The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers; it is to Him you shall listen…
Deuteronomy 18:15
Jesus came into our dimension to be our Prophet, Priest, and King. Our verse today is foundational to understanding one of Jesus’ titles, Prophet. In John 4, the Samaritan woman says to Jesus, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.” Jesus does not deny her use of this title, indicating that it is indeed fitting to see Jesus as the Prophet par excellence that Moses wrote of. But, Jesus is no mere prophet. While all the prophets spoke God’s words to the people of Israel, Jesus was the Prophet-Mediator, just as Moses was. Moses, as a prophet-mediator was the most significant prophet of the Old Testament. Moses was the first person to give us the written Word of God. And, Moses calls himself a prophet, predicting that the Lord will raise up a prophet like him after he is gone. While this text predicts the rise of all the prophets in Israel, it also has a special messianic significance in pointing to a prophet who, like Moses, will also be the mediator of a covenant with God’s people. In Hebrews, we read that, in the new covenant, Jesus is our mediator and is better than the old covenant mediator, Moses, who represented the Israelites before God and was the figure through whom they entered into the covenant with the Lord to be His holy people. Like all the other prophets, Moses and Jesus gave God’s people the words of God, but unlike the other prophets, Moses and Jesus were figures through whom God established covenants and the attendant covenant stipulations, rituals, and processes for atonement. However, though Jesus is like Moses in terms of being a prophet-mediator, He is far greater than Moses because He is the Son of the Living God. Moses represented Israel before God, but he was not God. Jesus, on the other hand, is the Mediator in whom God and man are perfectly united, for Jesus possesses both a true divine nature and a true human nature. Christ, our Mediator, is the perfect bridge between God and human beings because He is both truly God and truly man. Christ cannot fail to reconcile to His Father all who trust in Him alone for salvation. If you are in Christ, you are truly at peace with the Lord. So rejoice in His peace this day and remember that it is all yours because of Christ alone.
Source: S C Ball December 11, 2023
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