#DailyDevotion Jesus Is The Promised Prophet of YHWH
Deut. 18:15-19 15“The LORD your God will raise a Prophet for you, one of you, an Israelite, like me; listen to Him. 16This is what you asked the LORD your God to give you when you were assembled at Horeb, saying: ‘I must not hear the LORD my God speak again or see this great fire again, or I’ll die.’ 17The LORD told me: ‘They’re right in what they ask. 18I will raise a Prophet for them, One of their fellow Israelites, like you; I will have Him speak My Word, and He will tell them everything I order Him. 19If anyone will not listen to My Words, which He says in My name, I will punish him.
Moses was getting ready to die. The LORD had revealed to him when he would be departing the Israelites. He was preparing them for his death. Moses was an intermediary between the LORD and the Israelites because way back at the beginning of this journey when the LORD spoke directly to the people they said, “I must not hear the LORD my God speak again or see this great fire again, or I’ll die.” So Moses went and spoke with the LORD, face to face, in the tent of meeting and he instructed the Israelites all that the LORD had spoken to him.
Now that Moses was leaving to be with the LORD, the LORD makes this promise, “The LORD your God will raise a Prophet for you, one of you, an Israelite, like me; listen to Him” Now this is the Prophet which the Pharisees asked John if he were that fulfillment. But John was not. Neither were all the other prophets who came before him. There would still be another who is the Prophet who would “speak My Word, and He will tell them everything I order Him.”
So who is this Prophet? Jesus claims in John’s Gospel, 3:11 “I tell you the truth, We tell what We know, and We testify to what we have seen.” Jesus says again in John 8:26, “But I tell the world only what I heard from Him Who sent Me, and He tells the truth.” In John 12 Jesus says, “48If anyone rejects Me and doesn’t take to heart what I say, he has one that is condemning him. The Word that I spoke will condemn him on the last day, 49because what I said didn’t come from Me, but the Father Who sent Me ordered Me to say and tell it. 50I know what He orders is everlasting life. And so, whatever I say, I say it just as the Father told Me.” In these passages Jesus is claiming to be the Prophet foretold by Moses.
Jesus speaks what the Father gave him to speak and to teach to us. We are called to listen to his word and if we belong to Jesus we will listen to his word as Jesus says in John 10, “16I have other sheep, too, that are not in this fold. I must lead those, too, and they will listen to My voice, and so they will become one flock with one Shepherd.” At Jesus’ transfiguration the Father told us in Luke 9:35, “This is My Son Whom I have chosen. Listen to Him.” So let us listen to Jesus. To listen to Jesus is to believe him. To believe Jesus is to have eternal life. We are not to listen to any other claiming to be the Prophet, like Mushroomed or Joseph Smith. Jesus is our only intermediary between us and the Father as he only sits at the right hand of the Father interceding for us, praying for our steadfastness in his word and our eternal salvation. The Father’s answer to the Son’s intercession for you is, “Yes, yes, it shall be so.”
Heavenly Father, open up our ears that we may hears the voice of your Son Jesus Christ, so we may listen and believe all he has taught us and then do what he commands. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.