Daily Devotional | Jesus, Promised Prophet

Each of us has different roles to fulfill in life. For example, I am a husband, father, son, brother, professor, and Sunday School teacher. Each role comes with a different set of obligations and expectations. In the Old Testament, God promised a future deliverer who would fulfill several roles—son, prophet, priest, king, and servant to name a few.

In today’s reading, Moses was preparing the people to enter the land of Canaan after forty years of wandering in the wilderness. He warned them not to engage in sorcery or divination (v. 14). Yet, that was typical practice by people in the ancient world. How else were they to hear from their gods? Moses assured them that instead of relying on divination, “the LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him” (v. 15). The prophets would play a vital role in Israel’s relationship to God.

Notice that this passage talks about a “prophet” in the singular and not “prophets” in the plural. While there would be many prophets of God in Israel’s history, Israel also looked forward to a unique and climactic prophet. This prophet would bring the ultimate revelation of God’s will and lead the people to salvation.

After healing a lame man in the Temple, Peter seized the opportunity to proclaim the good news about Jesus. Peter affirmed for the crowd that in Jesus God has kept His promise of a future prophet (Acts 3:22–23). While Jesus is that promised prophet, He is also unique in two ways. He is the One about whom all other prophets spoke (Luke 24:27). Also, Jesus not only communicated revelation from God, He Himself is the revelation (Heb. 1:1–2).

>> In Jesus, God clearly and perfectly revealed Himself to us. He also provided a mediator with God the Father. People often close their prayers by saying, “In Jesus’ name.” What a gift it is that we are connected to our Heavenly Father through His Son, Jesus!