In the "Apologetics" class last night we talked about Matthew chapter 2. We considered whether Matthew is presenting Jesus as the new Moses in some sense or other. The following words from today's community Bible reading surely elevates Jesus' understanding of himself as rabbi, as superseding Moses as the mouthpiece of God, even as the One who gives the commandments ("my commandments")...
"Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him...
If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words."
(John 14:21, 23-24)
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Mark, I was trying to remember/find some verses last night when we were talking about Jesus and Moses. Deut. 18:15 and 18 are similar; verse 18 is the Lord talking to Moses and He says, "I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him." Now, these verses were not necessarily pointing directly at Jesus, certainly not only at Jesus; many prophets were raised up later and these verses are in a section where God is forbidding spiritism, witchcraft, etc.
Going on though, Deut. 34:10-12, the last verses of the book say, "Since that time no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, for all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to perform in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh, and his servants, and all his land, and for all the mighty power and for all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel."
From what I've learned in the past about it, these verses can help us understand the Jewish mindset and attitude towards Moses which in turn illuminates why it was so important to show Jesus as not only the "new Moses," but also to prove Him to be even greater than Moses.
The verses you post today certainly go there!
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