Deuteronomy 18:15, commentary and pictures

God promised to raise up from within Israel itself, from their own brethren, a Prophet like Moses to whom the people must listen. That promised Prophet is Jesus Christ, the Messiah and Redeemer of the fallen race, in whose mouth God put His own words to speak all that He was commanded. Moses foreshadowed Him in receiving words from God's mouth and leading Israel toward the earthly Canaan, while Christ leads the Israel of God to the heavenly Canaan as Son over His own house where Moses was faithful only as a servant. All are therefore commanded to hear and obey Him, and whoever refuses His words spoken in God's name will be held accountable and destroyed from among the people. Moses' writings testified of Him, so those who truly believed Moses would recognize and believe Christ when He came, as Peter showed after healing the lame man and Stephen showed before the council.

Words and Setting

The promise is that the Lord God will raise up a Prophet from the midst of Israel, from among their own people and brethren, like Moses. To that Prophet the people are commanded to hearken and give attention and obedience. It was plain instruction kept before Israel concerning the coming Messiah and Redeemer of the fallen race. God would put His words in His mouth, and He would speak to the people all that God commanded Him.

It was given through Moses shortly before his death, near the end of his leadership and teaching. It rested on God's revelation to him at Mount Horeb. Moses himself was the mighty prophet chosen to lead Israel out of Egyptian bondage toward Canaan and to receive many revelations from God. God makes His will known through prophets He appoints rather than through diviners or soothsayers, to keep Israel from the abominable practices of the surrounding nations.

Christ the Fulfillment

The promised Prophet is Jesus Christ, the Messiah to come, raised up from among Israel itself, from the midst of the people and from their own brethren, like Moses, to whom they must listen. All the promises to Israel center in that Prophet, who is God's remedy for sin. He is the divine Teacher who has God's words put in His mouth to speak all that God commands, receiving words from God's mouth and speaking them to the people just as Moses did. In this Moses was a type of Christ, and Christ is the fulfillment as Captain and divine Leader and Teacher of God's people.

As Moses led the armies of Israel out of Egypt to the earthly Canaan after discipline in the school of affliction and poverty, Christ leads the Israel of God now passing on to the heavenly Canaan and a better heavenly country. Unlike Moses, He needed no earthly teaching or training to perfect Him for that mission and manifested no human weakness or imperfection. Yet He was made perfect through sufferings and, having suffered being tempted, is able to help the tempted, being faithful as Son over His own house where Moses was faithful only as servant. He died to obtain entrance to the promised land for His people and to open the way for them to enter the heavenly Canaan.

He was the invisible leader of the Jewish church while Moses served as visible leader, and He remains the leader of the Christian church. He was Himself the voice Israel heard and refused, present in the church in the wilderness with the angel who spoke at Mount Sinai and with the fathers, giving the living oracles through Moses, who received the law by the ministry of angels. Israel's sin was in not heeding the voice of that Angel, who was Christ Himself. He is the antitype of the whole ritual system, the guiltless One who bears the sins of the guilty, who came as Teacher from heaven in a time of spiritual darkness with supreme authority and invincible power.

As God fed Israel with manna in the desert in the days of Moses, Jesus fed the multitude on the grassy plain, creating food sufficient for thousands of hungry people from five barley loaves and two small fishes, which no human power could do. His words came as the voice of God and His healings were works only divine power could perform, leading the people to confess that He is of a truth that prophet who should come into the world. Moses himself understood the mission and work of Christ, expecting the substance to be revealed, the unfinished economy to be completed in perfect fulfillment of every specification given in types and shadows, and Christ to bring His own system of arrangements to perfection. All the prophets from Samuel onward also foretold the days of Christ, with destruction from among the people for every soul who will not hear Him in all things whatsoever He says. He is the Redeemer not of the Jews only but of the world, referred to as that prophet whose right it is to receive David's throne; while on earth He declared His kingdom was not of this world, and the throne is to be given Him at the end of this world when the world to come begins.

Hearing and Witness

The command to hearken is a command to give attention and obedience to Jesus, and the sin of Israel was in not heeding His voice. He Himself was the voice they refused, for He was in the church in the wilderness with the angel who spoke at Mount Sinai and with the fathers, giving the living oracles through Moses, who received the law by the ministry of angels. Moses pointed Israel forward to Christ as the Prophet they were to hear, and that word vindicates faith in Christ and loyalty to God and the Jewish faith while showing that the law trusted for salvation had not been able to preserve Israel from idolatry. It connects Jesus Christ with all Jewish history from Abraham to Solomon.

God would put His words in the Prophet's mouth, and whoever refuses to listen to the words spoken in God's name will be held accountable. Every soul who will not hear Him in all things whatsoever He says will be destroyed from among the people. Christ came as a Teacher from heaven in a time of spiritual darkness, with supreme authority and invincible power. Moses understood His mission and work, expecting the substance to be revealed, the unfinished economy to be completed in perfect fulfillment of every specification given in types and shadows, and Christ to bring His own system of arrangements to perfection, as all the prophets from Samuel onward also foretold the days of Christ.

Moses' writings testified of Christ and the Scriptures pointed to Him, so those who truly believed Moses would have recognized and believed Christ when He came. Searching them while rejecting Him showed they had not rightly believed Moses. The Samaritan woman had studied this Old Testament promise and longed to understand it, and the Holy Spirit prepared her mind through it to recognize Jesus as the Messiah and receive further light from Him. Jesus fulfills the promise, announcing to her that He Himself is the coming Messias called Christ who tells all things, bringing grace that renews the soul and the water of life that springs up into spiritual life in every thirsty soul who receives Him.

The Samaritans based their faith in the coming Messiah on this promise alone, holding to the writings given through Moses. They did so because the Jews, misinterpreting the later prophets by attributing the glory of the second coming to the first advent, had led them to discard the rest, yet as Jesus swept away those false interpretations many accepted the later prophecies and His own words about the kingdom of God. He was foretold as a prophet sent from God to come as Redeemer not of the Jews only but of the world. Jewish rulers looked for this promised one as that prophet, a figure distinct from the Messiah and from Elijah. When delegates sent from Jerusalem questioned John the Baptist about his authority to teach and baptize, they asked if he was that prophet or Elijah or the Christ, and John answered that he was not.

Many understood that prophet to mean Moses himself and expected fulfillment by Moses being raised from the dead and taken to heaven, not knowing Moses had already been resurrected. The question, Art thou that prophet, meant Art thou Moses. When John came baptizing with water many took him to be Moses risen from the dead because he showed thorough knowledge of the prophecies and of Hebrew history and the wilderness wanderings through murmuring and rebellion. The remembered wonders surrounding his birth to Zacharias strengthened the thought, including the angel visitation in the temple and the loss and restoration of Zacharias's speech.

Peter confirmed this meaning when preaching Christ after healing the lame man at the temple gate. Stephen quoted and applied the prophecy to Jesus Christ before the council in his defense to show loyalty to God and the Jewish faith and to connect Jesus with all Jewish history from Abraham to Solomon. He thereby showed the spiritual interpretation of the Jewish economy now made manifest through Christ, whose spiritual meaning is made clear through Him and connected with Israel's history. He showed also that the law in which the Jews trusted for salvation had not been able to save Israel or preserve Israel from idolatry. Christ was the invisible leader of the Jewish church while Moses served as the visible leader, and remains the leader of the Christian church.

The prophecy was used to persuade concerning Jesus out of the law of Moses. It shows Christ to be God's great remedy for sin, the guiltless One to bear the sins of the guilty and the antitype of the whole ritual system. Therefore maintaining exact observance of forms and ceremonies while rejecting Him rejects what Moses commanded to hear.