The Promise of His Coming (4)

Long after Jacob and Joseph, God called Moses to lead the children of Israel out of the slavery of Egypt to go up to the Promised Land. Moses had a special place of privilege, as God's prophet, in hearing God's voice, encountering God in his holiness, and leading the people by proclaiming God's word to them.

Yet even Moses was sinful, and his disobedience of God meant that ultimately, he would not enjoy living in the land of promise. The next generation would boldly go across the Jordan to conquer the land.

Near the end of Deuteronomy, that book of Moses' final speeches to the people before he dies and they cross over with Joshua, Moses declares that God will provide a new prophet in the future:

The LORD you God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers - it is to him you shall listen - just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, "Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die." And the LORD said to me, "They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. (Deuteronomy 18:15-19)

Israel is on the lookout for this special prophet, the one who is coming to reveal God to them, and yet, the words at the end of Deuteronomy are very telling:

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

What will this prophet be like? He will know the LORD face to face, and do signs and wonders and works of mighty power, and (from earlier) he will speak all that God tells him to speak. It's no surprise, then, to find that Jesus says that 'Moses wrote of me' (John 5:46), yet Jesus has greater honour than Moses as the son over God's house as compared to the servant in God's house. (Hebrews 3:1-6)

Once again, the hunt is on - the prophet is coming. Come, Lord Jesus!