The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament

Happy Sunday! Today we're going to look at appearances of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. Two weeks ago we saw the Spirit of God present at creation; that was in Genesis 1, verse 2. And I shared with you the Hebrew word for Holy Spirit, ruach, which means wind or breath. If you missed that sermon, you can go to my website, davidshivers.com, and find it in the archive of sermons.

There are several instances in the Old Testament of the Holy Spirit choosing individuals for a certain task. It seems different from what happened after Pentecost in Acts 2. Again, we'll look at that in another sermon to come. It seems to me that the Holy Spirit was with people in the Old Testament and didn't necessarily stay with them for a long time. Some say that in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit was with people and that today the Holy Spirit is in people.

I chose several stories of people who had a visit from the Holy Spirit for a task or a mission. This list from the Old Testament is not exhaustive; if you made a list, perhaps you would have chosen others. An interesting place to begin is with the life of Joseph. You will find Joseph in the book of Genesis. He's the son of Jacob, grandson of Isaac, great-grandson of Abraham.

Joseph was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers and ended up as a slave for Pharaoh in Egypt. His story is fascinating, and I encourage you to read about his life. While a prisoner, Joseph was called upon to interpret a dream that Pharaoh had, and, well, not one of Pharaoh's wise men had a clue about the dream's meaning. Joseph interpreted the dream and was promoted to a very high office in Egypt.

I want to read you just one verse, from Genesis 41:38. "Pharaoh said to his servants, 'Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?'" The great pagan Pharaoh noticed how Joseph was different. The Spirit was in him.

The next mention of the Holy Spirit that I will mention is a name you may not know: Bezalel. We find him in Exodus 31. When Moses is building the tabernacle, God tells him in Exodus 31, verses 1 to 5: "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Yuri, the son of of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to design artistic works, to work in gold and silver and bronze, and cutting jewels for setting, and carving wood, and to work in all manner of workmanship.'"

I love that story. God, the great Creator, gave creativity to Bezalel through the Holy Spirit. In that story God is speaking to Moses, and certainly Moses had the Holy Spirit was with Moses. In Numbers 11, God tells Moses that he will get him some helpers to ease his burden in dealing with the children of Israel.

We find this in verses 16 and 17 of Numbers 11. "So the Lord said to Moses, 'Gather to Me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be elders of the people and officers over them; bring them to the tabernacle of meeting, that they may stand there with you. And then I will come down and talk with you there. I will take of the Spirit that is upon you and will put the same upon them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with whom with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone.'"

Do you see a pattern here? It seems to me that the Holy Spirit is being called upon to make order from chaos once again. We talked about that a couple of weeks ago, when the Spirit of God hovered above the waters and the void, and creation took place. I then talked about how the Holy Spirit does the same with people's lives. But before accepting Christ, people say their lives had no meaning and were just nothing, and then when they became believers their lives had purpose and meaning.

Joseph took Pharaoh's chaos and gave meaning. Bezalel took a plan without substance and built a fabulous tabernacle. Moses took a people without hope and guided them to the land of promise. These elders from Number 11 took the burden from Moses to give a less chaos in his life. See in the following example that you could continue to see the Holy Spirit make order from chaos.

One of my favorite stories is the story of Gideon. He went from a coward hiding from danger to a leader who took an on an army of 10,000 with only 300 men. You will find his story in the sixth chapter of the book of Judges. I'll only read the first part from verse 34. There we are told, "The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon." Wonderful things happened after that.

We found another familiar name in the book of Judges: Samson. At his birth this was said of Samson, in Judges 13, verses 24 and 25: "So the woman bore a son and called his name Samson; and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord began to move upon him." If you know his story, you know too that Samson messed up royally.

A woman named Delilah tricked him into revealing the source of his strength: his hair. God told him not to cut it. He told Delilah, and she cut it. Towards the end of his life, we find this out about Samson in Judges 16:20: "And she said, Delilah, to him, 'The Philistines are upon you, Samson!' So he awoke from his sleep, and said, 'I'll go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!' But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him."

Samson's disobedience caused the Holy Spirit to leave. God's plan for Samson's life turned to chaos because of Samson's disobedience. That's not the only time this occurs. Remember King Saul?

In the next section of Scripture, we will see the Holy Spirit given to David and taken from Saul. The story is found in First Samuel, chapter 16. Saul had been disobedient to God, and the prophet Samuel finds David and anoints him as future king. We find this in First Samuel 16:13-14: "Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed David 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 Rama." And the next verse, we are told, "The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul."

Today we've looked at a lot of Old Testament examples of the Holy Spirit working with people. I could have talked about Isaiah and Ezekiel and others, but here is what I want you to remember. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit would come and go and work with people. Today the Holy Spirit is in all believers, not just with, but in. If you're a Christian, the Holy Spirit lives in you. That's biblical; that's the truth.

I want to close with a verse that I get excited about. Listen to these words from Romans chapter 8, verse 11. There we are told, "The Spirit of God, the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, He will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you." We complain about this world and all the things that are happening, but we should rejoice that the Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us, knowing that all things are possible.

Let's pray. Father God, we thank You for the gift of the Holy Spirit, and we thank You in this new age that You were in us always. Father, help us to get in tune and in touch with You. Help us to learn more and to be thankful, and never take one moment for granted that the Holy Spirit is in us. Father, let us just draw closer to You this week more than ever before. Bless these that watch. In Jesus' name, amen.

God bless you. Thanks for watching.