Moses in the book of Deuteronomy speaks of a Prophet.
Deuteronomy 18 15 The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet
from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; 16 According to all that thou desiredst of the LORD
thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great
fire any more, that I die not. 17 And the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. 18 I will raise them
up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that
I shall command him. 19 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I
will require it of him.
Moses writes of a Prophet that would be one "of thy brethren" (Jewish) (v. 15) To Him "ye shall hearken" (obey
Him and do what He says) (v. 15).
Moses forewarns not to listen to a false prophet.
Deuteronomy 18 20 But
the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name
of other gods, even that prophet shall die. 21 And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath
not spoken? 22 When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing whichthe LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.
If there is a prophet
who speaks (prophecies) in the name of the LORD, but His prophecy is not fulfilled (does not take place), then He is not sent from
God (v. 22). He is a false prophet. So, if a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD and his prophecy is fulfilled (what he says
takes place), then He is sent from God.
Verse 20 says what the children of Israel were to do if the prophet is false. "That
prophet shall die."
According to Scripture then, if Jesus was indeed a Prophet of God then any predictions He made
would become fulfilled.
Jesus prophesied the destruction of the Jewish temple.
Mark 13 1 And as he went out of the
temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here! 2 And Jesus answering
said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
In
A.D. 70 several decades after Jesus' death, the temple was destroyed as Jesus said it would be, "not...one stone upon another"
(Josephus).
This prophecy's fulfillment showed Jesus to be God's prophet.
That Jesus was God's prophet was disputed
during His life. He was condemned as a false prophet and put to death in "obedience" to the Deuteronomy 18:20 text.
Ironically,
killing Jesus fulfilled another Jesus prophecy. Jesus described an incident He would experience, equating this incidence
to Jonas' being three days and three nights in a whale's belly.
Matthew 12 39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil
and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: 40 Foras Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart
of the earth.
The Jonah prophecy became fulfilled in Jesus when He suffered condemnation then crucifixion leading to His resurrection,
a process lasting for three days and three nights.
Both prophetic events Jesus fulfilled (the temple destruction and
the Jonah prophecy). Both prophetic fulfillments claim Jesus to be a prophet of God.
Since Scripture proves
Jesus to be a prophet of God, we need to look at Scripture further to see if there were other prophecies Jesus fulfilled which can
tell us more about Him and who He was.
Jesus claimed Moses wrote about Him.
John 5 43 I am come in my Father's name, and
ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. 44 How can ye believe, which receive honour one of
another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? 45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that
accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. 46 For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if
ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?
The prophet Jesus said He came in His Father's name (v. 43) and that
He was the One Moses wrote about (v. 46-47). If Moses wrote about Jesus and that Jesus came in His Father's name, then Jesus
is saying He is the Deuteronomy 18:15 "Prophet" (Holy One sent from God) "of thy brethren" (Jewish) to whom "ye shall harken"
(obey, do what He says).
Jesus explained how He fulfilled the Moses texts.
Luke 24 27 And beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. 28 And they drew nigh unto the village,
whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further. 29 But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is
toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. 30 And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them,
he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. 31 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out
of their sight.
Notice what Jesus said about the things which Moses wrote: "the things concerning" who? "Himself."
In
both verses 15 and 18 of Deuteronomy 18, this Prophet of which Moses spoke was compared to Moses by both himself (v. 15) and
God (v. 18). This established Moses as not just a lawgiver but also a prophet. As a prophet (and with his direct communication to
God), Moses had to know that much of what he wrote was prophecy of future events that were to be fulfilled by this
"Prophet" of which he wrote.
Moses predicted the Prophet "like unto me" (Deuteronomy 18:15); and, through the laws and holy days,
events that this Prophet would fulfill.
Now, notice that no other Prophet has come "of thy brethren...like unto me"
since the time of Moses as Jesus. From the time of the giving of the Law, Moses was the established prophet of the Old Testament
from which all prophets that followed would base their beliefs. All of the prophets and leaders since his time based their understanding
of God from Moses' teachings. From the time of the Jewish Jesus, Christian prophets and teachers have based their understanding on
the teachings of Jesus.
In other words, two prophets were to become the most prominent from the lineage of Israel.
One of them was Moses. The other has obviously been the Prophet Jesus.
Luke 24 15 And it came to pass, that, while they communed
together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. 16 But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. 17 And
he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? 18 And the one of
them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which
are come to pass there in these days? 19 And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth,
which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people.
And according to Jesus' own words as
a Prophet, this establishes Him as the Son of God the Father ("equal with God").
John 5 18 Therefore the Jews sought the more
to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. 19
Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do:
for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. 20 For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that
himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. 21 For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth
them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. 22 For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: 23
That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath
sent him.
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Works
Cited
Josephus, Flavius. The Jewish War:Revised Edition. Penguin Publishing Group, 1989.