"And the Lord said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a Prophet from among theit brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him" (Deutronomy 18:17-18)
3 important elements are included in this prophecy:
i)A prophet will come from among the 'brethren' of the Israelites
ii)This wprophet will like 'be unto Moses'
iii)God will put his words in the mouth of this prophet
Let us look closely at each of these elements....
A PROPHET FROM AMONG THE BRETHREN OF THE ISRAELITES
These words were spoken addressed to the Israelites. the most notable 'brethren' of israelites (descendants of Abraham through his second son Isaac), are the Ishamaelites (descendants of ABraham through his first son of Ishamael). obviously, the brethren of a nation cannot be a tribe or a family of the nation itself, but another nation related to it racially. The Bible also refers to the Isrealites as the brethren of the Ishamaelites (eg. Genesis 25:1.
A PROPHET LIKE UNTO MOSES
It is sometimes contended that the prophet like unto Moses was Jesus. After all both were israelites and spiritual teachers. Was this prophecy really about Jesus?
If the prophecy was about Jesus(pbuh)... the prophecy should have said from among yourselves.. not from among your brethren.
It's funny because the New Testament claims that Christ fulfilled this prophecy (Acts 3:22,23; John 1:45). The New Testament goes to the direct Old Testament prophecy to describe its fulfillment. But the Qu’ran does not do this. If Mohammed fulfilled this prophecy, why doesn’t the Qu’ran refer specifically to it? I’ll tell you why. Because this prophecy is not about Mohammed. Also, the tribes of Israel were brethren among each other, and Christ came out of the tribe of Judah. In Deuteronomy 3:18; 15:7; 17:15; 24:14 the tribes of Israel are mentioned as "brethren" among each other.