God the Father told Moses of the coming of Christ as the Prophet, saying: I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. (Deuteronomy 18:18) The word here translated ‘prophet’ means an announcer or declarer of God's word. Jesus is likened to the prophet, Moses, in that Moses received his message in a more direct manner than that of a lesser prophet.
Lesser prophets receive God's message by way of an angel, dream, or a vision. For example, God said to His angel: Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision. (Daniel 8:16) And Gabriel obeyed saying: O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee. (Daniel 10:11)
Moses was superior to such prophets, in that God spoke directly to him. Thus God says of Moses: If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord, will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so . . . With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; And the similitude of the Lord shall he behold. (Numbers 12:6-8) So Moses, when he received God's message, saw the Lord and spoke with Him: And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. (Exodus 33:11) And after Moses died, we read: there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. (Deuteronomy 34:10)
So Moses knew a greater measure of the friendship of God than other prophets, and this is one reason that Jesus is compared to Moses. Jesus also saw God: No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. (John 1:18) Jesus here is speaking of seeing the face of God the Father, whom no man other than Christ has seen. Moses must have a similitude of God's face.
Another reason that Jesus is compared to Moses is that the giving of the Ten Commandments through Moses was the greatest advance in the knowledge of God and His will until the time of Christ, who made a similar great advance in the knowledge of God.
The reason that Christ's message was greater than that of other prophets was not only that He was the Son of God. It was also because of His perfection. Because no other man was ever perfect, their nature would have interfered with the communication between God and themselves. Thus there was always a limitation upon their ministry. But this was not true of the Son of God who was filled with the Holy Spirit, as Jesus said of Himself: For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. (John 3:34)
Jesus said that His words were not His own, but those of His Father: The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. (John 14:10) He also said: the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say. (John 12:49) For this reason the way to learn from the Father in heaven is to hear Jesus' words. He said: He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. (John 12:44)
Even now Jesus learns of the Father before prophesying. Of the book of Revelation, given years after His ascension it is written: The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass. (Revelation 1:1) God the Father gave this revelation to Jesus His Son for Him to pass on to the church. So even now and forever Jesus does not know all things but only what God the Father shows him. Although Jesus now knows more than when limited on earth, the same principle is true now as when Jesus was on earth and said of Himself: But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. (Mark 13:32)
The greatness of the revelation of Jesus Christ is declared by Him, when He said: the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth. (John 5:20) Because He published this revelation by teaching, Jesus could say of Himself: I am the light of the world. (John 8:12) None other had such revelation as the only One to have seen God the Father. Those who heard the Son said: Never man spake like this man. (John 7:46)
Jesus did not teach to burden people, but rather to help them because He knew that the truth helps people: Jesus . . . was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them. (Mark 6:34) But His motivation went beyond that of just unburdening people to that of generating the utmost love. He said: I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them. (John 17:26)
Jesus taught very much about the hereafter and spoke things which He said had: been kept secret from the foundation of the world. (Matthew 13:35).
One reason for the timing of Jesus' prophecies was a major change in the government of God's kingdom from earth to heaven, marked by Christ's words to Pilate: My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. (John 18:36) Prior to Christ, since Moses, God had appointed judges and kings to rule over the nation of Israel, which was God's kingdom on earth.
For this reason eternal rewards play a bigger role in the minds of Christians than in the minds of Jews, and earthly punishments a lesser role. But the men of faith in the Old Testament also had their hopes set upon eternal goals.
Christ's teachings are relevant forever. In billions of years time, after the earth has been dissolved, Christ's words will not diminish in importance. He said: Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. (Matthew 24:35)