This is of a Truth

THE
TESTIMONY

Article from Special Issue Vol. 59, No. 706, October 1989

THE MORE SURE WORD OF PROPHECY

Pages 337-340

“THIS IS OF A TRUTH THAT PROPHET”

JESUS CHRIST AS GOD’S PROPHET

GEOFF AND RAY WALKER

“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. 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” (Deut. 18:18,19).

Moses, a special prophet

This passage clearly shows Moses to be a special prophet, different from certain other prophets. If we wish to know in what ways Moses was different, another passage will help:

“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, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold” (Num. 12:6-8).

This shows that Moses was a different kind of prophet from other prophets, in that God was prepared to deal with him in a different way. That is, it was God Who made Moses the kind of prophet he was by the manner by which the revelation was vouchsafed to him; and the manner of the giving of the revelation indicates that the revelation itself was of greater significance than that given through other prophets. Certainly, Moses himself was a very great and faithful man— “... who is faithful in all Mine house”—and no doubt this was part of the reason for God’s choice of him. But essentially it was God’s revelation, which He wished to make at this particular time, which made Moses what he was: a prophet different from other prophets.

The effect on Moses himself of that which was revealed to him, and the manner of it, is stated in Exodus 34:30: “the skin of his face shone”; of no other prophet is this physical manifestation of the glory of God recorded. (However, when Jesus descended from the mount of transfiguration, those who saw him were “greatly amazed”, and “running to him saluted him”—Mk. 9:15.)

The revelation given through Moses

We must, therefore, look at the revelation of God made through Moses to see in what ways Moses was so particularly a chosen prophet. The passage quoted from Numbers shows that God revealed certain things to him “mouth to mouth”, and also showed him “the similitude of the LORD”. We know from the things recorded in the Pentateuch what some of these matters revealed to Moses “mouth to mouth” were (Acts 7:37,38). They comprised the whole of the Law laid down for the nation of Israel at its inception in the wilderness, which is called later in Scripture “The Law of Moses”. They also included detailed instructions as to how to build a suitable place for worship of God, and rituals which would teach Israel proper holiness before God, and how to approach Him (Ex. 24:12; 25:1,2).

The beholding of the “similitude of the LORD” is also recorded. There is the incident in which Moses asked to see God’s glory, and was answered with a proclamation of the name of God, and saw Yahweh’s back parts (Ex. 33 and 34); there is also the occasion of the burning bush, where the bush itself was surely a “similitude” of the Lord, an unchanging similitude, when God revealed His name Yahweh to Moses (Ex. 3). In both these incidents God revealed things about Himself which Moses, as a prophet, was to reveal in turn to Israel. This is prophetic work: to receive revelation from God, and disclose that revelation to the people. All prophets did this, but with Moses God chose a more direct method to reveal Himself than He did with other prophets; and part of the reason for this was the nature of the revelation itself. In revealing His “similitude” to Moses, God displayed both His character and His purpose with men. The ultimate object of this revelation was to encourage men to imitate His character and seek for the fulfilment of His purpose; and the end result was to be the glorification of men to become like God Himself—the end sought unlawfully in the Garden of Eden by Adam and Eve.

In connection with the aim of this Special Issue of The Testimony, it may be noted that the understanding of God’s revelation of Himself in His name and character is virtually exclusive to Christadelphians, whose understanding of God-manifestation as seen in Scripture was first formulated by Brother Thomas; it is a teaching which those who believe in the doctrine of the Trinity can never appreciate.

God, then, revealed Himself to Moses in a special way, and thereby made of Moses a very special prophet, standing at the beginning of the history of the nation of Israel, delivering them that revelation by which their lives were to be guided and whereby the history of the whole nation was to be forged—for good or ill for them, depending on how they responded.

The revelation of Israel’s future destiny through Moses

This brings us to the consideration of Moses as a prophet foretelling the future of this nation whose destiny the Word of God was to mould. At the very end of his life Moses made a prophecy concerning the inevitable failure of Israel to live up to God’s vision for them (Deut. 32). There the whole process of failure and its consequences was spelt out in exact terms. All through their existence Israel were to have this account of their future acts and God’s response before them; by it they would be self-condemned; but the faithful few would read, and be warned. The prophecy also includes an indication that God would turn from Israel to other nations and take them as His people, when Israel became unfaithful; it ended with a prophecy of the renewal of His mercy to Israel, and joy for both Jew and Gentile in the land of God’s promise: “Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people ...” (Deut. 32:43).

Another prophet like Moses

Throughout the course of Israel’s history there were many prophets sent to Israel; but none of them stood in exactly the same position as Moses, bearing a new revelation of God and His character greater than that already revealed through Moses. All other prophets built on the words given to Moses. It is astonishing, for example, how many references in the later prophets refer to, or directly quote, the prophecy in Deuteronomy 32. Their position in the nation, too, was different; they stood during the course of Israel’s progress in the land, and not at the beginning of any great movement.

When God determined to reveal further and greater truth to men, and to create a new people to whom a new restatement of law was to be given, who would build a new and different kind of dwelling place for Him, and to whom God would reveal the course of their history, He chose a new prophet who stood in a similar position in relation to the new age to that in which Moses had stood in relation to the Mosaic age. In this the prophet Jesus was like Moses. The quotation of Deuteronomy 18:15-19 by Peter in Acts 3:22,23, referring the prophecy to Jesus, leaves us in no doubt as to who this prophet is.

Yet because the revelation Jesus was to bring was greater than that given to Israel by Moses, he himself was made by God a greater man, greater in both character and status: “Unto you first God, having raised up His Son Jesus ...” (Acts 3:26). Moses had been a faithful servant in God’s house; Jesus was God’s own Son: “God, Who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son” (Heb. 1:1,2). Moses had put a veil over his face so that Israel could not see the end of the law which was to be abolished; but those who look to the glory revealed by the Lord Jesus “are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:13,18).

Jesus’s revelation of God’s words

Moses had spoken with God on Sinai “mouth to mouth”; and, although these words do not occur in the Gospels with regard to Jesus, it is plain that the things spoken by Jesus were given him directly by God Himself:

“I have not spoken of myself; but the Father Which sent me, He gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak” (Jno. 12:49).

Of his disciples he said:

“I have given unto them the words which Thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from Thee, and they have believed that Thou didst send me” (Jno. 17:8).

These words make it clear that Jesus was claiming to be “sent” as Moses had once been sent from God to Israel (the word ‘sent’ occurs several times in Exodus 3). The words quoted from John 12 fulfil the words of God to Moses in Deuteronomy 18: “I ... will put My words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him”. Jesus had been “raised up” by God “from among their brethren” (v. 18).

The raising up of Jesus from among his brethren brings up some important points. It is, again, a particularly Christadelphian understanding that Jesus was a true son of man, blood-brother of men on the earth, and not a pre-existent God. It raises the matter of suffering; Jesus was made “perfect through sufferings” (Heb. 2:10) in order to bring many sons unto glory, sons of God like himself, who would also find their redemption through suffering—his and theirs. Like Moses, Jesus loved his brethren, and found in that love the strength to offer himself for their redemption (see Ex. 32:32).

It is Christ’s suffering and death (and we use the title ‘Christ’ advisedly, since it is Jesus’s suffering as a man which is critical here)—it is Christ’s love, shown in suffering and death, by which the laws of God were put into the minds and written in the hearts of God’s people (Heb. 8:10). For the blood of bulls and goats could never affect the consciences of God’s people (Heb. 9:9) in the way that the blood of Christ could: “how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (v. 14); “unto him ye shall hearken” (Deut. 18:15).

“I will require it of him”

Because Jesus had suffered, because so great a price had been paid for their redemption, men had—and still have—a responsibility to listen to and obey the words of Jesus, the prophet like Moses: “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” (Deut. 18:19). “He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye”, said the writer to the Hebrews, “shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” (10:28,29).

God had once spoken directly from heaven, giving Israel the ten commandments; then all further revelation was given through Moses. To the Lord Jesus God spoke three times directly from heaven, giving him His direct authority as a beloved Son. But all His revelation was spoken through Jesus. A law was given for the new people of God to be created: the Sermon on the Mount and other direct instructions on how men should act to be pleasing to God. And the Lord Jesus showed his disciples how they were to be built up into a holy temple in which he and his Father would dwell (Jno. 14:1-3).

The similitude of the Lord

The Lord Jesus was able to reveal God to men more fully than Moses had done, because God chose to reveal Himself in a Son rather than a servant. So Jesus was able to show men the Father in a way Moses could not possibly do; he had seen but the back parts of the Lord. The very perfect character of the Lord God of heaven was revealed in a perfect Son—to be revealed in a yet greater manner after resurrection in perfect nature which men were able to see, touch and handle (1 Jno. 1:1).

“He that hath seen me hath seen the Father”, said Jesus to Philip (Jno. 14:9). He did not say, “He that hath seen me hath seen God”; but “the Father”. Here was the fullness of the revelation of God to men through Jesus Christ; this is the fullness of the revelation that has been vouchsafed to us by the prophet greater than Moses, though like him. Because he was a Son, obedient to a beloved Father, it was possible for him to show to men a fullness of character Moses could never have done: the fullness of the character revealed indeed to Moses in words, but shown in practice in a man’s life of wrestling with sin.

Jesus’s foretelling of the future

Just as Moses had traced the future course of Israel’s history in detail in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28-32, so Jesus traced the course of the history of the Gentile people through inevitable apostasy and judgement, in the book of Revelation. This parallel of the prophecies of Jesus to the words of Moses shows clearly that, like the prophecies of Moses, those of Jesus are also historical, stretching from the time in which they were given to the final consummation.

The warnings of Deuteronomy 18 were first spoken to Jews; and the prophecy spoken on Olivet was primarily a warning to the Jews of Jesus’s day to hear his words, lest God bring His judgements upon them. Yet even here the same kind of prophetic words concerning the gathering of the Gentiles is seen as are contained in the prophecy of Moses: “I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people”; and, “Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people” (Deut. 32:21,43); for Jesus says: “he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Mt 24:31).

Jesus showed his authority as God’s prophet in the same way as all God’s other prophets, by making short-term prophecies which could show the truth of what he said to those to whom he spoke, as well as long-term prophecies which would testify to the truth of his words to all generations to come: “And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him” (Deut. 18:21,22). Jesus proved the truth of his claim to be the Son of God for all time when he spoke of his own death and resurrection, and his prophecy was shown to be true. His authority has thus been proved for us even in these last generations; him we must hear.

“During the past ten years a succession of events has demonstrated that a fixed and predetermined purpose is in process of development, unknown, indeed, to ‘the Powers that be’, but known of God, revealed in His word, and guided by His hand”.

John Thomas, Preface to the Third Edition of Elpis Israel, May 1859

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