Deuteronomy 18:15-18
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 - 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.' And the Lord said to me, "They are right in what they have spoken. 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 to him.
In this passage, Moses is talking to the people of Israel right before they entered the land of Canaan, reminding them of all the things that the Lord had taught them and done for them. In this particular section, he reminds them of their terrifying experience at Mount Horeb. He reminds them of how fearful they were when God came down to them in fire, and how they begged him to speak to Moses instead of them directly. At first glance, we might be inclined to think that fearing God like this wasn't good, but further inspection would prove us wrong: "And the Lord said to me, 'They are right in what they have spoken.'" So why should we be afraid of the presence of God?
Man is wicked. The Bible tells us that even the best works of the best of us are like trash when compared with God's goodness. So, if we are so evil, and God is so good, there is great reason that we should be afraid to stand in His full presence. When we - dirty sinners - stand in front of the perfect, stainless, all consuming fire, fear is the only right response. So we have a problem: we are evil, we can't be good without God, but we can't stand before God while we're evil.
Now, to stand as a barrier between that all consuming fire and the sinful people of Israel, God appointed Moses as his great prophet. He used him to bridge the gap so that the Israelites could still know God and yet not be destroyed by the pure presence of their Maker. But even this manner of mediation was broken; if Moses is all their is, we'd be in trouble. No matter how righteous Moses was, he was still stained by his sins, and could never be the ultimate bridge between God and man. So we see here in God's promise to establish a perfect and eternal prophet for His people one of the earliest prophesies of the coming Messiah.
The Christmas story really starts much earlier than Jesus' birth; it starts by seeing the grand fissure, the in-crossable gap, between God and man. Perfect purity and filthy trash can't mix, and in the same way, neither can perfect God and sinful man. We must have someone to stand in our place if we ever hope to see God, and that person is Jesus the Messiah. Let's take some time this year to really praise God for sending Emmanuel!
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 - 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.' And the Lord said to me, "They are right in what they have spoken. 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 to him.
In this passage, Moses is talking to the people of Israel right before they entered the land of Canaan, reminding them of all the things that the Lord had taught them and done for them. In this particular section, he reminds them of their terrifying experience at Mount Horeb. He reminds them of how fearful they were when God came down to them in fire, and how they begged him to speak to Moses instead of them directly. At first glance, we might be inclined to think that fearing God like this wasn't good, but further inspection would prove us wrong: "And the Lord said to me, 'They are right in what they have spoken.'" So why should we be afraid of the presence of God?
Man is wicked. The Bible tells us that even the best works of the best of us are like trash when compared with God's goodness. So, if we are so evil, and God is so good, there is great reason that we should be afraid to stand in His full presence. When we - dirty sinners - stand in front of the perfect, stainless, all consuming fire, fear is the only right response. So we have a problem: we are evil, we can't be good without God, but we can't stand before God while we're evil.
Now, to stand as a barrier between that all consuming fire and the sinful people of Israel, God appointed Moses as his great prophet. He used him to bridge the gap so that the Israelites could still know God and yet not be destroyed by the pure presence of their Maker. But even this manner of mediation was broken; if Moses is all their is, we'd be in trouble. No matter how righteous Moses was, he was still stained by his sins, and could never be the ultimate bridge between God and man. So we see here in God's promise to establish a perfect and eternal prophet for His people one of the earliest prophesies of the coming Messiah.
The Christmas story really starts much earlier than Jesus' birth; it starts by seeing the grand fissure, the in-crossable gap, between God and man. Perfect purity and filthy trash can't mix, and in the same way, neither can perfect God and sinful man. We must have someone to stand in our place if we ever hope to see God, and that person is Jesus the Messiah. Let's take some time this year to really praise God for sending Emmanuel!