Now then, for the final time, we glean
in dichotomy, and perhaps it's good that the
last study in the series for the time
being, leads us into a contrast between the
Lord Jesus Christ and Moses.
You know that in studying the Old Testament,
there are certain characters who, if you examine
their life and their witness in some detail,
they configure, they give some indication as to
the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Obviously, they can't in any way absolutely illustrate
for us all that the Saviour will reveal
in his personality and in his teaching, for
they turn into insignificance, really, in the light
of the glory of the knowledge of God,
which is to be discerned in Jesus Christ.
But as you engage in the study of
the Old Testament, it's sometimes facetable, particularly when
you're thinking of Bible characters, to see what
manner they point forward to the Lord Jesus
Christ in, how much they have to tell
us of the Saviour.
Now, particularly in this chapter that we're looking
at, the 18th of the book of Deuteronomy,
it's good for us to be able to
run a parallel between the Lord Jesus and
Moses, because it's something that is contained halfway
through that passage of Scripture.
But let's just get the whole into context
for a moment or so, shall we?
Here is Moses, you remember.
He's got all the Israelites in front of
him, an old man just about to take
his leave of them.
This is his swan song in preaching, really.
He won't be with them much longer.
He will soon be in the glory.
God will bury him.
But he wants to put down certain rules
and offer certain pieces of advice by which
the Hebrews shall order their lives when they
move into the land of Canaan.
And in this 18th chapter, once more we
find him very concerned about the treatment of
the priests and the Levites, the sort of
ministry, the professional ministry, if you like, in
those days.
He's very concerned that these men were set
apart from the spiritual ministry, shall be looked
after materially, their well-being shall be guaranteed
by the rest of the Hebrew people.
And so, as you would have read, if
you were looking carefully, he puts down these
instructions as to how these men are to
be cared for by the Hebrew community, how
they are to be looked after for the
honor and for the glory of the Lord.
And then you discover, as I mentioned a
moment or so ago, that Moses lays down
certain prohibitions.
Not only are the people to enhance the
work of the two clergies, but if there
comes some amongst the congregation of the Hebrews
who prophesy, who enter into seances, who practice
magical arts, then far from supporting such people,
they and their ministry are to be rejected
by the Hebrews.
So here is Moses concerned to sustain a
good ministry amongst the Hebrews, and concerned that
they might expose people who will work for
them, spiritual charms, and bring about problems.
And the basic thing that Moses is concerned
about is locked up in that fourth and
eighth verse.
He wants the children of Israel to be
perfect with the Lord their God.
He wants a ministry that will be helpful,
always to be available, so that when he
is done, the divine words shall be communicated
to the Hebrews, and he wants the Israelites
to be so spiritually sensitive that any magician,
that anyone who deals in witchcraft or the
black art shall be severely censured and their
ministry erased from the Hebrew community.
He wants the Hebrews to be in such
an environment, such a spiritual condition, that the
smile of God shall always be upon them.
Now let's just stop for a moment, in
case you don't see the relevance of that
to the 17th century, or indeed to the
Christian era.
Why has God called you to enter into
the family circle of the redeemed?
I believe that the spirit is the equivalent
in the New Testament to Israel in the
Old Testament.
Now why has God called the church into
being?
Well, so that he shall have a holy
people for himself.
So it's a fisherman who writes in his
epistle, you remember, that the church of Jesus
Christ is to be a royal priesthood, a
holy nation.
We are to be in such a state
that God can always work out his purposes
through us and by us.
So then I make that opening comment.
It was necessary for the Hebrews to have
a good ministry, and for them to be
able to see the difference between the charlatan
and the true prophet.
And it's necessary for us in the Christian
community to be able to detect a man
who is really speaking the word of the
Lord, and to expose heresy, and to cut
the latter from amongst us.
Now, it's not that Moses is in any
way scared of the whole panorama of the
miraculous.
It's not that he is in any sense
suggesting that a man may not see into
the mind of God, and claim to speak
for the Lord God.
Indeed Moses says in the 15th through to
the 20th verse, that that is how he
understands his own ministry.
It's not often that we hear Moses referred
to as a prophet, but indeed he was
a prophet.
He was a man who foretold, and also
was in foretelling the message of the Lord
God.
And he says that not only does he
engage in prophetic ministry, but God will constantly
give to the Hebrews, and eventually in an
absolute fashion, prophets, the prophets, who will declare
God's absolute inspired word to the community of
the Jews.
And then in the final verses, once again
Moses goes back to the old warning of
trying to steer the people away from being
taken in by false prophets, false magicians, and
so forth.
So I want to stop really, and concentrate
your attention on those verses from the 15th
down to the 20th, where Moses acknowledges that
he is a prophet, and predicts that one
will come, who in an absolute fashion shall
gather up the divine word, and communicate that
to the people.
And of course Moses is talking about none
other than the Lord Jesus Christ, a fact
which I shall establish, if you question it
at this moment, in a little while.
But allow me straight away to run this
parallel between Moses and the Savior, and let's
see some glorious anticipations of the ministry of
the letter by that of the former.
Now we're told concerning Moses and the Lord
Jesus, Moses in that prophet which is to
come, that both men shall have a similar
background, a similar background.
Look at the 15th verse, the Lord thy
God will raise up unto thee a prophet
from the midst of thee, of thy brethren.
And again that's repeated in the 18th verse,
I will raise them up a prophet from
among their brethren like unto thee.
And there are so many comparable things about
the background of Moses with that of the
Lord Jesus.
I mentioned one or two by no means
exhausting them on the notes that have been
published.
Here's one that's not on the notes.
Both these remarkable men had mothers who were
godly.
Not much is said about the mother of
Moses in the Pentateuch, but she must have
been an incredible lady.
I was reading Alexander White's books on Bible
characters just a little while ago, and he
says that the name of Moses' mother could
be translated God thy glory, God thy glory.
One wonders if he had some sort of
revelation about the birth of Moses and the
particular place in history that he was going
to occupy.
One wonders if it was from this godly
mother as well as from his father that
Moses derived some of his spiritual qualities and
characteristics.
For that is a thing that is going
to be repeated again in biblical history.
Remember how the apostle Paul in congratulating Timothy
puts down some of his spiritual success on
the human level to his mother and to
his grandmother?
Well, here is Moses, born with a godly
parenting, and I hardly need to tell you
that the mother of the Lord Jesus was
a unique lady, she who was blessed with
the favour of the Lord God, used incredibly
for the fulfilment of God's purposes, and from
her womb is born Jesus the Christ.
Well then, both of these men had remarkable
mothers.
And let's continue, and also draw out this
comparison, that both of these men were born
under the sentence of death.
Remember how Pharaoh had decreed a policy of
genocide.
He was so concerned that the Hebrews were
growing so profound, and all male children were
to be drowned in the sea.
But do you recall how Moses' mother and
father conspired that plan whereby they would preserve
the life of their infants?
And the instrument of death, the river Nile,
was to become the very instrument of salvation
as they created that, made that perfect little
cradle boat, and put Moses in it, keeping
his life and his ministry for a further
period of youthfulness.
And similarly, the Lord Jesus Christ, born under
sentence of death, or head of the tyrant,
so jealous, having heard that someone else of
the kingly blood had been born in his
particular locality, decreed the death of every infant
under two years of age.
So, both Moses and our Saviour had remarkable
mothers, and were born under sentence of death.
And Moses, you remember, had a most remarkable
education.
Stephen makes reference to this in his sermon
before the high priest.
He talks about Moses and the university background
that he had in Egypt, and how he
was filled in all the knowledge of the
ancient world.
How he was being prepared by the Lord
God, in the best academies of his day,
for the ministry that was to be his
in the future.
Ah, but you say, where's the common denominator
there?
Because you don't read about the Lord Jesus
being a qualified man.
No, indeed, his opponents, those who criticized him,
said that he's a leper man.
He's not a proper rabbi.
He's an upstart from Nazareth.
But those who discern it, when they read
the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, they
find there a man who's skilled, with humble
knowledge, a man who has been to the
university of nature itself, who back in Nazareth
was able to see the beauty of the
lilies in the field, and come to amazing
theological conclusions about the creator of those flowers.
One who could see within the mustard seeds
growing in Joseph's gardens, back gardens, some spiritual
fruits, which later on would be passarded before
the people.
The Lord Jesus Christ, who had within himself
all the treasures of the wisdom of the
most high God, pondered and reflected not only
on the world of nature, but upon that
innate wisdom with which he was born, and
eventually in maturity, as he consented men and
women with a tremendous truth of God.
He was to hear comments made about him
that were never made about his contemporary teachers.
No man speaks like this man.
He has authority.
We can understand what he's talking about.
Jesus Christ, greater than Moses, with an education
not in any specific natural university, but schooled
by the Spirit of God, under the orbit
of the fulminant of heaven, gaining messages from
nature itself, which eventually he shall be able
to pass on to those who will listen.
And so we could continue.
And what about the inauguration of the ministry
of these men?
Here is Moses and he's been looking after
his father Jethro.
His father-in-law Jethro speaks, you remember,
on the way backwards with Midian.
There he sees a bush that starts to
burn and yet is not burnt out.
And as he investigates this phenomenon, he is
ordained for the ministry.
He is sent back to the Hebrews in
Egypt and he is to lead them out
of this bondage of that land.
And our Lord Jesus Christ, no experience quite
the same as Moses's inasmuch as he never
heard a bush start to burn.
But when he was immersed in the waters
of the Jordan, he was to hear with
equal clarity and with greater answer to a
voice coming from heaven, saying, this is my
beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
Would you like more comparisons between our Saviour
and Moses, more common denominators?
What about the sacrifice?
The sacrifice of Moses, Hebrews 11 verse 24
brings it all out.
Here are all the listeners of Egypt at
the feet of Moses.
Here he was as Pharaoh's daughter, or rather
as the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, destined
for a tremendous career with much authority and
influence.
But he gives it all up and he
aligns himself, he associates himself with a people
who are in servitude.
And he chooses their bondage and their poverty
over against the freedom and the riches that
could have been his as one who was
recognised as an Egyptian.
And the Lord Jesus, the amazing thing for
us Christian people as we run this parallel
to its inevitable conclusion is that the Saviour
had so much in heaven in the way
of prestige and influence.
All the riches of the universe belonged to
him, yet he pushed it all on one
side.
To use the language of Paul, the daring
language of the Apostle and Philippians, he answered
himself of all these things and he became
a man like you, like me, but without
sin.
And the Apostle brings a whole of this
remarkable renunciation of the Lord Jesus together when
writing to the Corinthians he says, you know,
the grace, the graciousness of our Lord Jesus.
How though he was rich, yet for your
sake he became poor, that in his poverty
he might make others rich.
Now in no way am I suggesting that
Moses is an equal to the Lord Jesus,
but what I am saying is that within
his life, within his background, there are these
pointers which direct the way to the Lord
Jesus.
That great prophet which was still to come.
So they had backgrounds which were pretty similar.
And in the very exercise of their ministry
there is a common denominator.
Going back to our text, the Lord thy
God will raise up unto thee a prophet
from the midst of thee of thy brethren.
He will be right unto me and unto
him you shall hearken.
In what way was the ministry of Moses
in anticipation of that of the Lord Jesus?
Well in the 16th verse of this chapter,
still with Deuteronomy 18, we read of the
people's dilemma, the Hebrews' predicament when they came
to realize that on that smoky mountain of
Sinai, God was revealing himself in a special
way to their race.
They were afraid.
They said, let me not hear again the
voice of the Lord my God, neither let
me see this great fire anymore that I
die now.
They were frightened.
They realized that God was pure, that God
was holy, that God was powerful.
They on the other hand were impure.
They were weak and so they required more
than anything else some person who would stand
between God and themselves and not only intercede
for them, but communicate their needs to the
Lord and God's revelation to themselves.
In other words, Moses becomes a mediator, the
one who stands in the middle and communicates
the divine message.
There's a better example, but I don't want
time to get to win this evening.
There's a better example in the six chapters
of Deuteronomy which I leave you to look
at for yourself.
Moses is a mediator, bringing the word of
the Lord to the Hebrews.
Now how do you understand the ministry of
Jesus Christ?
Well when you go into the New Testament
you find that one of his titles is
that he is the son of man.
But on the other hand there's another description
given to Jesus which seems to be the
opposite, almost seems to be a contradiction.
He is God the son.
How can this be?
Son of man and son of God.
Well there's no contradiction really.
What those two titles are doing is indicating,
underlining the office of mediator which our Lord
Jesus shall fulfill.
He represents man for God.
He represents God for man.
He stands in the middle.
In conclusion, there is only one mediator between
God and man.
The man Christ Jesus.
So as Moses stands in the gap for
the people and communicates their requirements to the
Lord and the Lord's requirements to the people,
so does the Saviour Jesus Christ.
Now closely associated with the office of mediator
is that of intercessor.
And did we not last week or the
last time that we gathered together spend about
three quarters of an hour in a most
delightful occupation of inquiring into the intercessory ministry
of Moses.
What a powerful man he was in prayer.
And I was so concerned that a larger
congregation heard the ministry of Moses in that
respect that last Sunday night I took up
the same scene and extended it and gave
a picture or tried to present a word
picture of Moses interceding before God in prayer
and even allowing those words to come out
of his mouth, that unfinished sentence in which
he makes mention of the possibility of God
blotting his name out of the divine book,
unless the people were forgiven for the transgressions
which they had committed.
Time and time again you find Moses going
into that pavilion, that cloudy pavilion on the
top of Spaniard and interceding before the Lord.
Forty-odd days without food, sometimes also without
water, he will spend time in the presence
of the living God.
And Jesus?
Well, Moses's testimony seems to be tremendous in
this area, but it is clipped by the
man from Nazareth.
Oftentimes you find a record in the Gospels
that before the sun ever broke, before it
ever reached that position of authority in the
Middle Eastern sky, the Savior was to be
found on his knees at daybreak in some
private spot, bringing before the Lord the knees
of his disciples, of the Jews, of the
world.
Our Savior was prevailing in prayer before his
Father on many, many an occasion.
Go back to Moses for a moment.
Here he is saying to the Lord, blot
my name out of your book, unless these
people are to be forgiven for the sin
that they have committed, that sin which just
begets real guilt and remorse.
Now hear me.
In one way, remarkable manner, it is true
to say that the Savior, by his example,
if not by his actual words, prayed the
same prayer, his name, for three days, was
blotted out of God's book, so to speak,
that awful time when he who knew no
sin became sin, when the pure Son of
God took upon himself the responsibility of the
sins, the law-breaking, of people like you
and me, and the sight became so repugnant
in the eyes of the Father that he
turned his back upon the Son.
And you remember that cry that came from
the lips of the Nazarenes?
Why have you forsaken me?
Why have you blotted my name out of
your book?
The humanity of Jesus riding on top of
his divinity.
For a moment, as that cry left his
heart lit and a comprehension, the understanding of
that cry was found centuries ago in Moses,
when in intercession before the Lord, he suggests
the possibility of his name being blotted out
of God's book, and perhaps, too, making an
atonement for the sins of the Hebrews.
The latter suggestion is rejected.
It was impossible, for Moses could not have
the purity, he could not vouchsafe with God
for the spiritual well-being of his people,
but one shall come, a greater than Moses,
that prophet, who will offer his purity on
the altar of Calvary, and for hours, heaven
would record a period when the name of
Jesus was numbered with those of the transgressors,
and when he bore the sin of man,
to the extent that his name was blotted
out for a period of time.
Moses, the mediator, Moses, the intercessor, predicting the
ministry of one who even now in the
glory ever lives to make intercession for you
and for me.
Moses, the saviour, the political saviour of Israel,
for without Moses they would never have been
led out of Egypt, without Moses they would
never have got to the border of the
promised land.
Jesus, the captain of our salvation, the one
who is mighty to save, filling out to
perfection the office predicted by the ministry of
Moses centuries before.
And then finally, under this little heading in
which we're working out the ritual ministries of
the Lord Jesus and Moses, and how they
overlap to some degree, there is that incredible
thought that both men were reflective of the
divine glory.
You can't spend time in God with prayer
and not be changed with personality and sometimes
visibly of faith.
Yes, I would underline what I've said now.
I don't believe that what Moses experienced sometimes
on the mount was just unique to Moses
and one of these special people in the
Old and the New Testament with whom faith
and I have seen people who have had
a glory about them when they have spent
time in prayer before God.
Do you remember how Moses comes down, shiny
eyes mount on one occasion and the people,
they realize that something remarkable has happened to
Moses.
They start looking in the eyes.
The brightness of the glory of God has
rubbed off on Moses.
Moses who lived for the glory of God
knew something of the irradiation of God's own
glory and his personality reflected in his face.
That that was just a fragment of all
that was to be seen in the wondrous
personality of our Lord Jesus.
Do you remember how on the mount of
Transfiguration he's irradiated to change to the extent
of the glory of God.
It's seen by the disciples who accompanied him,
reflective, mirrored absolutely in the sun.
But perhaps even more wonderful though less sharp
into human eyes was the fact that Jesus
lived for the glory of God.
I have finished your work.
I have glorified you on earth.
So was his comment in the high priestly
prayer.
So then we have seen these common denominators,
if you like, concerning the recent ministers of
Moses and the Saviour.
Mediators, intercessors, on the human level Moses the
Saviour, on the divine level Jesus the Saviour
and those who reflect the glory of God,
though Jesus in absolute fashion.
But the final thing that I want to
concentrate on, and logically we must do this
from the 15th verse, is that both men
were prophets.
Both men were inspired by the Lord God.
In Acts chapter 3 and verse 22 we
find the New Testament comment identifying the Lord
Jesus as the prophet who Moses was referring
to in this passage of prediction from Deuteronomy.
For Moses truly said unto the fathers of
prophets, shall the Lord your God raise up
unto you of your brethren like unto me.
Him shall you hear in all things whatsoever
he shall say unto you.
That's Jesus speaking and he identifies those words
with Jesus as Stephen does in the 7th
chapter of the Acts.
Stop there just for a moment.
I'm reading a very wonderful book just off
the press.
I like to get hold of books as
soon as they become available in the UK.
And this book, God Has Spoken by Jim
Packer, the author of Knowing God, makes reference
to the term prophet.
And Dr. Packer tells us that the Hebrew
word prophet has two connotations.
In fact there are two distinct terms which
he used.
One gives you the impression of a seer,
that is a person who foretells the future,
who looks into the future and tells what
is about to happen.
And then the other word which describes a
prophet in the Old Testament is that of
one who calls, like the town choir of
medieval days in this land of ours.
Now in both those capacities Moses finds his
ministry.
He is a seer.
He looks into the future.
We've seen him do this on several occasions.
He's got a good idea that when the
Israelites go into the land of Thomas there'll
be problems, there'll be apostases, there'll be backsliding.
So he tells them what to do when
they come to their senses.
He's a seer, he predicts.
But he's also the town choir for the
New Jerusalem.
He speaks for the Lord.
His message is an inspired message.
And so he claims authority for what he
has to say.
And the book of Deuteronomy is examples of
this.
So I'll just give you one or two
that's obvious.
Deuteronomy 4.14, no need to turn to
it.
And the Lord commanded me at that time
to teach you statute and judgment.
And again in the same chapter, the 36th
verse, out of heaven the Lord God made
thee to hear his voice that he may
instruct thee and upon earth he shall do
his great fire.
Moses is a seer.
He's a crier.
He proclaims the word of the Lord.
Now any prophet worth his salt will not
only claim inspiration for his message but also
relevant at least to the needs of the
people in his day he will claim sufficiency.
Nothing else to be said to the people
in Moses' ministry.
So we read him saying in the second
verse of the fourth chapter, you shall not
add unto the word which I command you,
neither shall you diminish or from it, that
you may keep the commandments of the Lord
your God which I command you.
The verse is almost repeated in a later
reference which I give you in the notes.
That's Moses' doing.
He is saying that the word that he
has received is an inspired word, it's a
sufficient word, and it can't be modified, it
can't be manipulated, it can't be added to,
it can't be subtracted from.
It's a word that has come from the
Lord God himself.
Now Jesus does exactly the same but he
puts his claim to authority into a higher
key as you will see in a moment
or two.
Jesus is the seer.
He foretells.
He will speak of things which are yet
to be before the dawn of the eternal
age to which I made reference on Sunday
morning.
He talks about the apostasy that is to
come.
He speaks about the wars and the rumours
of wars and the earthquakes and so on
and so forth.
All these things which will mark the advent
is coming the second time.
But not only is that he foretells, he's
a foreteller.
He's again the palm crier, so to speak,
of the new Jerusalem.
And the words which he has to proclaim,
he says they're not his words, he says
they are words that God the Father has
placed in his mouth.
The words that I received, I have received
from my Father.
Now he acknowledges the authority of the Old
Testament revelation.
He doesn't say that the law seems to
precede us as some of our rather weak
brothers in evangelicalism today are suggesting.
He does not say that in any way
the Ten Commandments have now been modified at
all.
Rather he makes this pronouncement on the ministry
of Moses, think not that I am come
to destroy the law, I am not come
to destroy but to fulfill.
But he'll go beyond Moses and beyond the
authority that Moses had.
You see Moses can appeal to the Lord
and say rest, rest the Lord.
Jesus can take Moses' teaching and extend it.
He can amplify it, not change it, but
amplify it and give it an even deeper
exposition.
But when he does this, he won't appeal
to the Lord God, he will appeal to
his own innate authority.
So for example, my eye falls on Moses'
teaching on adultery.
The Lord Jesus Christ said, verily, verily, I
say unto you, and he goes on to
say that a woman who is looked upon
with lust has had adultery committed with her
as far as the man is concerned.
I express that clumsily but you know the
picture that is in view.
So what does Moses' final claim?
That his ministry was inspired, that unless people
listened to what he had to say then
it would be to their spiritual detriment.
So in the 30th chapter and the 19th
verse he sums up almost the last piece
of his ministering to the Hebrews.
I call heaven and earth to record this
day against you that I have set before
you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore
choose life that both thou and thy seed
may live.
And when he speaks about the prophet which
is yet to come, he says in the
19th verse of the 18th chapter, and it
shall come to pass that whosoever will not
hearken unto my word which that prophet shall
speak in my name, I will require it
at him.
So this evening we've learned that both the
Lord Jesus and Moses had mutual backgrounds.
There was also a common denomination that their
ministry was exercised for others.
And then there is an appeal to the
divine inspiration which both have.
But when you consider Jesus and then Moses,
then the latter fades into insignificance because the
one who has all the glory and all
the preeminence, as Moses would well discuss the
ministry, is the Lord Jesus.
For in certain fashions he anticipated and pointed
the way to the greater ministry that was
to come.
Moses was like a bulb that shines in
the tabernacle in the twilight of the evening.
But on a Sunday morning when the light
of the sunshine is outside, we can't even
see that bulb when that has been placed
on.
The one becomes insignificant in the light of
the other.
When full light has come, the artificial light
fades.
So Moses was a pointer in adequate in
many ways.
But those who have sensitivity when they read
the book of Deuteronomy and the rest of
the books that tell of Moses's ministry, see
their anticipation of that great prophet who came
in the person of Jesus to our world.
So may God have blessed your hearts with
cleanings from the book of Deuteronomy.
Now Father we thank you for your goodness
to us and as we commit these recent
studies to you, so we ask that those
of us here who have been attending to
this book of Deuteronomy may have been helped
and into today and live lives which bring
honor and glory to your name.
We thank you that you took a man
like Moses and used him to your honor.
So take us and as Moses anticipated Jesus
in certain things, so may we illustrate Jesus
in our lives as well as dialogue for
his sake.
Amen.