but Jesus demands our supreme love.
2. We may read the law of Moses, but believe and trust in the Gospel of Christ,
3. It is well to contemplate the moral excellencies and official engagements of Moses; but it is better to meditate upon the scene on the holy mount of transfiguration, where Moses and Elias both did homage to Jesus, and conversed of His decease, which He was to accomplish at Jerusalem, and where the voice from the excellent glory was heard, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him. (J. Burns, D. D.)
Moses a type of Christ
I. The peculiar circumstances connected with their birth.
II. Their voluntary abasement and humiliation.
III. Both were especially appointed to be the deliverers of the afflicted and the oppressed.
IV. Both of them delivered the laws and mind of God to the people.
V. Both of them were appointed leaders of the people.
VI. Both of them acted as mediators between God and the people.
VII. Both of their engagements were connected with the ministrations of angels.
VIII. Both were distinguished for high moral endowments.
IX. Both were eminent prophets of the Most High God.
X. Both obtained unspeakably valuable blessings for the people.
XI. Both lived and laboured for the well-being of others.
XII. Both were treated with ingratitude by those whose welfare they lived to promote. Application:
1. Moses was the head of that dispensation which was legal and ceremonial, and Which passed away. Jesus is the head of that economy which is spiritual, gracious, and abiding.
2. Let us rejoice that we are not come to Sinai, but Zion; not under the law, but under grace; not the followers of Moses, but the disciples of Christ.
3. If disobedience to Moses and his law was visited with Gods displeasure, how shall those escape who neglect Christs salvation, and obey not His Gospel? (J. Burns, D. D.)
The resemblance of Jesus to Moses
I. These words principally contain a prophecy of the Messiah. First, the word prophet is expressed in the singular number, and intimates plainly the raising up of a certain illustrious prophet at a fixed time, rather than a constant succession of prophets. Moses expressly adds, like unto me, that is, in the principal part of his character--one who should not only be a prophet, but also a legislator. But, from the time of Moses to the days of our Saviour, there was no prophet who had the same authority as Moses had, for the succeeding prophets were only interpreters of the Mosaic law, they only exhorted the people to obey the law of Moses; reproved the transgressors of it; and, by foretelling punishments to be inflicted upon them by God, awakened them to return to the obedience of this law. Jesus appeared in the world at that period when the Jewish nation had the highest expectation of the coming of their Messiah. There is no doubt but the ancient Jews acknowledged this text to be particularly applicable to the Messiah (Act_3:22; Act_7:37).
II. The description here given exactly corresponds to Jesus of Nazareth; and He resembled Moses in more respects than any other prophet ever did.
III. The Jewish nation have been, and still are, severely punished for their disobedience to this prophet.
IV. Concluding inferences.
1. We may see that Christianity is indeed near as old as the creation. The two dispensations resemble a building supported by two pillars, joined and cemented together, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone whom God has placed in Zion; so that if you remove either of the two, the whole must fall to the ground.
2. We may see that the infidelity of the Jewish nation is unreasonable and inexcusable.
3. We may see the folly and inevitable ruin of such as reject Jesus Christ, whose mission God has attested by so many proofs.
4. We may see the just foundation all true Christians have for zealously promoting the interests of the Gospel. (James Robertson, M. A.)
Moses a type of Christ
I. Christ is a prophet like unto Moses; and He is so in two respects: first, as to His teaching; and secondly, as to His predictions. The office of the prophet was two fold; he not only revealed, by the inspiration of God, the things which should be hereafter; but he also, by the same inspiration, declared unto the people the mind and will of God, as well as their duty towards Him: he was a preacher as well as a prophet. It was so in the case of Moses. He made known to the people of Israel the glorious character of the Most High--His holiness, His majesty, His mercy, His justice. But not only did Moses deliver to Israel heavenly doctrine, and gave them precepts for their guidance; but he foretold their future fortunes, yea, he foretold that they would disobey those very precepts. I know, he says, that after, my death ye will utterly corrupt, yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days, because ye will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger with the work of your hands. But let us turn from Moses to Christ, a Prophet mighty in word and deed before God and all the people; that greater Prophet, whom Moses himself foretold, and of whom he was but a type. We find in our blessed Lord the same union of the two qualifications of the prophet. He is our great Teacher; and He also foretold things to come. Christ is our great Teacher; and who teacheth like Him? The teaching of Christ is so full, so important, and so adapted to promote our real welfare, that it demands our most intense and diligent study. Let us just glance at some of the truths which His teaching conveys to us. Moses revealed to the children of Israel only just so much of the character of God as God saw fit to make known to him; but our Divine Teacher comes from the very bosom of the Father; He is the Revealer of the Father to the sons of men; yea, He is Himself Immanuel, God with us. Moses gave to Israel precepts whereby they might live; but the blessings attached to them were but temporal: the great truths connected with the life to come were but obscurely revealed to them. But our great Teacher has brought life and immortality to light. He teaches us the necessity of a change of heart, if we would dwell forever in the realms of holiness and peace: Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He has told us of the absolute necessity that our sins should be forgiven, if we would obtain everlasting life, and the way by which we are to obtain that forgiveness. And He does what Moses could never do: He sends His Holy Spirit to write His law upon our hearts. Moses gave to Israel the law of the Ten Commandments, as well as the ceremonial law; but our Teacher has made known to us the Gospel. The moral law was indeed glorious, its holiness was its glory: but it could not save: it could but convince of our sins, and condemn us for our disobedience. But Jesus has come to us with better tidings: He tells us how we may escape the condemnation of the law. He hath redeemed us from its curse, being made a curse for us. Christ our Prophet also foretells things to come. He foretold, as Moses did, the destruction of the city of the Jews, and of their magnificent temple; and, in the prospect of the inconceivable misery which they were about to suffer, His heart was filled with anguish.
II. Other points of resemblance between Moses and Christ are presented to us in the text. We are told, the Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet like unto me. Moses was commissioned by God as a prophet to Israel; and he came to them with all the authority of such high commission. His words were as though they had been spoken by God Himself; and it was at their peril that the Israelites refused to hear him. So also is Christ sent unto us by God. The same almighty Being who created the heavens and the earth, who formed the spirit of man within him, our Creator, Benefactor, and Preserver, has sent unto us Jesus, to be our great Teacher. What greater inducement can we have to hearken to His voice?
III. Moses was a prophet raised up in Israel from among themselves. God sent not an angel to be their instructor, but a man of like passions with themselves; one who could sympathise and bear with them, and one whom they might approach without fear. So also was Christ raised up to us from among our brethren; forasmuch as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same.
IV. Again, Moses prophesied that the Lord would raise up this mighty Prophet unto Israel; and it is true that Jesus came to preach salvation first to the Jew. He said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But there is a spiritual Israel, the seed of Abraham by faith, even the company of all true believers; and unto them Christ was raised up to be a Prophet, the great Prophet of His Church. (M. T. Spencer, M. A.)
The acceptance of Christ as a Prophet
What strikes one perhaps most of all in looking at the old castles in England is the meagre openings that they have for light. How did the people inside of them contrive to live and read and write? With these apertures and passages out to the glorious day no bigger than the barrel of a gun, how did they manage their existence? What incomparable comforts men have today in the great windows that open back and front, and often on the sides, out into Gods ample and beautiful world! These old castles, with the stray beams struggling in upon broken down halls and dungeons, with the glorious floods of light forbidden to enter, are a picture of the men who shut out the Lord. The rejection of Christ is the refusal to let in the light, is the shrinking back into the dark castle, into the rude home of barbarism and privation. The acceptance of Christ is the acceptance of modem life in its highest meaning, giving a welcome to its ideas, its spirit of reform, its determination to conquer the world. It is a coming out of the dark prison of self-containment into an utter openness toward the infinite God. (George A. Gordon.)
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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv15, 20 Of the Coming Great Prophet
Of the Coming Great Prophet
v. 15. The Lord, thy God, will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto Him ye shall hearken. With great abruptness, as it is characteristic of prophecy, Noses here foretells the coming of a great, a singular Prophet. This great Prophet would arise by the special direction of the Lord, sent by Him for a particular purpose. Unto Israel would He come, for the benefit, for the salvation, of the people of the Lord. He would not be a strange, a new creature, not sent from the world of angels or from any other sphere, but would arise from the midst of Israel, a descendant of Israel according to the flesh, a true human being. Like unto Moses this great Prophet would be, and yet exceeding Him in endowments from on high, filled with the Spirit of God without measure, the one final Mediator between God and man. For Him Moses bespeaks full and absolute obedience, to wit, hearing for the purpose of applying the word and acting accordingly.
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v. 16. According to all that thou desiredst of the Lord, thy God, in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord, my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not, Exo 20:19.
v. 17. And the Lord said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. Moses had even at that time received the Revelation concerning this wonderful Prophet who was to bring them a message of glory and beauty instead of that which struck terror to their hearts.
v. 18. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put My words in His mouth, impart to Rim the message which He desired to have delivered to His people; and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him. His word would be invested with unconditional certainty.
v. 19. And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto My words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. With the greatest emphasis the necessity of yielding unquestioning obedience to this great Prophet and His message is urged. The punishment of the disobedient is contained in the words referring to an account which will be asked, namely, on the Day of Judgment. That this prophecy is a Messianic promise is clear in the light of the New Testament, Luk 9:35; Act 3:22; Act 7:37; Heb 1:1-2; it sets forth Jesus Christ as the great Prophet of the New Testament.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv15, 17, 20, 22 General Information:
General Information:
Moses continues speaking to the people of Israel.
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Yahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet
Yahweh appointing a person to be a prophet is spoken of as if Yahweh would raise or lift the person up. (See: Metaphor)
one of your brothers
"one of your fellow Israelites"
This is what you asked
Here "you" refers to the Israelites at Mount Horeb about 40 years earlier.
at Horeb on the day of the assembly
"on the day you gathered together at Horeb"
on the day of the assembly, saying, 'Let us not hear again the voice of Yahweh our God, nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.'
This has a quotation within a quotation. A direct quotation can be stated as an indirect quotation. AT: "on the day of the assembly when you said that you did not want to hear the voice of Yahweh our God, nor see his great fire anymore, because you were afraid that you would die." (See:Quotes Within Quotes and Direct and Indirect Quotations)
Let us not hear again the voice of Yahweh our God
Here Yahweh is represented by his "voice" to emphasize what he says. AT: "Let us not hear Yahweh our God speak again" (See: Synecdoche)
translationWords
raise
prophet
brother
Horeb
assembly
voice
fire
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv15, 18, 19, 22 18:15 A prophet like me would be beyond the…
18:15 A prophet like me would be beyond the ordinary because Moses was without peer among the prophets (see 34:10-11). This prophet would be from among your fellow Israelites (literally from among your brothers), and Israel was required to listen to him (18:19). The prophets of Old Testament Israel would partially fulfill the function of God’s spokesman to whom Israel must listen. Later, Judaism looked for this prophet as a major messianic figure (see John 1:21; 6:14; 7:40); the New Testament identifies Jesus as this prophet (Acts 3:18-26).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.