“A prophet like me”
Deuteronomy 18:15
Figure of speechInterpretationMoses
The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to him. (Deuteronomy 18:15 BSB)
* A promise of a prophet in Moses' line; read by both Jews and Christians as pointing beyond the immediate prophets to a coming Messiah, and applied to Jesus by Peter (Acts 3:22).
What it sounds like today
Moses reassuring Israel there will be more prophets.
The cultural key
On one level this establishes the ongoing office of true prophet, a successor to speak God's word so Israel need not turn to pagan divination. But because no later prophet matched Moses (as 34:10 laments), the promise of a prophet 'like me' came to be read as pointing to one supreme figure still to come. First-century Jews watched for 'the Prophet' (they ask John the Baptist if he is), and the earliest Christians, Peter and Stephen, identified that prophet-like-Moses as Jesus.
Recovered meaning
Moses promises a prophet in his own likeness whom Israel must heed. The line launched a centuries-long expectation, fulfilled, the New Testament claims, in Jesus, the prophet greater than Moses.
Parallels: John 1:21; Acts 3:22