Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: — | Date: August 27, 2023 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Open your Bibles with me, if you will please, to Deuteronomy chapter 18. As a reminder, we are actually in a series on the Psalms, and the last topic I want to take up in our evening Psalms studies is the topic of Messianic Psalms. And before I get to that, I wanted to back up and see some of the Messianic prophecy that lies in the background to the Psalms. And then we will get to that in another couple of weeks. And then I think our evening series on the Psalms is done, but I think I will continue after that with some Messianic prophecy, looking at the Old Testament to see how it anticipates the Messiah coming.

You’ll remember that Messiah simply means “anointed.” It’s a Hebrew word that’s simply been put into English. Messiah means anointed. In Greek, it’s Christos. It means anointed. And it speaks of the anointed one, par excellence, who will be coming. The three offices in Israel were the prophet, priest, and king, and each of them was entered upon anointing to the office. And in particular, there is a focus on the kingly aspect of the Messiah that’s especially prominent in the Old Testament. A couple of times we have mentions of the others as well. This evening, in Deuteronomy chapter 18, it is the Messiah as prophet par excellence that is prophesied will come.

That’s Deuteronomy chapter 18. I will begin reading with verse 9:

“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination, or tells fortunes, or interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a medium, or a necromancer, or one who inquires of the dead. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations, the Lord your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. For these nations which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.

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, just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire anymore lest I die.’ And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’

And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word of the Lord has not been spoken?’ When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.”

Context Of Deuteronomy

All right, in Deuteronomy, as you know, we are on the brink of the Promised Land. We are at the end of 40 years of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. An entire generation has died off, and now we are on the plains of Moab, on the eastern border of the Promised Land they are about to enter in. The book of Deuteronomy is Moses’ messages—his sermons, in a sense—Moses’ sermons to the nation of Israel on going into their land. And the essence of the book of Deuteronomy is very simply: don’t fail like your fathers failed. Go in, conquer the land, obey, and be blessed. That, in a nutshell, is the essence of the book of Deuteronomy. We won’t take time to give an overview of that; I don’t think I have time for that.

But in this section of the book of Deuteronomy, we have Moses outlining for us and highlighting specific areas of responsibility. He does that throughout the book, and when we get to chapters 27 and 28, we have the famous passage of the curses and the blessings: covenant curses, covenant blessings. If you obey, you will have this. If you don’t obey, you’ll have that. And this becomes a very important book.

In the final chapters of the book, he looks ahead to see what Israel will do. And Moses knows that they’re not going to obey, and the outlook does not look great for them. But this is a very important book for laying out the law of God for Israel as they enter the land. And, in fact, this becomes the book that, in a sense, informs and steers the historical books that follow—in particular, Joshua through 2 Kings. It’s often referred to as Deuteronomic history. And the reason for that is because there are not only verbal links linking those books to Deuteronomy, but what informs the history of Israel in those historical books is the law that’s given here in Deuteronomy. If they obey, they’ll be blessed. If they don’t obey, they’ll be cursed.

Now, in this section in particular, chapters 12 through 26, he’s listing various specific areas of responsibility that the law demands for Israel. It has to do with worship; it pertains to idolatry, clean and unclean foods, tithes, sabbatical years are brought up, the matter of guidance and leadership is brought up that we’ll see here in chapter 18, personal property, business, justice—various case laws are brought up in Deuteronomy, and the instruction is given on how you are to live before the Lord and to be faithful, keeping covenant before the Lord.

Now we get to chapter 18 now where we are. Here he is continuing some specific provisions—that is requirements, demands on Israel for living in the land. Verses 1 to 8, that we did not read, have to do with the offerings for the priests and the Levites. The Levites were a special class within Israel. They had no land allotted to them. They were to live in the other areas of Israel with the other people, intermingled with them, and they were to be supported by the offerings from the rest of the people as well.

Warning Against Occult Practices

But now we get into verses 9 through 22, and here we have stated for us provisions for continued guidance after Moses. We have a record of the death of Moses at the end of Deuteronomy; that is coming. That’s on the close horizon. And so he tells us how he is going to continue to lead Israel and provide for them in Moses’ absence. And with that, there’s this strong warning against occult practices.

So we saw in verses—let’s look at verses 9 through 14 again. We have the command here to separate from the pagan neighbors and their practices, especially these occult practices. “When you,” verse 9, “when you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead.”

So don’t take on any of these practices. These are awful kinds of practices. In particular, the methods of obtaining information that has not been revealed from God, but they’re trying to find it in various ways, such as burning your son and daughter as an offering. Evidently here, we have a glimpse into some of the practices of the pagan nations around them that, as a way to manipulate the gods or to get information from the gods, they’d offer child sacrifice—have them walk into the fire. We have other references to that. Other mentions here examine this matter of practicing divination or fortunes or interpreting omens. One way of doing that in the ancient world was to examine the organs of animals that had been slaughtered and to look at them and to determine what the future will be.

It’s not unlike what we have today with palm readers and card readers and things like that. Well, God’s estimation of those kinds of practices is made very plain in verse 12: “Whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations, the Lord your God is driving them out before you.” This is the reason—don’t forget this—this is the reason they’re losing their land. Don’t you take up these practices; hint: you’ll lose your land too.

Remember back when God first promised the land to Abraham? He said, you’re going to take it, you’ll have this land, but not for another 400 years. You remember what he said? “Because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.” This is part of the iniquity that he’s talking about. Extreme immorality as well. But this kind of thing is just an abomination to the Lord, and God tells them then in verses 9 through 11, they were an abomination, and that is why they’re being judged and driven out of their land. Don’t you become an abomination like they were.

And I just can’t skip over it. This is much like, as I’ve mentioned, today’s palm readers and fortune tellers. We need to remember, if you’re ever tempted to take a little jaunt into that kind of thing, you need to remember very well God’s attitude toward it. This is not something that he smiles at. This is something he takes very seriously. He tells us that here, and we have no reason to think God’s attitude toward it has ever changed.

I remember one time when I was in grade school, young enough not to know what it was. We were exchanging gifts at Christmas time and I had an aunt who thought it would be funny to give me a Ouija board. And I opened the gift and I didn’t know what it was. And she’s laughing and others are laughing with her. And I noticed that my dad was not laughing. And the next time I saw that Ouija board, it was when my mother asked me to carry out the trash. And I noticed in the bottom of the trash can, there it was. This is not something to be toyed with. This is something God takes very seriously. Leave it alone. And this is what God is telling them.

So in verses 13 and 14 then, he gives a summary command to purity, specifically in that regard. “You shall be blameless before the Lord your God for these nations which you are about to dispossess. Listen to fortune tellers and to diviners, but as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.” Leave it alone.

A Prophet Like Moses

Well, that’s the command of verses 9 through 14. But now in verses 15 and following, he tells them, in essence, it’s really not necessary anyway. Besides being evil, it’s not necessary, and the reason it’s not necessary is because God is going to give them something much better. So verse 15, here he explains just how God will continue to lead and give guidance to his people in Moses’ absence.

Verse 15: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me.” This is Moses speaking to the people. “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 just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, ‘Let me not hear the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire anymore lest I die.'” And the Lord said, “They are right in what they have spoken.” You don’t want to get too close to this God; it’s dangerous.

And then God says, verse 18, “I will raise up for them a prophet.” So he’s revealing the revelation that he got from God. “I will raise up for them a prophet like you,” that is like Moses, “from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.” So you will not manipulate your way to me to gain information or manipulate your way to the gods to get information. I will speak to you. I will give you a prophet, verse 15, like Moses. Verse 18, like Moses.

So God will continue to speak to his people. He will continue to make his will known. In addition to the law given at Sinai, God will continue to speak to his people. And that’s the promise of verses 15 through 18. This might ring a bell then, by the way: Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1, “God at sundry times, in various ways and in various places, has spoken to the fathers by the prophets.” So there it is. He is providing for that here.

Now verses 20 to 22 then, he gives some instruction regarding false prophets. “But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die. If you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’ When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him, whatever he has to tell you.” He’s not someone you have to bother with.

So verse 20, we have God’s estimation of a false prophet: he should be put to death. Again, God’s attitude toward that has not changed. We’re not given warrant to kill false prophets, but God’s attitude toward it has not changed. Verses 21 and 22 give them a test for the prophet when he speaks. If what he predicts comes true, all right, follow him. If it doesn’t come true, you know it. He’s a false prophet because God doesn’t stumble.

Now there are other ways to judge this as well that are not brought up here in Deuteronomy chapter 13. There’s another test for prophets, and that is conformity to the law of Moses that is given. So when a prophet presumes to speak, you can judge it: one, does it conform to the law that has already been revealed? And then two, if what he predicts, when it comes, if it does or does not come true, you know whether or not he’s a true or a false prophet.

Now our focus then—that’s the passage—our focus this evening is verses 15 to 19 in this matter of a prophet like Moses. Let’s look at it again.

“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 just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire anymore lest I die.'”

You get the idea here that they were pretty frightened at that sound.

“The Lord said, ‘They’re right in what they’ve spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him, and whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.'”

All right, the highlights here. Notice what he’s saying that God will do in providing for Israel as they enter into the land. He’ll provide a prophet. It is specifically a prophet like Moses. That’s emphasized twice—in verse 15 and verse 18. A prophet like Moses. And he emphasizes that he will be a spokesman. That is, he’s not only a prophet like Moses, but let’s say it another way: he is specifically a spokesman for God. That’s verses 16 and 17. You were afraid when God spoke, and so you don’t want to hear his voice yourself anymore. So God spoke through Moses, so now he will speak through other prophets that come like Moses. And then verse 18, the last part of the verse: “He will speak to them all that I command him. Whoever will not listen to my words, that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.” So not only is he a spokesman, but he is a spokesman with particular authority. You don’t listen to him, God himself will hold you accountable for it.

All right, what is in view in this prophecy? Well, first of all, notice that he’s speaking in the singular—it is “a prophet.” But, in fairness, you have to say that “prophet” can be a collective noun: the prophet that comes. It could be an office of prophet that is being spoken of here, and I think on one level we have to say that what Moses is providing here is a succession of prophets when Israel comes into the land. We saw that, as we read through the Old Testament, we see that that is in fact the case. After Moses, we find Samuel, we find David was called a prophet, Nathan was a prophet who came to David, we have other writing prophets—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel is a later one. We have what’s called the minor prophets—minor because their books were a little shorter. We have some unnamed prophets. And so God spoke to the fathers through Israel, through these various prophets whom he raised up. And they would come and characteristically their word was, “Thus says the Lord,” speaking God’s word to the people. “The word of the Lord came to me saying,” or “Thus says the Lord,” and all the time they announced that they were speaking for God. And so I think I also hear the warning of false prophets that come, hints that he’s speaking of other prophets that are true prophets who will be in the land. So on one level I think he is speaking of the institution of prophetism in ancient Israel.

Now, maybe it’d be good here just to back up a little bit and remind you how biblical prophecy often works. This is not an exception to the case. This is standard issue in biblical prophecy: that there’ll be a fulfillment, and a fulfillment, and a fulfillment, and a climactic fulfillment. And you get scads and scads of examples of that from Old Testament prophecy, that there might be a generic fulfillment and then there’s a specific fulfillment later. So if we say, as I think we must here, that this is the institution of prophetism in ancient Israel, is that it? Or is there something more? Is it looking ahead? Is there still something significant about the singular, “a prophet” and his word that you must hear?

Well, I think we have to say yes, that it is looking beyond prophetism in ancient Israel. And one clue for that is given to us in the book of Deuteronomy itself. Look over at chapter 34. Get toward the end of the book here, at the very end of the book, and let’s begin reading with verse 9:

“And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses. And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. None like him for all the signs and wonders that the Lord sent to him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of Israel.”

So we have Joshua following up with Moses, following up on Moses—he’s the new leader. But the writer here makes the point—now these are the books of Moses, Genesis through Deuteronomy, and that is because Deuteronomy, in particular, is substantively Moses; these are his sermons—but obviously here this is the writing of someone who has come later, and he says, he makes this observation that there’s not been anyone like Moses since. So he’s looking back, and clearly it’s some kind of a clue telling us that Moses was unique, that the prophecy of a prophet like Moses has not yet been fulfilled. Seems to be an obvious clue.

There’s something like this earlier, if you’d like to look back at Numbers chapter 12. By the way, notice—I’m sorry, I should have pointed this out—in Deuteronomy 34, notice that what makes Moses unique is that God spoke to him face-to-face. It is the closeness and the immediacy of divine revelation through Moses that makes Moses unique. Also, there are Moses’ miracles that he performed in Egypt for the people of Israel. Moses stands so far in a class by himself.

Now we have something like that in Numbers chapter 12, verses 1 to 9. Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married. We’re not told anything else why the complaint. Some have suggested racial issues and things like that. We’re not told that; it could be, but that’s left. And so they lead in a rebellion and they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the Lord heard it. Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all the people who were on the face of the earth. And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting.” And the three of them came out. And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam. Miriam is mentioned here rather than Aaron. That’s very unusual to have a woman mentioned first and exclusively. It probably indicates that she’s leading in this rebellion.

They came forward and said, “Hear my words. If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make myself known to him in a vision. I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, not in riddles. And he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed.

So they’ve led in some kind of a rebellion against Moses because of the woman he married, and God answers this and shuts it down by pointing to the uniqueness of Moses. “If I have other prophets, I’ll speak to them. But Moses is in a class by himself.” So he’s affirming the uniqueness of Moses because of the directness and the clarity of the revelation that’s given to him. And yet, the prophecy in Deuteronomy chapter 18 is the prophet coming will be like Moses. He’ll be in a class by himself. So he’s speaking then of some individual prophet.

Fulfilled In Jesus

Well, we find then in Deuteronomy 18 verses 15 and 18 that he will come from Israel—”from among your brothers.” We find that he’s like Moses, verses 15 and 18. He’ll have unique authority then in terms of divine revelation. Presumably then, taking our cue from Deuteronomy 34, he will be a miracle worker, do public miracles like Moses did, he’ll be a mediator, he’ll be a lawgiver, he’ll be a judge, he’ll be a deliverer—he’s a prophet like Moses.

Now when we come to the New Testament, you’ll find that the New Testament writers indicate that in Israel, even among those who had not yet accepted Jesus as Messiah, this hope of a coming prophet was very much alive in Israel. We won’t take time because time is running out, but if you’d like to jot down John chapter one, verses 21 and following, we have that episode where the Jewish leaders are speaking to John the Baptist and they ask specifically, “Are you that prophet that should come?” And if you’d like, John 6, verse 14, we read, “When the people saw the sign that Jesus had done”—so they saw his miracle—”they said, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.'” So that hope was alive. John 7, verse 40: “When they heard these words,” that is Jesus speaking, “some of them said, ‘This really is the prophet.'” So this anticipation of a prophet who is to come, prophesied in Deuteronomy—the anticipation of it is very much alive in New Testament times, and clearly in these passages that I’ve just pointed out, John is signaling us to see that obviously Jesus is that prophet. But that prophet expectation was very much alive at that time.

And then we find that the New Testament writers—and we can’t trace this out in detail, but I’ll highlight it for you—the New Testament writers go to some lengths to show us that this prophecy of a prophet like Moses is in fact fulfilled in Jesus. One of the fascinating ways of seeing that is Matthew’s presentation of Jesus all through the book of Matthew, but particularly in those early chapters where Jesus is presented in sometimes very subtle ways. Until you see all of them and you think, “Oh man, he’s bombarding us with this,” but in some subtle ways he’s presenting Jesus as a new Moses.

Let me highlight some of this for you. In Matthew chapter two, we have the infancy narrative of Jesus, and you remember the narrow escape of the child Jesus in Matthew chapter two that corresponds to Exodus chapter two and Moses’ narrow escape from death. We have Jesus’ ascent from Egypt. The king’s fear. We have the slaughter of children. All of that echoes Exodus and Moses in his early years. And then in Matthew chapter two, we have this revelation to Joseph in Egypt saying, “Come back because they are dead which sought the young child’s life.” “They are dead which sought the young child’s life”—that is lifted right out of Exodus chapter four, verse 19. Moses’ language. Language about Moses.

We get to Matthew chapter four. We have Jesus fasting in the wilderness 40 days. Mark it: 40 days. We have Jesus tempted by the devil in the wilderness 40 days. And all of Jesus’ responses to Satan in his temptation were from Israel in the wilderness passages. In Matthew 5, chapters 5 all the way through 23, we have Jesus presented as an ethical teacher like Moses. In Matthew chapter 5, we have Jesus giving the law from the mountain. And still again here, there are some echoes of the very language from the book of Exodus—the language of the mountain scene where Moses goes up and comes down the mountain. That same language is used in Matthew 5 and Matthew chapter 8. So Jesus, on the Sermon on the Mount, ascends the mountain. He gets done. He comes down the mountain. The language that is used there is borrowed exactly from Exodus chapter 19, Exodus chapter 34.

The correspondences go further. Moses at the outset promised blessings—if you keep the law. Jesus promises blessings at the very outset of his Sermon on the Mount, only the blessings that he pronounces are much greater. Matthew chapter 14 is another correlation, where Jesus gives bread to the people in a desert place, corresponding again to Moses. We have ten miracles recorded by Matthew in the Gospel of Matthew, corresponding to the ten plagues of Egypt.

And the most explicit one, if there’s any question in your mind, is Matthew chapter 17. It’s more direct. There we have the Mount of Transfiguration. You remember Jesus is transfigured before three of his disciples, Peter, James, and John, and Moses and Elijah appear there. And you remember Peter misspeaks a little bit and says, “Let’s build three tabernacles, three booths here. One for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah—memorials for each of you.” And in response to that, the voice from heaven comes: “This is my beloved son in whom I’m well pleased. Listen to him.” There’s a uniqueness about him. Don’t put him in a class with anyone else.

Well, we have them presenting Jesus as the new Moses. We have Jesus’ own claim in that regard. John chapter 12, verses 48 to 50: “The one who rejects me”—listen to see how this echoes Moses’ prophecy in Deuteronomy 18—”The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge. The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who has sent me has himself given me a commandment, what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.” Jesus clearly making reference back to the Moses prophecy.

If you’d like something more explicit, Acts chapter 3, Peter’s sermon there, where he actually quotes Deuteronomy 18 in this passage, and he says to the people—this is Acts 3 verses 22 and 23—”Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you, and it shall be that every soul that does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.'” And he points that to Jesus. He is that prophet that Moses said would come. He has the unique authority as the new lawgiver and as the judge. He speaks with supreme revelation from God. We have the same with Stephen in Acts 7, verse 37, where he refers it to Jesus as well.

There are a couple of passages that I do want you to see. Let’s take time to look through them in the New Testament. Look at John 1. This is a very familiar passage to you, I think. John chapter 1, verses 1 to 18 are well known as the prologue to John’s gospel—not just an introduction, but actually something of a summary of what he wants to say in the rest of this book. But notice how it begins: “In the beginning was the Word.” Now that’s an interesting way to talk about Jesus. We know that he’s talking about Jesus because he tells us that in verse 14, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.” So he’s talking about Jesus. But he says, “In the beginning, the Word was.” In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. And he’s speaking of his eternality, his equality with God. We’re in here to the basic elements of the doctrine of the Trinity. We have God and we have one with him who is equally sharing in fellowship with him eternally. Clearly he’s speaking in Trinitarian terms here.

But what’s interesting for our point here is that he calls him the Word. Why would we call Jesus the Word of God? And the answer obviously is—and John wants us to see this through his book—is that in Jesus we have the supreme revelation of God. In Jesus we have God speaking par excellence. This is the supreme revelation of God to us: Jesus. And so John wants us to see that in all that Jesus is, in all that Jesus says, and in all that Jesus does, we have God making himself known. And all through the gospel, he wants you to keep this in mind that he sets us up for at the beginning. As you read through each chapter and each episode, keep in mind: this is God making himself known. All the way through to the arrest and crucifixion and the resurrection, this is God making himself known. And so he calls him the Word.

And if there’s any doubt that that’s what he has in mind here, look at the end of the prologue, verse 18: “No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the Father’s side has made him known.” So here he begins and climaxes the prologue with an emphasis on the self-revelation of God in Jesus. He is the supreme revelation of God.

The other passage I want you to see is one I’ve already mentioned. That’s Hebrews chapter 1. Another familiar passage. Hebrews 1 verse 1: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us”—and here I’m going to push the sense of the original here—”In these last days, he has spoken to us by no less than his own son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the world. He’s the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature.” So he is what God is, and he is, therefore, the supreme revelation of God. God has spoken to the fathers by the prophets here and there—piecemeal revelation here, there, a little more over here, a little more over there. God has made himself known to the people. But now, there’s a climax. He’s spoken to us by no less than his own son, and it is in fact a self-revelation of God given to us through him. Jesus is the revelation of God par excellence.

We have other allusions to this in the New Testament, like in Revelation chapter 1, where Jesus is referred to as “the faithful witness.” Just brimming with implications of Christ as the supreme revelation of God.

Conclusion

Well, our time is up. Deuteronomy 18, verses 15 to 19. Then we have another Messianic prophecy, and here we have a prophecy that speaks of the Messiah as prophet, as well as as a king who will come, as we see in so many other passages. Like Moses, the Messiah, Jesus, has unique authority, supreme revelation, works public miracles, he’s a mediator, he’s a lawgiver, he’s a judge, and he’s a deliverer—the prophet like Moses.

Now this has further implications with regard to the authority of the New Testament writings, because Jesus gives his fullness of his revelation by means of the Spirit to his apostles and to us. And this faith, once for all delivered to the saints, has come to us from Jesus, by his Spirit, through his apostles, deposited into our trust. And there is that climactic sense of the supreme revelation of God in Jesus, through Jesus, embodied for us in the New Testament Scriptures. That’s a subject for another time, but that’s an implication of this as well.

So Jesus is the prophet par excellence to come. And we ought to then look at him as the Messiah in that sense as well, not only as the king who will come to rule—who not only rules now at the right hand of God, but will bring that rule to a full consummation in his return—but as the prophet who has spoken for God climactically in his first coming and has left that deposit with us as well.

All right, our time is up. Pastor Greg, would you dismiss us in prayer, please?

“Our Father, how blessed we are to live in this age of fulfillment, a time in which all of the shadows and types of the old age have been fulfilled. And we thank you for this prophecy tonight that has been fulfilled in our Lord and Savior. We thank you for the affirmation from heaven on the Mount of Transfiguration, and an abundance of other evidences in there. How blessed we are to have our spiritual eyes opened, our ears tuned to listen and our will bent to understand and believe and trust in the words of the gospel. We pray that the ministry of this great prophet from heaven through his church and through the preaching and teaching and reading and witness bearing of that word will continue to be effective through us for the remainder of our pilgrimage. We’ll thank you for doing this in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

Amen.