Nathan E. Lewis

God has provided three offices to serve Israel: Prophet, Priest, and King. In Chapter 17, we have recently read of the King, who is to humbly serve his subjects. He is to submit to the law of God himself. In Chapter 18, Moses mentions the office of Priest. The Levitical priests are set aside from worldly cares. The rest of the people are to provide for the needs of the priests, whose inheritance is God alone. The priest is chosen by God to serve the people in the name of the Lord. The final paragraph of Chapter 18 presents the office of Prophet. God establishes all three offices for the good of his people.
In the middle of Chapter 18, Moses, preparing Israel to live in the Promised Land, once again instructs them to live blamelessly before God. The list of abominations is indeed one of the worst lists in the scriptures. God reminds Israel that he is purging the Promised Land of the people groups who have committed these abominations. All three offices are designed to help the people of God live pure and holy lives. The king, with the law of God daily before him, rules the people in justice. The priests intercede before God, making sacrifice for the sins of the people, leading them in repentance and reconciliation. The Prophet instructs the people by speaking the very words of God. Let us take a closer look at the office of Prophet as Moses presents it in (15-22).
The office of Prophet is to be filled by a member of Israel. Moses was a member of the tribe of Levi. Joshua, his successor, was of the tribe of Ephraim and Samuel, the prophet who anointed King David was also of the tribe of Ephraim. Like the kings and the priests, the prophets must not be foreigners. They must be members of the household of Israel. Though he is one among brothers, Israel is to listen to him. The prophet’s words are the very words of God.
The office of Prophet reminds us that God has condescended to his people. This means that he speaks and interacts with us in ways that we can understand and receive. God, the infinitely divine Person is otherworldly. He is transcendent, mysterious, and unapproachable. Moses reminds Israel of God speaking to her in the fire on the mountain. Israel begged for Moses to be the mediator between God and humanity. His voice was awesome, striking fear in the hearts of Israel. God agreed with Israel’s request and so he appointed Moses as prophet, to receive his word for the people and to deliver it in a human voice. Thus the message carried divine authority but it was offered through a human instrument. God had once again condescended to his creatures, his beloved children, like a father bending to his knee to whisper softly and simply into the ear of his precious daughter.
The office of Prophet also reminds us that God’s word is authoritative. The prophet by definition has the very words of God in his mouth. He is to speak God’s commands to the people and they are expected to follow those commands. God holds the person responsible who refuses to listen to the words of his prophet.
(Quotes regarding authority of God’s word)
The office of Prophet teaches us that God’s word accompanies God’s will and work in the world. God’s word reveals to us the divine will and unfolds for us God’s work in the world. The prophet must be careful to speak the very words of God. If the prophet speaks his own words pretending to speak God’s words, then he deserves the death penalty of the law. The prophets of old would say, “Thus says the Lord,� then deliver the very words of God. Moses supplies a failsafe test of the prophet. If he is truly a prophet of God, then what he says in the name of the Lord shall surely come to pass. If his words do not announce the will and work of God, then he is to be put to death. He is a false prophet.
Moses was a true prophet of God. When God appointed Moses at the burning bush, Moses was troubled about his role as prophet. He said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?’ God said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I am who I am sent me to you. Say to this people of Israel, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered through out all generations.� A true prophet speaks in the name of God. He speaks the very words of God.
God supplies Moses with his words for Israel: “The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.� God said to Moses, “The people will listen to your voice.� Moses was still troubled and said, “But they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’ God gave to Moses the signs of the ten plagues poured out upon Egypt. These signs were effective but they were not the proof of genuine prophecy. The Egyptian court magicians were able to perform the signs alongside Moses. The signs were means of moving Pharaoh to release the people. The proof of genuine prophecy was that the words of Moses came to pass. God liberated Israel from slavery in Egypt and he did bring them to live in the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey.
Moses and Israel are now camping on the border of the Promised Land and Moses, the prophet, is delivering God’s words to Israel to prepare them to enter the land. Moses says, “And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.’� Moses was a true prophet. These words came to pass. God raised up Joshua to succeed Moses. In one of his final addresses of Israel as prophet, Moses said, “I am 120 years old today. I am no longer able to go out and come in. The Lord said to me, ‘You shall not go over this Jordan. The Lord your God himself will go over before you. He will destroy the nations before you, so that you shall dispossess them, and Joshua will go over at your head, as the Lord has spoken.� These words of Moses actually came to pass. He had been delivering the very words of God.
Joshua became the next prophet of Israel, the very words of God upon his lips. He was a prophet just like Moses. He was from among the brothers of Israel. Nearly every divine message he spoke, Moses had already delivered during his term as prophet. Joshua faithfully renewed the covenant by speaking the very words of the Lord, the very words Moses had spoken before him.
When God promised to raise up a prophet like Moses from among the brothers of Israel, he was promising Joshua. But he was also promising the great and final Prophet, Jesus. It is no coincidence that Joshua and Jesus are the same name, meaning “the Lord saves.� Jesus, the final great prophet rose from among the brothers of Israel. He was of the tribe of Judah. Recorded in John 8, a crowd of Jews accused Jesus of being a demon possessed Samaritan, but Jesus claimed to not only be a son of Abraham, but to be the great “I am.� As the great and final Prophet of God, he did not merely speak in the name of the infinite “I am,� but claimed to be the infinite “I am.� Jesus prophesied the will and work of God saying “Destroy this temple and in three days I will build it up again.� Jesus was scorned by his brothers, taken for a false prophet predicting the demolition of Herod’s temple. But Jesus was prophesying his own death and resurrection. The religious leaders charged Jesus with blasphemy and called for his death as a false prophet. But every word Jesus spoke was the word of God. It was God’s will that his Son should suffer. It was the work of God to raise the Son from the dead.
Most of the world is willing to claim Jesus as a prophet of God. Mohammed believed Jesus to be a great prophet like Moses. The Dali Lama believes Jesus to be a great prophet, whose words should be considered. The apostles of the New Testament claim that Jesus is not merely a prophet. He is not merely the Prophet to whom all other prophets have pointed. He is the One and Only Person to hold all three divinely established offices: Prophet, Priest, and King. He is not only the Prophet who is greater than Moses, but he is the Great High Priest. Jesus is not a member of the tribe of Levi, a high priest merely in succession of Aaron, Moses’ brother. Jesus is the High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, that ancient and mysterious priest who was the king of Salem, the city of peace. As the great High Priest, Jesus not only offered the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the people, but he offered his own life, a sacrifice to satisfy God’s wrath for sin.
On the third day God the Father raised his Son to new life. This Jesus ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father. In heaven he is enthroned as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Just as God promised to David, the king of Israel, “I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.� These words God spoke to David and the prophet, Samuel recorded them, delivering them faithfully to Israel. Samuel was a true prophet. His words are the very words of God. How do we know him to be a true prophet? His words have come to pass. Jesus, the Son of David, has been enthroned forever. He is the Prophet, Priest, and King. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s will and work for our salvation.