The Authority of the Son Midrash, Part 2: Authority, Sonship, and the Great Moses-Like Prophet

Read the series.

John 5:20-30 with Psalm 2:12, Daniel 12:1-2 and Deuteronomy 18:15-19

Yeshua’s teaching in John 5:20-30 can be thought of as a series of midrashim woven together that cover significant theological issues. He addresses His authority as the Promised Prophet and Messiah and as “the Son.” He addresses the bodily resurrection of the dead, and claims He has been designated as the One Who will do the judging at this end time resurrection. In the process of combining all these truths, Yeshua clarifies His identity by audaciously demanding the same honor the Father receives. He weaves these Old Testament truths into a fabric that would seem vaguely familiar to students of the Tanakh, yet unanticipated at the same time.

John 5:20-30 quotes the words of Jesus:

For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

Hints About the Son and His Authority in the Tanakh

In the previous article, I mentioned that Yeshua claimed to have authority to resurrect the dead and judge them. These were prerogatives belonging to Yahweh (Deuteronomy 32:39, I Samuel 2:6, Isaiah 3:13). His audience would have understood such statements as claims to deity.

Psalm 2, along with other passages, suggest the concept of honoring the “son” Who is “the Mighty God” (Isaiah 9:6-7) and “God with us” (Isaiah 7:14).

Psalm 2:12 reads:

Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Here, the term “the Son” is not modified; He is just “the Son.” Yeshua uses this term and thus identifies with the Messianic Son of which Psalm 2 refers.

Jesus used the non-specific “Son of Man” term, which can either emphasize His humanity (as in Ezekiel 33:2) or – much more likely – His Messiahship as prophesied in Daniel 7:13-14:

I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

Honoring the Son

Yeshua stated quite overtly that He was to honored in the same way the faithful honor the Father. Yet in the Tanakh (Isaiah 42:8), Yahweh just as overtly claims exclusive rights in this regard:

I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols.

In the Old Testament (Exodus 34:14), God demands all the glory, not just most of it. He presents Himself as a jealous God.

Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

The fact that Jesus not only expects to be honored – but that He expects to be honored as one honors the Father – is the ranting of a mad man – or a man Who is God incarnate!

Yeshua As the Moses-Like Prophet: He Does As Told

Deuteronomy 18:15-19 reads,

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— 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.’ And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. 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. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.

Yeshua is both the expected Prophet (Acts 3:22-26) and the promised Messiah. Just as Moses did not initiate his own plans (but God’s) – so Jesus did not initiate His own plans, but the Father’s.

Consider the words of Yeshua in John 5:30 and compare them to the words of Moses in Numbers 16:28. Both express total dedication to serving the Father:

• John 5:30, “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”
• Numbers 16:28 (NIV), “Then Moses said, ‘This is how you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea…’”

Both Messiah Yeshua and Moses did what God sent them to do. Moses, like Jesus, was noted for his great humility. Although Moses was a sinner (thus differing from Yeshua), he was uniquely dedicated to God, while Yeshua’s dedication was perfect and His ways blameless (Hebrews 4:15).

Some believe that Moses is referring to the entire legacy of true prophets. The 11^th century Jewish academic Rashi (Shlomo Yitzhaki) explains what is currently a common Jewish understanding:

This means: Just as I am among you, from your brothers, so will He set up for you [another prophet] in my stead, and so on, from prophet to prophet.[1]

While Yahweh sent Israel many prophets and prophetesses, a natural reading of the texts suggests another specific prophet should be expected who, in some ways, resembled Moses’ ministry. None of the prophets – even Elijah – had the extensive ministry Moses did.

Michael L. Brown comments:

The problem is that according to Deuteronomy 34:10-11, “…no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, who did all those miraculous signs and wonders the LORD sent him to do in Egypt…The identical phrase is used in both passages (namely, raising up a prophet like Moses), but we are told explicitly that no such prophet arose again in Israel’s history.[2]

The phrase, “no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses” is obviously written after Moses death, and very likely added as an editorial comment centuries later. The most likely candidate who added these and other details – perhaps originally as editorial notes – is most likely (but not certainly) Ezra.

Richard McDonald writes:

As part of his restorative work, Jewish tradition attributes two actions that bear on our topic. First, he’s responsible for updating the script of the Hebrew Bible. Second, in the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmud, the rabbis indicate that Ezra completed updating, collecting, and arranging the books of the Old Testament. Additionally, 2 Maccabees 2:13 suggests that Ezra had a large library at his disposal to perform his work on the Old Testament canon. [3]

The gospels make it clear that many Jews in the first century were awaiting a specific prophet. Some even thought John the Baptist might be He (John 1:21). Jesus is that prophet!