Day 14: Jesus Is The Prophet

Day 14: Jesus is The Prophet

Prayer:

Father in heaven, help us to listen to the word and voice of Jesus. Give us ears to hear. You see and know all the inner workings of our thoughts and motives: make us attentive when You pinpoint our sin. You uphold the standard of righteousness: give us convictions that align our lives with Your own. You know the end from the beginning and all that will happen in our lives: prepare us for what's to come. Let the glory of Christ and the Kingdom of Christ be within us and within our homes. May the testimony of Jesus be upon our lips. Amen.

Primary Scripture:

John 6:14: Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

In Moses' last speech to the Israelites just before his death, he gave this prophetic promise to the people: "The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear…I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him" (Deuteronomy 18:15, 18). In the verses just prior to this prophetic promise, God warned the people not to “learn to follow the abominations of those nations” around them because those nations listened to soothsayers, sorcerers, spiritists, mediums, and conjurers of spells (Deuteronomy 18:9-14). In other words, they sought to hear from demonic powers and used witchcraft. It was—and is—enticing to reach into the spiritual realm and seek spiritual power as Saul did, especially when the voice of God seems silent (I Samuel 28:3-25). But God makes it clear that listening to those voices leads to abominable, detestable actions.

When God came down on Mt. Sinai in a thick cloud and fire with thunderings and lightnings, and a trumpet blast that grew louder and louder, the people were terrified and stood afar off. They promised more than once to do all that the Lord told them to do. When all was said and done, the people asked that God would not speak to them directly again but only through Moses. They were afraid they would die. But Moses told them not to fear; God had done this to test them, so that His fear would be before them to keep them from sin. Don't fear . . . do fear. Which was it? It was both. God desired to draw near to His people, but He also wanted them to realize the dangers of sin and His uncompromising holiness and justice.

Yet God said this wish on the part of the people to have God speak to them through Moses was right (Deuteronomy 5:28) and good (Deuteronomy 18:17). It was in this context that God spoke to Moses and told him that He would raise up for the people a Prophet like him from among their brethren. Here we see a God who longs to draw near, yet in His glory and majesty and power and perfection is terrifying. This scenario brings to mind a story that Paul Harvey, well-known news commentator in the last half of the twentieth century, used to tell at Christmas time. At the end of this reading is a transcription of his annual telling of the story.

In order for the people to draw near, God had to become accessible and veil His glory. What is more accessible than a tiny, helpless baby? There are few things that attract people more than a baby. But God stepped still further to draw us to Himself, veiling HIs glory in a most profound way—yet through this veiling, He prophetically unveiled the astonishing glory of His humility: The site chosen to place the newborn at His birth was a manger. Not a palace for the Son of God, which only the upper elites could access, but rather a common cave, approachable to all who would humble themselves to come. This was His birthplace. Through Jesus, this One who came simply and unpretentiously, God invites us to come to Him.

In the book of Hebrews we are repeatedly beckoned to "draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith" (Hebrews 10:22) and to "come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). This invitation is extended all because of what Jesus has done for us.

But what did God mean that this Promised One would be a prophet like Moses?

There are eight different aspects of a prophet's ministry and Jesus fulfilled them all:

1.     Prophets authoritatively spoke the very words of God. When God made the promise through Moses, He also promised this first criteria for a prophet: "I will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him" (Deuteronomy 18:18). Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus claims to be speaking the very words of God. For example: "I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him" (John 8:26). "I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things" (John 8:28). "I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak" (John 12:49-50). Several times over in the four Gospels we are told that the people marveled at Jesus' words because "He them taught as One having authority" (Matthew 7:29).

2.     Prophets were anointed by God's Spirit; the Spirit of God rested on them. When speaking of the prophetic ministry of the Messiah, Isaiah declares that the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon Him and anoint Him (Isaiah 61:1). John the Baptist bore witness that God had told him he would be able to identify the Messiah by this sign: "Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit." And John told the people that he saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and remaining on Jesus, so he testified that Jesus was the Son of God (John 1:32-34). And when Jesus ascended into heaven, God took of His Spirit, as He had with Moses, and poured it out upon those who believe in Him (Acts 1:4-5, 2:1-4).

3.     Prophets revealed the character and ways of God. They revealed both His righteousness and His mercy, His holy hatred of sin and His undying love for mankind. Moses was given God's holy Law, His standard of righteousness (Exodus 20:1-17); God's holy Name: I AM THAT I AM (Exodus 3:14); and a glimpse of God's glory that revealed His character of love and mercy (Exodus 34:6-7). No prophet unveiled God's righteousness, God's Name, and God's love and mercy better than Jesus.

4.     Prophets foretold future events through divine revelation. In a very forthright manner, Moses told the people exactly what would happen if they disobeyed, and he foretold the fact that they would indeed disobey and suffer all the gruesome consequences he was outlining to them. Jesus also foretold detailed descriptions not only of what was going to happen to Himself because of the people's rejection (Mark 8:31, 9:31, 10:33), but also of the fall of Jerusalem because of that same rejection, outlining the city's destruction in precise detail. He went on to foretell future events of the world at the end of the age (Matthew 24).

5.     Prophets were given power from God to perform miracles. Through signs and wonders, Moses delivered the people of Israel from the oppressive bondage in Egypt. Like Moses, Jesus gave notice of His intent to deliver through many miraculous signs during His three years of ministry. But His greatest miraculous sign was His mighty resurrection, through which He delivered the world from the oppressive bondage of sin and death. Moses commanded the people to slay the first Passover lamb whose blood would protect them from the angel of death. Jesus became the Passover Lamb whose blood protects from eternal death.

6.     Prophets were to raise up the standard of God. Through Moses, God gave the people His Law; Jesus took the Law to a whole new level, revealing the intent of the Law and exposing our hearts. The Law given through Moses, holy and perfect though it is, could never take us into the Promised Land; it can only condemn us (Romans 7:10-13). Jesus Christ came to bring grace upon grace (John 1:16), to remove the condemnation of the Law (Romans 8:1; John 3:17) and clothe us with His perfect righteousness (Romans 5:17), giving us access into the true Promised Land.

7.     Prophets exposed the sin of the people and called them to repentance. Most of the book of Deuteronomy, Moses' farewell speech to the people, is one injunction after another to heed the voice of the Lord, reminding the people of their past sins and their consequences. All the other prophets did the same, calling the people back to truth and to God (e.g., Joel 2:12-13; Jeremiah 3:12-13, 22; Isaiah 1:16-18; Hosea 12:6, 14:1-2; etc.). Their blunt exposés, railing condemnations of sin, and warnings of judgment most often secured for them a place in the Martyrs Hall of Fame. All of these things Jesus also fulfilled, including martyrdom. His first words of ministry were "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17).

8.     Prophets carried the burden of the people in their hearts before God in prayer. More than once Moses interceded for the people, standing in the gap to hold back the wrath of God from the people in judgment for their rebellion and sin. Moses' heart was so full of love for the people that he was willing for God to blot his own name out of the Book of Life if forgiveness wasn't granted to them: his life for their lives (Exodus 32:31-32). Jesus took this burden to its full extent, placing Himself between us and the wrath of God toward sin. He bore the full weight of our sins in His own body on the cross (I Peter 2:24), willing to be forsaken by God that we might be saved (Matthew 27:46). The full brunt of God's wrath was unleashed upon Him, and by this He has "delivered us from the wrath to come" (I Thessalonians 1:10). "The chastisement for our peace fell on Him" (Isaiah 53:5). He stood in the gap for us (Ezekiel 22:30). As Moses was a mediator between God and the Israelites, so Jesus is the Mediator between God and man (I Timothy 2:5-6).

Although all the prophets carried the burden of God for His people and interceded for the people before God, one feature of this final characteristic of the prophetic office was unique to Moses. He alone of all the prophets stood between the awesome holiness of God and the wrath of God against the sin of the people, pleading with God, even with his own life, for their forgiveness and for the Presence of God to go with them and not be removed from them (Exodus 32:32, 33:12-17). At the giving of the ten commandments, the people were so terrified that they asked Moses to relay to them what God said rather than hear the voice of God themselves. I have always been puzzled by why God said their request was right and good. But here is the reason: God was painting another prophetic picture. Jesus would be a prophet like Moses. He not only perfectly relayed the message and character of God to us, but He also stood in the gap between us and God, becoming the only Mediator between God and mankind (I Timothy 2:5). He would make it possible for the Presence of God to never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5), to not only be with us, but to be in us forever (John 14:16-23).

Other prophets spoke God’s words and revealed God’s character, but they were not mediators like Moses. In fact, in both Isaiah and Ezekiel, God says that He looked for a man to stand in the gap, to be a mediator or intercessor, but He found no one; so His own arm brought salvation (Isaiah 59:16, 63:5; Ezekiel 22:30).  He sent Jesus Christ, the one and only Mediator. God also says in Ezekiel that not even Daniel, Noah, and Job, three of the most righteous men who ever lived, could have delivered the people from their sins (Ezekiel 14:14, 20). In Jeremiah 7:16, God tells Jeremiah not to pray for these people any longer. At this point in Israel’s history, God says that not even Moses nor Samuel could stand before God and change His mind about the judgment He was going to bring upon the people (Jeremiah 15:1). Yet Jesus would become the great Mediator, who is “worthy of more glory than Moses” (Hebrews 3:3). Jesus would stand in the gap for us all, bearing our sin for us (I Peter 2:24). He would “free us from the wrath to come” (I Thessalonians 1:10). He “ever lives to lives to make intercession for us” (Hebrews 7:25), and He stands “at the right hand of God” interceding for us (Romans 8:34). Jesus alone is the One who enables us to approach the “unapproachable light” with boldness “in full assurance of faith” (I Timothy 6:16; Hebrews 4:14-16, 10:19-22), so that “we all, with unveiled faces, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, [can be] transformed into the same image from glory to glory” (II Corinthians 3:18).

Jesus fulfilled all of the prophetic purposes of God. The Spirit of God rested upon Him, and He revealed to us the full heart of God. He validated His prophetic role through miracles of every kind, exerting His power over all aspects of creation. He accurately foretold the outcome of His own life, of the nation of Israel, and of the world. He is the One who knows the end from the beginning. With His life and words He raised up the standard of God, upholding it to its highest perfection. Yet He reached to the lowest sinner to extend the mercy of God. He did not come to condemn but to save, to heal, and to deliver. In Christ, we find not the wrath of God, but the favor of God.

The prophetic ministry of God finds its full consummation in Jesus Christ. He stands between us and the holiness of God. Having fulfilled all righteousness, He extends to us the gift of righteousness, and says, "Come. Come boldly."

Family Worship:

Read through a few of the OT prophecies that were fulfilled in Christ (i.e., Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, Micah 5:2, Zechariah 9:9, etc.). Marvel at the accuracy and specificity of these identifying markers. Thank God for these undeniable proofs that Jesus is the Messiah.

List the eight roles or aspects of a prophet. Have each family member choose one of them and go around in prayer, thanking God for the way in which Jesus fulfilled that particular prophetic role.

Conclude your family time by asking Jesus to speak prophetically into your life: revealing sin that you may be unaware of, building godly convictions into your life, giving you deeper understanding into the character of God, preparing you for what He knows is coming in your future; or perhaps you are in need of healing or some other miracle of provision, or perhaps there is a current issue that you aren't sure how you should think about it—ask Him to show you. Identify the need and prayerfully search His Word for His answers.

Jesus Christ: The Prophet like Moses who came from His own people.

Other Related Scriptures:

Deuteronomy 18:15-19: The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, according to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, "Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die." And the Lord said to me: "What they have spoken is good. I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him.

Deuteronomy 34:10: But since then there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.

Matthew 7:28-29: And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

Matthew 13:57: (also Mark 6:4, Luke 4:24) So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house."

Matthew 21:11, 45-46: So the multitudes said, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee. "Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they perceived that He was speaking of them. But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, because they took Him for a prophet.

Luke 7:11-17: Now it happened, the day after, that He went into a city called Nain; and many of His disciples went with Him, and a large crowd. And when He came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her. When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, "Do not weep." Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, "Young man, I say to you, arise." So he who was dead sat up and began to speak. And He presented him to his mother. Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, "A great prophet has risen up among us," and, "God has visited His people."

Luke 13:33: "Nevertheless I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem." 

Luke 24:18-19: Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, "Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not know the things which happened there in these days?" And He said to them, "What things?" So they said to Him, "The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people."

John 3:11-12, 31-34: "Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?" "He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure.

John 4:19: The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet."

John 4:43-44: Now after the two days he departed from there and went to Galilee. For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.

John 5:46: "For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me."

John 7:40: Therefore many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, "Truly this is the Prophet."

John 12:49: "For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak."

Acts 3:19-26: Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said to the fathers, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you. And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.' Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days. You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our father, saying to Abraham, 'And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.' To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities."

Hebrews 1:1-3: God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the father by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Revelation 1:1-2: The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. 

Revelation 19:10: And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, "See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."

Paul Harvey's Christmas story:

You know, “The” Christmas story, “God born a man in a manger,” and all that, escapes some moderns. Mostly I think because they seek complex answers to their questions, and this one is so utterly simple. So for the cynics and the skeptics and the unconvinced, I submit a modern parable.

Now the man to whom I’m going to introduce you was not a scrooge, he was a kind, decent, mostly good man. Generous to his family, upright in his dealings with other men, but he just didn’t believe all that incarnation stuff which the churches proclaim at Christmas time. It just didn’t make sense, and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He just couldn’t swallow the Jesus story about God coming to earth as a man.

“I’m truly sorry to distress you,” he told his wife, “but I’m not going with you to church this Christmas eve.” He said he’d feel like a hypocrite, that he’d much rather just stay at home, but that he would wait up for them. So he stayed and they went to the midnight service.

Shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier and then went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper. Minutes later, he was startled by a thudding sound. Then another. And then another; sort of a thump or a thud. At first, he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against his living room window. But when he went to the front door to investigate, he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow. They had been caught in the storm and in a desperate search for shelter, had tried to fly through his large landscape window.

Well, he couldn’t let the poor creatures lie there and freeze, so he remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That would provide a warm shelter if he could direct the birds to it. Quickly, he put on a coat and goulashes, and tramped through the deepening snow to the barn.

He opened the doors wide and turned on a light. But the birds did not come in. He figured food would entice them in. So he hurried back to the house, fetched bread crumbs, and sprinkled them on the snow making a trail to the yellow lighted, wide open door to the stable. But to his dismay, the birds ignored the bread crumbs and continued to flop around helplessly in the snow. He tried catching them. He tried “shooing” them into the barn by walking around them waving his arms. Instead, they scattered in every direction except into the warm lighted barn.

Then he realized that they were afraid of him. To them, he reasoned, I am a strange and terrifying creature. If only I could let them know that they can trust me. That I’m not trying to hurt them, but to help them. But how? Because any move he made tended to frighten them, confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led or “shooed” because they feared him.

If only I could be a bird, he thought to himself, and mingle with them and speak their language. Then I could tell them not to be afraid. Then I could show them the way to the safe warm—

Suddenly his mind was illuminated to the truth, and he spoke aloud, “to the safe warm barn, but I would have to be one of them so they could see and hear, and understand.”

At that moment the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sounds of the wind. He stood there listening to the bells, Adeste Fidelis (O Come, All Ye Faithful). Listening to the bells pealing the glad tidings of Christmas, he sank to his knees in the snow. (http://www.rubysemporium.org/harvey_birds.html)