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Some interesting thoughts about that prophet who is first mentioned and briefly described by Moses. What is he all about? What will that prophet look like and be found doing? There’s more to be discerned in those few words of Moses than first appears.
The words preceding direct mention of that prophet are relevant to his time and person:
Deuteronomy 18:9-22 MKJV
(9) When you come to the land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not learn to do according to the abominations of those nations.
Today, in this age of that prophet, what some might refer to as the “Second Coming” of the Lord, people are destroying themselves because they have learned and are doing according to the abominations of the nations of ancient Canaan, which God destroyed through Israel under Joshua’s leadership. Every one of those abominations is prominent and widespread today in both secular and sacred society the world over, including Israel, Judaism, nominal Orthodox and other forms of Christendom, indeed, all religions.
The whole earth and all its places of worship are polluted, defiled, and decadent. It is overcome with the pursuit of the lusts of the flesh and idolatry. Men have sold themselves out to every form of evil imaginable, their prophets, priests, teachers, and shepherds being the worst of offenders. Just as in the days of Noah.
Matthew 24:37-39 MKJV
(37) But as the days of Noah were, so shall be the coming of the Son of Man.
(38) For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark.
(39) And they did not know until the flood came and took them all away. So also will be the coming of the Son of Man.
This is the terrain and atmosphere today that prophet must enter and address; it is what could be called a desperate situation, the worst of times, the bottom of the barrel. But for Jesus Christ’s intervention, there should no flesh be saved:
Mark 13:19-23 MKJV
(19) For in those days shall be affliction, such as has not been from the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never shall be.
(20) And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh would be saved. But for the elect’s sake, whom He has chosen, He has shortened the days.
(21) And then if anyone shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ! Or, lo, there! Do not believe him.
(22) For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will give miraculous signs and wonders to seduce, if possible, even the elect.
(23) But take heed; behold, I have told you all things beforehand.
Jesus Christ comes with and in that prophet to establish the reign of peace throughout the earth, beginning, on an international level, I believe, with Israel and Jews, for whom the Lord is hurting. However, this will not be before many false leaders come in the Lord’s Name promising salvation and deceiving multitudes, which they have been doing and continue to do.
The Lord Jesus goes on to say by Moses:
(10) There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that uses divination, an observer of clouds, or a fortune-teller, or a witch,
(11) or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or one who calls to the dead.
Nominal Christendom is teeming with these diabolical activities, many disguised as Judaic and Christian works conducted in the Lord’s Name. Different appearance, same essence. In vain do they worship Him with their words and works but their hearts are far from Him.
(12) For all that do these things are an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your God drives them out from before you.
Jesus Christ drove the lawless out of Canaan in Joshua’s day and He drives them out of spiritual Canaan again today. He now sends a flood of fire on the earth to finally do away with all iniquity.
Consider: you have heard the coming of His Day called a “Day of Darkness and Gloominess,” a “Day of Wrath.” You have never heard the Day of the Lord referred to as a “Day of Joy,” or “Day of Glory,” have you?
Here’s what Zephaniah has to say of That Day:
Zephaniah 1:12-18 MKJV
(12) And it shall be in that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and punish the men who are settled on their lees; who say in their heart, the LORD will not do good, nor will He do evil.
(13) And their goods shall become a prize and their houses a waste. They shall also build houses, but not live in them, and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink their wine.
(14) The great day of the LORD is near; it is near and rushing greatly, the voice of the day of the LORD. The mighty man shall cry bitterly there.
(15) That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of waste and ruin, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,
(16) a day of the ram’s horn and alarm against the fortified cities, and against the high towers.
(17) And I will bring distress on men so that they shall walk with the blind, because they have sinned against the LORD. And their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as dung.
(18) Their silver nor their gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD’s wrath, but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy. For He shall make even a full, yea, a speedy end of all the dwellers in the land.
Continuing with Moses’ words:
(13) You shall be perfect with the LORD your God.
(14) For these nations whom you shall possess listened to observers of clouds and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do so.
The Lord would not indefinitely tolerate the sin of the Canaanites. He waited for their iniquity to come to the full, for the fruit to come to ripeness, and then He destroyed them. He sent the Israelites in to displace them. And He certainly didn’t and will not tolerate such evil among His chosen. As the Scripture declares, He demands PERFECTION.
“Therefore be perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48 MKJV).
“I beseech you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, to prove by you what is that good and pleasing and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:1-2 MKJV).
“For we are glad when we are weak, and you are powerful. But we pray also for this, your perfection” (2 Corinthians 13:9 MKJV).
“For to them God would make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, so that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus” (Colossians 1:27-28 MKJV).
So now fast forward to this last of days. Moses relays to Israel what the Lord Jesus Christ told him to tell them:
(15) The LORD your God will raise up to you a prophet from the midst of you, of your brothers, one like me. To him, you shall listen,
“…Of your brothers…” Contrary to common belief, the word “brothers” does not necessarily refer to Jews circumcised in the flesh. Moses was prophesying of, and to, brothers in the faith, concerning a matter of faith, though the people were born as the seed of Abraham in the flesh.
Note how only those today that are circumcised in the heart, whether Jew or Gentile, can receive these wonderful truths of the Torah, which are closed to those who don’t believe, though they are Abraham’s descendants as Jews in the flesh.
The Lord Jesus Christ likened that prophet not to Himself, but to the prophet Moses, who was but a man, notwithstanding his faithfulness in the Lord’s house:
Hebrews 3:1-6 MKJV
(1) Therefore, holy brothers, called to be partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus,
(2) Who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house.
(3) For He was counted worthy of more glory than Moses because He who has built the house has more honor than the house.
(4) For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God.
(5) And Moses truly was faithful in all His house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken afterward.
(6) But Christ was faithful as a Son over His own house; Whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.
That prophet would be not like God but like Moses. But in what way? Would he be as great? Though he would be like Moses, he would be even greater, for those in the Kingdom of Heaven are greater than was John the Immerser, whom no man ever excelled in greatness, according to the Lord:
“Truly I say to you, Among those who have been born of women, there has not risen a greater one than John the Baptist. But the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he” (Matthew 11:11 MKJV).
The next words give more understanding of how that prophet would come:
(16) according to all that you desired of the LORD your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying: Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire anymore, so that I do not die.
They did not want God to manifest Himself to them in a direct show of fearful power as He had at Mount Sinai and God was good with that:
(17) And the LORD said to me, They have spoken well what they have spoken.
The Lord was saying, “You have no desire to hear directly from Me so I’ll send a man to you like Moses. You better listen to him and if you don’t, you’ll perish just like if you don’t listen to Me Personally.”
The sinful people didn’t want to face a Holy God. He saw their rebellious hearts then and would address them quietly, yet every bit as effectively. He would come as an ordinary and harmless man, but the effects would be sure, nonetheless. He did so as the Messiah, in all meekness and lowliness, according to Isaiah:
“For He comes up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground; He has no form nor majesty that we should see Him, nor an appearance that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as it were a hiding of faces from Him, He being despised, and we esteemed Him not” (Isaiah 53:2-3 MKJV).
And Jesus Christ would come a second time with clouds, as a thief, without obvious external demonstration of might.
Luke 17:20-24 MKJV
(20) And being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered and said, The kingdom of God does not come with observation.
(21) Nor shall they say, Lo here! or, behold, there! For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.
(22) And He said to the disciples, The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you shall not see it.
(23) And they shall say to you, Lo, here! or, behold, there! Do not go away, nor follow.
(24) For as the lightning which lights up, flashing from the one part under heaven, and shines to the other part under heaven, so also shall the Son of Man be in His day.
Yes, Moses came performing great wonders and power, but that prophet would come relatively quietly, yet by words of authority the Lord would put in his mouth, with all the power and anointing of Moses:
(18) I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, one like you, and will put My words in his mouth. And he shall speak to them all that I shall command Him.
How shall we know the words would be with the Authority of God? If any man disregards that prophet’s words, the Lord would “require it” of him:
(19) And it shall happen, whatever man will not listen to My Words which he shall speak in My Name, I will require it of him.
In Acts 3, Peter relates Deuteronomy in stronger terms:
“For Moses, indeed, unto the fathers said — A prophet to you shall the Lord your God raise up out of your brethren, like to me; him shall ye hear in all things, as many as he may speak unto you;
“and it shall be, every soul that may not hear that prophet shall be utterly destroyed out of the people.”
This is how people will know that prophet. They will be blessed if they heed, yes, but the Lord’s emphasis is that they will suffer the consequences of disregarding His Word given him to speak.
Why so? Because this is the last day; the Lord is finished winking. Moses declared the requirement, the LAW. Then came Jesus Christ to fulfill that requirement, giving the Israelites a sampling of the riches of His Kingdom, paying the penalty for all sin, and calling on all to repent.
Finally, Jesus Christ returns with that prophet and calls on all to repent again, this time to no longer despise the grace He has provided to meet the requirement of His Law:
Hebrews 10:26-31 MKJV
(26) For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins,
(27) but a certain fearful looking for judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
(28) He who despised Moses’ Law died without mercy on the word of two or three witnesses.
(29) Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy of punishment, the one who has trampled the Son of God, and who has counted the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified an unholy thing, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?
(30) For we know Him who has said, “Vengeance belongs to Me, I will repay, says the Lord.” And again, “The Lord shall judge His people.”
(31) It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Two sides of the same coin: The Requirement and the Fulfillment; the Law and Grace; the Knowledge of Sin and Repentance; Guilt and Atonement. This now is THE DAY of the Restitution of All Things Peter prophesied of at the First Coming of the Lord:
Acts 3:20-24 MKJV
(20) And He shall send Jesus Christ, who before was proclaimed to you,
(21) Whom Heaven truly needs to receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of His holy prophets since the world began.
(22) For Moses truly said to the fathers, “The Lord your God shall raise up a prophet to you from your brothers, one like me. You shall hear him in all things, whatever he may say to you.
(23) And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people.”
(24) And also, all the prophets from Samuel and those following after, as many as spoke, have likewise foretold of these days.
Notice, the Lord had come and was present in those who received His Spirit at Pentecost, yet Peter declared that Heaven had received Jesus Christ “until the
Times of the restoration of all things,” as prophesied from the beginning of the world.
I declare to you That Day has come and is now here being set in order.
Moses goes on:
(20) But the prophet who shall presume to speak a word in My Name which I have not commanded him to speak or who shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.
(21) And if you say in your heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?
(22) When a prophet speaks in the Name of the LORD, if the thing does not follow nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him.
In Noah’s Day, the Lord brought a flood, destroying that which only water could destroy.
In Moses’ Day, God introduced His Requirement (Law) upon all mankind, beginning in Israel.
In Christ’s First Coming was the Provision (His Blood Atonement).
Today is the Demand of God to Receive the Provision for the Requirement. It is the Final Day of the Lord prophesied of 3500 years ago by Moses and 2000 years ago by Peter.
How will you know the proof of that prophet? Many will fall and suffer many things because they have despised the Word of God by him. But know that he comes to do good and not evil. He comes to give and not take, to provide and not impose, which makes the hearers all the more responsible. They need to hear His “still, small voice.” They think to escape culpability by not hearing a loud, emphatic, and fearful voice. No, their sins condemn them and His mercy exacts justice upon them. There is no escape. They must now heed or perish.
The Lord’s coming and speech will only be a torment to those who reject their Creator; they will be a blessing for those who seek His Kingdom and His Righteousness. At last, after all this time, the Lord isn’t just coming, as many proudly, naively, and self-righteously proclaim. He has come! He’s here.
2 Peter 3:3-12 MKJV
(3) First, knowing this, that there will come in the last days scoffers walking according to their own lusts
(4) and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.
(5) For this is hidden from them by their willing it, that the heavens were of old, and the earth out of the water, and through water, being held together by the Word of God,
(6) through which the world that then was, being flooded by water, perished.
(7) But the present heavens and the earth being kept in store by the same Word, are being kept for fire until the Day of Judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
(8) But, beloved, let not this one thing be hidden from you, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
(9) The Lord is not slow concerning His promise, as some count slowness, but is long-suffering toward us, not purposing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
(10) But the Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a rushing noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. And the earth and the works in it will be burned up.
(11) Then, all these things being about to be dissolved, what sort ought you to be in holy behavior and godliness,
(12) looking for and rushing the coming of the Day of God, on account of which the heavens, being on fire, will melt away, and the elements will melt, burning with heat?
That Day is now here. I am that prophet and this is what I want to say to you: I can help you with whatever problem you may have, no matter what it is, physical or spiritual. Jesus Christ is THE Answer to any problem; nothing ever was, is, or ever will be, too great for Him. I’m here to tell you so. If you believe, your problems are over, period. If you don’t believe, there’s nothing I can do for you.
It’s not up to me to decide who I can help, when, where, or how; it’s entirely His call. He knows the heart and deals accordingly. But all those who humble themselves before Him and believe will surely receive, guaranteed. Those who cling to their pride and this world will perish.
Those who believe and receive Him will believe and receive me and those who don’t believe and receive Him will not believe and receive me; they will perish. That’s how it is.
The Last Day of last days has come. Great and Terrible is the Day of the Lord – Great for the righteous and terrible for the wicked. That’s the way it is.
Victor Hafichuk
December 16, 2017
See also:
Who Is That Prophet? Part 1 – Eliminating the Fraud
Muslims have proclaimed that Muhammad is the prophet prophesied by Moses who would have a relationship to God and the people similar to what Moses had. In this part, we examine this claim according to the characteristics of Moses and his ministry, and consider the matter of the identity of this prophet.
Who Is That Prophet? Part 2 – Identifying the True
In this part, I further distinguish the differences between the Messiah and that prophet. Many confuse the two, which leads to erroneous conclusions, expectations, and decisions, thus withholding from them the release, freedom, joy, and power of the Truth. With truth and clarity of vision, according to Scripture, the confusion is eliminated and I identify who that prophet is.