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The Old Testament prophet Moses prophesied, saying, “A Prophet will Jehovah your God raise up for you from your midst, from among your brothers, like me; you shall listen to Him”—Deut. 18:15:
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Jehovah would put His words in the mouth of the Prophet, who would speak all that God commanded Him—v. 18b.
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The Prophet raised up by God would be according to all that the children of Israel asked of Jehovah their God at Horeb—vv. 16-17:
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They had told Moses that they could not bear to hear God’s voice—5:22-28; Exo. 20:18-19.
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Because they wanted a prophet, Moses promised that God would fulfill their desire for a prophet.
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Moses prophesied that Jehovah would raise up a Prophet from their midst, from among their brothers—Deut. 18:15, 18a:
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This indicates that God would raise up this Prophet through the incarnation of Christ to speak the word of God—John 1:14; 3:34; 7:16-17; Heb. 1:2a.
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From the midst of their brothers (Deut. 18:18a) indicates that Christ as the coming Prophet would be human as well as divine—John 1:1, 14; Rom. 8:3:
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If Christ were merely God, He could not have been raised up from among the Israelites—Luke 1:31, 35.
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As God, Christ could not be from among the Jews as a brother, but as the incarnated One, the One who put on human nature and was a Jew, Christ was from among His brothers.
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As the incarnated God, Christ put on human nature and became a Jew; thus, He is the Prophet raised up “from your midst,” as prophesied by Moses—Deut. 18:15, 18.
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Acts 3:22-23 applies Deuteronomy 18:15-19 to Christ, who is God incarnated to be a man, indicating that Christ is the Prophet promised by God to His people, the children of Israel.
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In His first coming, Christ ministered as the Prophet raised up by God—Acts 3:22-23; 7:37:
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Through incarnation Christ became the Prophet to speak the word of God—John 3:34.
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Christ is the Word of God and the speaking of God—1:1; Rev. 19:13; Heb. 1:2a:
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When Christ was on the earth speaking for God and teaching people, His teaching was not His own but was according to what the Father had taught Him—John 7:16; 8:28b.
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He did not speak from Himself; as the Father spoke to Him, so He spoke—12:49-50.
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As God’s Prophet, Christ spoke for God, spoke forth God, and revealed God to the disciples—Matt. 11:27.
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During His earthly ministry, Christ also prophesied, predicted, by declaring the things that are coming—John 16:12-13; Matt. 24:2—25:46.
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Today Christ as the Prophet is in us still speaking for God to reveal God and speaking God into people—Rom. 8:10; 2 Cor. 13:5; Col. 1:27.
Morning Nourishment
John 3:34 For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for He gives the Spirit not by measure.8:28 …I do nothing from Myself, but as My Father has taught Me, I speak these things.
Rev. 19:13 …His name is called the Word of God.
[Deuteronomy 18:18] indicates that God would raise up this Prophet through the incarnation of Christ to speak the word of God (John 1:14; 3:34; 7:16-17; Heb. 1:2a). When the Lord Jesus came, He surely spoke God’s word. To speak God’s word is to dispense God, to speak God forth into others. This is what the Lord Jesus did as the Prophet raised up by God. (Life-study of Deuteronomy, p. 141)
Today’s Reading
In His earthly ministry the Lord Jesus never spoke His own word. Whatever He spoke was the Father’s speaking. On one occasion He said, “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me” (John 7:16). In not speaking from Himself the Lord did not seek His own glory but the glory of the One who sent Him (v. 18). Instead of speaking His own words, He spoke God. When He spoke God’s word, God was expressed through His speaking. God came forth from Him through His words. He lived a life of speaking God, a life of expressing God for His glory.In John 12:49 and 50 the Lord Jesus says, “I have not spoken from Myself; but the Father who sent Me, He Himself has given Me commandment, what to say and what to speak. And I know that His commandment is eternal life. The things therefore that I speak, even as the Father has said to Me, so I speak.” This clearly reveals that in His ministry the Lord spoke the Father’s word. In particular, the commandment that the Father gave Him to speak was eternal life. Therefore, He came with living words, and whoever receives His words will have eternal life.
In John 14:10 the Lord Jesus goes on to say, “The words that I say to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me does His works.” Once again the Lord makes it clear that He did not speak His own word but the Father’s word. While the Son was speaking in this way, the Father was working. The Son’s speaking was the Father’s working.
In His ministry the Lord Jesus revealed the Father to the disciples. Matthew 11:27 says, “No one fully knows the Son except the Father; neither does anyone fully know the Father except the Son and him to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” This indicates that to know the Father requires the Son’s revelation. The Greek word for wills in verse 27 means to deliberately exercise the will through counsel. This the Lord did in revealing the Father to the disciples.
In His prayer to the Father before His crucifixion the Lord Jesus said, “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world” (John 17:6). The name referred to here is the name Father. The names “God” and “Jehovah” were adequately revealed to man in the Old Testament, but not the name Father, though it is mentioned in Isaiah 9:6; 63:16; and 64:8. In Old Testament times God’s people mainly knew that God was Elohim, that is, God, and Jehovah, that is, the ever-existing One, but they did not know much about the title Father. God is His name for creation, and Jehovah is His name for the relationship between Himself and man. Eventually, the Son came and worked in the Father’s name (John 5:43; 10:25) to manifest the Father to the ones whom the Father gave Him and to make the Father’s name known to them, the name which reveals the Father as the source of life (5:26) for the propagation and multiplication of life, of whom many sons are born (1:12-13) to express the Father. Hence, the Father’s name is very much related to the divine life. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 743-746)
Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 22, 69, 90; Truth Lessons—Level Three, vol. 2, lsn. 30