For Moses truly said unto your fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you … like unto me.
The promised Prophet
Note--
I. The appropriateness of God revealing Himself through a human being. For man is the Divine image, and hence God reveals Himself to man through a man, otherwise we could have no knowledge of God. The office of prophet is the most appropriate way of revealing God’s will. When we carry on this line of thought we are landed in the idea that an incarnation of God alone could adequately convey to man the mind and nature of God.
II. A single prophet after the similitude of Moses is to be the mediator for the ages. Now, only one Person answers this description, and that is Christ. He is incarnate God. God’s Spirit He alone could take, and through its gift to men in the different ages make them thechannel of Divine revelation (Act_3:24). As a matter of fact “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy,” and the prophets were His instruments in the history of the Church. God has spoken in these last days by His Son; and the prophets between Moses and Christ were really the inspired messengers of the one great Prophet. This is the idea of Peter (1Pe_1:11).
III. The life and death of Jesus, therefore, become the climax of Divine revelation. The previous revelations were but shadows of this. A human history became the embodiment of Divine thoughts, mercies, and self-sacrifice. The blaze of Divinity that was intolerable at Sinai becomes not only bearable but entrancing in the face of Jesus Christ. “We beheld His glory,” but it did not scare men as on the holy mount.
IV. Disregard of the words of Jesus is punishable by death (Act_3:23). “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema.” If disobedience to Moses was visited in many cases by death, how much more disloyalty to Christ (Heb_10:28-31). The gospel has penalties of the severest kind for its rejection, as well as bliss beyond compare for its reception. The alternative is thus clearly set before us. (R. M. Edgar, M. A.)
The Prophet like unto Moses
Christ and Moses were alike--
I. As founders of dispensations. It was the greatness of Moses that he was employed by God in inaugurating a new era in the history of His kingdom. In this respect he stood at the head of the Old Testament line of prophets, and in a sense apart from them (Joh_1:17). He had the ordering and settling of the “house” of God in the form in which it was to last till Christ came, who “as Son over His own house” would revise its arrangements and reconstitute it on a better basis (Heb_3:2-7). Prophets subsequent to Moses stood within the lines of economy already established. They could enforce and maintain, but while predicting the advent of a new age in which great changes would be wrought, they hadno authority to introduce such changes. It was reserved to Christ to so remodel Mosaic institutions, or abolish and supersede them, as to place the Church upon a permanent basis, and adapt it for the reception of the Gentiles.
II. In the freedom and intercourse they enjoyed with God. Moses enjoyed, as was necessary, the freest intercourse with heaven. God spake with him, not in a vision, or dream, or in dark speeches, but “mouth to mouth” (Num_12:6-9), “face to face” (Deu_34:10). This is made a feature of distinction between Moses and the later prophets. In Christ this peculiarity appears in a higher form. Intercourse with the Father reaches the highest degree of closeness and intimacy (Joh_14:10). Christ’s insight into the Father’s will was perfect (Joh_5:20-21), His communion habitual and uninterrupted.
III. As mediating between the people and God. These points involve others. There was resemblance--
1. In the degree of authority with which they were clothed, and in the mighty signs which authenticated their mission.
2. In the fulness and grandeur of their revelations.
3. In the severe penalties attaching to disobedience to their words (Deu_18:19; Heb_2:1-5; Heb_10:28-29). (J. Orr, B. D.)
The resemblance between Christ and Moses
As Moses was born in a strange land, so was Christ born in a world and country which knew Him not, in a city which rejected Him. To preserve His life Moses was laid in an ark of bulrushes, as Christ’s life was preserved by the lowliness of the manger in which He lay. Both were of the house of Israel, and children, the one of a priestly, the other of the royal race. The jealousy of Pharoah put the life of Moses in jeopardy as soon as He was born, as Herod sought the life of Christ because of the same jealous fear, whilst both kings ordered the male children to be slain in order to preserve the stability of their respective thrones. Both were mediators between God and a sinful people, and as Moses pleaded for the children of Israel, so does Christ for mankind. Both Moses and Christ were legislators of God’s people, the former for those under the old covenant, the latter for those under the new. As Moses led the people from slavery into the land promised to their fathers, so did Christ deliver His people out of the power of Satan and go before them into heaven. Both Moses and Christ proved the truth of their mission by miracles and signs. As Moses sent forth the twelve to survey the land and encouraged the people to persevere and to enter into Canaan, so did Christ send forth the twelve to teach the people by what means they might take possession of the spiritual Canaan. (W. Denton, M. A.)
Reasons for repentance
Peter urged the Jews to repent because--
I. They believed the prophets. Those prophets had told of the Messiah and His claims, and in those prophets they professed to believe.But they had rejected Christ, and hence the necessity according to their own beliefs of repentance. This appeal is a pertinent one to-day.
II. They already claimed religious privileges (Act_3:25). Hence their guilt in rejecting Christ. Abraham, the patriarchs and prophets had all been believers, and the blessings of the covenant could be attained only by faith. But faith implied repentance. How many value their privileges under the Christian dispensation, and yet live in sin! But these privileges call them to repentance.
III. God had crowned all their former privileges by sending Jesus. Yet they had rejected Him. So now--
IV. Without repentance they must remain in a state of depravity. They would not be “turned from their iniquities.” Those who do not repent and receive Christ remain among the enemies of God and in the bond of iniquity.
V. Without repentance they must be excluded from the people of God (Act_3:23). (W. Hudson.)
