More on a Prophet like unto Moses

Earlier this month, I published a post entitled, "A Prophet like unto Moses."  An issue I did not cover there may lead some to believe that I have not provided a sufficiently adequate coverage of the topic.  So, here I will attempt to fill that gap.

Regarding the questions raised by some priests and levites as to who John the Baptist was, it is believed by some that when they asked if he was "the prophet", that it was a reference to the prophecy of the coming of a prophet like unto Moses that would be raised up from amongst them. 

Joh 1:21 YLT  And they questioned him, `What then? Elijah art thou?' and he saith, `I am not.' --`The prophet art thou?' and he answered, `No.

In an earlier post, entitled, "Invalidity of All Current Two Witnesses" (posted in March of this year), I made comments to the effect that the second question, "The prophet art thou?", was a reiteration of the first question, "Elijah art thou?", but viewed from the spiritual perspective, meaning that they were asking John if he was the manifestation of the spirit of Elijah, to which he answered in the negative.  It is possible, however, that the second question was with regards to the subject matter of this post, asking if he was the prophet like Moses that was prophesied to come.  However, I do not believe that to be the case, though I have no strong evidence to support my view.  The reason is because, despite a lack of strong evidence for my own view, there is even less to suggest that the question posed was asking John whether he was the prophet like unto Moses.

First of all, it has been a long standing tradition amongst Jews to set a place at the table for Elijah in case he happens to turn up.  No such tradition exists, that I am aware of, in expectation of a prophet like Moses.  Perhaps Elijah was perceived by some as being the prophet like Moses, though I do not think it is a good fit.  They were quite different.  One was a leader, the other a loner.  One was from amongst the people he was sent to deliver, the other was sent to warn and turn people away from idolatry.  The picture of Moses much better fits Christ Yeshua's ministry, a leader who came to save the lost amongst his own people.  Of course, Christ will also save the lost amongst all people, the lost who are drawn by God, but the essence of the ministry is the same.  Moses was a messenger for the deliverer, Christ is the deliverer.

In the questions posed to John by the priests and levites, there is nothing at all to suggest that the reference to "the prophet" is to anything other than a reference to Elijah, the prophet they had only just been speaking of, making Elijah the immediate subject matter and any reference to Moses in that scripture far too vague for us to really believe.  However, if one takes the view that it was a reference to the prophet like unto Moses, then John's answer, "No", is still valid, for he would have known that it was a reference to the coming saviour and not to himself.

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Addendum (2017-07-21):

It could well be argued that what was meant by, "the Prophet", in the inquiry to John the Baptist when asked who he was, was not a reference to the belief in the coming of one in the spirit of Elijah but was, in fact, a reference to the prophet "like unto Moses" who was seen by some as merely a prophet and not the long awaited Messiah.  This is a reasonable understanding of what was meant by the priests and Levites whose messengers were sent to inquire of John the Baptist as to who he was.  It is a reasonable view since we know that, although they knew the scriptures in detail, most of them failed to actually understand the prophetic scriptures correctly, for they were caught up in the letter of the law and not the spirit of it, the Spirit of Truth.  If this were not so then they would have recognised the time of their visitation by the Lord.  No, indeed they did not.  They were more concerned with hand washing than with heart washing, more adroit at accusing others of perceived specks in their eyes than recognising the enormous tree in their own.  They truly could not see the forest for the tree!  Blind and deaf in spirit, dull of heart, they fussed over times and dates, rules and rituals, and went out of their way to make showy appearances in the public square, in expensive, long, flowing robes, making loud public prayers and speeches, indirectly boasting of their "wisdom and righteousness", and lording it over others to make all the "little people" feel even smaller.  They were of the "academia" of the day.

Do we see the same thing today?  My, how things never really change!  The (pseudo) "scientific" class are the new high priests.  They come out in public view to tell us all what we should think and believe and what we should not think and believe.  It was through such as them that the great delusion came for it could only come via the most pride-filled, self-deceived hearts.  Of course, there are those among them who are truthful and seek only to understand what is true, but the sciences of academia can never come to an understanding of the truth for truth has not its origin in nature but, rather, nature has its origin in Truth.  Nature is evidence, not origins.

 

A Prophet like unto Moses

It is sometimes claimed by various believers that the statement made by Moses to the Israelites, about a prophet like himself that was to come, is a reference to his own return as one of the two witnesses spoken of in the book of the Revelation to John, chapter 11.  Of course, saying “a prophet like Moses” is not the same as saying “Moses, himself” but it seems that many people wish to interpret it that way.  So, let's look at that scripture.

Deu 18:17-19 KJVR And the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. (18) 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. (19) 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.

What is meant by “a prophet... like unto thee”?  Does it simply mean a prophet or does it mean a prophet that is of the calibre of Moses or does it go further and mean a prophet with the calibre and character of Moses?  Perhaps it means a prophet of Moses' calibre (extremely well versed in the law and knows God) and who is also a leader.

However, I believe that it is referring to a prophet who is not only a leader and of the calibre of Moses but who stands before God, Himself, and is a prophet who has seen God face to face.  I believe this because it was said of Moses that no other prophet (at that time) was or had been like Moses.  Since this is merely what I believe, this post could be interpreted as an opinion piece but I do provide some reasonable support for my conclusion.

Exo 33:11 KJVR And the LORD spoke unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.

Num 12:7-8 KJVR  My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house.  (8)  With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?

Deu 34:10 KJVR And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,...

Moses had seen God face to face before his own death.  Elijah, who came much later, did not see God face to face even when God came to him as the small, still voice but Elijah did eventually see God when he was taken without dying.  From this it would be easy to believe that Moses and Elijah will be the two witnesses, and it is possible that they can be.  What this fails to take into account, h0wever, is that there is no precedent anywhere in scripture for a non-contemporaneous person, specifically a person of the past, coming into the present to do a work for the Lord.  It simply does not exist.  Not that it couldn't but that it doesn't, and if we are to understand the final book of the bible, the only way we can is by understanding parables and precedents.

So, to whom does the scripture refer when it speaks of a prophet like Moses coming to Israel?  God said that the prophet would speak everything that God commands him to speak and that whoever does not take seriously what that prophet says shall be held to account by God Himself.

There is only one prophet who perfectly fits the description and his name is the Lord Yeshua, the Christ.  Yeshua was a great prophet when he walked the Earth.  He clearly stated that he only said what the Father told him, only did what he saw the Father doing, and that the only way to the Father (who is God, of course) was through him (Yeshua) and that those who did not believe him would die in their sin, and that guarantees that God will hold them to account.  God clearly said, of Yeshua, “this is my beloved son.  Listen to Him!”

God would speak to no other prophet as He did with Moses, as if a man speaking to a man, until came Yeshua who is God's only begotten son, with whom He would speak directly.  All these facts perfectly fulfil the scripture of Deuteronomy 18:17–19.  I will not bother going into providing all the necessary scriptural references that describe the facts I have just stated (which you can verify for yourself) but I will provide some clearly stated verses found in the gospels which testify further to what I have here claimed.

Of what the Lord Yeshua did and said...

Joh 5:19 KJVR  Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. 

Joh 5:30 KJVR  I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. 

Joh 8:38 KJVR  I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. 

Of what Yeshua and others declared him to be...

Joh 1:45 KJVR Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

Joh 5:46-47 KJVR For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. (47) But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?

Joh 6:14-15 KJVR Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world. (15) When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.

Joh 7:40-41 KJVR Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet. (41) Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee?

We see in the reference in John 6 and 7 that there may be contention as to whether or not Yeshua actually fulfilled the expectation that Elijah would come again.  However in John 6:15 we see that Yeshua was concerned that they would try to make Him a king and we know that Elijah was no king but to the Israelites who wandered in the desert for 40 years, Moses was, in essence, their king, so the fact that it seemed that the people wanted to make Yeshua their leader speaks of Him being seen as the prophet like unto Moses.  In John 7:40–41 we see that there was contention amongst the people as to whether or not Yeshua was “the Prophet”, which many in our time take to be a reference to Elijah, but others of that time disagreed, as do many in our time, and said that Yeshua was the Christ.  So, those verses provide no direct support that Yeshua was the prophet like unto Moses but the other verses do provide that support since, like Moses, Yeshua had already seen God face to face, Yeshua was seen by the people as a leader or even a king, Philip declared that this was the prophet that Moses spoke of and last but foremost, Yeshua said, for himself, that he was the one that Moses wrote of.  Do we really need more evidence?  Some may but I am happy with that.

It seems that the prophet “like unto Moses” is not a reference to Moses coming back as one of the two witnesses, nor is it a reference to Elijah who came much later, but it is, in fact, a reference to the Christ who was (at that time) yet to come.

The Rubbish They Claim

Here is just another tiny example of how easily deceived we can be.

I have always been troubled that the following verses...

Mar 13:24b-25 KJV  the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light,  (25)  And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.

... are taken to be a reference to the sequence of solar and lunar eclipses in recent years.  Again, this is a case of taking verses out of context, as so many are happy to do if it fits in with their preconceptions.  Better to change the meaning of scripture than to admit to making an error, right?  I have a few choice words I would like to use to describe such self-deceived, deluded deceivers but, for the sake of the Lord's name, I will refrain from commenting further on such witless wonders.  Perchance some may wake up, smell the coffee and do an about-face.

Let us look at more of those scriptures in order to gain a better sense of the context of the quoted verses to see how, if at all, it fits with the claims being made.

Mar 13:24-26 KJV  But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light,  (25)  And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.  (26)  And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.

Mat 24:29-30 KJV  Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:  (30)  And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Well, waddaya know!  AFTER THE TRIBULATION OF THOSE DAYS, the sun shall be darkened and the moon will not give her light... AFTER the tribulation!  One final reminder, one final time to drive home the volley... AFTER the tribulation.

Has the great tribulation yet occurred?  You know the one... the time that will be worse than any other time in history and never to be repeated?  Weren't WW1 and WW2 MUCH worse than anything we are currently experiencing or have recently experienced since the times of those wars?  I can hear the crys of foul, foul ball!!  Those that claim that the great tribulation was one or both of the world wars and all of that commie nastiness.  The problem with that is, well, kind of obvious.  WE ARE STILL HERE and Christ Yeshua is not!  Did one third of the human population die?  Was all the green grass burned up along with one third of all the trees?  Have we seen the son of perdition, yet, make the claim to being God?  "Pope!", did I hear somebody say?  I do not recall even this demonic Pope demanding that I worship him nor seating himself in the new temple which, oh, that's right, it has not yet been built and, worse still, he came AFTER all those world wars and all the communist and NAZI atrocities of the twentieth century, LONG after!  Of course, the Pope could turn out to be the son of perdition BUT he has not done so just yet.  What of the wormwood-laden falling star, the mega-volcano that falls into the sea, the ocean turning to "blood", and so forth.  What about the 200,000,000 troop invasion of the middle east?  I could go on.... and on... and on.  Naturally, many will claim that all of the relevant scriptures regarding the tribulation are metaphorical and, perhaps we could read them as parabolic but does that mean that the tribulation is also a metaphor?  Tell that to the beheaded souls who suffered at the hands of the wicked ones we call ISIS, another Saudi Family and international banksters co-operative effort.

Are we to assume that the following scripture from the book of Joel refers to different events? 

Joe 2:31 KJV  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. 

Let us look at more of that scripture... 

Joe 2:30-31 KJV  And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.  (31)  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. 

Seems there first have to be wonders in the heavens and blood, fire and pillars of smoke on the earth.  Wonders in the heavens?  There have been some interesting events but I rreally would not classify any of them up until now as "wonders".  As for the fire and blood and pillars of smoke, that sounds a lot like global volcanism gone mad, doesn't it?  We can see it all on the increase; more serious volcanic and seismic events are occuring right now, so there are some "pillars of smoke" but no blood rain yet (will probably be due to iron oxides dissolved in atmospheric moisture after expulsion from massive volcanic eruptions), and closer encounters with large asteroids, strange solar behaviour, and so forth are also on a dramatic rise... but what I read there in the scripture really does not yet seem to have come to pass.  So, in my view (and I emphasize, it is my view and you can take it or leave it, of course) the darkened sun and blood red moon described in the scripture of the book of Joel is the same as that referred to by the Lord.  Of course, He already knew all of those scriptures quite thoroughly.  God was, after all, their originator.

Just out of interest, have you ever seen the sun and moon through the darkness of the thick smoke of a major bushfire?  I have, several times, and it really does fit the description.  Can you imagine the same thing on a global scale when almost every volcano on earth loses its nut?  We do not need eclipses to fulfil this scripture, just lots and lots of thick smoke.  The dense clouds of massive eruptions generate their own weather so we can expect increasingly intense thunderstorms to accompany them along with lots of hail.  Of course, there could be eclipses involved and I am generally of the view that the recent series of lunar and solar eclipses, especially with the lunar eclipses falling on Jewish holy days in rapid succession, are likely to be a marker of some kind, as has happened in times past, but I am hard pressed to shoe-horn those events into the above scriptures.  It contradicts the scripture recorded of the Lord's very own mouth.  The great tribulation has not yet come and gone.  There will be other associated scriptures that we can discuss in relation to all of this but methinks this be quite enough for now.

It always pays to go back to basics, back to the scripture, read it whole, without prejudice, without preconception as much as one can manage, with eyes, ears and heart wide open and mouth tightly shut.  Read it, pay attention to each and every word no matter how insignificant it may seem, read it one word after another, line after line, no skipping, no shortcuts, no preconceived ideas, just the writ, the whole writ and nothing but the writ, so help you God (and I really do mean that).

Have a great day!