A voice for the word of God
Moses
Moses is the towering prophet of the Old Testament, the deliverer who led Israel out of Egypt and received the Law at Sinai. Yet his own words reach past himself: God would one day raise up a Prophet like unto him. That promise sets the pattern for everything that follows.
“The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;”Deuteronomy 18:15
His life and calling
His life and calling. Moses was born a Hebrew in Egypt during a time of slavery and killing, hidden as an infant and then drawn from the Nile by Pharaoh's daughter, who named him: "Because I drew him out of the water" (Exodus 2:10). Raised in Pharaoh's house, he fled to Midian after killing an Egyptian, and there, roughly forty years later, God met him at the burning bush: "I have surely seen the affliction of my people" (Exodus 3:7). Reluctant and slow of speech, Moses obeyed, and God used him to bring Israel out of bondage through the plagues and the parted sea. On Sinai he received the commandments and the tabernacle pattern, and for forty years he led a stubborn people through the wilderness. Scripture calls him uniquely close to God: "the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend" (Exodus 33:11). He was a covenant mediator far more than a fortune-teller. His task was to bind a people to the living God, to intercede when they sinned, and to deliver the words of the covenant. He died in Moab within sight of the promised land he would not enter.
His message
His message. Moses proclaimed one God who keeps covenant, who redeems by grace and calls His people to holiness. Through him came the Ten Commandments and the law of love: "Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart" (Deuteronomy 6:5). His message was not merely rules but relationship, a rescued people learning to live as God's own. He warned of the consequences of turning away and pleaded for obedience: "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life" (Deuteronomy 30:19). He interceded for Israel when they made the golden calf, offering his own place for their sake. And he pointed beyond his own ministry, telling the people that God would speak again: "The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken" (Deuteronomy 18:15). Moses gave the law that exposes sin and the sacrificial pattern that anticipates a fuller atonement.
How it points to Christ
How it points to Christ. The New Testament reads Moses as a shadow of the greater Prophet to come. Peter applies Deuteronomy 18:15 directly to Jesus: "For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me" (Acts 3:22). Where Moses gave the law, John says, "grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). Moses led Israel out of slavery in Egypt; Christ leads His people out of the bondage of sin. Moses interceded for a sinning people; Christ is the one Mediator who gives Himself. Hebrews frames the whole comparison: "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son" (Hebrews 1:1-2). Moses was faithful as a servant in God's house, but Christ as a Son over His own house (Hebrews 3:5-6). At the Transfiguration Moses stood beside Jesus, and the voice from heaven said, "hear ye him" (Matthew 17:5). The servant points to the Son.
Questions people ask
Was Moses really the greatest Old Testament prophet?
Scripture itself says so: "there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face" (Deuteronomy 34:10). Yet even that unique closeness pointed forward, for Moses promised a Prophet still to come whom the people must heed.
Did Moses predict Jesus?
He spoke a genuine promise of a Prophet like himself (Deuteronomy 18:15), which the apostles applied to Jesus. Beyond that direct word, much of Moses points to Christ by pattern, the exodus, the passover lamb, the mediator, more than by naming a date or details.