Sunday, March 22, 2009

The Prophet (Part 1): Dt 18:15-19

"The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him. This is according to all that you asked of the Lord your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, let me not see this great fire anymore, or I will die.' The Lord said to me, 'They have spoken well. I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him." (Deuteronomy 18:15-19)
This prophesy speaks of one prophet, not many prophets, that God would raise up in the likeness of Moses. While many prophets would come and go, they were all leading up to the arrival of the one prophet whom God and promised to send. The Jews in Jesus day understood this prophesy. As events unfolded around them they questioned whether The Prophet had finally arrived and they debated as to who The Prophet might be.
"This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, 'Who are you?' And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, 'I am not the Christ.' They asked him, 'What then? Are you Elijah?' And he said, 'I am not.' 'Are you the Prophet?' And he answered, 'No.' ... They asked him, and said to him, 'Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?'" (John 1:19-21, 25)

"Therefore when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, 'This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.'" (John 6:14)

"Some of the people therefore, when they heard these words, were saying, 'This certainly is the Prophet.' Others were saying, 'This is the Christ.' Still others were saying, 'Surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is He?'" (John 7:40-41)

"Philip found Nathanael and said to him, 'We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote -- Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.'" (John 1:45)

Jesus is the prophet that Moses prophesied about. He is the prophet that was like Moses but superior to Moses in every way. "Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession; He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house. For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house -- whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end." (Hebrews 3:1-6) He is also the culmination of every prophet that came before. "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world." (Hebrews 1:1-2) Jesus is The Prophet, He is the final word from the Father, the final prophetic voice, the one to whom the whole world has become accountable.

There is one prophet to day, one that speaks with authority that demands to be listened to and obeyed. The line of prophets has ended with Christ, He is the fulfillment of all who came before and after Him there is need for no one else. He speaks the final and authoritative word from the Father. There remains one prophet and He speaks in the earth today through His body. Today, Christ speaks to the world through a corporate prophetic voice, the voice of the church that is His body. Jesus has sent His church, His body, to be His prophetic voice in the earth; not many individual voices, but one unified voice speaking for Him.

More to come... David Robison

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1 comment:

  1. This singular verse is a point of contention amoung Jews and Muslims alike to "prove" that Jesus was only a prophet. The Old Testament is fulfilled in the New...they needed to read further. Jesus is THE (final) PROPHET, THE Word,
    THE Lamb, THE Savior of the World, THE King... the one they were waiting for...

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