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Deuteronomy 18:15-19
Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Some say we live in the “information age;” that statement is almost laughable. In these days of the computers and smart phones, we are buried under information. There is an endless supply of information about topics you may wish to know about, and this information is always structured to appeal, to convince, to entice us into acting on what we have learned. And so we have a great need for discernment: the ability to determine what is good and important, while filtering out the bad and insignificant. Discernment is one of faith’s prime functions: listening and reading with ears and with eyes that are always attuned to the Word of God. Faith rightly fed and nourished is faith that focuses on truth, because truth always comes from God.
Moses was a great prophet of God among the Old Testament people of Israel. And in our text, Moses says that an even greater prophet would eventually arise who would bring the truth of God in all its marvelous fullness. The title “prophet” has been tarnished over the years by frauds who claim to have insider information from the mouth of God; that information always proves to be false. Sadly, some of them are persuasive enough to pull the weak and foolish along with them. The true prophet of God was someone very much different. Just like it is today, there were plenty of false prophets with which to contend in those days. The priests and Levites sent to question John the Baptist in this day’s Gospel actually had good reason to wonder whether or not he was the real deal. False prophets had long been the scourge of Israel!
The true prophet of God was just that; he was of God. He was sent by God to say and do the things he said and did. Just like the stewards of the mysteries which we discussed last week, no prophet sent himself. His credentials proved who he was, just as we would never accept a pastor today unless we could make certain that the Lord had sent him to us through His Church. A prophet proved himself by his teaching. Are his words the Lord’s Words? Is he saying what God has given him to say? Is he giving us God’s Word to trust, or is he speaking his own thoughts and opinions? What is most important, is his main focus the Messiah, the Savior God promised to send? True prophets may not have known all of the particulars about the One who was to come; that coming remained shrouded in the mysteries of eternity. But they knew that His day was just over the horizon. He would soon break on the scene like a burst of sunlight. The work of the prophet was to make the way for His coming.
It was through Moses that God provided deliverance from slavery under Pharaoh in Egypt. It was through Moses that God led His people through the wilderness for 40 years as punishment for unbelief. And it was through Moses that God prepared His people for entry into the Promised Land. Through all of this, every word spoken by Moses came from God; it was to be heard and believed. In these ways, Moses was, for the people of his day and for the generations to follow, a picture of the great prophet who was to come, the One who would speak words of salvation and then, also, do the work of redemption.
What Moses and the Exodus and the wilderness wandering foreshadowed, Jesus completely fulfilled. He delivered us from bondage to sin and death by laying down His own life on the cross. And He will continue to lead us through the wilderness of this life—the wilderness of fear and temptation, sickness and pain—to the place of His victory: the everlasting kingdom of the Father. He prepares us now, even this day, for entry into the Promised Land that lies beyond the strife and struggle of our days. And all the while, He speaks what God speaks, because He is God!
And so His Word is the final Word! His words cannot be broken, nor can His works be surpassed by another. His glory outshines that of Moses and the prophets. While Moses certainly shared in the suffering of his people, bearing their weaknesses and burdens, our Lord Jesus Christ shares the sufferings and burdens of the whole world. He has done what Moses offered to do, but could not: Christ has died for His people. Though sinless, He gave His life for the sins of the world and then entered the Promised Land of eternity that we might join Him there.
Advent comes to a close this week. We stand at the brink of that most joyous of celebrations. Our God humbles Himself to come to us in human flesh, to be our Savior and our Lord, and even our brother. We anticipate this joy with the words we will sing at the great celebration of our Lord’s incarnation and birth: “This is He whom seers in old time chanted of with one accord, whom the voices of the prophets promised in their faithful Word. Now He shines, the long-expected; let creation praise its Lord evermore and evermore.” In the name of the Father and of the Son (†) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.
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