David Bahn – Reflections

Click here for an audio version of this blog post.

These devotions are part of the Follow the Word Bible reading program at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas. This year we are reading through the Scriptures together, listening for how God speaks through his Word day by day. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Today’s readings are Deuteronomy 16-18, Psalm 83.

Deuteronomy 18:15-18

“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— ¹⁶ just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ ¹⁷ And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. ¹⁸ I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 

A friend and colleague retired a couple of years ago and—as planned, and as I did—didn’t really retire. He recognized that his gifts and experiences, shaped through decades of faithful ministry (not always easy, but enduring), had equipped him to continue serving. In his case, that meant helping congregations navigate transitions following the retirement of a long-tenured senior pastor. His ministry is called Always Forward Ministries.

He was determined to keep moving forward, looking ahead, and helping others do the same for the sake of God’s mission. That idea resonates with me as well. I love helping churches engage in faithful, strategic mission planning—and I carry that same focus with me as I assist congregations in calling pastors to lead them into the future.

But neither my friend nor I can claim that orientation as our own. Moses, too, ends his ministry with his eyes on the future. Standing with Israel on the edge of the Promised Land, he points them beyond himself. He speaks of a prophet yet to come: “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me… to him you shall listen.” This is a messianic prophecy, pointing beyond Moses to the Messiah who was still to come.

Moses had been the great mediator of the covenant, yet he makes clear that another is coming—one who will speak God’s Word with full authority. This promise is not merely about the ongoing line of prophets, but about a greater prophet still to come. The urgency is unmistakable: when he comes, you must listen to him.

The New Testament identifies that promised prophet as Jesus. Peter applies this passage directly to Christ in Acts 3:22–23, and Stephen does the same in Acts 7:37. At the Transfiguration—where Moses and Elijah appear and speak with Jesus—the Father’s voice echoes Moses’ words: “This is my Son… listen to him” (Matthew 17:5). Moses prepared the way, but Jesus is the fulfillment—the final and authoritative Word of God to his people.

And yet, even though Jesus has come—God’s final Word (cf. Hebrews 1:1–2)—we live much like Israel in the wilderness. We have been rescued, but we have not yet entered the Promised New Heaven and New Earth. Jesus himself warns that many false prophets will arise and lead many astray before that day.

Moses’ promise has been fulfilled: the prophet like him has come—and more than a prophet, he is the Son, the one to whom we must listen. In his death and resurrection he has secured forgiveness, life, and salvation, and he now speaks God’s truth and gives his grace for all. We receive these gifts not by our effort, but by faith, for Jesus has not only spoken the full and final word of God, he embodied God’s grace and truth and sacrificed himself for us and for our eternal salvation. He will come again at the end of time and receive all who are his own into his glorious everlasting kingdom – the ultimate Promised Land.