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The Old Testament book of Deuteronomy contains a momentous prophecy that God revealed to Moses: “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.” Here, God pointed to a prophet whom he would raise up after Moses. Just who is this Prophet to come? The immediate clue given in the prophecy is a likeness to Moses. But in what sense will they be Moses-like?
The very next statement clarifies matters. God informs us that he will put his words in the prophet’s mouth. So, just as Moses received Revelation from God, so too will the coming Prophet. Just as Moses brought Divine Law and a covenant for Israel to follow, so too will the coming Prophet. As the theologian France Deich explains, “For all the prophets who followed Moses, their duty consists in preparing the way for a future divine revelation whose mediator is to be the predicted Prophet like Moses.”
Another important clue that helps us to identify the prophet like Moses is the statement that he will be “from among their brothers.” Note the pronoun “their.” Just who is this a reference to? The verses which immediately precede the prophecy make it clear: “For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, ‘Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore or we will die here.’” The mention of the day of assembly at Horeb is a reference to a terrifying incident in which all of the tribes of Israel were camped at a mountain, and they heard the voice of God. Jill’s exposition of the entire Bible confirms that Israel here is being spoken of as if it were a single person. The congregation of Israel is here represented speaking as if a single person. So, since the prophecy is addressing the whole of Israel, then it must be speaking of raising up a prophet from the brothers of the Hall of Israel. This means that the Prophet like Moses cannot be a reference to the Israelites themselves. Rather, the coming Prophet will be raised amongst a nation that is the brother of Israel. To claim that this Prophet will be raised amongst Israel would be to claim that the nation of Israel is the brother of the nation of Israel. This is as absurd as saying, “I am my own brother.”
Deuteronomy further establishes the fact that the prophet like Moses cannot be an Israelite: “No prophet ever rose again in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew with such great intimacy.” The Jewish commentary or Hashem on Deuteronomy understood this statement in the sense of both the past and future. As of the time when these words were written, no other comparable Prophet had arisen. It also means that no comparable Prophet would arise in the future either. In light of this, interpreting the prophet like Moses as a reference to an Israelite causes a contradiction with this later passage in the book of Deuteronomy. The Jewish Study Bible acknowledges this problem: “When the prophet like Moses is taken as a reference to an Israelite, note the discrepancy between the perspective of this verse and the Divine promise to Moses that the line of prophetic succession will continue in the future.” When the prophet like Moses is understood as a reference to a Gentile, i.e., a non-Jew, then all these problems disappear, and there is perfect harmony within the book of Deuteronomy. However, this cannot be a reference to just any Gentile Nation, as the words “from among their brothers” indicate a people who are ethnically closely related to the Israelites. According to Hebrew dictionaries, the Hebrew word for “brother” that is used in the prophecy also includes the meaning “half-brother” or “relative.” With this in mind, “brother” can refer to Gentile peoples such as the Ishmaelites, who all trace their lineage back to Abraham and are therefore ancestrally closely related to the Israelites.
Another important question that will help us to determine the identity of this Prophet like Moses is the timeline when he will be sent. The New Testament informs us: “Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He confessed freely, ‘I am not the Messiah.’ They asked him, ‘Then who are you? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the prophet?’ he answered, ‘No.’” Note the three questions asked of John the Baptist by the Jewish priests and Levites: Firstly, is he the Messiah? Secondly, is he Elijah? Thirdly, is he the prophet? Here, the mention of “the prophet” is a reference to the prophet like Moses in Deuteronomy. This exchange between John and the priests and Levites makes it clear that the Messiah, Elijah, and the prophet like Moses refer to three distinct people, as they were presented in the form of three separate questions. Muslims and Christians all agree that Jesus is the Messiah. In which case, Jesus cannot be either Elijah or the prophet like Moses, as they represent different people. This also indicates that during the time of Jesus, the prophet like Moses had not yet emerged, as the Jewish priests and Levites were still awaiting his arrival. This means that he must be sent at a time after Jesus.
Another point to consider that will further help us to identify the prophet like Moses are his achievements. There is a related prophecy in the book of Exodus which informs us: “I am sending a messenger before you to keep you in the way and to bring you to the place which I have prepared. And I have set your border from the Red Sea to the river, for I give into your hand the inhabitants of the land, and you have cast them out from before you.” In this prophecy, God told Moses that he would grant the Israelites a land whose borders will stretch from the Red Sea in Egypt all the way to the river Euphrates in modern-day Iraq, which includes the Holy Land. The Israelites are also said to cast out the previous inhabitants of these lands, implying some kind of conflict. This prophecy was ultimately never fulfilled by Moses during his lifetime because God became angry at the sins of the Israelites, and as a punishment, they were denied the land that was promised to them. This unfulfilled prophecy in Exodus is actually linked to the prophet like Moses from Deuteronomy. Logically speaking, since Moses was unable to complete this mission of acquiring the land, it makes sense that the one who would fulfill the task is the coming Prophet like Moses. There are, in fact, versions of the Old Testament that make this link explicit. The Samaritan Torah, for example, contains an expanded version of the book of Exodus which directly mentions the prophet like Moses. This prophecy in the book of Exodus is expanded upon further in the Book of Malachi: “Look, I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. Then the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his Temple—the messenger of the Covenant whom you look for so eagerly is surely coming.” We know that Malachi here is referencing the same prophecy from Exodus because of the words, “Look, I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me.” Also note Malachi’s words about the coming messenger: He is said to “suddenly come to the temple.” So, not only will the prophet like Moses acquire land from Egypt to modern-day Iraq, but he will also make a sudden appearance at the temple in the Holy Land.
In summary, after analyzing the related prophecies of Deuteronomy, the New Testament, Exodus, and Malachi, the following key points have been established about the identity of the foretold Prophet like Moses: He will be a lawgiver; the recipient of Revelation that God will place in his mouth; he will be a descendant of a nation such as the Ishmaelites; and he will emerge sometime after Jesus. He will conquer the lands between Egypt and modern-day Iraq, which includes the Holy Land. He will liberate the holy land from its occupiers, thus paving the way for the Israelites to return. He will make a sudden appearance at the temple.
There is only one person in the Hall of human history who fulfilled all of these criteria: the prophet Muhammad, upon whom be peace. Scripturally, he was given the Quran, which proclaims to be the very speech of God, thus literally fulfilling God putting his words on the lips of the foretold Prophet. Genealogically, Muhammad was also a descendant of Ishmael, thus fulfilling the criterion of being a brother of Israel. Chronologically, Muhammad emerged as a prophet in the 7th Century, roughly 600 years after Jesus, thus satisfying the timeline of being sent after Jesus. Geographically, Muhammad and his companions rapidly expanded the borders of the Muslim lands outside Arabia, encompassing everything between Egypt and modern-day Iraq and beyond, eventually making Islam a superpower and one of the greatest Empires the world had ever seen. The early Muslims liberated the Holy Land from the mighty Roman Empire, who had been responsible for severely persecuting the children of Israel, destroying the temple, and expelling them from the holy land for several centuries. It was under the second Caliph of Islam, Omar bin al-Khattab, that the Romans were defeated militarily, and the children of Israel finally permitted to return to the Holy Land and dwell there again in safety and security. Finally, Muhammad, upon whom be peace, experienced a miraculous event known as the Night Journey, during which he was transported by God from Mecca in Arabia to the temple in Jerusalem in the space of a single night. People who were in Jerusalem at the time would have witnessed Muhammad’s sudden appearance at the temple after having miraculously traversed a great distance in a short amount of time.
As if all of this evidence is not enough, even the name of the foretold prophet like Moses is alluded to in a related prophecy in the book of Haggai, which mentions: “And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory; and in this place will I give peace.” Here, Haggai foretold that God’s house, the temple, will be filled with glory and peace when the one whom Israel eagerly desires finally arrives. The Hebrew word translated as “desire,” *himmat*, happens to have the same Semitic root as the Arabic name *Ahmed*, which is one of Muhammad’s names. The historian Godfrey Higgins wrote on this linguistic connection: “Here Muhammad is expressly foretold by Haggai, and by name.” There is no interpolation here; there is no evading this clear text and its meaning. The Orthodox Jewish Bible even goes so far as to make an explicit connection between the *himmat* of Haggai and Israel’s coming Messiah. Haggai says the Messiah is the desired of all nations. The only way that critics of Islam can get around this linguistic connection is by going to absurd lengths to illustrate this. The Bishop John Parkhurst made the following claim: “From this linguistical root the pretended Prophet Muhammad had his name; but whether this was his original appellation or whether he assumed it after he set up for the Messiah of the Jews, the desire of all Nations, I cannot find.” We can see that even though Parkhurst rejected Muhammad’s prophethood, he could not deny the linguistic connection between *himmat* and Muhammad, going so far as to argue for a conspiracy theory by claiming that Muhammad might have adopted his name for the sole purpose of fulfilling Haggai’s prophecy.
In response, there is a serious double standard at play here. To help illustrate this, let’s contrast Jesus in the Bible. Consider the following passage in the New Testament: “And he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets that he would be called a Nazarene.” Here, the New Testament makes the claim that the prophets of the Old Testament foretold that Jesus would be a Nazarene, meaning a person who is related to the town of Nazareth. Christians have scoured the Old Testament in search of such a passage. The closest they can find is the following passage in the book of Isaiah: “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a branch will bear fruit.” Christians argue that the Hebrew word used here for “branch,” *neter*, relates to the New Testament’s mention of “Nazarene,” and that this Old Testament passage is, therefore, the source of the New Testament quotation. The problem with this claim is that there is no linguistic connection between “Nazarene” and *neter*, as the biblical scholar Giza Vermesh explains: “Some scholars argue that ‘Nazarene’ derives from the Hebrew noun *neter*, meaning ‘Branch,’ but the problem that needs to be faced is that these two words do not derive from the same root.” We can see that Christian critics of Islam employ a double standard when it comes to Jesus and Muhammad, peace be upon them both. They reject Muhammad’s prophethood despite the clear linguistic support that exists in scripture, while overlooking the serious linguistic discrepancies that are present for Jesus. As for those whose hearts are open and follow the evidence wherever it leads them, know that the prophet like Moses, who is the desire of all nations, the *himmat* of all nations, the Ahmed of all nations, has already been sent. Will you now acknowledge and obey him before it’s too late? For more information on biblical prophecies about the coming of Muhammad, upon whom be peace, please download your free copy of the book *Abraham Fulfilled* at the link below.