Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 4
The speaker highlights Deuteronomy’s “prophet like Moses” promise and Jeremiah’s “new covenant… not like the covenant… they broke”; how would an early Jewish-Christian audience likely hear those passages—as continuity, as replacement, or as escalation—and how does that expectation affect how we read Jesus’ authority?
Another way to ask: When early Jewish Christians heard promises about a “prophet like Moses” and a “new covenant,” would they think God was continuing the story, replacing the old covenant, or taking it to a higher level? How does that shape how we see Jesus’ authority?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
The transcript suggests early Jewish-Christian hearers would view these passages as escalation and forward-looking fulfillment: God promised something beyond the Mosaic covenant, culminating in a new covenant and a prophet to whom Israel must listen—supporting Jesus’ superior authority.
- Deuteronomy is quoted: God will raise “a prophet like [Moses]… to him you shall listen,” and God will “put my words in his mouth.” The speaker says the law was “looking forward to this future time.”
- Jeremiah is quoted: a “new covenant… not like the covenant… they broke,” with God writing the law “on their hearts” and forgiving sin.
- The speaker frames all three key covenants (Abraham, Moses, David) as pointing forward; he asks whether Moses’ covenant “points forward to a future time,” then answers by showing prophetic promises.
- He later says God “brought a new covenant” in the New Testament and that it is “a much better covenant” (Hebrews: the first made “obsolete”).
- He describes Jesus as the one who “fulfilled the law” by bringing it to its “intended end” and giving superior commands.