Concerning "the prophet" of Deuteronomy 18:15ff: This man was believed by the Jews to be the Messiah. The disciples most certainly believed Jesus to be "the prophet" as evidenced by Peter's sermon in Acts 3 where he says, "Moses indeed said, 'A prophet shall the Lord God raise up unto you from among your brethren, like unto me. To him shall ye hearken in all things whatsoever he shall speak unto you.'"

 

Deut 20: 18,19: "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brethren--him you shall heed--just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, or see this great fire any more, lest I die.' And the LORD said to me, 'They have rightly said all that they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

 

This is referencing the time at which Moses received the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. Verse 18ff says, "

 

Now when all the people perceived the thunderings and the lightnings and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled; and they stood afar off, and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will hear; but let not God speak to us, lest we die."

 

We must conclude from this that "the prophet" CANNOT be God Himself because the whole point of this episode is that the prophet acts as a human intermediary between God and the people. The people said, "You speak to us, and we will hear; but let not God speak to us, lest we die." And so as a result of this, according to Deuteronomy 18, God said he would send "the prophet". He would be "like you", that is, like Moses, raised up from among the people of Israel, and this prophet will speak the words of God, he will speak ALL that God commands him. If Jesus is indeed God Himself incarnated as Trinitarians believe, then Jesus CANNOT be "the prophet" of Deuteronomy 18.

 

For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5).