The Haggadah of Moses

The Bible is both the simplest book ever written and the most complex at the same time. The simplest because someone reading it for the very first time can understand the message of the Bible without having anyone explain it to them. The most complex because every word, every sentence, every paragraph, every chapter, and every book is weaved together like a tapestry. It is a beautiful work of art in which each thread holds every other thread in place. It is so intricately woven that if one thread is disconnected, removed, or out of place, the entire tapestry becomes distorted to the viewer. A tapestry so amazingly complex that one can spend their life looking at it and continue to see things they have never seen before. So the more we read the Bible, the more we see what we didn’t see the last time we read its pages.

This year as I began to read through the Book of Deuteronomy, I noticed something that I had never noticed before. I have always known that Deuteronomy, or Devarim in Hebrew, was actually Moses telling the Israelites the narrative of Israel’s Journey in the Wilderness from their Exodus out of Egypt until their last few days on the east side of the Jordan river before they entered the Promised Land. It has often been said that Deuteronomy is the book that should never have been written, after all, if Israel had trusted G-D, they would have entered the land of Promise nearly 40 years earlier. We know that the book of Deuteronomy was in fact Moses retelling those who would enter the land of Israel the story of the Exodus and their Journey because none of them except for Moses, Joshua, and Caleb were alive when Israel left Egypt. But what if there is another reason, a deeper reason, than just providing information to a new generation? What if there is actually a significant prophetic connection between the book of Deuteronomy and Yeshua?

In order to see this connection, let’s look a little further into Deuteronomy in Chapter 18:15-19 as Moses shares a prophetic word with the children of Israel foretelling the coming of a prophet.

15 “Adonai your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst—from your brothers. To him you must listen. 16 This is just what you asked of Adonai your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly when saying, ‘I cannot continue to hear the voice of Adonai my God or see this great fire any more, or I will die.’ 17 “Adonai said to me, ‘They have done well in what they have spoken. 18 I will raise up a prophet like you for them from among their brothers. I will put My words in his mouth, and he will speak to them all that I command him. 19 Now whoever does not listen to My words that this prophet speaks in My Name, I Myself will call him to account.

Those of us who believe  that Yeshua is the Messiah recognize through New Covenant Scriptures such as Acts 3:19-23 that He was this prophet spoken of by Moses in Deuteronomy. 

19 Repent, therefore, and return—so your sins might be blotted out, 20 so times of relief might come from the presence of Adonai and He might send Yeshua, the Messiah appointed for you. 21 Heaven must receive Him, until the time of the restoration of all the things that God spoke about long ago through the mouth of His holy prophets. 22 Moses said, ‘Adonai your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your brothers. Hear and obey Him in all that He shall say to you. 23 And it shall be that every soul that will not listen to that Prophet shall be completely cut off from the people.’

So if Yeshua was this prophet like Moses, then we should be able to see Yeshua doing things that Moses did. Of course a simple one is that Moses led Israel out of physical bondage and Yeshua led Israel out of spiritual bondage. While there are many other examples of Yeshua doing something that Moses also did, I had not noticed one significant example until I began reading Deuteronomy and noticed that in essence the entire book of Deuteronomy is Moses sharing the Passover story with Israel. Deuteronomy is in fact Moses’ haggadah, his telling of the story of The Exodus as a father would tell to his children or a leader to their disciples. 

Just think about it. One of the last things Moses did before he died was to stop everything and share the Passover story with those who were with him. Likewise, one of the last things Yeshua did before he died was to stop everything and share the Passover story with those who were with him. So as we see, this is one more great example of how Yeshua was a prophet like Moses. They both believed sharing the Passover story was so important that when they knew they were both about to die, they took time just before their death to tell the story of G-D’s redemption to those who were with them. 

So we see that the book of Deuteronomy wasn’t just a retelling of the Torah or Law to a new generation, it was in fact Moses sharing his haggadah with Israel as a part of the prophetic promise that a prophet like Moses was going to come. Deuteronomy was not written just to retell the Torah, but so that we would recognize that Yeshua was the Prophet like Moses who would be recognized by Israel because He did the things that Moses did.