In the Torah, God promises a prophet like Moses (Deuteronomy 18,18-19). What this prophet says has a normative value. Anyone who does not keep his words will be called to account by God himself.
Moses is not yet the promised man who can defeat evil (Genesis 3,15). There are many prophets in the Jewish Bible (Tanakh / Old Testament), but none became as important a figure as Moses.
In Exodus 34,10-12, personal relationship with God, miracles and signs are listed as characteristics of Moses.
Jesus says of himself that he has a relationship with the heavenly Father like no other (John 10,30) and that he hears the voice of God (John 8,28). His close relationship with the heavenly Father enabled him to work miracles. He is the first since Moses to heal a Jewish leper (Mark 1,42). He feeds thousands with loaves and fishes (Mark 6 / 8). He calms the storm and thus, like Moses, has power over nature (Mark 4). The honour and will of God are more important to him than his own life (Matthew 26:39). He says: Whoever sees him sees the Father (John 14,9). He is a deeply humble man (Philippians 2). He met Elijah and Moses (Matthew 17,2-3).
Jesus is like Moses, even more so. He explains the context of the Scriptures to his disciples. His message is revolutionary. So Jesus, with his deep relationship with the heavenly Father and his miracles, is the prophet like Moses promised in Deuteronomy 18,18-19.
Messiah images in the Torah
- God seeks us – Adam where are you?
- The possibility of a choice – Two trees in the Garden of Eden
- Neediness instead divinity – A new view
- God’s master plan – Salvation through a human being
- A divine clothing – God acts
- A world upside down – Kai and Abel
- Living in the presence of God – Enoch
- God is calling – Noah
- A king-priest like Melchizedek
- God visits Abraham
- Life through a sacrifice – Isaac
- The ladder to heaven – Jacob
- New identity from Jacob to Israel
- Messiah Ben Joseph – Joseph the son of Jacob
- Shiloh, whom all nations will serve – Blessing on Judah
- Moses, the prototype of the Saviour
- References to Jesus in Moses
- The Passover Lamb
- The pillar of cloud and fire
- God wants to be with us – The tabernacle / The temple
- The snake on a pole – An image of a new beginning
- The rock in the desert – Faith is not a method
- A prophet greater than Moses
- A star from Jacob – Bileam