PNINEI HA'TORAH (PEARLS OF THE TORAH) - PARASHAT SHOFTIM

PNINEI HA'TORAH (PEARLS OF THE TORAH) - PARASHAT SHOFTIM
Andre Widodo
© ORI

Shalom chaverim,

One of the pearl in parashat SHOFTIM שפטים next Shabbat is Moshe's prophecy regarding the coming of the Messiah in Devarim (Deuteronomy) 18:15.

Devarim (Deutoronomy) 18:15

נביא מקרבך מאחיך כמני יקים לך יהוה אלהיך אליו תשׁמעון׃

na.vi mi.kir.b'cha me.a.chei.cha ka.mo.ni ya.kim l'cha A.DO.NAI e.lo.hei.cha e.lav tish.ma.un:

ADONAI your G-D will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen:

This is the only parashat, and the only chapter in the entire Torah where Moshe explicitly identified himself as a prophet of HA'SHEM and also prophesied the coming Messiah as "a Prophet like me." (Deu 18:15; Joh 6:14). 

Notice that:

1.) The coming prophet (Messiah) must be Jewish ("מאחיך from your brothers"). Not from other nations. So any claim by other person, from other nation, mentioning that he was a prophet promised by Moshe, this is actually a lie. The prophet has to be Jewish.

2.) Moshe instructed that to this Messiah, all the children of Israel shall listen to (תשׁמעון).

In the New Testament we read that the soferim (scribes) had sent a delegation to question Yochanan the Immerser, asking him about whether he was the prophet that Moshe prophesied.

"Are you the Prophet?" (Joh 1:21). This referred to Moshe's prophecy that G-D would send "a Prophet like me" (Deu 18:15-19).

Further more, we read that when Philip encountered Nathanael, he said, "We have found Him of whom Moshe in the Torah, and also the prophets, wrote - Yeshua minetzaret ben Yosef" (Joh 1:45). 

Another occasion, after Yeshua fed the five thousand, the people began to ask if this was "the Prophet who is to come into the world" (Joh 6:14). 

Shimon Kefa identified Yeshua as the Prophet (Act 3:22-23), and in his apologetic before the Sanhedrin, Stephen the martyr declared that Yeshua was the promised Messiah: "This is that Moshe who said to the children of Israel, 'ADONAI your G-D will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear.'" (Act 7:37-38).

Indeed, Yeshua is the "Prophet like unto Moshe and He is the Promised Messiah."

How can Yeshua be a Prophet like Moshe? Like Moshe, He was a Jew, a Leader, a Prophet, a Lawgiver, a Savior, a Teacher, a Priest, an Anointed One, a Mediator between G-D and man, He spoke the words of G-D, and like Moshe, He offered himself to die for the sins of the people.