Who is the Great Prophet Foretold in Deuteronomy 18:15-19?
Deuteronomy 18:15-19: “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; According to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb (i.e. Mount Sinai) in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not. And the Lord said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. 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.”
Who is the Great Prophet spoken of here that the Lord said that He would raise up? Muslims say that it is Muhammad. Jews who reject Jesus as the Messiah may not agree about who it is, but they at least deny that it is Jesus.
Let’s break down Deuteronomy 18:15-19 for analysis.
“The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;”
The preceding verses in Deuteronomy 18 (verses 9 to 12) give warning to Israel to not be like the other nations (the Israelites often failed miserably in this). Moses is addressing the children of Israel directly in these verses. The things in Deuteronomy were spoken by Moses when Israel was still in the wilderness. Moses was about to die and the Israelites were about to enter the Land of Canaan.
“This Great Prophet would be raised up unto the children of Israel. This is of great importance.”
Continuing now in Deuteronomy 18:15-19.
“According to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not. And the Lord said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken.”
When the Israelites were hearing God’s voice from Mount Sinai they told Moses that they did not want to hear God’s voice from heaven or see the fire which He accompanied that voice any more. They were intimidated by these things and were in downright terror of dying. God essentially told Moses that they were right to be in utter terror of Him like they were (see Deuteronomy 5:23-29).
Does this mean that the Great Prophet could not be God incarnate? No, the event which Deuteronomy 18:15-19 references means that the Great Prophet which the Lord would raise up unto the children of Israel would not be speaking to the Israelites in an intimidating, immediately life threatening way like God spoke to the Israelites from heaven at Mount Sinai.
Note also that Jesus was literally raised from the dead. This is evidence that He is greater than all the other prophets.
Moreover, neither Joshua nor any other Old Testament prophet fits the description of the Great Prophet in Deuteronomy 18 since none of these spoke to the Lord face to face like Moses did.
Deuteronomy 34:9-10: “And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the Lord commanded Moses. And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.”
Continuing in Deuteronomy 18:15-19 demonstrates that the consequences of not heeding this Great Prophet would be drastically awful despite His immediate presence not being intimidating like the Lord’s interaction with the Israelites from Mount Sinai was.
“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.”
Would this Great Prophet be a particular individual? Yes, He is spoken of as such.
Could this Great Prophet be Muhammad? Even if Muhammad was a distant relative of the children of Israel through Ishmael, he was not an Israelite nor did he speak directly to the children of Israel in the land formerly known as Canaan. When the Lord said “I will raise them up a Prophet” he was obviously not referring to the Arabs. He was referring to the children of Israel.
The Lord also warned the Israelites repeatedly through Moses that He is not partial and that they would be cast out of the land for persisting in disobedience to Him. The Jewish nation eventually became equated with the children of Israel. And when was the ancient Jewish nation brought to an end? It did not happen at all at once, yet it happened over some time through the Jewish war with the Romans. The crushing defeats of the Jews in that war occurred about 40 to 100 years after Jesus’ public ministry among the children of Israel. If that sounds consistent with what is warned in Deuteronomy 18:19, that is because it is. Moreover, the modern Jewish nation could not be of God due to its bitter opposition to the Jewish Messiah.
Jesus said the following in the Gospel account of John in the New Testament.
John 8:51-59: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself? Jesus answered, If I honor myself, my honor is nothing: it is my Father that honoreth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God: Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.”
Jesus essentially said that He is both the Messiah and divine in the preceding verses. His Jewish opponents knew that.
Who is the Great Prophet Foretold in Deuteronomy 18:15-19 then? That would have to be Jesus Himself. The Apostle Peter even said so directly in Acts 3:22-23.
In relation to that, Psalm 110:1 says: “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.”
The preceding statement echoes what is said of the Great Prophet in Deuteronomy 18:19.
The Old Testament Scriptures culminate in Jesus Christ and the things written in the New Testament. The Apostles of Christ retained the Old Testament (i.e. Hebrew) Scriptures as the foundation of Christianity and referenced them constantly to reinforce the truths which they were preaching. Muhammad and the Quran though are not the culmination of the New Testament Scriptures. The New Testament complements and completes the revelation of the Old Testament. It thus completes God’s message to mankind. This leaves no place for further authoritative revelation afterwards.
Hebrews 1:1-4: “God, who at sundry (i.e. various) times and in divers manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by 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 on the right hand of the Majesty on high: Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.”
Now reading back in Genesis 22:6-8: “And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. And Isaac spoke unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.”
God then gave Abraham a ram to offer instead. The lamb of ultimate significance had not been provided yet.
Returning again now to the time of Moses.
Leviticus 17:11 says: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”
We then read later in Isaiah 7:14: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
Immanuel means “God with us.”
There is a very similar passage near the end of the Old Testament which is less well known than Deuteronomy 18:15-19.
Malachi 3:1-5: “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years. And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts.”
By the way: When was the offering of Judah and Jerusalem pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years? This happened through the earliest disciples of Jesus among the Jews before the Jewish nation was destroyed in AD 70. Samples of this are recorded in the Book of Acts.
No one can honestly say that Malachi 3:1-5 does not sound like an elaboration of Deuteronomy 18:15-19.
Jesus did not show up claiming to be the Jewish Messiah out of nowhere. Not only do the Hebrew (i.e. Old Testament) Scriptures testify of Him, but John the Baptist was also the messenger sent to prepare the way before Him. John was well known in Israel. He baptized Jesus and publicly testified of Him as the Son of God (see John 1:19-34).
Malachi 3:1 makes it clear that the Lord’s messenger would prepare the way before Him and that the Lord Himself would suddenly come to His Temple. Moreover, Haggai 2:7 also shows that the Messiah would come to the Temple.
Haggai 2:7: “And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts.”
“This house” in the preceding verse refers to the second Temple. The first Temple had already been destroyed. The second Temple which was being built in Haggai’s time and it had been built by Malachi’s time.
The prophet Micah even said that the Messiah must be born in Bethlehem.
Micah 5:2: “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”
The second Temple only stood between 516 BC and 70 AD. These things mean that the Messiah had to be born in Bethlehem and come to the second Temple while it stood between 516 BC and 70 AD.
Though Jews who reject Jesus as the Messiah might try to separate the Great Prophet of Deuteronomy 18 from their Messiah, they reject Jesus as both in spite of the overwhelming evidence from their own Scriptures which testifies of His supreme authority and divinity.
Aaron’s email is: gospeltruth768@yahoo.com