Jesus, The Prophet Like Moses

Deuteronomy 18:15 – “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.” NIV

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Moses was quite the prophet. He is still held high in the esteem of both the Jewish and Christian faith. He was most definitely one to love and hate, loved by the Israelites and hated by the Egyptians! As the new Moses, Jesus is loved by those who believe in Him, and hated by those who feel threatened by Him!

The Bible confirms for us through the words of Matthew, Peter, and even Stephen that Jesus was in fact, that prophet like Moses. When Stephen was defending his belief in Jesus, before the mob that stoned him, he quoted the verse in Deuteronomy, as a reference to Jesus. Acts 7:37 – “This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear.’” After the lame man was healed at the temple in Jerusalem, Peter also used this verse to describe Jesus, as the promised Messiah, the Prophet like Moses.

Let’s look at ways that Moses’ life paralleled Jesus:

• Moses was born when the male children were being killed by Pharaoh; the male children were slaughtered by Herod after Jesus’ birth.
• Josephus wrote that Pharaoh was told of a Hebrew boy who would be born and who would bring down the Egyptian kingdom, while liberating the Israelites. Herod was told about the birth of the king of the Jews, whom Herod tried to annihilate for fear of losing his kingdom.
• When God told Moses to return to Egypt, God told him that those who sought his life was dead. Similarly, when the angel spoke to Joseph, he told Joseph to return home because those who sought the life of Jesus was dead.
• Moses went on the mount to receive the laws of God, and Jesus went on the mount to deliver the Sermon on the Mount.
• Moses fasted for forty days and nights, Jesus fasted for forty days and nights.
• Moses performed many miracles, Jesus performed many more miracles.
• Moses provided manna in the wilderness, Jesus provided bread and fish in the wilderness-first to 5,000 and then to 4,000, and He is the spiritual manna.
• Moses parted the Red Sea, Jesus walked on water.
• Moses healed Miriam of leprosy, Jesus cleansed ten lepers at once, and healed many others.
• When Moses left the presence of the Lord, his face shone and he hid it behind a veil, when Jesus left the Mount of Transfiguration, his face shone like the sun.
• God made a covenant with the children of Israel called the Mosaic Covenant, and Jesus established a covenant with us, called the New Covenant!

The most powerful way that Moses was like Jesus, or that Jesus is the second Moses, is that they were both deliverers. God gave Moses the assignment of going to Egypt and telling Pharaoh to “let my people go”. Moses did this through a series of miracles, the last one saw the Egyptians drowning in the Red Sea.

Matthew 1:21, states that Jesus would save His people from their sins. That’s exactly what He does when He is believed upon, He delivers people from their sins. The natural Exodus, was a type and shadow of the spiritual Exodus; where we are translated out of darkness into light! The Passover feast pointed to the death of the Messiah. What Jesus did at Calvary was far more powerful than what Moses did during the Exodus. Moses’ deliverance was natural, Jesus’ deliverance is spiritual and is everlasting! Jesus died, then went to hell and made a public spectacle over our enemy, the devil, triumphing over him, as conqueror!

Moses delivered the children of Israel from Egypt, and God gave him the Law to give to them. Jesus came in fulfillment of that Law and gave grace and truth! Where the Law was binding under Moses, grace was freeing under Jesus! Where the Law was filled with blood sacrifices, Jesus shed His Blood, once and for all! Where the Law was a shadow of things to come, Jesus was the Word made flesh, a bodily fulfillment of that Law! Where the Law was a constant reminder of sins, Jesus brought a constant reminder of grace and mercy!

Jesus, the Prophet like Moses, was a far better Moses! These are the correlations that spoke to me, and I hope they help you to see that Moses, in all that he did, he did to point the children of Israel to the true Messiah, Jesus the Christ! Wonderful Jesus!