A Prophet Like Unto Moses…

Deuteronomy 18:10, One who causes his son or daughter to pass through the fire. This was done in honor of the Canaanite deity Molach (see Lev 18:21 and 20:1–6). The name molach/lKN/mem-lamed-chaf sofit in Hebrew means “king” with the root of the word meaning “to rule or reign.” Child sacrifice (the ancient form of modern abortion/infanticide), though a pagan practice that YHVH abhorred, was practiced by both houses or kingdoms of Israel as they drifted into syncretism with the heathen cultures around them (see 1 Kgs 11:7; 2 Kgs 16:3; 21:6; 23:10,13; Jer 7:31; 19:5; Ezek 16:20; 23:37). Baal appears to be a synonym of Molach (see Jer 19:5 and the Ency. Britan. eleventh edit., vol. 18, p. 676). The dead bodies of sacrificed children were thrown into the garbage dump of the Valley of Hinnom or Tophet just below the Temple Mount in Jerusalem (Jer 7:31; 19:5–6). Apparently, the children were not burned alive, but were slain (by knife) like any other sacrifice before being thrown into the fire and then into the garbage dump (Ibid.). The ancients sacrificed their children to appease their bloodthirsty gods of prosperity, sensuality and fertility (The Story of Civilization, vol. 1, by Will Durant, pp. 66–67, 297).

What can we learn from these random pieces of information concerning the ancient practice of child sacrifice? It was done in honor of their deity; in other words, their idol was the king that ruled their lives. What is the chief deity in modern America and most everywhere else in the world? Money and wealth? Sex and pleasure? Fun and entertainment? In ancient times, children were killed by a knife, thrown into the fire and then into the garbage dump. Today, what happens in America? Parents abort their babies or have them murdered while being born (partial birth abortion) by using burning solutions to kill the baby in the womb and scalpels and scissors to hack the baby to pieces to aid in its extraction. Afterwards the dead baby is placed in a dumpster.

What reasons do parents give for killing their children? “It will cost too much to raise them and it’s too much trouble” (greed, hedonism and selfishness). “It will interfere with my career” (greed). “I want to have pleasure ­without ­responsibility” (hedonism and greed). Regardless of the excuses, the reasons today are the same as those of the ancients: prosperity, greed, hedonism and so on. Are we any different or any more “civilized” than the ancients? YHVH called abortion an abomination (which means “disgusting, abominable, abhorrent, detestable or loathsome,” Deut 18:12). Do you abhor that which YHVH calls an abomination? In Scripture, does YHVH call children and fertility a curse … or a blessing? (See Deut 28:11, Ps 127:3–5.)

Deuteronomy 18:15, A prophet from your midst, like me, shall YHVH your Elohim raise up for you. Obviously, this was fulfilled in the person of Yeshua the Messiah. The non-believing Jews, however, attempt to prove that this verse does not apply to Yeshua. For example, The ArtScroll Stone Edition Chumash in its commentary states, “Moses told the nation that just as he was one of them, so God would designate future prophets [plural] from among the people to bring them his word” (p. 1033, emphasis added). What is wrong with this statement? Is the verse quoted accurately? Moses said “prophet” singular, not “prophets” plural, as the commentary says. So in this manner, the Jewish commentators switch the focus off of one single prophet who would arise, and make it appear as if all the prophets recorded in the Scriptures helped to fulfill this prophecy. This is dishonest biblical interpretation.

On another note, does the “Jesus” of the mainstream church who, it is taught by many church leaders, broke the Sabbath and came to do away with the Torah-law of Moses fulfill this prophecy? Didn’t Moses say that the prophet would speak only the words that Elohim would give him (and the implication is that those words would not contradict what was given at Mount Sinai)? So did Yeshua come to do away with the Torah-law or not? (Read Matt 5:17–19.) In commissioning his disciples in Matthew 28:20, didn’t Yeshua tell them to do and to pass on to others all that he had commanded them? Didn’t Paul tell us to, “Follow me as I follow the Messiah” (1 Cor 11:1)? So how is it that so many people in the mainstream church believe otherwise about Messiah Yeshua and Paul relative to their teachings on the Torah-law? The point we are trying to make here is that the “Jesus” of the Sunday church who, it is taught, came to annul the Torah, does not fit the criteria of this prophecy of Deuteronomy 18:15–19. Either the Torah prophecy is wrong and church tradition is correct or it is the other way around. We choose the former to be the truth, not the latter!

A prophet…like unto me. Let’s study the parallels between Moses (Heb. Moshe) and Yeshua the Messiah (Heb. Machiach) to see how Yeshua perfectly fulfilled this prophecy.

  • Moses’ early life seems to foreshadow some details of Yeshua’s life and ministry. This really should not surprise us when we consider the words of the book of Hebrews (10:7 from Ps 40:7), which attributed to YHVH-Yeshua, who said, “The volume of the scroll was written of me.” Yeshua himself, when confronting the Pharisees in John 5:46, said “For had you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote of me.”
  • This of course begs the question, when did Moses write about Yeshua? Of course there are many places in the Torah that speak of the Messiah in types and shadows. This is a section of scripture that definitely verifies the words of Yeshua. Let’s now explore this passage to see how it pointed to the Master.
  • There are similarities between the names Moshe (VAN/mem-shin-hey meaning “drawn from/to draw”) and Messiah (meaning “to smear” [i.e., oil]). Etymologically there is no connection between the two, and the former terminates in the Hebrew letter hey v and the latter in a chet, but the similarities in the two names are striking never the less.
  • Moses was the only man in the Scriptures beside Yeshua who was a prophet (Deut 34:10), a priest and a king (Deut 33:5). While there may not be any place that specifically refers to Moses as a priest, he nevertheless was a Levite and held a priestly role as being in a higher office than even the high priest, for he communicated directly with YHVH and acted as an intermediary between YHVH and man, even as Yeshua acts as a high priest between YHVH and man (Heb 4:14). David was a king and a prophet, but not a priest. Samuel acted as a priest and was a prophet, but not a king. Only Yeshua and Moses acted as all three.
  • Both Moses and Yeshua were born under the tragic circumstance of the murder of innocent boys. Pharaoh tried to kill all the baby boys including Moses, and Herod tried to do the same when Yeshua was a child.
  • Moses grew up to become the “savior” of Israel in that he led the people out of Egypt. Yeshua, of course, is the greater and spiritual Savior of Israel in that he has delivered his people from sin and the spiritual Egypt of the world, the flesh and devil.
  • Both Moses and Yeshua spent all or part of their childhood in Egypt (Matt 2:13–19) and both left Egypt for the Promised Land.
  • Moses, after growing up into manhood, was rejected by his brethren. Yeshua, of course, was also rejected by his brethren, though more due to the fear of the religious leaders of the day.
  • Moses began his ministry after 40 years in the wilderness; the Messiah spent 40 days fasting in the wilderness.
  • Then Moses has the burning bush experience. There is much symbolism in this section of the story. The word “bush” in the Hebrew is the word ceneh, which is from an unused root meaning “to prick.” This indicates that the bush was most likely a thorn bush. Since the earth was cursed at the fall of man and now brings forth thorns, and since fire is a biblical metaphor for judgment, a burning thorn bush that isn’t burnt speaks of YHVH’s mercy. It also speaks of our Messiah, who became sin, and was judged, yet by his resurrection wasn’t consumed! That Yeshua wore a crown of thorns points us to the burning bush. Of course, the voice that spoke out of the burning bush was YHVH, or Yeshua in his preincarnate state.
  • At the burning bush, Moses learns the name of YHVH. He will later use this name and make it known among the people. Yeshua did this also in his prayer to the Father in John 17:6, “I have manifested your name to the men whom you have given me.”
  • Moses, being a man, felt insecure about his charge to lead the Hebrew people out of bondage. He tried to get out of it by saying that he was no speaker. YHVH answered saying, “Who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind?” Isn’t it interesting, and a testimony to the deity of Yeshua, that Yeshua was able to make a man who was blind from birth to be able to see? (John 9:1, see also Luke 7:22) Similarly, Yeshua at Gethsemane asked the Father to release him from his mission when he asked that the cup of his suffering might pass from him (Matt 26:39).
  • Notice that before Moses goes back to his brethren, they must experience the “great tribulation” of the bondage of severe slavery. In the same way, we can infer that the end-time great tribulation period will precede the return of the Messiah (Matt 24:21 and 29–30).

In our comparison between Moses and Yeshua, let’s consider the story of the circumcision of Moses’ sons. Surprisingly, the sons of Moses, the “strangers in a foreign land,” had been living all these years and NOT keeping the Torah–instruction of Elohim. Then, just as Moses was preparing to “return,” there is recognition that they had been out of covenant with YHVH and had been disobedient to his Torah, including the command to circumcise all male children. Zipporah, possibly depicting the “church,” was offended by this fact. Yet, in this story, Moses is the one who was threatened with death because Gershom, his first born son, wasn’t circumcised. Similary, Yeshua had to die because for our the sins, which had separated us from Elohim as we were living in a strange land spiritually (the world).

Twice, Zipporah calls Moses a “bloody husband” (Exod 4:25–26). Is YHVH being redundant here, or is he drawing our attention to this event? Then blood is literally cast upon Moses’ feet (the Hebrew implies this). Surely our Savior had his own blood upon his feet, which he shed for our transgressions. Gershom (literally, “foreigner” or “sojourner”), one of Moses’ two sons, could be viewed allegorically as being representative of a redeemed believer in his pre-converted, unsaved and uncircumcised (of heart) state. It was the blood of Yeshua shed on the cross, in our place, that saved us from the wrath of Elohim and paid the death penalty price for our sins. Likewise, Moses’ sons were “guilty” before YHVH until blood was shed. In an abstract allegorical way, Moses’ action toward his sons may point to Yeshua work’s on the cross.

Moses may have had some kind of physical inability to speak well (Exod 4:10). In our comparison between Moses and Yeshua, what are the deeper implications of this? In their Torah commentaries, the Jewish sages hold that Moses was tongue-tied. For the reason of being better able to communicate with Israel, after YHVH had become angry with Moses, Aaron was given to Moses to be his spokesman. In the same way, until he returns to reign in the age to come, Yeshua is physically unable to explain his Word to us in person. In the flesh, he is not present with us. For that reason, he has sent us a Helper or a Comforter or the Spirit of Elohim who shines spiritual light upon the Word of Elohim/Yeshua the Messiah (John 15 and 16), the Word of Elohim in flesh form (John 1:1–14).

 

4 thoughts on “A Prophet Like Unto Moses…

  1. Natan,

    This was an excellent post with lots of insight and deep truths! Thanks!

    I personally believe that Exodus 4:25-26 (as cited in this article) foreshadowed Yeshua as the future (and eternal) Moses to come and Zipporah as the redeemed believer (bride/wife of Christ).

    Thanks again.

    • Both Moses and Yeshua acted as MEDIATORS of the covenant between Man and God, and both SPOKE WITH GOD and delivered His MESSAGE to their congregation.

  2. I’m always troubled (because I don’t know how I SHOULD feel) about the nature of our salvation. The Father sacrificed His Son. Because He abhorres child sacrifice, I DO find it troubleing that we are supposed to feel joy at our salvation when, when I really look at salvation and atonement, I hate the fact that child sacrifice was done on my behalf. Calling the Son the LAMB slain from the foundation of the world doesn’t ease my conscience either. I wonder why the outworking of God’s plan even involved Him doing something He didn’t approve of? (Just sharing some thoughts)
    xo

    • You’re not the only one to struggle with this issue and ask this question.

      Please put your mind at ease. Yeshua’s death wasn’t child sacrifice. The child sacrifice that YHVH abhorred in the Bible was done in honor of Satan to bring material prosperity to those doing the sacrificing. If anything, it was a gross, perverse, satanic counterfeit of the real thing that was to come. Satan always twists and perverts the truth, and then we get the perverse notion of it stuck into our brains and when the real comes (Yeshua’s death on the cross) we have an aversion to it because Satan got there first and muddied the waters.

      No, Yeshua’s death wasn’t child sacrifice. It was a man willingly laying down his life in order to pay the death penalty for the sins of another person . Big difference.

      It’s like this. If a parent saves his child out of a burning house, or from drowning and perishes in the process, yet saves his child, is this human sacrifice or is this a selfless act of love? The latter, and we consider the person to be a hero. That’s what Yeshua did for us. Does this make more sense now?

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