Deuteronomy 18:15-16

THE TRUE PROPHET, Deuteronomy 18:15-16.

This is one of the most profoundly interesting passages in the whole book. The different views that have been held as to the scope of its meaning place it among the vexed passages in the history of biblical interpretation. The theories held are mainly the following:

(1.) That the word translated prophet is to be regarded as referring to a particular person, who was to be specially prominent in the nation’s history. Some applied it to Joshua, who had been solemnly installed Moses’s successor; others thought David might be intended, or Jeremiah.

(2.) That the word was used collectively, of the entire body of Hebrew prophets. (3.) That the prophet is an ideal person, including the Messiah and all true prophets who appeared between Moses and him; that Moses does not speak of the prophets as a collective body, to which Christ belonged as one among many, but comprehends the plurality of the prophets in an ideal unity, knowing by the revelation of the Holy Spirit that the prophetical order would at some future time culminate in Christ. See Heng., Christ, vol. i, p. 124. (4.) That the passage relates directly and exclusively to the Messiah. (5.) That, while the passage contemplates a succession of prophets, so that Israel should never be left in any great exigency without a prophet, the Messiah is referred to primarily and distinctly. The last view is, we think, fully sustained by the passage under consideration, and by the context.

15. The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me The clause may be rendered, A Prophet, as I am, Jehovah thy God will raise up for thee, from the midst of thee, of thy brethren. While the people are forbidden to employ the methods the heathen used to pry into the future, and to learn the will of their deities, Moses assures Israel that Jehovah will provide for them those who will be the medium of communication between him and them as he has been hitherto.

A Prophet The word translated prophet, first occurs in Genesis 20:7, where Abimelech is warned in a dream to restore Sarah to Abraham: “For he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live.” In Exodus 7:1, Jehovah is represented as saying to Moses: “See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh; and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.” These passages suggest some of the prominent meanings of the word interpreter, messenger, mediator. Moses is expressly called by Paul, in Galatians 3:19, μεσιτης , mediator.

From the midst of thee, of thy brethren There was to be no occasion for the people to consult foreign soothsayers and diviners. There was to be no need of their sending to distant nations, as Balak sent for the”diviner” Balaam. God would raise up from their own nation those who would make known his will. Deuteronomy 17:14, where the king is to be “from among thy brethren.”

Like unto me Moses had been commissioned to speak and to act for Jehovah. In Horeb he received his call at the burning bush, when God revealed his Covenant Name. None of his successors was so highly honoured, so fully endowed. Jehovah had said of him, (Numbers 12:6-8,) “If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth.” The circumstances under which Jehovah had promised to raise up a Prophet like unto Moses are referred to in the following verses. At the giving of the law, when “the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet,” they besought Moses to act as a mediator between God and themselves. They said, “Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” Exodus 20:18-19; see also Deuteronomy 5:22-27.

The promise is completely fulfilled in Christ. Moses, as a legislator, is the founder of a dispensation; so is Christ. Moses knew Jehovah face to face. Of Christ it is written, (John 1:18,) “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” Of Moses it is said, “There arose not a prophet like unto Moses in all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to do.”

Deuteronomy 34:10-11. Christ said of himself that he had done the works which none other man did. John 15:24. The application of this passage to Christ in the New Testament is too definite to leave any room for doubt. Philip said to Nathanael: “We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth.” John 1:45. Peter quotes this as fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Acts 3:22. Stephen saw its application. Acts 7:37. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews seems to have this passage in mind when he writes: “Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.” Hebrews 3:1-2. The woman of Samaria says to the Saviour: “I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.”

John 4:25. The Samaritans founded their expectations of a Messiah on the Pentateuch, for that constituted their Scriptures. The Messiah who was to tell them all things was evidently suggested by this prophecy of Moses.

Unto him ye shall hearken Compare these words with the words Moses himself heard on the mountain when Christ was transfigured: “This is my beloved Son: hear ye him.” Not hear Moses and the law, nor Elijah and the prophets, but Christ the Son. The “hear ye him” and the disappearance of the two heavenly attendants may be viewed as symbolically connected, and as signifying that God who had “spoken in times past to the fathers by the prophets, henceforth would speak by his Son.” See Alford on Matthew 17:5.

16. In the day of the assembly Comp. Deuteronomy 9:10, and Exodus 20:19. 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. Comp. Deuteronomy 5:23-26, and Exodus 20:19. The thought of the verse is, Let not Jehovah speak any more directly to us; let us have a prophet to announce to us his commands; let this awful splendour of the manifestation of God cease: we cannot bear it; we shall die. It was the feeling that man has in the presence of the Infinite the consciousness of guilt in view of the holiness of God. So Isaiah 6:5, awestruck at the sublime, and to him terrible, manifestation of Jehovah, exclaims, “Woe to me, for I perish: for the King Jehovah of Hosts mine eyes have seen.” Compare what Job is represented as saying: “But now mine eye seeth thee: wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42:5-6. So in the case of Manoah, who said to his wife, “We shall surely die, because we have seen God.” Judges 13:22.