The Lord God said to Moses, “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put my words in His mouth and He will tell them everything I command Him. If anyone does not listen to My words that the prophet speaks in My name, I Myself will call him to account. But a prophet who presumes to speak in My name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death.”
Those are the words of God spoken to Moses, a true prophet of God. You probably know most of the names of the other Old Testament prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. According to Scripture, these were all true prophets of the Lord God Almighty who spoke His words to their people, even when those words were not popular, and even when they were not the words the people wanted to hear.
There have been many, many others since the very beginning, who have claimed to be God’s prophets: the oracle at Delphi, Buddha, Mohammed, Nostradamus and Joseph Smith, to name just a few. But they have proven to be false prophets.
We live in scientific, rational, “modern” times today, in which many people dismiss prophecy as backwards and naïve. But there is still something in humans that yearns for prophecy, something in us that desperately wants to hear a voice from beyond ourselves that would bring us hope. We yearn for a voice that connects us with the divine.
We can find that yearning expressed in our stories of fantasy, mythology and science fiction that revolve around prophecy and its fulfillment. Take the extremely popular Star Wars movie series for example. Throughout the series there is the prophecy of “the one who will restore order and balance to ‘the Force’”. In reality, today, many people try many different ways to fill this longing for prophecy.
For forty years the Israelites had camped at the base of Mount Horeb (better known to us as Mount Sinai), waiting to hear the words God spoken to them through Moses. The Lord God Almighty came down and covered the mountain in a cloud, with fire, smoke, lightning and thunder! What an awesome display of His power it was! Everything shook and trembled violently, the trumpet blast grew louder and the voice of God Himself thundered, “I AM the Lord your God who brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me!”
On that day of assembly, Moses tells us that the people were so full of the fear of God, that when they heard God’s voice they said, “Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God, nor see His great fire anymore, or we will die.” Their fear of God’s Law cut them to the quick. Their filthy rags of pride and so-called “human goodness” were burned to ashes. For they knew that even though they tried their best, their sin could not be hidden from God’s eyes. They knew that they stood before the perfect holiness of God in all their sinful nakedness. They knew that all they deserved was death and Hell. And so do we!
For according to Scripture, Romans 3:23, all of us, you and me, fall far short of the glory of God, and thus deserve the eternal damnation of spending forever separated from God in the fiery pit of Hell. We, in and of ourselves, are so far removed from God that we cannot even stand before Him and plead our case, for we have no case to plead. Our only recourse would be to stand before God and receive our punishment. Have no doubt about it, we are guilty as charged, just as those Israelites were so many years ago. But in His immeasurable mercy and grace, God promised them and us an intercessor, an intermediary, a go-between. God said to Moses and to all of us, “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put My words in His mouth, and He will tell them everything I command Him!”
This prophet revealed to us through Moses is the only one who goes between God the Father and the naked sinner. Listen to Him! “Why?” people ask. “Why should we listen?” Because as I said, we are no better off today than those Israelites standing at the base of Mount Sinai. Oh, it is easier for us to choose to ignore God’s Law and holy fire since the ground beneath us is not trembling and shaking. Or is it?
Recent events seem to suggest that perhaps it is and we just do not recognize it as such. We can put aside, or at least try to dull, our conscience by telling ourselves that we should not take religion too seriously. We can try to dismiss our sin with pitiful excuses like, “I tried my best. I couldn’t help it. It’s just the way I am. It’s not my fault. Everyone’s doing it.” People try to focus only on our good points. “We’re all alright,” they say. “People are basically good,” they say. But all of this simply denies the truth.
Hear the words of God spoken through James, “Whoever keeps the whole Law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it!” (James 2:10) God says, “No excuses!” We cannot cover up, or excuse away, the fact that we, you and I, are breakers of God’s Law. The holy Judge knows that to be true. Woe be to us! Is there no one to speak for me? Is there no one to speak for you?
Yes, there is. Praise be to God, there is. He is the prophet whom the Lord has sent. Jesus Christ is your personal go-between. He stands between you and the consuming fire of God’s Law. He and He alone took the full blast of God’s anger against you when He suffered and died, in your place, on the cross. He stands between you and the perfectly holy Judge, and Jesus covers you with His perfection. This intercessor, this go-between, this promised prophet, is God the Son, the second person of the holy Trinity of God. Through faith in Him and acceptance of Him as Savior and Lord, you become covered with His holy life. He truly covers our sinful nakedness, so that as we stand before the holy Judge, rather than being declared guilty, we are declared right in His sight.
Listen to the prophet, listen to Jesus Christ because His words are true. His words are words of hope and promise. His words promise that, since we are unable to do it for ourselves, He has fulfilled all of God’s Law for us. He tells us that he suffered and died to appease God’s holy justice. He promises you that you are clothed in His holy righteousness. He promises you that He has paid your sin-debt in full. The Prophet speaks. Listen to Him. Believe His promises.
How did this prophet cover us with His perfection? How is it possible that He could take our place under God’s wrath and suffer and die for us? He could do it because He became our brother. This fact is made clear to the Israelites, and to us, by Moses, when he said, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from among your own brothers.” Jesus was born into the people of Israel. He was born of the Virgin Mary, of the House of David, from the tribe of Judah. He is a prophet like Moses, yet much, much greater than Moses. For this prophet has a relationship with God the Father that far, far exceeds any other.
You see, this prophet is one with the Father. He came from the Father full of grace and truth. He is God the one and only who is at the Father’s side. He is the one who made the Father known to us. Jesus, the eternal one, the almighty one, the holy Son of God, became our brother. He was born of a woman, born under the Law, to ransom those under the Law, and to ransom you and me.
Because He is your brother and His words are true. How do I know His words are true? Many people have asked, and still ask, this question. God made it very clear that Jesus speaks only what God the Father wants Him to say. For God told Moses, “I will put My words in His mouth.” Jesus is unlike any other prophet, for Jesus not only speaks the truth, Jesus is the truth!
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”(John 14:6) Jesus not only speaks God’s message; Jesus is God’s message. Jesus is the word who became flesh. (1 John 1:14) Jesus is the truth. Listen to Him. You can count on every word and every promise He gives to you.