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15″The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from among your own people, like myself; him you shall heed. 16This is just what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb, on the day of the Assembly, saying, “Let me not hear the voice of the Lord my God any longer or see this wondrous fire any more, lest I die.”
17Whereupon the Lord said to me, “They have done well in speaking thus. 18I will raise up a prophet for them from among their own people, like yourself: I will put My words in his mouth and he will speak to them all that I command him;”. Deuteronomy 18/15-18 Tanakh JPS 1985.
12Now go, and I will be with you as you speak and will instruct you what to say.” 13But he said, “Please, O Lord, make someone else Your agent.” 14The Lord became angry with Moses, and He said, “There is your brother Aaron the Levite. He, I know, speaks readily. Even now he is setting out to meet you, and he will be happy to see you. 15You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth—I will be with you and with him as you speak, and tell both of you what to do— 16and he shall speak for you to the people. Thus he shall serve as your spokesman, with you playing the role of God to him, 17And take with you this rod, with which you shall perform the signs.”
18Moses went back to his father-in-law Jether and said to him, “Let me go back to my kinsmen in Egypt and see how they are faring.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”
19The Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who sought to kill you are dead.” 20So Moses took his wife and sons, mounted them on an ass, and went back to the land of Egypt; and Moses took the rod of God with him.
21And the Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the marvels that I have put within your power. I, however, will stiffen his heart so that he will not let the people go. 22Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: Israel is My first-born son. 23I have said to you, “Let My son go, that he may worship Me,” yet you refuse to let him go. Now I will slay your first-born son.’”
24At a night encampment on the way, the Lord encountered him and sought to kill him. 25 So Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched his legs with it, saying, “You are truly a bridegroom of blood to me!” 26And when He let him alone, she added, “A bridegroom of blood because of the circumcision.”
27The Lord said to Aaron, “Go to meet Moses in the wilderness.” He went and met him at the mountain of God, and he kissed him. 28Moses told Aaron about all the things that the Lord had committed to him and all the signs about which He had instructed him. 29Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled all the elders of the Israelites. 30Aaron repeated all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses, and he performed the signs in the sight of the people, 31and the people were convinced. When they heard that the Lord had taken note of the Israelites and that He had seen their plight, they bowed low in homage. Exodus 7/1-2 Tanakh JPS 1985.
Commentary:
I am the prophet like Moses for the reason that like Moses I speak to G-d face to face, G-d speaks to me as a friend, I converse with G-d whenever I so wish, G-d talks directly to me when He so desires, and I write G-d’s words at His direction.
And like Moses I bring a redemption. The redemption of the new covenant G-d declared in Jeremiah chapter 31 to be delivered in a time to come, this time, the time of the fulfillment of all biblical prophecy, the time G-d speaks to His prophets again.
When G-d said there is Aaron, even now he is setting out to meet you and he will be happy to see you G-d is placing a short vision into the mind of Moses (Aaron and Moses do not meet for many days after this at the mountain of G-d).
It is not a trance like vision where Moses feels that he is in another place and time away from the world. It is more like an image of an event on television that you remember after you have watched it. It is a vision that goes more to your mind than your eye.
The image would have been of Aaron walking out of his dwelling place and together with G-d’s words “he is setting out to meet you” Moses knows that Aaron is on his way.
This is the way G-d communicates with Moses and the way he communicates with me. I listen to His words and He often sends to me “picture visions” at the same time. It is not a confirmation of G-d’s words so much as it is a more perfect way to communicate. Words with pictures. Often it is just picture visions that have instant meaning to me.
G-d says to Moses “I will be with you and with him as you speak, and tell both of you what to do”. G-d often tells me what to do and say when I am talking with another person. He is always with me. I am a host of the Lord of Hosts. That means G-d dwells with me.
The communication with G-d and Aaron is much more limited than the communication between G-d and Moses. Moses is to speak the words G-d gives him to Aaron for Aaron to speak to Pharaoh and G-d is telling Aaron what to do with the words, such as when to deliver them and the tone to use.
G-d tells Moses that Aaron will be his spokesman with Moses playing the role of G-d and Aaron being his prophet as Moses delivers G-d’s words to Aaron to be spoken to Pharaoh. When Moses speaks the words of G-d to another person G-d is speaking through him.