When we think of the Holy Spirit we tend to think of him as working in the New Testament days alone – coming to the church at Pentecost. Yet although Pentecost was certainly significant for the church, when we read our bibles, all of the bible, we discover that from Genesis all the way through the Old Testament the Holy Spirit is there. He may not be prominent, he is more in the background compared to the NT granted, but he is a significant presence for all that. In this study I want us to do an overview of the Spirit in the Old Testament, to see him working in three ways – to empower, to anoint and to reveal God’s will, and then have some concluding points of application.

Under these three headings I will be grouping texts together and it will be helpful to have your bible open and to look at these with me.

But before that I want to give a brief introduction looking at this issue of being aware that the Holy Spirit has always been there in the OT.

a) To state the obvious, God is Trinity - Father , Son and Holy Spirit and if that is the case then the Spirit did not come into existence at Pentecost. If the Spirit is co-equal and co-eternal then he was there before time began, in Genesis 1. The Spirit is always present in the activity of God even though we may not be aware of that. The writer of Genesis in a subtle way actually communicates this truth to us -   “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters”.  In the original language of the bible capital letters were not used for spirit so when we see Spirit with a capital S it is because the translators feel that it warrants it in the context.

In the OT the word for spirit is the same one as breath or wind (ruach) so we translate it spirit, breath or wind according the context. (it occurs 378 times in the OT). The idea of the breath of God, the ruach (Heb.), hovering over the emptiness is suggestive of a creative, personal presence being there. It is more than a force, but something personal and creative. It is through His Spirit that God will create and speak words, words that will bring life. A wind in itself is not life giving and creative – if anything, wind is more destructive than constructive.  Psalm 33:6 says “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth”.  This hovering idea is also found in Deut.32:11 where God’s care for Israel  is likened to an eagle caring for her young – “Like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young”.

God is hovering over the waters and there is going to be creation, shaping, moulding, life giving, controlling, revealing and it comes from God through his Spirit. So God is Father, Son and Spirit and the Spirit is there from the beginning of the Old Testament and we will see him throughout it in a moment.

b) the second thing to say is that we can legitimately see God the Holy Spirit  through the Old Testament because Jesus did and the apostles did. The OT writers were not aware perhaps of the full personhood of the Holy Spirit but Jesus was and he knew that he was there as fully personal and active along with the Father. In Mark 12:36 Jesus in referring to what David says in Psalm 110 says – “David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared….”  So Jesus understood that when David was writing the Psalms he was inspired and led to write what he did by the Holy Spirit. This is what was happening. Also in Acts 1:16 Peter refers to two other Psalms of David (Ps.69 and 109) and he says “Brothers the scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David concerning Judas..” Again Peter says in Acts 4:25 about Psalm 2 “You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David…”

Finally in this regard we see in 2 Peter 1:20 referring to the prophets Peter says “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”   (Also see Hebrews 3:7)

So the Holy Spirit is alive and well and working through the Old Testament times according to Jesus and the apostles.

Now what I want to do is look at three groups of texts under the themes of empowering, anointing and revealing to see what the Spirit was doing in those times.

1. Empowering.

The Holy Spirit is powerful and he empowers people to do things. The first people who the Spirit is referred to as coming upon to equip for a task is not a prophet or a priest or a preacher but to two craftsmen. In Exodus 35:30-35 Bezalel and Oholiab had been “filled with Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts”.

We have seen that God is a creative and creating Spirit so how appropriate it is that he empowers people to be creative. This is not something that we tend to think of when we talk about the Spirit’s power coming upon someone – we tend to think of something more “spiritual” like prophesying or preaching. The Spirit can be behind craftsmanship, arts, songs, painting, wood turning. Give God the glory for this and acknowledge that all things come from him.

Moses and the 70 elders. In Numbers 11:24-30 we have an interesting reference to the Spirit who helps Moses and others to lead and judge. But as the Spirit rested on them they prophesied. This seems to have been some kind of ecstatic utterance and we see this in other places in the Old Testament. Moses was not jealous for this experience as some were and wished that more would have it than just a small grouping.

The Judges. The next main references to the Spirit filling people comes in the Judges where the Spirit is described as coming on people who would acts as leaders and deliverers of God’s people who had got themselves into a mess. The Hebrew title of Judge meant people who put things right. We see the Spirit coming upon Othniel (3:10), Gideon (6:34), Jephthah (11:29), Samson (13:24-25, 14:6, 14;19, 15:14,15). This was all over a period of 300 years.

 These leaders were empowered to lead, to govern, to fight even. Sinclair Ferguson says “When the ruach of the Lord comes on people they are caught up in the thrust of an alien energy and exercise unusual powers; the faint are raised into action; exceptional human abilities are demonstrated, ecstacy may be experienced”. Also although the Spirit is more often referred to as dwelling in people in the NT he is also described as being in Joshua, in Ezekiel and in Daniel.

We see with Daniel that God by His Spirit is enabling Daniel to interpret dreams (see Dan.4:8,9,18; 5:11,12,14; 6:3).

David was not considered one of the prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah and yet through his words, especially in the Psalms he was saying prophetic things which were fulfilled later in Jesus and in subsequent events. But he had a great ability to write songs of praise and this was enabled and empowered by the Spirit. In 2 Samuel 23 we have the last words of David recorded for us and in v.2 he says “the Spirit of the Lord spoke through me, his word was on my tongue.”

So we see that throughout Israel’s life the Spirit empowered strategic individuals to organise, create, judge, deliver, administer, lead, govern the people. He used a variety of personalities and in a variety of ways but we can see without doubt that this was the work of the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit as we have in the New Testament.

2.Anointing   

Anointing and empowering often went together but the significance of anointing is that it reflected the special seal of God upon an individual for a task, usually leadership and in the OT usually kingship. Thus we have the anointing of Saul and then David as kings of Israel.   

Saul is anointed by Samuel in 1 Samuel 10:1,6,10.  The physical act of anointing with olive oil was then confirmed by a spiritual anointing which led to Saul prophesying – this ecstatic utterance again. Sadly this anointing was not a guarantee of long term faithfulness and wisdom. Saul messed up later in his life and the anointing and the blessing was taken from him and transferred to David. See 1 Samuel 16:1, 12-13.

The later kings would have been anointed as well – but again due to their sin and disobedience the physical anointing did not guarantee a spiritual anointing.

We note that Jesus was the King of Kings the one who fulfilled what the kings in the OT could not. He perfectly obeyed God the Father. Isaiah especially refers often to the coming one, the anointed one of God who would restore justice, lead the people and ultimately bring salvation, and all of this in a humble and servant like manner. (See Is.42:1f) and Is.61:1 “The Spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor…”

3.Revelation

The Spirit would reveal what was on God’s heart regarding his people. He did this through the prophets. We have already seen in 2 Peter that the prophets were carried along by the Spirit of God. Sometimes the Spirit would have revealed what God wanted through dreams, or visions, or maybe by actually hearing words. Prophets of course could speak falsely, from their own spirits rather than the Spirit of God and time often showed whether a prophet spoke from God. But when the Spirit was behind it the words were marked by a  commitment to truth and to justice. These were two themes that recurred throughout the prophet’s oracles.  The Spirit is a Spirit of truth and justice.

We see the Spirit linked to the prophets in various places. Balaam was not even an Israelite and yet God used him to give oracles of judgement. Balaam could not help but speak the truth of God – he was almost compelled to when the Spirit came upon him. Num.23:8, 11-12; 24:2, 10-13.

Wee see this thought again in Micah of declaring what God wants us to declare in truth and justice. Micah 3:8  “But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, to Israel his sin”.   For Micah to be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with justice. The Spirit of God is a spirit of justice and righteousness and honesty. God’s spokesmen spoke from God’s heart and these things were near to God’s heart. Jer.9:23-24  “Let him who boasts boast about this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight declares the Lord.”

God’s prophets revealed his will and the ones who were specially used of God were influenced by the Holy Spirit – in 2 Chronicles men like Azariah, Jahaziel and Zechariah; in 1-2 Kings Elijah and Elisha, and then the great prophets Isaiah (see Is.11:1-10; 42:1-9; 48:12-22; 59:15-21; 61:1-3), Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Ezekiel esp. refers to the Holy Spirit and seems to have been bodily lifted by the Spirit and set down in a different place. Ezek.2:2 “As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me”.  3:12 “then the Spirit lifted me up”, v.14 “then the Spirit lifted me up.”  Ezek.36 we have the cleansing and purifying aspect of the Spirit (v.24-31). And of course we have Ezekiel 37 that great passage where we have a vision of dry bones and God promises in v.5 “I will make breath (or spirit) enter you, and you will come to life.”  V.14 “I will put my Spirit in you and you will live”

Finally, the best known prophesy about the Spirit in the prophets as Peter quotes it at Pentecost is in Joel 2:28f “And afterward I will pour out my Spirit on all people, your sons and daughters will prophesy, you old men will dream dreams and your young men will see visions...”  

Here is a vision of the future partly fulfilled in the days after Pentecost but not completely.

So here we see that the Spirit is central to the task of understanding, applying, and proclaiming God’s word to his people.

We will see later in this series that this same Spirit is the one came upon Jesus at his baptism, whom Jesus breathed upon the disciples, who came in fiery tongues at Pentecost and who resides in us – we are now temples of the Holy Spirit, which is an awesome thought.

This same Spirit who moved on strategic and special people occasionally in OT times is the one who indwells and fills ordinary people in this age. He will empower, he will anoint for a special task and he will work upon God’s word in our hearts as we read it to reveal God’s will for us today. This resource is our greatest resource as christians. We cannot convince and convict people of God’s truth but the Spirit can and will and we will  see this later.

When we are interested in the great themes of righteousness, and justice and truth, this is the Spirit working in us. When we are convicted by our sinfulness this is the Spirit working in us. He comes to purify and cleanse and purge. Ferguson says “the Spirit’s activity in the OT epoch involved personal renewal of a moral and spiritual nature…already in the old covenant the Lord circumcised the hearts of the people (Dt.30:6); a new life from God’s hand was a reality in the old covenant, even if it only foreshadowed the reality of participating in the resurrection life of Christ.”  In the NT there is an intensification of what the Spirit was doing in the OT. We know more and we experience more of the Spirit.

When we realise our gift and we use that gift in the power of the Spirit it can bless people and edify them and encourage them - and that gift does not have to be spectacular.  As we have seen it can be a creative gift – anything from flower arranging to singing to wood turning. The Spirit gives us gifts.

The Spirit is the same yesterday, today and forever but he is more and more willing to empower ordinary people to live for God. The prophets longed for the day when the Spirit’s work was less external, less sporadic, less selective, when he would come universally and permanently. That day is now here, let us be open to Him and who can tell what he can do through us.

Finally how can we be more open to Him working in our lives.

1.    Remember God the Spirit blows where he wills. (Jn.3:8). We cannot direct or control him. But pray for Him to move.

2.    The Spirit is constantly working and changing and maybe we should be more open to recognising what he is doing all around us. He works behind the scenes but if we are discerning we can see Him moving. Pray for discernment.

3.    We can be more open to the Spirit if we put ourselves in the place where he is more likely to blow. Just as we put wind turbines on hills so we can put ourselves on the hilly places (closer to God.) We do this by

a.    Having hearts devoted to God (1 Sam.13:19)

b.    By not compromising in our walk with God

c.    By keeping short accounts with God and confessing sin regularly (sin grieves the Holy Spirit  Eph.4:30)

d.    In being faithful in the small things

e.    Giving glory to God always when he uses you

f.    Being flexible and open to change and new things/new direction the Spirit may be taking you

g.    Being expectant. Come to Church expecting God to move. Live each day expecting God’s Spirit, who is in you, to lead and direct you.

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