There are a number of times Jesus identified Himself as the one and only Savior, the Messiah. Of course, every one of those was a reference to the Hebrew Scriptures and the promise of God to His Jewish people.

One of the most direct is found in John Chapter 5 where Yeshua is chastising the Jewish establishment for unbelief after He infuriated them by calling God His Father. After meticulously explaining He did nothing on His own, but only by God’s direction, He cited Moses. In verse 46 He challenged, “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me.

Among those messianic prophecies in the Torah, the Books of Moses, Deuteronomy 18:18,19 is particularly cogent: “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. And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him.”

This passage stipulates the coming Messiah will be a Hebrew (Jewish) Prophet. He will be like Moses, from among the children of Israel. This is a critical identifier that Yeshua is the Jewish Messiah.

Moses explains His words will carry power, even the weight of life and death. Those words will come directly from God. While that is the case with all true prophets, this one will speak with a stronger authority. The phrase, “I will require it of him.” (the ones who don’t heed the words of Messiah), suggests facing the judgement of God. Indeed, the Jewish Apostle Peter makes the same citation in Acts 3:22,23 as he scolded and encouraged a crowd of his fellow Israelites.

On a number of occasions, Jesus used Deuteronomy 18 to distinguish Himself as the Messiah. For example, in John 15:15, mirroring God’s “ I will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him,” He said, “ . . . for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.”

His disciples all knew the promise of Deuteronomy 18, they, along with all Israel, were waiting for the day of its fulfillment. When Yeshua aligned Himself with that promise, it was a further proof He was the Promised One of Israel.