
613 Mitzvot
Positive Mitzvah 172
Listening to the prophet speaking in His Name
Devarim/Deuteronomy 18:15-19
15 Navi mikirbecha me’acheycha kamoni yakim lecha YHVH Eloheycha elav tishma’un
YHVH your Elohey will raise up to you a prophet from the midst of you, of your brothers, like me; to him you shall listen;
16 Kechol asher-sha’alta me’im YHVH Eloheycha beChorev beyom hakahal lemor lo osef lishmoa et-kol YHVH Elohay ve’et-ha’esh hagedolah hazot lo-er’eh od velo amut.
according to all that you desired of YHVH your Elohey in Chorev in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of YHVH my Elohey, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I not die.
17 Vayomer YHVH elay heytivu asher diberu.
YHVH said to me, They have well said that which they have spoken.
18 Navi akim lahem mikerev acheyhem kamocha venatati devaray befiv vediber aleyhem et kol-asher atsavenu.
I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him.
19 Vehayah ha’ish asher lo-yishma el-devaray asher yedaber bishmi anochi edrosh me’imo.
It shall happen, that whoever will not listen to my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him
Moshe is speaking to the people of Yisra'el just before his death. The people were wondering, "How will we know the words of YHVH? Who will guide us?"
The answer is that YHVH would raise up another prophet among them who would be like him, and they were to listen to him. The need for a prophet is because the people were unable to meet with YHVH directly. The prophet would be like Moshe, teaching them the Torah. Yehoshua (Joshua) was the first of the prophets after Moshe…So we should heed the words that these prophets have given us. In a general sense, this mitzvah talks about listening to prophets that YHVH has given among us.
I do believe in the prophetic ministry for today, but we must make sure that he is indeed speaking in the Name of YHVH and not presumptuously. (see pasuk/verse 20)
But yet, it was said of Moshe:
There has not arisen a prophet since in Yisra’el like Moshe, whom the LORD knew face to face, (Devarim/Deuteronomy 34:10)
Because of this, it is a principle in the traditional Jewish faith that no other human being ever had a revelation equal to that of Moshe (Thirteen Principles of Faith 7). Therefore this mitzvah is also a prophecy concerning the Messiah, who will indeed have that level of revelation.
"For Moshe said: A prophet, like me, will Adonai raise up to you, from among your brethren; to him listen, in all that he shall say to you. And it will be, that every soul who will not listen to that prophet, that soul shall perish from his people. And all the prophets that have been, from Samuel and those after him, have spoken and proclaimed of these days." (Acts 3:22-24)
In many ways, and many forms, God in days gone by spoke with our fathers, by the prophets: But in these latter days, he has spoken with us, by his Son; whom he has appointed heir of all things, and by whom he made the worlds;" (Hebrews 1:1-2)
Yeshua is the Prophet Messiah that is prophesied.
Yochanan/John 12:49 For I have not spoken from myself; but the Father who sent me, he gave me commandment, what I should speak, and what I should say. (Compare this pasuk/verse with Devarim/Deuteronomy 18:18)
Yochanan/John 14:10 Do you not believe that I am in my Father, and my Father in me? And the words which I speak, I speak not from myself: but my Father, who dwells in me, he does these works.
David Stern gives some of the ways that Yeshua is like Moshe:
Was Yeshua "a prophet like Moshe"? Yes, and more. A prophet speaks for God, which Yeshua did; but he also spoke as God. He spoke what the Father gave him to say, as did all the prophets; but he and the Father are one (Yn 10:31). Moshe explained the sacrificial system for atonement; Yeshua was the final sacrifice for sin, the eternally effective atonement. Moshe established the system of cohanim, with his brother Aaron as the first cohen gadol of the Tabernacle; the resurrected Yeshua is the eternal cohen gadol in the heavenly Tabernacle that served as model for the earthly one (Messianic Jews [Hebrews] 7–10). At no point did Yeshua contradict what Moshe said; rather, he clarified and strengthened the Torah (Mt 5:17–20), made its application plainer (Mt 5:21–7:29), and sometimes himself was the application. See also [Acts] 2:42.
Shalom v'brakhot v'simcha,
Chizkiyah Shlomo (Carl)