"For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (v.21)
Where did Scripture come from? What is the basis of our faith in the Bible and the Gospel? Peter wants us to realize that the prophets of ancient times didn't make up their own private stories. Instead, they only moved and responded to what God was doing in them, not what they themselves wanted to do or say. They were human, but their message was God's word because the Holy Spirit moved them to speak and guided their words. This makes what we have in Scripture from the prophets more than precious, for we are given the very words of God!
One thousand years before Jesus Christ came, men of old, prophets, were moved by the Holy Spirit to post prophetic signs that would point to Him as the Messiah. Moved by the Spirit men like David, Isaiah, Micah, Zecharaiah, and Malachi wrote of the following events; “The Messiah’s hands and feet would be pierced” (Psalm 22:16). “The Messiah would not open His mouth to defend Himself” (Isaiah 53:7); “The Messiah would be buried in the tomb of a rich man, though He was destined for burial with the wicked” (Isaiah 53:9); “The Messiah would be born in the town of Bethlehem: (Micah 5:2); “The Messiah would ride into the Holy City on the back of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9); “He would be betrayed by a friend for thirty pieces of silver” (Zechariah 11:12); and that the silver would be used to buy a potters field (Zechariah 11:13); The Messiah would have a “forerunner announcing His coming” (Malachi 3:1).
These are but eight of the 300 prophecies recorded in the Scriptures of the Messiah before He appeared. The “Law of Compound Probabilities” tells us that the chances of one man fulfilling these eight prophecies is 1 in 10 to the 28 power. In other words 1 in 100000000000000000000000000000 - Or as Pastor Chuck use to say, “You could cover the state of Texas with silver dollars two feet deep, mark one of them with a red X, tell a friend to wonder around the state and choose one silver dollar. Those are the odds of any one person fulfilling just eight of the 300 prophecies, yet Jesus fulfilled them all. Thus proving beyond any doubt that, "prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but it came from God through the Holy Spirit."
It seems that Peter understood that his (and the other apostles’ writings) would carry the same weight as the words of the prophets and that he knew they were writing Holy Scripture (2 Peter 1:12-15; 2 Peter 3:16). Like the prophets of the Old Testament, Peter and the other authors of the books of the New Testament were careful to write only what God inspired through the Holy Spirit as well.
Men die, experiences fade, but the Word endures. As our world grows darker, His Word shines brighter, and I thank God for the truth of the Scriptures.
The Truth: "But when He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come.” (John 16:13)
