Page:The Story of Joseph and His Brethren.djvu/121

118 each one of a numerous family what would befall him in the future period of his life? Yet Jacob did this; but he did it because he spake from the Spirit of God, who alone knows, and therefore who alone can reveal, future events. Jacob's address to his sons was thus prophetic. And that it was divinely prophetic, appears from this, that his prediction, in some of its particulars at least, stretched far into the future, and thus related, not to his sons themselves, but to the tribes which sprang from them. For instance, he says of Zebulon, "He shall dwell at the haven of the sea, and he shall be for an haven of ships, and his border shall be unto Zidon." This prediction was not fulfilled till nearly two hundred years after Jacob's death, when the children of Israel went up out of Egypt into Canaan, and when the tribe of Zebulon obtained their inheritance on the sea-shore, stretching to Zidon. But still more remarkable is the prophecy respecting Judah, which did not receive its fulfilment till the time of the Lord's coming, nearly two thousand years after it was uttered. It relates, not to the person, nor even strictly