 The 18th chapter in the book of Deuteronomy and Devarim speaks about a prophet that God would send to the Jewish people. And the passage is open-ended enough that it doesn't identify who this prophet is. And so the $64,000 question is, who is it speaking about? And because it's such an open door, it shouldn't surprise anyone that over the course of history, Christianity insisted that this prophet that God was going to send was Jesus of Nazareth. Islam has claimed that the prophet that is being spoken of here in Deuteronomy chapter 18 is the prophet Muhammad, in their opinion. And so what we're going to try to understand is based upon the text of the Bible itself, do we have any clues as to who this passage is referring to where it says, a prophet from your brethren like me shall God establish for you, that's in the 18th chapter of Deuteronomy verse 15. One of the principles of understanding the Bible, actually of understanding any book, is to be sensitive to context. They say in real estate that the major thing to pay attention to in real estate is location, location, location. In studying the Bible, what's critical is context, context, context. Now there are two things I'd like to point out. Number one is the general context of the book of Deuteronomy of Dvarim. This is the fifth book of the five books of Moses. And as we know, this is really, the entire book is a speech, is really a message that Moses is giving to the Jewish people just prior to their entering the land of Israel. We know that they left Egypt and that they ended up spending 40 years wandering in the desert, but the goal of leaving Egypt was to come to the promised land. And now they are essentially at the foot of coming into the promised land, they're about to enter the land of Israel. And the entire book of Deuteronomy is basically the goodbye speech of Moses. It is his speech preparing the Jewish people for their entry into the land of Israel. Now, the 18th chapter of Deuteronomy will zero in even more in terms of context. One of the subtexts, one of the themes that is really working behind the scenes when we get to the book of Deuteronomy is a crisis that the Jewish people experienced 40 years earlier. We know that 40 years earlier, when Moses went to the top of Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, so we know that the people expected him to return at a certain time. And we know that Moses was delayed. He didn't come down exactly when the people expected him. And the people unfortunately freaked out. They got very, very nervous. They were very upset. Who was going to lead us? They became very dependent on Moses. And we know the tragic consequences of their panic was to build a golden calf that would take the place of Moses. Now, that event was a catastrophe in Jewish history. And so Moses now in the book of Deuteronomy understands he is not going to be accompanying the Jewish people into the land of Israel. God had told him, you're not going to enter the land. And so Moses now understands the people are about to enter the land of Israel. And he, Moses, is not going to go with them. So now they're going to find themselves in the exact same situation they were in 40 years earlier. They're going to be left without Moses. What is going to happen? And so the book of Deuteronomy basically is preparing them in general for entry into the land. But the 18th chapter, the one we're looking at now really zeros in on this question of what are they going to do in the absence of Moses? Now, immediately before verse 15, right before this promise of a prophet that God will send, Moses warns the Jewish people and says that you should not turn and learn from the pagan and occult practices of the nations who are living in the land that you're about to enter. Moses warns the Jewish people that the people living in Canaan practice astrology and sorcery and divination and reading signs and omens and different kind of charms. He goes through a whole list of occult practices of divination, ways of discerning the future. And so really what Moses is thinking about here is what are the people going to do when they don't know what to do? If Moses is not around anymore, they might be led to feel that they have to turn to these occult practices because the pagan nations have ways of knowing what to do. They have these occult practices that they turn to to help them know how to proceed in life. And Moses was concerned that in his absence, they would turn to these practices. And so immediately Moses says, do not learn from these practices, do not do these practices. He then goes on to say, God is gonna raise up a prophet for you. So it's clear from the context that this prophet that Moses is speaking about in Deuteronomy 18 is not Jesus or Muhammad who come hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years later. It's very clear from the context it's speaking about the prophet who would basically be filling in after Moses, after Moses is no longer gonna be leading them. And we know from scripture that's the prophet Joshua. So the immediate understanding, the clear understanding contextually is that this prophet being spoken of in Deuteronomy chapter 18 is the prophet Joshua. And again, because he is the one that's going to be filling in after Moses departs and is no longer leading the people. And obviously, by extension, a secondary meaning is that it really is applying to any prophet who will be coming after Joshua. Really, it's not limited to Joshua. Joshua is the primary subject of this passage, but by extension, obviously, it would refer to all the prophets who would be coming after Joshua as well.