Is Yeshua the Prophet in Deuteronomy 18:15?
In Deuteronomy 18, Mosheh told the people to wait a prophet like him, whom the Eternal would raise up for them from their midst. This prophet would be their brother. Mosheh admonished them to listen to him, according to all they asked of the Eternal at Mount Horev when they witnessed the thunders, the lightning flashes, the voice of the shophar, and the mountain smoking, and they heard the Eternal speaking to them the words of the Covenant. But they were scared and trembled saying to Mosheh, “You speak with us and we hear, but let not Elohim speak with us, lest we die” (Exo 20:18-19). If they had chosen to just continue to listen to, they would have heard the warning in Exo 20:23 and would not have sinned by having made a gold image of the Eternal. That was forty years before Mosheh’s speech in Deuteronomy. Now, Mosheh reminded the people of this event and added an important detail which was not revealed to them back then. It was the Eternal who first spoke to Mosheh at Sinai of a prophet who would come after Mosheh, a prophet like Mosheh (see Deuteronomy 18:17-20). In the words of Mosheh,
And the Eternal said to me, “What they have spoken is good. I shall raise up for them a Prophet like you out of the midst of their brothers. And I shall put My Words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him”. (Deu 18:17-18)
When Israel accepted Mosheh as an intermediary, and they promised obedience to what he would instruct them to do in the Name of YHVH, Mosheh here and further implied that he viewed their words as a commitment which would remain in force for their relationship with future prophets, as well. With this we now turn to our main subject: the prophets that would come to Israel after him.
After Mosheh legislated the establishment of judges, [police] officers, and judicial system in Israel in Deuteronomy 16:18-20 and 17:1-13, and kings in Deuteronomy 17:14-20, now in Chapter 18, he went on the manner in which the Eternal Elohim would communicate His will to Israel, namely, through His prophets. In this chapter, Mosheh spoke to the people about the matter of a prophet, who would come out of their midst. This prophet would be their brother.
God sends His prophets
Who is the prophet the Eternal promised to Israel in Deuteronomy 18? Is this prophet any prophet from the midst of Israel, or the prophet promised from the very beginning of the world? We read thus,
Yehovah your Elohim shall raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your brothers. Listen to him, according to all you asked of Yehovah your Elohim in Horev in the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of Yehovah my Elohim, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die’. (Deu 18:15-16)
Mosheh assured Israel that after his death any future communication from YHVH would come to Israel in the same way Mosheh conveyed Torah to Israel, namely, from the mouth of a prophet like him. But the question arises, “How can the people know who is truly speaking in YHVH’s name”?
The verse 20 describes two types of false prophets: (1) prophets who falsely quote YHVH, and (2) prophets who speak in the name of a god other than YHVH. These verses address a vital question. The latter is clear and not difficult to understand, as it distinguishes between true and false prophets. This matter Mosheh already addressed previously in Chapter 13. But how does the former work? How is it possible to know if a prophet speaking in the name of YHVH does not speak falsely? Mosheh addresses this question directly in Deuteronomy 18:21-22. If a prophet who has spoken a positive prediction, and his prediction has past to the smallest detail, he is a true prophet, he is not to be afraid of, but such a prophet would be limited to reiterating the Torah and nothing more. Thus, while Mosheh allows other prophets like him to speak, he makes it very clear that they are to reiterate the Torah and his teachings, namely, keeping the commands without adding to or subtracting from the Word.
According to the Rabbinical teachings on Deu 18:15-19 regarding a prophet the Eternal will raise from the midst of Israel, a prophet like Mosheh, the promise neither relates to one particular prophet, nor directly and exclusively to the Messiah, but speaks with respect to the sending of any prophet. This the Rabbis extract from what follows with reference to true and false prophets, which presupposes the rise of prophets (plural), and shows that it is not regarding one prophet only, nor is it about the Messiah who is promised in Deu 18:15-19. By no means, they continue, it follows from the use of the singular “a[ny] prophet” speaking of one particular prophet, but that at any time when the people need a mediator, the Eternal would send a prophet. The expression “like me” in Deu 18:15 is explain in Deu 18:16 with regard to the circumstances, under which the Eternal had given the promise that He would send a prophet. Because, they say, it was at Mount Sinai, when the people were terrified (see Exo 20), after hearing the Covenant and entreated Mosheh to act as mediator between Elohim and them, that He might not speak directly to them anymore. The promised prophet, therefore, the Rabbis say, was to resemble Mosheh in this respect, that he would act as a mediator between the Eternal and the people.
However, a discrepancy is introduced here between the words “like me” in Deuteronomy 18:15, if any prophet is meant, and the words which follow in Deuteronomy 18:18, “I will put My words in his mouth”. This discrepancy is expressed in contrast with the way the Eternal spoke with Mosheh, namely, mouth to mouth and face to face (Deuteronomy 34:10), and with rest of the prophets: in dreams or visions. In the words of the Eternal,
Please, listen up to My words: If your prophet is of Yehovah, I make Myself known to him in a vision, and I speak to him in a dream. Not so with My servant Mosheh, he is trustworthy in all My house. I speak with him mouth to mouth, and plainly, and not in riddles and he sees the likeness of Yehovah. (Num 12:6-8)
So, if the promised prophet in Deuteronomy 18:15 is any prophet to whom YHVH would speak in a vision and in a dream, then we have to face the discrepancy that to that prophet YHVH would also speak mouth to mouth, as he spoke with Mosheh, because this is exactly what the phrase “I will put My words in his mouth” means.
But the teachings of the Rabbis with regard to Deuteronomy 18:15 are not so monolithic as they look like. The thirteenth century Rabbinic commentator Ralbag (Rabbit Levi ben Gershon) writes concerning Deuteronomy 18:15-19:
“A prophet from the midst of you. – In fact, the Messiah is such a Prophet as it is stated in the Midrash (Tanhuma) on the verse, “Behold my Servant shall prosper [Isa 52:13] … Moses by the miracles which he wrought brought a single nation to worship Elohim, but the Messiah will draw all peoples to the worship of Elohim”. (Ralbag on Due 18:18)
The Midrash Tanhuma (cited above) says:
“It is written, ‘Behold, my servant shall deal wisely, He shall be exalted, and extolled, and be very high’ (Isa 52:13). It means, He shall be more exalted than Abraham of whom it is written, ‘I lift up my hand’ (Gen 14:22). He shall be more extolled than Moses of whom it is said, ‘As a nursing father beareth the nursing child’ (Num 11:12). ‘And shall be very high’—that is, Messiah shall be higher than the ministering angels”. (Midrash Tanhuma Isa 52:13)
Doubtlessly, that was the promised Prophet whom Philip had in his mind when he said to Nathanael,
We have found Him whom Mosheh wrote of in the Torah, and the prophets: Yeshua of Natsareth – the son of Yoseph. (Joh 1:45)
Stephen saw the promise of the prophet like Mosheh, saying,
This is the Mosheh who said to the children of Israel, ‘Yehovah your Elohim shall raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brothers. Him you shall hear.’ (Act 7:37)
Peter also expressly quotes it in Act 3:22-23, as referring to Yeshua:
For Mosheh truly said to the fathers, ‘The Eternal your Elohim shall raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brothers. Him you shall hear according to all matters, whatever He says to you. And it shall be that every being who does not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Shemu’el and those following, have also announced these days. (Act 3:22-24)
And even Yeshua applies the promised of the prophet in the passage in Deu 18:15-19 to himself in Joh 5:45-46, when He says to the Pharisees,
Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Mosheh, in whom you have set your expectation. For if you believed Mosheh, you would have believed Me, since he wrote about Me. (Joh 5:45-46)
For more insight on the words of Yeshua “he wrote about Me” refer to the article “To Foresee Yeshua the Messiah“.
The Samaritans founded their expectation of the Messiah upon these words of Mosheh,
The woman said to Him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming, the One who is called Anointed. When that One comes, He shall announce to us all.’ (Joh 4:25)
But ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ was actually expressed in the promise of the seed of the woman, and Ya’akov’s prophecy concerning Shiloh, that this is a prediction of the Messiah as the true prophet, precisely like that of the seed of the woman in Gen 3:15.
And I put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed. He shall crush your head, and you shall crush His heel. (Gen 3:15)
Therefore, we cannot agree with those Rabbis who say that the promise of a[ny] prophet is restricted to the Tanak prophets only, to the exclusion of the Messiah, because not one of the prophets was fully equal to Mosheh, as is distinctly stated in Deu 34:10.
And since then, no prophet has arisen in Israel like Mosheh, whom the Eternal knew face to face, (Deu 34:10)
No prophet has risen in Israel, until the coming of Yeshua! This prophecy, therefore, is very properly referred to Yeshua the Messiah, the prophet of the Eternal.
One final thought. If we assume that there may be a prophet greater than Mosheh, and this prophet speaks different words, it follows that the Torah may be abolished, for the words of a greater prophet should be believed more than those of a lesser prophet. But the words of YHVH, “I shall put My Words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him”, in no uncertain terms speak of a prophet, who is not coming to establish a new faith, but rather to command the people to fulfill their obligation in the Covenant, the laws of the Torah, and to warn against their transgression, for the words through the final prophet of Israel (Malachi), haves spoken, “Remember the Torah of Mosheh, My servant”.
Suggested reading: “Has the Messiah Abolished the Law of God? | Time of Reckoning Ministry“.
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