The Prophet Like Moses
Scriptural Parallels between Moses and Jesus
Acts 3:22-23
Acts Series: Part 9
By Dave Redick

When John the Baptist was asked who he was, he confessed, according to John 1:20, "I am not the Christ." They then asked him in John 1:21, "What then? Are you Elijah?" John responded, "I am not." Then they asked, "Are You the Prophet?" Again John answered, "No." From this questioning it is evident that the people were looking for one called, "The Prophet."

In our Sunday morning series from the book of Acts, there are sometimes things we have to pass over due to the restraints of our time and I find myself wanting to say more. Tonight is one of those times. In our message from Acts chapter 3 we covered Peter's second sermon, the one preached as a result of the healing of the 40 year-old lame beggar at the Beautiful Gate entrance of the temple. We talked about the context of the sermon, we read the text of it and I made some comments, observations, and applications. We had to skip over something however, that was a powerful argument to the Jews of that day for the deity and Messiahship of Jesus. To us living today, it is not only evidence for these things, but it is also evidence for the power of God and the inspiration of the Scriptures. I refer to Acts 3:22-23. Please turn there with me in your Bibles. If you were with us when we covered it, you should recognize the words. I'll begin reading in verse 19:

19 "Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; 20 and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, 21 whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.

Now note the next two verses:

22 "Moses said, 'The Lord God shall raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren; to Him you shall give heed in everything He says to you. 23 'And it shall be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.'

Peter said that God was going to raise up a prophet like Moses among the Jewish people whose word would be ultimately authoritative. The Jews understood this passage, which comes from Deuteronomy 18:15, to be a prediction of the coming Messiah. It was a well-known prediction, understood by the ordinary Jewish person on the street -- so much so that they were expecting one to appear called, "The Prophet." Let me show you what I mean.

When John the Baptist was asked who he was, he confessed, according to John 1:20, "I am not the Christ." They then asked him in John 1:21, "What then? Are you Elijah?" John responded, "I am not." Then they asked, "Are You the Prophet?" Again John answered, "No." From this questioning it is evident that the people were looking for one called, "The Prophet."

After Jesus fed the 5000, they said of Him in John 6:14, "This is of a truth the Prophet who is to come into the world."

In John 7:40, the multitudes said of Jesus, "This certainly is the Prophet."

When Philip told Nathaniel about Jesus he said in John 1:45 "We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote…." In speaking of what Moses wrote, it is quite likely Nathaniel was referring to the passage in Deuteronomy 18:15 about the prophet like Moses. That prophet like Moses, Peter said, was Jesus.

The Jews of the first century were expecting the one Moses had predicted, "The Prophet," a special prophet who, unlike other prophets, would in some way or ways be like Moses.

In this message I want to help you see a few of the many parallels between Moses and Jesus. When you see these you will understand how the Jews of the first century could so quickly become believers in Jesus. You will also see the awesome power of God to make predictions which take hundreds or even thousands of years to come to pass and then when they do, they happen exactly as God said.

1. Let's Talk First About Moses.

Deuteronomy contains the final words of Moses to the nation of Israel, before his death and their entry into Canaan. One of the things Moses told the people is what Peter mentioned in his sermon. It is recorded in Deuteronomy 18:15:

15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.

Perhaps to those unfamiliar with the prophecy of the Bible, that doesn't sound like much. God sent many prophets to Israel. But none of them was like Moses. In fact, as a prophet, Moses was in a class by himself. In Numbers 12:6-8 we read:

Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. Not so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household; With him I speak mouth to mouth, even openly, and not in dark sayings, and he beholds the form of the Lord.

In the final chapter of Deuteronomy we read these words in Deuteronomy 34:10:

Since then no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face….

Consider the things we know of Moses' life. At his birth, he was nearly murdered. Pharaoh had ordered all of the male Hebrew babies thrown into the Nile River. Jocabed, Moses' mother hid her little son until she could no longer do so, then placed him in a tar covered basked at the edge of the river. Pharoah's own daughter found baby moses and decided to raise him as her own. As a result, Moses survived the king's edict.

Years later God told moses to lead His people out of their Egyptian slavery. When the people were out of the land, Pharoah changed his mind and decided to bring them back. As the king chased them they were trapped against the edge of the Rod Sea. We read in Exodus 14:21:

21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land, so the waters were divided.

So God gave Moses power over the sea, Israel was freed, and Pharoah was drowned along with his army.

As a memorial of their escape from bondage, God ordered Moses to institute the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Exodus 12:17 says

17 'You shall also observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt; therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent ordinance.

Nothing leavened was allowed during this feast, which memorialized the haste in which they had to escape the land of Egypt.

God gave Moses laws to give to the people. Moses then delivered these laws to the people as the Law of God. Moses delivered what God told him to say.

When Moses was on the Mountain with God, he fasted. Exodus 34:28 says:

So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water.

When Moses came down from the Mountain, his appearance glowed.  Exodus 34:29-30:

29 And it came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses' hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him. 30 So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.

No wonder the people feared him!

When Moses became overwhelmed with the responsibilities of leadership, he appointed special men to help him - seventy in all.  Numbers 11:16 says:

16 The Lord therefore said to Moses, "Gather for Me seventy men from the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and their officers and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you."

These seventy received delegated authority to help Moses.

During the long wilderness experience, Moses was pushed nearly to the limits of human patience more than once. Yet he never ceased caring from God's people. At one point in his intercession for them he actually put his own life on the line for their sakes.   Exodus 32:32 records Moses' words:

32 But now, if Thou wilt, forgive their sin - and if not, please blot me out from Thy book which Thou hast written!

Moses cared more for them than he did for himself.

2. Now Let's Talk About Jesus.

Do any of the things we've considered about Moses ring any bells with you when you think of Jesus?

Perhaps you remember that Jesus was willing to suffer for the sins of His people. Peter wrote of Jesus in 1 Peter 2:24: "Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness."

On the night He was betrayed Jesus prayed for His people in a way that revealed His deep concern for them. John 17:24:

24 Father, I desire that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am, in order that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me; for Thou didst love Me before the foundation of the world.

Though He knew He would be betrayed, Jesus wanted His people to share in His glory. Certainly He cared deeply for them and us.

You might recall that during His ministry, the Lord appointed seventy men to share the work with Him. Luke 10:1 says:

Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them two and two ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come.

This is the same number Moses appointed to help with his work.

Remember also that Moses' face glowed as he came down from the mountain with God. Listen to this description of Jesus in Matthew 17:1-2:

1 And six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and brought them up to a high mountain by themselves. 2 And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.

Like Moses, Jesus also fasted for forty days. Matthew 4:1-2 says of Jesus:

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.

Like Moses, Jesus spoke what God told Him. John 12:49-50:

49 For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me commandment, what to say, and what to speak. 50 And I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.

Moving on, like Moses, Jesus freed slaves. When Jesus spoke in the synagogue at Nazareth, He was handed the scroll of Isaiah. He turned to these words: "He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives." Then he made that remarkable statement about himself: "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." By giving His life on the cross,

Like Moses, Jesus instituted a way for His people to remember their deliverance from bondage. In Luke 22:19-20 we read:

19 And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me." 20 And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood."

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 11:26, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." Jesus' death, like that of the Passover lambs, saves us from sin and death. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 5:7: "For Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed."

This meal, later called The Lord's Supper, incorporated the unleavened bread of the Passover. (When Jesus ate the "last supper" with His disciples, unleaved bread was all they had present on the table.) Thus, like Passover, the Lord's Supper involved unleavened bread.

Then one time when Jesus and His disciples were in a boat on a windswept lake, He showed his power over the wind ans water and saved their lives.

Mark 4:39:

39 And being aroused, He rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Hush, be still." And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm.

Another time Jesus walked on water, again showing His power over the elements.

When Moses was born, Pharaoh had ordered all the male Hebrew babies to be killed, as a security measure. When Jesus was born, King Herod did the same. Matthew 2:16:

16 Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its environs, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the magi.

Herod failed in his effort to kill the newborn King, because Joseph had been warned by an angel to flee to Egypt. Thus both Jesus and Moses narrowly escaped death as babies.

These are some remarkable parallels between Jesus and Moses, but actually there are many more.

We could go on and talk about other similarities. I have seen people list from 30 to 50 such parallels - far too many for these things to have been mere coincidence. But there is one more thing you need to know.

3. Jesus Was Like Moses, But Much Greater.

Having considered all of these things, we might get the idea that Jesus is to us exactly what Moses was to the people of the Old Covenant. But such a conclusion would not be accurate.

At the time of Jesus' transfiguration on the mountain, two of the greatest prophets of all time appeared with Him: Moses and Elijah. When Peter wanted to erect tabernacles for the three of them, God said as recorded in Matthew 17:5:

"This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!"

When the apostles opened their eyes, Jesus was the only one of the three still there. Thus God spoke of Jesus in such a way as to separate Him from all other prophets, including Moses. Jesus is indeed in a class by Himself. He not only spoke for God - He was God. He not only was similar to Moses, He created Moses. Jesus had inherent authority over the sea and the wind. Moses could not have parted the Red Sea without God's direct intervention. Jesus freed His people from spiritual bondage that has eternal consequences, whereas the deliverance accomplished by Moses was physical and temporal. And while Moses expressed a willingness to die with his people, Jesus actually died for His. In short, Jesus was, in point after point, not only like Moses, but greater than Moses. Nonetheless, these parallels are striking.

Conclusion

Not surprisingly then, Peter pointing out that Jesus was the Prophet like Moses in Acts 3:22 was very convincing to the Jews. But there is benefit here for us, too. When we consider that Moses had so many points in common with Jesus, it is difficult to regard them all as mere coincidences. Moreover, Moses was by no means the only foreshadow of Christ in the Old Testament: there are many of them. It is simply not within the realm of reason to take all of these as mere coincidence. The truth is this: The Bible is the product of One who cannot only foresee the future, but who can even orchestrate events in such a way as to illustrate what is going to happen hundreds or even thousands of years later. It is indeed, the word of Almighty God.

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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