“Blogging the Institutes” is my on-going attempt to paraphrase John Calvin’s work, the Institutes of the Christian Religion. You can find out more about the series in the Introduction. For all the posts in this series, check out the Master List.
Moses was definitely guided by prophetic spirit when he assigned the tribe of Judah to the place of preeminence within Israel. Let’s suppose that Moses made up this prophecy. Now, four hundred pass by after Moses would have committed this “prophecy” to writing. In those intervening years, there was no mention of a king arising from the tribe of Judah. After Saul is anointed king, it seems that the kings would come from the tribe of Benjamin (1 Samuel 1:15; 16:13). When Davis is anointed by Samuel, was there any grounds for shifting the kingdom away from the tribe of Benjamin? Who would have ever thought that a king could come from the family of sheepherders. Furthermore, out of seven older brothers, who would have thought that the youngest and scrawniest son would be selected to be king? How did David come within reach of the throne? Was his anointing to be skill due to human ingenuity, skill or wisdom? Or did come through the fulfillment of prophecy?
In a similar way, don’t also the predictions that the Gentiles would be grafted into the covenant, even though they weren’t fulfilled until two thousand years later, also show that Moses spoke through the agency of the Holy Spirit? Furthermore, Moses’ song found in Deuteronomy 32 also prophecies things which come to pass.