Acts 3:22, commentary and pictures

Moses promised the fathers that God would raise up a Prophet from among their own brethren like himself, and that Prophet is Jesus Christ. He came as the only-begotten Son of God clothed with humanity, the great Teacher and True Light sent to reveal saving truth plainly and to save perishing souls. The command to hear Him in all things means receiving, listening to and obeying everything He teaches, a command confirmed by the voice from heaven declaring Him the beloved Son who must be heard. To all who receive and obey Him He gives power to become the sons of God, but every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed and cut off from among the people. Hearing Him means repenting and being converted that sins may be blotted out and the times of refreshing may come, which prepares the way for God to send Jesus Christ and the restitution of all things spoken by the prophets.

Promise and Context

Moses truly spoke to the fathers the promise that the Lord God would raise up a Prophet from among their brethren, like Moses, and that Prophet is Jesus Christ. The promise commands God's people to hear Him in all things whatsoever He says. It belongs to the account of the disciples' Spirit-empowered witness, whose words and works represented those of Jesus their Teacher as they testified boldly to His resurrection.

It is part of the hope of the promise made to the fathers, preserved by steadfast souls among the Jews who still looked for the Messiah, and dwelling upon it strengthened their faith that His coming was at hand. The prophets after Samuel also foretold the days of Christ. His coming occurred in the prophetic era when darkness covered the earth.

The infant presented in the temple was that promised Prophet, though the priest did not recognize Him. He is greater than Moses. He is the One whose glory Moses had desired to see. Moses understood that Christ's mission would bring the Jewish system of types and shadows to its complete fulfillment. Christ is the foundation of the whole Jewish economy, where type has almost reached antitype and shadow has reached substance as the system of sacrifices and offerings waxes old, so that the enrolling of His name among the firstborn is its death warrant.

His life, teachings, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension fulfill the Old Testament prophecies. The voice speaking through the prophets was His, and Moses and the prophets testified beforehand of Him. The ritual system pointed to Him as its reality, including the Passover and the raised bronze serpent. Maintaining its ceremonies while rejecting Him means rejecting their fulfillment. Those ceremonies have no value when He is rejected, for He is the guiltless One who bears the sins of the guilty and God's remedy for sin.

Christ the Promised Prophet

He is the only-begotten Son of God who clothed His divinity with humanity to become the promised Prophet like Moses. He left the heavenly courts and came in humility rather than outward rank and display. He came to the world as the great Teacher and Instructor, the True Light shining amid moral darkness, superstition, and error. He is humanity's appointed Teacher and Redeemer and the promised Teacher of the plan of redemption foretold through Moses. His work was to bear witness to the truth, to reveal saving truth plainly and clearly in contrast with error, and to save perishing souls. He brought certain knowledge of God and instruction on every subject essential to find the pathway to heaven, for He is the way, the truth, and the life. To Him truth was an ever-present, self-evident reality, spoken with freshness and power as a new revelation. He uttered no suggestion, sentiment, notion, or opinion, but only solid, saving truth. He is the leader whose words must be obeyed in all things, who led Israel invisibly and leads the Christian church, whose authority would become supreme and whose power invincible. He is the guiltless One who bears the sins of the guilty and God's remedy for sin.

Hearing the Prophet

To hear that Prophet in all things whatsoever he says means to receive, listen to, heed, and obey everything he teaches, without exception. He is the leader whose words must be obeyed, who led Israel invisibly and who leads the Christian church, and the great Teacher whose authority would become supreme and whose power invincible. He brought certain knowledge of God and instruction on every subject essential to find the pathway to heaven.

The command to hear him was confirmed by the voice from heaven both at his announcement and at his transfiguration, declaring him the beloved Son in whom the Father is well pleased and commanding that he be heard. To all who receive and obey his word he gives power to become the sons and children of God. Every soul who will not hear that Prophet, who refuses to listen to and heed him, shall be destroyed and cut off from among the people. He is the promised Teacher of the plan of redemption, the appointed Instructor and Son of God, who came in humility rather than outward rank and display, and refusing him brings destruction.

Hearing that Prophet means repenting and being converted that sins may be blotted out, bringing the times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. The command comes with impelling force in the last days of the work of the third angel's message, when Satan works with increasing power because he knows his time is short and when diversities of operations through the gifts of the Holy Spirit bring the outpouring of the Spirit in the latter rain. It means acknowledging the gift of prophecy placed in the church from the beginning as a living voice to counsel, admonish, and instruct for guidance in the closing days of earth's history. So hearing makes ready for God to send Jesus Christ and for the restitution of all things spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

Those who hear are the children of the prophets and of the covenant God made with Abraham that in his seed all the kindreds of the earth shall be blessed.