Deuteronomy 18:15-22 • A Greater Moses
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
Deuteronomy 18. Deuteronomy 18, which may seem an odd place to go for a Christmas message because it is the Bible's farewell to Moses.
But we say farewell to him because he is telling us of a greater Moses to come, one who will come with the Word of God for the welfare of God's people. Let's stand to honor God's Word.
Deuteronomy 18, as Moses is leaving and the people must wonder what now? Verse 15, Moses answers, "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers. It is to him you shall listen, just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, "Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord, my God, or see this great fire any more lest I die."
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, and I will put my words in his mouth.
And he shall speak to them all that I command him.
And whoever will not listen to my words, that he shall speak in my name, I myself, says the Lord, will require it of him.
But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.
And if you say in your heart, how may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?
When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken.
The prophet has spoken it presumptuously.
You need not be afraid of him. Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, over and over again through these Christmas accounts where Christ is coming into the world and you are preparing your people to hear of him, you say, "Do not fear."
For Emmanuel, God with us, has been sent. And because he has been sent, his word not only gives us courage in the past, but strength for the future.
So help us to hear him.
The greater Moses sent for us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Please be seated.
When was the last time you saw a president cry recently?
That the funeral of George Herbert Walker Bush, his son, George W, gave the eulogy. These were the last words of that eulogy from a president son for a president father.
What do we want the men and women who work with us to say?
That we were more driven to succeed than anyone around us?
Or that we stopped to ask if a sick child had gotten better and stayed a moment to trade a word of friendship?
Well, Dad, we're going to remember you for exactly that and much more. And we're going to miss you, your decency, your sincerity, and your kind soul. You'll stay with us forever. So through our tears, let us know the blessing of knowing you and loving you, a great and noble man, the best father, a son or daughter, and then his voice broke and the tears came.
The best father a son or daughter could ever have.
In the tears, as well as in the words, you recognize there was not just a grief for the absence of a dear one, but a certain sense of lostness.
You led us with sincerity and nobility of heart. We appreciated you in so many more ways than just being among us. And a lot of you will know what that means quite intensely this Christmas season, won't you, won't we?
As at our holiday table, there will be an absence.
And in that absence, we don't just grieve a person not being present. We begin to grieve a sense of lostness, of someone, particularly a spiritual leader, who may not be there to guide a family anymore, to lead us in the way that God wants us to go. This Christmas Eve tomorrow marks the tenth anniversary of the passing of Kathy's father, my wife.
It's a hole in us that we still feel intently. A man who sacrificed to go to war for his country, who sacrificed promotions and prestige so that his family could stay in a single location through his working career.
He lived for his kids. He loved his wife. He served his church.
He honored his Savior all of his life.
And we still feel it in the prayer before the meal in our Christmas gatherings, when he no longer bows his head in front of all of us and says the words that he would say at every holiday meal, "Lord, lead us and guide us."
When he's not there to pray that prayer, then we recognize we want somebody to take his place so that we would be led and guided in the way that the Lord wants us to go. And it's precisely what the people of God would be feeling at this time, as Moses is now 120 years old and announcing to the people he will not be there to lead and to guide them in the way of the Lord. And surely there is this sense of not just grief, but maybe even panic. Well then who will guide us, particularly as we enter uncharted territories in this promised land that is just across the river?
And so Moses, speaking for God, says, "You will not be left without guidance.
For God who sent me to you will send one like me, but greater than I."
And that is not just a word for an ancient people. For what Moses in the very way that he is stating these words is not just making a promise for them, he is making a promise for us that we would never be without the leading and the guiding that God intends for his people who are seeking after him, who are needing him.
God says, "I will provide for you." He provides first just by giving us the job description of that greater Moses to come. What are his responsibilities? He's to provide the Word of God, verse 18, "I will raise up for them God's people a prophet like you, Moses, from among their brothers, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him."
This prophet is to come.
He's to speak to God's people, but not his personal thoughts and not a partial message. He is to speak only the words that God has put into his mouth. He speaks for the Lord himself. And not just a portion of that word. He is to speak all that God has commanded. It's the very thing that we still want. "Lord, tell me your way, and don't hide or mince words."
When we pray, as the apostle did long ago, for leaders who will preach the whole counsel of God, not pick and choose their way through the Scriptures, not just give me a partial understanding of what is in God's Word, "Tell me what God says, and tell me all of that." We've lost the significance of it in our day and time perhaps by not recognizing the background to this portion of Scripture as Moses has just said what people around the people of God use to get their guidance and leading. He has just spent a major portion of this very chapter telling God's people not to go to fortune tellers or to mediums or astrologers or those who seek guidance from the dead or those who would even sacrifice their children in order to get advancement or advice in the world. We have forgotten the horrors of the moment that they were going amongst a people who would actually sacrifice their children in fire to supposedly get answers from their gods of what they should do next. And we think it's so foreign to us until we recognize the temptation that we all face as adults at times to sacrifice the good of our children for the advancement of ourselves.
And Moses is saying, "God will send you one who does not do that. He will give you the whole counsel of God telling you precisely what God has said and giving you the whole load, not just portions that would please you." Beyond that, we recognize the job description of this greater Moses who is to come is that he would not just proclaim the Word of God, he would protect people from the wrath of God.
That wrath of God is expressed in the opening verses. "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you," says Moses. "It is to him you shall listen why. Just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, "Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire anymore lest I die." Moses is referring to the time it's Sinai. When the people saw the great glory of the holiness of God in cloud and thunder and lightning and the people said, "We don't want to go up and hear that God anymore," Moses speak to us for him.
And Moses mediates for the people of God, not only communicating what they need to hear from God, but standing between the holiness of God and their own unholyness. He was one who would protect them by the way in which he spoke. Verse 18, "I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put my words in his mouth. He shall speak to them all that I command him and whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him." Not only does this coming prophet speak the Word of God so that he is protecting people from the direct holiness of God, he is protecting them from the consequences of their sin.
They now know where to go and what to do and how to respond so the consequences of their sin would not come upon them. That's what those who are responsible for communicating the Word of God do. Just in a dim reflection, I think of how my wife, Kathy, would speak to our kids at times when they would roll their eyes, when she would tell them what party they could not go to, or worse, would call ahead to find out who was going to be present and what was going to be served.
"Mom!"
And she would say, "I am the gate through which evil has to come to get at you. And God has given me this responsibility and I am not going to abandon it, not only for your good, but for my good. For I am the one whom God has said must be the protector of my children."
So God says to those who would be responsible for communicating His Word where the prophet or parent or peer or teacher, "Say what I say and say it all because that is what my people require." But when God was saying to Moses, "Even after you are gone, I will provide that prophet to give my Word, to give all of it, to protect my people even from my holiness and certainly from the consequences of their sin."
You must recognize what God was ultimately saying to His people was, "I will not leave myself without a witness. Moses will be gone, but I will continue to provide for my people what they need." That's the language that the Apostle Paul would pick up in the New Testament. When there were people who were wanting to honor Him for what He had done and what He had said and He would say, "No, you must listen to the Word of God for He has not left Himself without a witness through the ages." And that is the message that still comes to us when we recognize God is saying, "I will provide those who will maintain the integrity of my Word for your protection."
Then God is saying, "I have not left you, comfortless or without guidance. I have given you the constancy of myself in my Word."
I recognize those can just be preacher words.
But when you begin to perceive it in all its reality that God has said, "I will not leave myself without a witness regardless of where you are in time or place," then it means absolutely everything.
I ask permission for telling you right now of the account of a woman that is dear to a number of us in the room who told us recently about one of the most difficult journeys of her life.
She has an adult son who is addicted, and she took a journey to another state to pick him up, to bring him home for healing and for help.
But as she was coming home, the car had a flat tire and she said, "I had a son who was too drunk to help me out."
So there she is on an eight-lane highway, car broken down, a drunk son in the car seat,
and she says she got out of the driver's seat, went around behind the car, looked up to heaven and said, "Now what do you want me to do?"
I'm not going to tell you that a voice broke through from heaven.
I will tell you that she knew she had to hear the witness of God. And so she reported to us that what she did was she actually spent a couple of days getting ready for this Christmas, getting the house ready and the cleaning and the cooking ready, all so that she would have a day without any obligation to do anything but search the Word of God and listen for His voice in the Scriptures.
And she said the Lord did speak to her as she meditated on His Word, gave Him time to speak to her by His Holy Spirit.
What the Lord instructed her in may not be the likely thing. First she said what I understood from the Scriptures was God loves the undeserving,
un-moms whose children may not be struggling, the very moms who want to blame themselves rightly or wrongly, but who have to know that there is a God who still loves them and cares for them and brings His help into their lives. And as she recognized God's forgiveness and care for her continuing, then she said in a marvelous way the Holy Spirit began to break through into her heart and to instruct her about an anger that she had held against her spouse for decades, a past offense, and had not been able to have that oneness in the Lord that she so desired because of that harbored anger and recognized that what God was saying to her is she was so concerned for her son but the greatest gift she could give her son was the relationship with her spouse.
God began to witness her need to forgive her husband and then recognizing she could forgive him, she recognized she could forgive her son.
And then recognizing she could forgive them, she said, I recognize that God was telling me I needed to serve my husband and my son regardless of what I felt they deserved.
God had not left Himself without a witness of what He had done for her and what He was calling her to do. He was leading and guiding by the sufficiency and the completeness of His Word, guiding His own child in the way that she needed to go. And it was not some grand mystery, it was just the wonderful goodness of the Scriptures that God has not left Himself without a witness that He will not depart from us. And that's what we begin to recognize, that if what God has done is regardless of place or time, His Word is there, deep down you know that means He is there.
If I have His Word in all the trials and all the difficulties, I recognize as I'm going through the darkness, going through the trial, going through the valley, if His Word is with me, then God is with me.
He has not left Himself without a witness, which means He has not left me without Him. After all, when He came and the angels announced Him, they said, He is Emmanuel, which being interpreted means God with us.
He was what? Moses was ultimately promising the people of God that God would be with them by His Word. And when Moses would ultimately say this truth to Joshua, the one who would succeed Him to go into the Promised Land with all the difficulty and all the trials, recognizing that God's Word would be present, meaning that God Himself would be present, what were the words ultimately that Moses expressed to Joshua expressing the significance of the continuing Word of God? You'll know these words.
Moses said to Joshua, "Be strong and courageous.
Fear not, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you.
He will not leave you or forsake you." Who else said that?
That's the Lord Jesus. He who is Emmanuel, who by His Holy Spirit continues to be with us, He says, "I will not leave you or forsake you, so be strong and courageous. Do not fear, for I will be with you." Even children can get that message.
A grandchild not so long ago witnessing a bully pick on a friend said, "Jimmy, you stop that.
Jesus does not want you to do that."
Jimmy said, "Jesus doesn't know me."
The grandchild looked back with squinty eyes and says, "Jesus knows you better than you know you."
And the bullying stopped.
It is not magic, but it is power.
When a child of God of whatever age says, "God is with me," he has not let himself not a witness. I have guidance of his Word. I have leadership by his Spirit. And I have the presence of Jesus Christ by his Holy Spirit. And I will be strong and courageous, not without trial, not without difficulty.
But I will face it, strong and courageous because of the one who is Immanuel. That's the job description. What are the job qualifications for this greater Moses who would come? Again, those are here in the passage, verse 15, "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me," said Moses, "from among you, from your brothers." The prophet who's going to come is going to be from the family of God, from the covenant people. He's going to be like Moses out of the nation of Israel. But that is not the only job qualification put down here. He is going to be thoughtless in what he says. Verse 20, "But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak or speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die." He's got to say exactly what God said and not attribute it to anything else.
Well, how are you going to test that? Verse 21, "And if you say in your heart, how may we know that the word that the Lord has not spoken?"
When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously.
Lord, it sounds kind of good.
Is it right?
Has your prophet said anything that did not come true?
Then there's an obvious penalty in place. What's the penalty? You miss, you die.
Now, a lot of you here in the room, you've heard the same prophets of our age as I have. The people who have predicted when the Second Coming of Christ would be. They have predicted, among other things, the end of the world at a particular time, the end of communism, the election of their candidate, the healing of a friend, the success of their ministry. And when it hasn't always happened on their calendar and their timing, you know, the typical response is, "Oh, sorry about that."
Well, the biblical standard is you're going to be real sorry.
You miss, you die.
Now, this is not saying that foretelling is the only sign of a true prophet, right? Satan and false prophets can anticipate the future to some extent.
So what we have to say is what they're saying consistent with the Word of God, that was the first standard, as well as totally accurate in predicting the future. If those things happen, that's a prophet to trust. That's a pretty important job description, that you are from the family of God and you are faultless in what you say and predict.
But the highest standard is yet before you. What is that final qualification? It was right in the opening words of verse 15. "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me," said Moses.
A prophet like Moses.
That is the most refined definition of this prophet that is in the entire Old Testament. That this prophet that is going to come to maintain the ultimate Word of God people is going to be like Moses. Now in the last few weeks, we've been in the book of Numbers, but I had to get you to Deuteronomy just for this point, because in the book of Numbers, we are told what it would be to be a prophet like Moses.
Numbers chapter 12, verses 6 to 8, "If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision." Nothing new there. "I speak with him in a dream." Nothing new there.
"Not so, my servant Moses.
With him I speak mouth to mouth and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of God." You remember what we were told about Moses when he went into the tent of meeting? He met with God face to face and spoke to God as with a friend.
This ultimate Moses who is to come isn't just from the family of God. He isn't just faultless in expression.
Ultimately, he is intimately acquainted with God, able to be with him face to face like Moses.
When the people of God in the generations following Moses looked for that successor to Moses, they didn't stumble over the first two qualifications. He needs to be from the nation of Israel. He needs to be accurate in what he says. They're okay with that.
But then when they were told he needs to be someone who can be face to face with God as a man speaks to a friend, they began looking for him. Even by the end of the book of Deuteronomy where you had the editor writing centuries later, looks back, he says, "And there has not arisen a prophet since Israel like Moses whom the Lord knew face to face, none like him, for all the signs and wonders that the Lord sent him to do, and for the great power and deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel." And by the end of this book they're saying, "Well, Joshua had come, but Joshua isn't fulfilling all the criteria. What about when Jeremiah comes?"
Jeremiah himself wrote, "When the word of peace of that prophet comes to pass, then it will be known that the Lord has sent that prophet that Moses predicted." Hadn't happened by the time of Jeremiah. John the Baptist comes, preceding Jesus. And you remember when he began to understand what Jesus was teaching, he sent a couple of disciples to speak to Jesus. And what was the question John the Baptist disciples asked Jesus, "Are you the prophet
that Moses told us about? We're still looking. And you begin to recognize when the child was born of Mary, and he was the son of Joseph, the carpenter and a Jew. And he began to do signs and wonders when he could give sight to the blind and enable the lame to walk and walk on water, that the people, even the common people to say, "This is the prophet that Moses told us about." And after that same Jesus had been crucified upon a cross for your sin and for my sin, and God to show us that that provision of the mediation of Christ to stand between us and the rest of the wrath of God had been poured out. And that was done when he rose from the dead. What did Peter say? Filled with the Holy Spirit, God spoke of this long ago, since Moses said, "The Lord will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him."
And all the prophets proclaimed, "These days God has indeed raised up for you His servant,
Moses."
It was the greater Moses. It was the one long predicted. It was the one who had finally come to do everything that the people wanted that Moses to do. What would he do? He would name the Word of God. He would in the very same moment protect from the wrath of God. As he took our sin upon himself upon a cross, he would be protecting all who would hide themselves in Jesus to say, "He takes my sin. He paid the penalty. I trust in him." And how would he demonstrate that he was the one to do that? He would perform signs and wonders among his people, but none greater than this, he would not just come to a manger, he would rise from a tomb. And having done that, he would declare himself to be not just the son of Moses, but the greater Moses sent by God to rescue us from the slavery of our sin. He was the long prophesied Jesus that each one of us still needs. Why?
Because of what the purpose of his job would be. He was in that last verse of the portion of Scripture that I read to you. Did you catch it? Verse 22 right at the end. If this greater Moses does everything that he's supposed to do, Moses said to the people, "You need not be afraid."
When the angel appeared to John the Baptist's parents and said to Zachariah, "Your son is going to be announcing the coming of the second Moses." What did the angel say to Zachariah? Fear not.
And when the angel appeared to Joseph and said, "Mary, your spouse's wife will be with child, and you should take her as your wife, and despite what the community around you says, do not be what?
Afraid.
Fear not." And when the angel appeared to Mary and said, "You shall deliver a child, and you shall call his name Jesus," which means deliverer, "because he will deliver his people from their sin," the angel said to Mary, "Fear not." And when the angel appeared to the shepherds and said to them, "A child is born in the city of David, and you're going to find him wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was in the heaven a host of heavenly beings singing praise to God. What did the angel say to the shepherds? Fear not. It is what God would say to his people over and over again as they would learn to claim the goodness of the Christ who had come to be the greater Moses that we still need this day.
And our trials and our family hurts and our wondering if there is any way that God is still going to help us could be true.
We hear the one in his word who said, "Fear not, for I have given you my word, and he ultimately came as my son, and I will never leave you or forsake you, because he is with you."
Fear not, for behold the kingdom of God is where?
Within you.
By the Holy Spirit you have the Word of God, and you need not fear. Does it make any real difference?
Some months ago I told you that the place where I administered with a number of you was Cuba.
And ministering to those 300 young pastors who gathered to learn how to proclaim the Word of God, there was a moment that I spoke to the leader of the conference and I said to him, "Alexis, of these 300 pastors in 10 years, will many of them still be here?"
He said, "Many of them will have left."
And he said, "It's not wrong.
In a place where pastors are paid $20 a month for the sake of their future and for the sake of their children, they should leave if they can."
But he said, "My wife and I have no children.
The people of Cuba are our children, and we are not afraid."
I want you to meet him. Alexis, would you welcome him?
Alexis, when Castro and communism came to Cuba, there were many people who said, "God has left Cuba."
Did God leave Cuba? No. Not at all.
How do you know?
Well, it was a... We did went through a hard time in Cuba in those decades.
Pastor Wepurinjo churches was empty. People left the country by convenience or things like that. They left the churches. And it was a very hard time. But we realized like 40 years after that, that what God did was doing was actually preparing the soil for the gospel in Cuba. And today, I mean, we have more evangelical churches in Cuba that never before in our history. So it was amazing. And those Bible-believing churches in Cuba, it can still be difficult for them, can it not? Yes. It's really difficult. A lot of limitations we have. We are not able to build a church or to rent a place to meet people. So we have a lot of limitations that we need to find ways how to do the church. So tell me the name of your church again. New Life. And tell everybody, why is it called New Life? Well, it's called New Life because like five years ago, there is a grave, Baptist graveyard there that's half a chapel inside was abandoned. And we were claiming that and the government said to us at some point, "Well, if you want to repay the chapel and use it, you can do it." So that's a unique opportunity in Cuba. So did you all understand the church is in a graveyard? Yeah. And what's the name of the church?
New Life. The middle of the graveyard. Yeah. So that's why we call it New Life. And there's a reason. I mean, is it easy for churches in Cuba to find property and build churches? Does that happen often? No, that's really, really difficult.
Things like that are unique in that way. And so in order to establish a church, you found a graveyard and now you have a thriving church, a beautiful church for which we are very thankful.
And Alexis is a leader of Cuban pastors in Cuba. And Alexis, is it hard to be a pastor in Cuba?
It is hard to be a pastor in Cuba.
We are in our society right now. We do have freedom. It's okay to be a Christian now. And you can preach the gospel to other people. No problem with that. But to be the leader, to be the pastor that is leading that, you will receive all the pressure from the government if they don't like anything you are doing for whatever reason they want. And yeah, you could have a hard time. And you said to us in the first service, you said one of the sweet things about the pressure from the government about something they're displeased with is it does something for pastors. What does that do for pastors? If the government doesn't like what you're saying about various things, what does that force the pastors to talk about? Yeah. It tells me a lot the government to keep focused just preaching the gospel from the pulpit. So I don't get into politics, nothing like that. Just preach the gospel. Just preach the gospel. Yeah.
And I don't care.
How will Cuban families celebrate Christmas?
Usually, we remain for that. We have Christmas Eve. Yeah. And we will gather as family in Cuba. We have a very traditional Cuban meal. And then on Christmas Day, usually, churches, we have a service to celebrate Christmas. Good. Do you exchange a lot of gifts that you bought at the malls like we do? No, we don't. We are not yet.
Are there Christmas trees everywhere on every street corner? No, they were forbidden for 40 years in Cuba.
Now it's not forbidden, so you will see some is coming. Yes. But not many. In the earlier service, Alexis and I got caught because for them, Christmas Eve is the evening of Christmas Day. And so when we talked about Christmas Eve, he was going, "What are you talking about?" And so you get the advantage of having us clarify that in the service. Yeah.
Alexis, at the same time, what are you doing here in the United States? Why are you here? I'm trying to finish my degree. And so I've been trained on how to preach the Bible, the whole concept of God. And yeah, so trying to finish that. I'm being here for now, like, six weeks and gathering a lot of information. We have books in Cuba, resources and internet to research. So I'm doing a lot of research and gathering information to be able to continue working on my research. So thank you very much for being that person. And I say that to you here at Grace Presbyterian Church.
Alexis does not have the resources in Cuba to finish his degree. So one of the things that you do as we as a church are trying to care for Christians, brothers and sisters across the world. Alexis has been here using our library, our facilities, our internet to be researching for his doctoral project. So he will be finishing. And what we're doing is preparing him to take that leadership back into Cuba for another generations of pastors. So I'm thankful for you as a church. We try to provide for many brothers and sisters in many different parts of the world. And here, right in our midst for the last several weeks has been Alexis, who will take the ministry of this church back to the pastors of Cuba. So thank you for your work as well. Alexis, how can we pray for our Cuban brothers and sisters? Just pray for Cubans in the way that we will be able to keep our faith in the middle of hardships and problems and continues to be faithful to the gospel, whatever the cost of that. And would you pray for us that we are not distracted by the things of material world and in fact maintain our focus upon the gospel as well, that we might be used of the Lord preaching His Word faithfully as well.
Would you pray for us? I'll pray for you. Okay, sure.
Finally, we are very, we thank this time for everything that you have done in Jesus, the way you have provided for us. We also, we pray for Christ, the Presbyterian Church, for the heart that the church have for me, for more than 150 years they have been supporting, spreading the gospel and doing the good job. We ask even for all your Christians here that they be able to also keep focus on Jesus and the reason for this season that is coming to the world to really die for us and forgive our sins. Thank you because you are the God who provides to us in Jesus. Father, I think that you give us ministry and example in our brothers and sisters in Christ.
And we pray for those who so valiantly are faithful to you in the nation of Cuba. Would you give them courage and strength knowing the Lord is with them. He has not left himself without a witness and is provided ultimately His Word by His Son through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Plant deep in their hearts, confidence in you that they might be strengthened for the calling that you give them as we would be to. We pray in Jesus name, Amen. Thank you my friend.
The angels said to them, fear not. I bring you good news of great joy that shall be to all people. For today in the city of David, a child is born to you. You will find him wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. He is Christ the Lord. Let's stand and sing his praise.