“The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; according to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy 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 any more, that I die not. And the Lord said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die” (Deut. 18: 15–20).
Here the great question will be—Is Jesus the Messiah predicted here?
The supposable theories are three:
1. That the passage treats of the Hebrew prophets only, and not of the Messiah;
2. Of the Messiah only, and not of the Hebrew prophets;
3. Of the Messiah primarily, yet not excluding the Hebrew prophets.
The reasons for including the Hebrew prophets lie in the connection of thought in which the passage stands; its relation to the magicians of Canaan, and to false prophets. The Lord says to the people through Moses: I do not leave you dependent on magicians; I give you prophets as I have given you Moses; they shall teach you my words from time to time as ye may need words from your God. Moreover, there will be counterfeit prophets coming up; but I will give you tests of their character, take heed to prove and reject them.——This close connection of thought demands some reference to the succession of Hebrew prophets.
On the other hand, the reasons for including the Messiah, and in fact for assuming a primary reference to him, lie in the use of the singular—“a prophet; one great Prophet;” and in his being compared to Moses—“like unto me.” Moses stood in many respects quite above the grade of the future Hebrew prophets, having none like him in the obvious sense of this comparison except Jesus.——This construction is greatly strengthened by the authority of the New Testament writers and of Jesus himself, who manifestly found here the realMessiah. See his words (Jn. 5: 46). “He [Moses] wrote of me.” (Compare Luke 24: 44.) Christ’s allusion to his words as having authority (Jn. 12: 48, 49) seem to refer to this passage (vs. 18, 19). “He that receiveth not my words hath one that judgeth him; the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken of myself, but the Father who hath sent me, he gave me a commandment what I should say,” etc.——The Lord said unto Moses—“I will put my words into his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him, and whosoever shall not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.”——The current opinion of the men taught by Christ finds in these words a prophecy of him. Philip (Jn. 1: 45) said: “We have found him of whom Moses in the law did write—Jesus of Nazareth.” Peter (Acts 3: 22, 23) cites this very passage as having been spoken truly by Moses and as being fulfilled in Christ. So also does Stephen (Acts 7: 37). The Samaritans also (as appears from Jn. 4: 25) found the Messiah here, since they received of the Old Testament scriptures the Pentateuch only. The circumstance that the Christ whom they expected would “teach them all things” points certainly to this prophecy rather than to prophecies from Genesis (e. g. 3: 15 or 49: 10).——Finally, the voice from the cloud at Christ’s transfiguration—“Hear ye him” (Mat. 17: 5) corresponds to the prominent point of this prophecy—“Unto him shall ye hearken” (v. 15). Moses (present at the transfiguration) must have recognized this identity.——These considerations compel us to find here a primary reference to the Messiah.
The full answer to the question: How can these words cover both the one great Prophet—the Messiah; and also the succession of Hebrew prophets?—will be found in these facts: That the spirit of Jesus was in all the old prophets; that they were his servants, bearing his messages; that he and they were parts of the same great system of divine revelation to men; and that Christ’s mission was at once the guaranty and pledge of theirs—their work being linked in with his as the natural consequent and adjunct. Comprehensively spoken of, the one great prophet included all the lesserprophets; the promise of the one embracing and implying the promise of all.