Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text for today’s meditation is Deuteronomy 18: 15-22

"The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers--it is to him you shall listen-- ¹⁶ just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.' ¹⁷ And the LORD said to me, 'They are right in what they have spoken. ¹⁸ I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. ¹⁹ And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. ²⁰ But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.' ²¹ And if you say in your heart, 'How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?'-- ²² when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

Do you remember the rather corny commercials for Holiday Inn Express several years ago? They always pictured someone doing something very technical or spectacular only to find out they weren’t qualified they just stayed at a Holiday Inn Express. One in particular comes to mind. Several very excited snowboarders board a helicopter on a snowy hill, the snowboarder in the front seat turns to the person in the pilot’s seat and says; "Lets rock dude" to which the person in the pilot’s seat says "10 4" and lifts off. Once up in the air a couple feet one of the snowboarders notices a man on the ground trying to get their attention. When he points him out to the person piloting the helicopter the man replies "oh, don’t worry about him he’s just the pilot." The snowboarders face turns pale as he asks "Dude, you’re not the pilot?" The man answers "oh no, I’ve never done this before, but I did stay at a Holliday Inn Express last night." Then you see the helicopter flying away with the faces of the snowboarders plastered to the windows in horror.

There are times when we must have an expert and I think flying a helicopter is one of them. There are other matters where an expert is a must as well, matters about life, death, and our eternity. We all know that there are people that can talk like an expert or pretend to be one yet are not and do not speak with authority. We have developed a sense of skepticism that protects us from the ridiculous but it can also shield us from the magnificent. How do we know the prophet from the pretender?

Moses prophesies to the Israelites that God would raise up a prophet. This prophet will have all the necessary characteristics: he will be from the brethren (the Israelites) as you see in verse 15 & 18, he will speak in the name of God with words from God (verse 16), he will know the future (verses 21-22), he will deliver a message that conforms with what God already revealed and his message will not contradict God’s revealed word (Deut 13), and finally, he will work signs and miracles. Moses prophesies what that prophet’s mission will be as well, he says he will be like Moses, a mediator between God and man just like Moses was at Horeb, another name for Mt. Sinai.

He will be the voice of God to the people. There are many prophets that came after Moses, men like Samuel and Nathan, Elijah and Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, and Malachi. Were these the men Moses prophesied about? No, they were not, they were not the voice of God to the people, they interpreted the law that Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai, they interpreted Moses not God. The prophet Moses prophesied was to fulfill Moses prophesy not interpret it, the prophet Moses prophesied would fulfill the law not interpret it. The prophet Moses prophesied was Jesus Christ. Jesus speaks the words given to Him by His Father. Jesus preaches the law to the people as He did in the Sermon on the Mount but He doesn’t stop there He preaches the Gospel as well. Look back at the middle of verse 18, "and I will put my words in his mouth." This signifies that the prophet, Jesus, is speaking something new, and it would not be inferior to Moses, but would fulfill Moses.

Since the law had already been spoken to perfection by Moses, the prophet to come could not add the Law. The new message to be spoken was not the Law, but Grace. John 1:17; "For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."…… Jesus Christ fulfilled Moses prophesy and became the mediator between god and man.

Jesus Christ continues to preach to us today by the Holy Spirit through God’s Word. He comes to us through the spoken Word of God in sermons and when we read and study the bible. The Holy Spirit is the mediator with God through these means. If these are the means, the spoken word of God, reading His word and studying it we must be sure to protect ourselves from false prophets. We do not go to false prophets of our day for mediation with God, as the Israelites were tempted to do with the Canaanite abominations. False prophets of our day are people who preach that materialistic success comes with Christianity or others who point to good works for earning salvation. We do not listen to those who still preach only Moses, directing us to our own efforts for salvation. We know only Jesus Christ can fulfill the Law and He did, we are weak when it comes to the Law. If we had to rely on our keeping the Law none of us would earn eternal life, we would be damned to hell for all eternity.

Instead of listening to false prophets of our day, we listen to the Word of God through the promised prophet and we are amazed. Hebrews 1:1 and 2. "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, ² but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world."…. God speaks to us through Jesus Christ. We are amazed, as were Jesus’ hearers in the Gospel lesson. Notice verse 22 of the gospel… "²² And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes." They were amazed at His authority, why is that? You see, in order for a rabbi to be approved to preach and teach in Christ’s time, they needed the authority of two experienced rabbis, teachers, or prophets to be what we would consider to be "ordained." Two rabbis had to test the prospective rabbi’s knowledge, and only after they were satisfied did they lay hands on him and give him his authority to start his ministry. So, the Pharisees were asking Jesus "Who gave you their authority?" in other words, what two teachers signed off on your doctrines? I guess that is a good question, what two teachers or prophets gave Jesus their authority? Jesus claims the authority that John the Baptist gave him at His baptism after all he is a prophet and the Pharisees could not argue that he was a prophet. Jesus also claims God the Father Himself gave Him His authority at the same event when He said "This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased." Well, if you are going to have the authority of two teachers, these are some pretty good ones to have. This makes Jesus the ultimate authority.

We are amazed by His horrible death and His glorious resurrection. It is amazing that He would take on Himself all the sin of the world that had been committed and all the sin of the world that would be committed. I find thinking about that mind boggling that He would become sin, sin that God hates, that He would willingly take on all the sin knowing God would turn His back on Him. Jesus knew God had turned His back on sin, on Him, when He cried "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" Jesus willingly did this for you and for me and that is amazing.

We are amazed at His word for us today which is the result of His death and resurrection: "I forgive you all your sins." He paid the price of all sin so that the Father no longer looks at you and me with disgust because He no longer sees our sins when He looks at us, He sees Jesus Christ who redeemed you on that cross.

We have the amazing Jesus Christ; we have the true prophet who was like Moses, speaking with authority, not like the people pretending to be experts or to have authority like in the Holiday Inn Express commercials or like the false prophets preaching that our works earn salvation. When He preaches forgiveness of sins, He is not just talking because He stayed at a Holiday Inn Express but He is talking like the true prophet He is. He knows what He is talking about; He is the expert with all authority in heaven and on earth, He is the ultimate authority.

Amen