Photo by Diana Polekhina on Unsplash
By Mike Chaffin
If you do not believe Moses’ writings how will you believe me? (John 5:47)
People today want to speak of truth as being objective, not absolute. However, truth is absolute whether people believe it or not. One of the fallacies people fall for is believing the truth doesn’t apply to them simply because they don’t believe it. Jesus told us He is the way, the truth and life. He went on to say the truth will set you free.
The question Jesus asks pertains to our understanding of the five books of the law. Moses wrote most directly about Jesus in Deuteronomy 18:15-19, but the people didn’t understand the prophecy or didn’t believe Jesus could be the fulfillment of it.
15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, 16 according to all 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, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’
17 “And the Lord said to me: ‘What they have spoken is good. 18 I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. 19 And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. Deuteronomy 18:15-19
Further in John 12 Jesus confirms this prophecy is about Him.
44Then Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. 45And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. 46I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. 47And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. 48He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. 49For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. 50And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.” John 12:44-50
Additionally, Moses wrote about Jesus in Genesis 3:15 as the “seed of a woman.” Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Moses recorded Jacob’s blessing of Judah. The Christ would come from this tribe. Jesus is from the tribe of Judah.
Moses recorded God’s instructions about the Passover Lamb. This is a foreshadowing of Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
Moses asked for God’s provision when the people in the wilderness were hungry. God sent manna. Jesus referenced this when He told the people He is the Bread of Life.
By God’s instruction he built a bronze serpent on a pole that people could look up to and be healed from death by snake bite. Jesus applied this to Himself when He told them He would be lifted up for the salvation of all who believe.
The sacrificial system God instituted through Moses points to Jesus as the perfect and last sacrifice needed for man to be reconciled to God.
John Piper wrote about this question for a sermon he preached. He stipulates the question asks the following three questions of us.
- Do You Know God?
Jesus points out that if we don’t know Him, we don’t know God.
- Do You Honor God?
When we dishonor Jesus, we dishonor God.
- Do You Love God?
If we do not love Jesus, we do not love God.
Jesus said he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. In His earthly ministry, his death and resurrection, He has fulfilled the law. When He comes again for the church, He will wrap up all the prophecy in the Old Testament as well.
Contemplation: How often do I turn to the Old Testament to understand the New?
