History of the Spirit of God in the Old Testament

Well, the last Holy Day that we observed a few months ago was the Day of Pentecost. And of course, we know that the Day of Pentecost pictures the time when the Church received the Holy Spirit in 31 AD. We're coming upon the Fall Holy Days, and in a lot of ways, I truly enjoy the Fall Holy Days, even a greater way than the Spring Holy Days, because they're so forward-looking. They're so positive and so forward-looking to the fulfillment and completion of God's plan. Well, today I would like to talk about the Holy Spirit. Only for the sake of time, I have to limit a discussion of the Holy Spirit today to how it is revealed in the Old Testament. And it's my hope at a future sermon. I promise you, God willing, that I will give a sermon in the future that will focus on the New Testament. But today, I would just like to look at the power and the presence and the influence of God's Holy Spirit as revealed in the Old Testament.

So if you'll turn to Genesis 1 and verse 1, you can't get too much earlier than this. We will see that from the very beginning, in the Book of Beginnings, we are introduced to the powerful presence and force that emanates from God, known as His Holy Spirit. Now, many scholars, by the time you get to the New Testament, want to proclaim that God is a Trinity, and that the Holy Spirit is God, and is equal to God, and Jesus is the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is God, and the Father is God.

And they want to make a Trinitarian formula out of Jesus Christ, the Father, and that power, that presence that emanates from them, that does their work that we know of as the Holy Spirit. But that certainly isn't true. And you will find absolutely no indication of that in the Old Testament. Even many of the so-called Christian scholars are honest enough to admit that there's no indication in the Old Testament that a Trinity exists. They have to twist New Testament Scriptures in order to attempt to prove that.

But let's begin here in Genesis 1, beginning in verse 1, and we'll begin to see the very first mention of the Holy Spirit. It says, in the beginning was God, or in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. Now, we understand this to realize, of course, that God literally was refashioning the earth. God doesn't make anything in confusion. And we understand and we believe that He had created the earth previously in a very beautiful way, and that one time life existed on it, not life as we know it, perhaps not even an atmosphere that we could have thrived in, but, for example, an atmosphere that the dinosaurs thrived in.

Even geologists and those who study such things now believe that at one time a huge meteor struck the earth, that created a winter, an artificial change in the environment, and that's what made all of the dinosaurs die out in geographic times, a very short period of time the dinosaurs are gone. And suddenly they say mammals arise. Well, we do understand from the Word of God that the world had existed previously, and through a war that existed, a spiritual war, the earth was destroyed, and life on it was destroyed as well.

So by the time we come to Genesis 1, verse 1, what God is literally doing is He is refashioning, He is recreating this earth, so that man is capable of living on it. And it says here, The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, Let there be light, and there was light.

This word for Spirit is Hebrew, roka. It's roha, and it means wind. It means a breath. So the wind, the breath of God, that dynamic force from God, the actual Hebrew is ruach eloim, that is the wind, the breath of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Now we know how dynamic wind can be. If you've ever seen something as simple as a windmill, you can see that it converts wind into some dynamic energy, like electricity. We know through hurricanes and through natural events that wind can be a very powerful force for change and also for destruction. But in this case, this was the wind, the breath of God that was there from the very beginning, and it was hovering over the face of the waters.

I like to think of those hummingbirds that come to my hummingbird feeder. They hover for a few minutes. They're just there waiting to make a decision, to be told to do something, and then they land it to be fed. And what's happening here is this powerful presence from God was waiting to be commanded what to do.

And the command was, let there be light and the Spirit of God through the power and presence of God literally created the light. Here we see we're first introduced to the Spirit of God as early as it gets in the book of Genesis. In the book of John, we're told, of course, that Jesus Christ was the word of the original creation. The one later known as Jesus Christ was the one who spoke the world into existence. So what happened is the Father had the thought, the plan, the will. His son Jesus Christ spoke the world into existence.

And that presence and that force that emanates from both of them known as the Spirit of God is the power, the force that literally does their will on their behalf. So we see here that one of the tasks of the Spirit of God from the very beginning is as a force of creation. But you know what? I hope you understand and realize that thousands of years later, the Holy Spirit is still a force of creation by helping many to become a new creation in Christ. So the role of the Spirit has not changed. At one time, it was for the physical creation, re-creation, re-fashioning of the earth.

And now, God's presence, God's forceful power is being used within you and within me to create a new creation in Jesus Christ as Paul spoke about in 2 Corinthians 5. So with this beginning, the beginning of beginnings from the earliest part of the Scriptures, now let's take a look at some Scriptures in the Old Testament so that we can have a better understanding of the capabilities of the influence that resides by possessing God's Holy Spirit. Turn with me to Genesis 41 and verse 33. We're very familiar with this story.

Pharaoh had a dream. He couldn't interpret it. He went to the wisest Egyptian soothsayers and all of his pagan counselors and religious individuals. None of them could interpret the dreams. They finally called this young Hebrew named Joseph to interpret the dreams for them. And here is what Joseph says. And Pharaoh makes a decision. Genesis 41 and verse 33.

Verse 37. So the advice was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants. And Pharaoh said to his servants, can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?

You see, even Pharaoh understood that it would take someone with the wisdom, with the organizational skills, someone with extraordinary skills to be able to fulfill this task. When I read this, I usually smile to myself because to me this is an example of pseudo-humility. Joseph interprets the dreams and then Joseph basically gives his own job description. I mean, he's the only one that can do this. And that's basically what Pharaoh says. Pharaoh says, oh, well, well, I guess that's you! Good idea! It kind of reminds me of the American Revolution when the Continental Congress was getting together. Who are we going to have, who has military experience and can be our general? And every day George Washington would show up in his military uniform. And when they ask him, oh, no, not me! Well, come on, you showed up in your military uniform every day. So this is kind of like what Joseph is doing here, but he is obviously filled with the Spirit of God. So one of the qualities of a person who has the Holy Spirit in time is wisdom. Paul later wrote to the Ephesians in chapter 1 and verse 17. He said, He prayed that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. And this wisdom, this ability that this young man Joseph had to come out and solve a problem, to interpret the dreams and to tell the Pharaoh of Egypt the steps that needed to be taken to save the nation, made him stand out among the servants of Pharaoh. And this is another example, very early example, of the phrase, the Spirit of God, where we see the Spirit of God. One thing that we'll understand about the Old Testament is that very few people were given God's Holy Spirit. Very few people had the Spirit of God because it was an old, what we would say, an old covenant. It was an Old Testament. It was based on physical promises, the Old Covenant. It said, if you obey, if you do these things, you'll be rewarded. If you break these physical laws and statutes and judgments, you will be punished. It was based on the physical. The Holy Spirit is a spiritual promise. It is a spiritual. It's in the spiritual realm, not the physical realm. So, in the New Covenant, it is offered to everyone whom the Father calls, and eventually, after the Kingdom of God, everyone who lives on earth. But it was given to very few people at this time. One of those individuals, of course, was Moses. But not only Moses. If we'll go to Exodus chapter 31, Exodus chapter 31 and verse 1, we'll see that it was given to other individuals as well.

Exodus chapter 31, verse 1, it says, So we see here that God gives His Spirit, even sometimes, to craftsmen to magnify their abilities, to design or create things, in this case, for the tabernacle. And I want you to notice the expanded qualities that He received because He had the Spirit, wisdom. It says, knowledge and an understanding of a different group of trades. Not just one skill, one trade, but a number of different trades. And the same is true today as God gives some people the gifts to create websites. So the work of God can be further. Some people have the ability to write in an extraordinarily powerful way. So the Word of God can be promoted. Some people are given the gift to be able to speak. So the Word of God can be promoted so that the work on earth can be done. And that is so very important. Let's go to Numbers, chapter 11 and verse 11 and see that there came a time when Moses was overwhelmed by events.

He felt burdened. His heart and his mind were burdened because it seemed like no matter what he did for the people it wasn't good enough. This time they wanted me to eat. They were talking as they had a number of times, going back to Egypt, of eliminating Moses, claiming he was a bad leader. He was discouraged. And it says here in Numbers, chapter 11, verse 11, So Moses said to the Lord, Why have you afflicted your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you have laid the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I beget them that you should say to me, Carry them in your bosom? As a guardian carries, a nursing child to the land which I swore to their fathers? Where am I to get the meat to give all these people? For they weep all over me. I've talked about attitude before. And in Moses' ears, all he seemed like he ever heard was, Wah, Wah, Wah! And it got to the point where he couldn't take it anymore. Excuse me. And he continues here.

He said, I am not able to bear all these people alone because the burden is too heavy for me. If you treat me like this, please kill me here and now, if I have found favor in your sight, and do not let me see my wretchedness. So the Lord said to Moses, Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know, that is by their fruits, by their lives, whom you know, to be the elders of the people, and officers over them. Bring them to the tabernacle of meeting, that they may stand there with you, and I will come down and talk with you there, and I will take of this spirit that is upon you, and will put the same spirit upon them, that they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone. So we see by this example that the leadership and the responsibility was now to be upon thirty-one individuals, not just one, of seventy-one individuals, and this authority was conferred by the Holy Spirit, being upon all seventy of these elders plus Moses. The Spirit of God gave them the wisdom and the leadership needed to handle a difficult burden of managing nearly two million people and their daily needs. So time goes on, and Israel enters the Promised Land, and they were ruled by Judges. Let's take a look at Judges 3 and verse 7 and see another example of the spirit. The Holy Spirit was often given to the Judges in various ways. It says, so this is Judges 3 and 7. So the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord their God and served as the bales and asterisks. These are pagan gods, pagan idols. Therefore the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the land of Kushan, Reshitham, king of Mesopotamia. And the children of Israel served Kushan eight years. When the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the children of Israel, who delivered them, Altanil, with the son of Kanez, Caleb's younger brother. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him. And he judged Israel. He went out to war, and the Lord delivered Kushan, the king of Mesopotamia, into his hand, and his hand prevailed over Kushan, so the land had rest for 40 years. Then Altanil, the son of Kanez, died. So we see here that the judges were typically given the Holy Spirit. And it gave them uncanny wisdom, organizational skills, sometimes military knowledge, sometimes even extraordinary physical strength to do God's work, to do what God needed them to do at the time. But as time went on, eventually the judges weren't good enough for Israel. And they wanted to have a king like all the other nations. And God took it personally, because God had always thought of himself as their king. But they wanted to be like the other people around them. They wanted a king. So they came to Samuel, said, we want a king. And even though they rejected God's will for them, he allowed them to have a king with certain conditions. And the man that was chosen was Saul. Let's go to 1 Samuel 9 and verse 26 and see what happens to Saul when he is anointed and when he is made king. 1 Samuel 9 and verse 26.

It says, They arose early, and it was about the dawning of the day that Samuel called to Saul on top of the house, saying, Get up, that I may send you on your way. And Saul arose, and both of them went outside. He and Samuel, as they were going down to the outskirts of the city, Samuel said to Saul, Tell thy servants to go ahead of us. And so they went on, But you stand here awhile, that I may announce to you the word of God. And what he was announcing to Saul was God's requirements to be king. This is what he's expected of you. He was telling you God is making you king. But here are God's provisions for you to be king. And by the time we get to 1 Samuel chapter 10, it says that Samuel took a flask of oil, he poured it on his head, he kissed him, and said, Is it not because the Lord has anointed you, commander over his inheritance? He says, I'm anointing you with oil because God has chosen you. And after this anointing, Samuel gave explicit detail to Saul regarding the journey he would soon take. We're not going to go into that, but we will pick it up at verse 5, one of the things he was told. And it says, After that you shall come to the hill of God where the Philistine garrison is, and it will happen when you have come there to the city that you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with a stringed instrument, a tambourine, a flute, and a harp before them, and they will be prophesying. I want you to notice an example of prophecy being mixed with music. It is an ancient and a powerful way to worship God, even before there was a temple, there was music in worship. Verse 6, And the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them, and be turned into another man. He says, when you receive the Spirit of God, your life will never be the same. If you get it and understand the power that will be in you, the same power that was there when the Creator said, let there be light, and all of a sudden there was light, that same power will reside within you, and you will be totally different.

And be turned into another man, and let it be when these signs come to you that you do as the occasion demands for God is with you. Why is God with you? Because when you have His Holy Spirit, the presence of God literally dwells within you.

The Spirit of God has merged with your mind, the Spirit of man, and you are turned into something beautiful, something different, something more dynamic, something more powerful that God can use. Verse 8, You shall go down before me to Gilgal, and surely I will come down to you to offer burnt offerings and make sacrifices of peace offering. Seven days you shall wait till I come to you and show you what you should do. So it was when He had turned His back to go from Samuel that God gave Him another heart. You see, He took out of Him that heart of stone, that heart that says, it's all about me! The universe revolves around me!

And He gave Him a different heart, a heart that has the potential of developing the fruits of God's Holy Spirit, which is totally different than our carnal, self-centered human hearts. That God gave Him another heart, and all those signs came to pass that day. When they came there to the hill, there was a group of prophets to meet Him.

Then the Spirit of God came upon Him, and He prophesied among them. And it happened when all who knew Him formerly saw that He indeed prophesied among the prophets that the people said to one another, This is what has come upon the son of Kish, or in modern terms, what's with this? This guy was a loser! What happened to Saul? He's nothing like the scumbag that I grew up with. He's nothing like the guy that I knew growing up, because He had been turned into another man.

They said, is Saul also among the prophets? I want you to notice that the Spirit of God would literally transform Saul into another man.

One of the spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit, mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13, is prophecy. We're not all going to be given the gift of prophecy.

And we also need to understand, I think there's been confusion in the church for many years, that prophets did more than just predict future events.

Their messages, the role of a prophet, also included being the conscience of a nation.

Being the ones to say, you have to honor God. They were the ones who encouraged righteous living. They were the conscience.

They weren't just walking around predicting future events all of the time.

Later, the Apostle Peter wrote, in 2 Peter 1 and verse 21, he said, For prophecy never came by the will of man, but by holy men of God, who spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

Well, unfortunately, Saul did some terrible things.

And he disobeyed God. And God, eventually in time, though he's a patient God, through a series of events, God decided to remove the Holy Spirit from him and to give his Holy Spirit to a young man named David.

Let's read about that in 1 Samuel chapter 16 and verse 10.

1 Samuel chapter 16 and verse 10.

You see, when God gives someone the gift of the Holy Spirit, there are personal responsibilities and accountabilities that come with receiving that spiritual gift.

And Saul had decided to blatantly disobey God. He had been told to totally destroy the people of Amalek.

The cattle, the king, everybody, and he did not kill the king, and he kept the best of the cattle, the best of the animals.

He disobeyed God.

And God decided to replace him in time. We'll pick it up in 1 Samuel chapter 16 and verse 10.

Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, The Lord is not chosen these. And Samuel said to Jesse, Are all the young men here you holding back on me?

Has everybody come? Then he said, Oh yeah, that's right. There remains yet the youngest.

And he's doing something pretty demeaning because he's the youngest. He's just taking care of the sheep. And Samuel said to Jesse, Well, send them, bring them in, because you know what? We're not going to sit down until he comes in here.

So he went, he brought him in. Now he was ruddy, reddish-looking, probably from being in the sun all the time, and perhaps some genetics that he had.

He had bright eyes. He was good-looking. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him for this is the one.

Then Samuel took a horn of oil, and he anointed him in the midst of his brothers.

And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel arose and went to Ramah.

And let's see what happened in verse 14.

But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the Lord troubled him.

Remember one of the principles last week? The principle of displacement.

You have something that's either righteous or evil, and if something is bad and you displace it with good things, you force out the bad, and eventually what predominates are the right thoughts, the right attitudes, the right ideas.

But that also works in reverse. And when the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul because of his disobedience, there was a void left in Saul.

There was a displacement. And sadly, what replaced that void, as has happened to far too many people that I have known in my lifetime in the Church of God, the Spirit of God was replaced by a distressing spirit.

That is the displacement principle.

You know, it is possible to grieve the Holy Spirit. Paul warned us in Ephesians 4 and verse 30, he said, And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. And in Matthew 12, Jesus warned that anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

So Saul obviously had crossed a line, and God took his Holy Spirit away from him.

Let's take a look at another example here. Let's go to Daniel chapter 5 and verse 9. Daniel chapter 5 and verse 9.

We'll see the example of King Belshazzar, who was a Babylonian king. He made a terrible mistake.

He decided to drink too much one night. He had a feast. And he had the ancient gold and silver cups from the original temple that had been captured by the Babylonians, brought out to him to his feast.

And he and his wives and his concubines all drank from those sacred vessels. And God was not pleased.

And while they're slurping down the booze, they see this vision of a hand that writes something on the palace wall. And he is terrified.

We're going to pick it up in Daniel chapter 5 and verse 9. It says, Then King Belshazzar was greatly troubled. His countenance was changed. His lords were astonished. The queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, came to the banquet hall.

The queen spoke, saying, Oh, King, live forever.

Don't count on her, because he's going to be dead within a couple of hours.

Do not let your thoughts trouble you. They should trouble you really big time, because when the dream is interpreted to you, you're a dead man walking.

Nor let your countenance change.

Verse 11, she says, In whom is the spirit of the holy God?

And in the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him.

And King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, and your father, the king, made him chief of the magicians and astrologers and Chaldeans and soothsayers.

Inasmuch as an excellent spirit, knowledge, understanding, interpreting dreams, solving riddles, and explaining enigmas were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belshazzar.

Now let Daniel be called, and he will give the interpretation.

And Daniel was brought in before the king, and the king spoke and said to Daniel, Are you the Daniel who the one or the captives of Judah, whom my father the king brought from Judah?

I have heard of you, and that the spirit of God is in you, and that the light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you.

Now the wise men, the astrologers, have been brought in before me, that they should read this writing to make it known to me, but they could not give me the interpretation of the thing.

Now we're going to stop there. Of course, this king has told some distressing news from Daniel, explaining what it meant. And it meant that the kingdom would be taken from Belshazzar, given to the Medes and the Persians. And of course, in verse 30, Belshazzar was slain on the very night of this incident.

So another example of the dynamic power of the Holy Spirit and how it changed people's lives. It changed who and what they are.

Let's now go to Ezekiel chapter 36, because we're concluding this sermon.

And I want you to understand that there was preparation for the introduction of the life of Jesus Christ. There was preparation for a knowledge that a time would come when the Holy Spirit would be made more available to a larger number of people. That began on the day of Pentecost in 31 AD, when the first fruits of God would be given His Spirit. And that's happened ever since. And the time will come in the kingdom of God when His Spirit will flow freely and will be available to all.

And that was understood by Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter 36, we'll pick it up here.

He says, let's take a look at the beginning in verse 24. Ezekiel 36, 24, talking about when He would bring them back from captivity at the end of days.

I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water in you, and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. And I will give you a new heart, and I will put my spirit within you.

I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh, meaning one that has feeling, one that has sensitivity, one that can care. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. You will keep my judgments and do them. Then you will dwell in the land that I give to your fathers. You shall be my people, and I will be your God.

The prophets looked forward to that time. On Pentecost in 31 A.D., Peter quoted from the prophecy of Joel, and it said, It shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, the young men shall see visions, and also on my maidservants, my menservants, I will pour out my spirit in those days. One final scripture. Isaiah 11, beginning in verse 1. Where would this begin? Where would this process begin? Of a new covenant. Well, it would have to have a messenger. Something would have to begin this process of a new covenant, of offering the Holy Spirit in a greater way, first to the first fruits of God for 2,000 years. The last 2,000 years that man would rule himself, God would call a select few out of various generations, and he would give them his spirit. And then, of course, after that, to a greater degree in the kingdom of God. This is a prophecy about the coming of the Messiah Jesus Christ Himself. And here's what it said in Isaiah 11, verse 1. And there shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, the ancestor of David, and a branch shall grow out of his roots, and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight is in the fear of the Lord, and he shall not judge by the sight of his eyes, nor decide by the hearing of his ears. But with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. You see, he's for the poor. He's for the meek.

He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth. Speaking of the plagues that are about to come upon this world during the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.

Righteousness shall be the belt of his loins, and faithfulness the belt of his waist. So thanks to Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit would be made available to more people, beginning with the first fruits. But that gets into the New Testament.

So that's our sermon to today. We've looked at a number of scriptures. We've seen the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. In a future sermon, we'll look at the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. Have a wonderful Sabbath!