A Prophet Like Moses

¹⁵ “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.

Passage

Deuteronomy 18 - Listen to Him

Conditions

Fine.

Time

Sufficient.

Teaching

We marked this passage as a significant one, as it points us forward to Christ quite directly. And what is it that we are to do when He comes? We are to listen to Him. 

I began flipping through the New Testament in order to read the Father echoing this command. But I couldn’t find it. The children were making their suggestions as to where I would find it. In the end I realized I had been looking in the accounts of Jesus’ baptism what occurred at the transfiguration. 

This run-around alerted me to a bit of intrigue: why does the Father command us to “Listen to him,” not at Jesus’ baptism, but at the transfiguration? The children strained after this. We realized how fitting it is for these words to come at the transfiguration because this is where God demonstrates, very visibly with the appearances of Moses and Elijah, that Christ is the climactic Word of God. He is the One to Whom all previous words have pointed. And now He has come. Moses and Elijah pass the baton. And we are to listen to Him. His are the most important words in the world. Do we listen to them this way? At family worship? At morning devotions at school? At worship on the Lord’s day?

Reflection

This was another example of the best bits of family worship often coming out of unexpected or unplanned surprises. Be open to these, if a scent pops up, follow the trail and see where it leads. In my experience the children enjoy this, even if it takes a little practice to find the end zone.