Moses was at the end of his life. He was now going to pronounce a blessing on the twelve tribes that traveled with him through the desert. He would recount their journey, the Lord’s unfaithfulness, and sometimes their unfaithfulness. The whole chapter is specific blessings of each tribe, and he introduces his final discourse with this:
This is the blessing that Moses the man of God pronounced on the Israelites before his death. 2 He said:
“The Lord came from Sinai
and dawned over them from Seir;
he shone forth from Mount Paran.
He came with myriads of holy ones
from the south, from his mountain slopes.
3 Surely it is you who love the people;
all the holy ones are in your hand.
At your feet they all bow down,
and from you receive instruction,
4 the law that Moses gave us,
the possession of the assembly of Jacob.
5 He was king over Jeshurun
when the leaders of the people assembled,
along with the tribes of Israel.
Do you see Muhammad there in the introduction to his blessings of the tribe? No? But if you have been a Muslim, you might try. Hard. Here are the points:
Muslims
1) Moses is giving a prophecy
Moses is giving a blessing, not a prophecy.
“This is the blessing that Moses the man of God pronounced on the Israelites before his death” (v. 1).
But sometimes blessings contain prophecy. Right?
Yes, but if you read the rest of the chapter, every blessing and every prophecy for each specific tribe is listed. We do not see Muhammad or his followers listed anywhere. This isn’t hidden meaning. Moses is clear.
2) Sinai is in Egypt, and this is about Moses
This is not about Moses, it’s about Yahweh appearing to Israel at Sinai.
“The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up” (Ex 19:20) “
3) Seir is in Palestine, this is about the coming of Jesus
Seir is not in Palestine, it is in Edom, the territory of the people of Esau. There may have been other Seirs as was common to the times. But what Moses is doing is recalling the wilderness journey, and that went through Seir of Edom.
“‘You are about to pass through the territory of your relatives the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir” (Deut 2:4)
- Israel passed through Seir to get to the promised land“Then we turned back and set out toward the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea,as the Lord had directed me. For a long time we made our way around the hill country of Seir” (Deut 2:1)
- This has nothing to do with Jesus’ earthly ministry. It is about the Israelites in their journey to the promised land.
4) “Shone forth from Mount Paran” is about Prophet Muhammad
- Mount Paran is not about Muhammad, but about God – Same cloud that was on Mt. Sinai settled with them in Paran on their way to the Promised Land“On the twentieth day of the second month of the second year, the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle of the covenant law. 12 Then the Israelites set out from the Desert of Sinai and traveled from place to place until the cloud came to rest in the Desert of Paran.” (Num 10:11-12)
- This is God, traveling with Israel
5) Paran
- Paran is repeatedly mentioned in the Torah as a place the Israelites passed through during the Exodus – (Numbers 10:12; 12:16; 13:3; Deuteronomy 1:1)
6) Came with 10,000 saints with his flaming right hand – This is about Muhammad coming with the Quran and 10,000 Muslims with him
- The 10,000 saints are not Muhammad’s army, but angels. This when Yahweh came with the covenantal law of the Torah with his angels. We read about this in the New Testament.Acts 7:53 – 53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”
Gal 3:19 – 19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.
FURTHER STUDY:
“Holy Ones”
- מֵרִבְבֹת קֹדֶשׁ (merivvōt qōdeš) is overhwelmingly used for angelic beings, not humans (Job 5:1; 15:15; Psalm 89:5–7; Daniel 7:10)
Septuigint, Targums (translation of Hebrew Bible into Aramic) – The Second Temple Jewish texts are explicit.
Dear Muslims, I know you are trying so hard to find Muhammad prophesied in the Bible. But read this text with intellectual honesty. Do you really believe that this is prophesying Muhammad?