Was Moses a prophet?
Question:
During our mid-week study, a question was asked: "Was Moses a prophet?" One lady said, "No," because of what the Bible says in Numbers 12:6-7.
However, I stated that he was because of what is taught in Deuteronomy 18:12-18, as well as Acts 7:37. Also, that Numbers 12:6-7 is teaching that God was angry with Aaron and Miriam for criticizing Moses who was a prophet of God and for claiming that they had the same ability that Moses had when in reality they did not. God in His word explains that the "ordinary" prophets received their call by some special vision or dream but "not so with Moses". He was not dependant on God visions and dreams because God "spoke to him face to face".
Your thoughts?
Answer:
"Then He said, "Hear now My words: if there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, make Myself known to him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream. Not so with My servant Moses; he is faithful in all My house. I speak with him face to face, even plainly, and not in dark sayings; and he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?"" (Numbers 12:6-8).
Your understanding of the passage is correct. Keeping it in context, Miriam and Aaron did not like Moses' wife. Instead of addressing the issue directly, they contended that they should have at least an equal voice in leading the Israelites. "So they said, "Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?" And the LORD heard it" (Numbers 12:2). Notice that they said that God spoke through Moses, which is the definition of a prophet. Thus, it was never an issue of whether Moses was a prophet or not. What is being claimed is that they also prophesied for the Lord and that gave them equal status to Moses.
God's response is that while He speaks to other prophets indirectly through visions and dreams, Moses was in a different class. He spoke with God directly. Therefore, God is telling Miriam and Aaron that their argument was without merit.
In the eulogy at Moses' death, Joshua wrote: "But since then there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, in all the signs and wonders which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt, before Pharaoh, before all his servants, and in all his land, and by all that mighty power and all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel" (Deuteronomy 34:10-12). Moses was a prophet, but he was greater than all the other prophets, until the coming of the Messiah who was the Prophet God told Moses would come. "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" (Deuteronomy 18:18).
