June 18, 2010

Is Jesus Found Anywhere in the Old Testament?
Deuteronomy 18:15-22 (NLT)

15 Moses continued, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. . . . . the LORD said to me,‘ . . . 18 I will raise up a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell the people everything I command him. Deuteronomy 18:15-18 (NLT)

Pastor’s Blog

Today’s passage is among the most important prophecies in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament).

Moses was in the middle of the second of three sermons before the Hebrews entered the Promised Land, modern day Israel. He knows his time is up and death is on the doorstep. He’s concerned about who will speak for God when he’s gone.

As in Genesis 49:10-12 and Numbers 24:17-19, today’s passage functions as a prophecy of the coming of God to earth in Jesus Christ. Moses had been the mediator of God’s teachings and commandments to the people of Israel. However, for two reasons the imminent passing of Moses did not mean that they would be without God’s teaching.

First they had the words of God written. Moses had recorded them. In fact in most languages the first five books of the Bible are called First Moses, Second Moses, etc. Second, all future prophets had to be Israelites who remained true to the law recorded by Moses. Ultimately, the Lord did raise up a number of prophet to mediate God’s will, but in the end this prophecy was fulfilled in the coming of the Messiah Jesus. (John 1:21, Acts 3:22, 23)

Once again we are challenged to stay true to the Revelation of God through the Prophets, Jesus Christ, the Apostles as recorded in the Bible. In the end it is revelation that is trustworthy, not our fallible reasoning.

Here’s an interesting thought from CS Lewis about the trustworthiness of our own thinking.

C. S. Lewis said that if there is no intelligence behind the universe, then nobody designed my brain for the purpose of thinking. Thought is merely the byproduct of some atoms within my skull. But if so, how can I trust my own thinking to be true? And if I can't trust my own thinking, of course, I can't trust arguments leading to atheism and therefore have no reason to be an atheist, or anything else. Unless I believe in God, I can't believe in thought; so I can never use thought to disbelieve God.