Winston Churchill once said that the Soviet Union was like “a puzzle inside a riddle wrapped in an enigma”1 and Christians could say the same thing about many subjects in the Bible.  Subjects like demons,2 predestination,3 and end times4 have puzzled believers throughout the ages.  The Holy Spirit’s work in the Old Testament is much the same way.

Before diving in, though, it might be helpful to point out that there are two principles that are essential in understanding a subject like this one.  The first is progressive revelation.  Progressive revelation means that “God progressively reveals Himself in the Bible.”5  God shows more of Himself the further you read in Scripture.  In other words, you know more about God in Exodus than you do in Genesis.  You know more about God in Leviticus than you do in Exodus.  You know more about God in Numbers than you do in Leviticus.  And so forth and so on. 

God does not change.6  He does not become a different God; He simply shows more of Himself.  He gives more information about Who He is.  The way this relates to this article is that the Holy Spirit is not a different Person in the Old Testament; He just shows more of Himself in the New Testament.7

The second principle to keep in mind in this article is the sufficient principle. The sufficient principle means that “the Bible is sufficient for what we need to know about God.”8  There is no need to go beyond the Bible’s explanation of things because the Bible tells us all that we need to know about God.9  When we come to a perplexing issue like the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, we must say what the Bible says and no more than that.

Another way to say this is that we should make sure that the Bible, and not logic, is our authority.  In this article, there will be some questions that do not have answers because God has not given the answers. When we come to those questions, we must humbly say, “I don’t know.”  We must say, “The Scripture doesn’t tell us,” and leave it at that.  We must let the Word of God speak, and we must be silent where it does not speak.

With these two principles in mind, now we can approach the “puzzle inside a riddle wrapped in an enigma” that is the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament.

I. WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

1. He was Involved in Creation

The Holy Spirit was involved in creating the world.  Genesis 1:1-2 describes His work this way:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.

The Hebrew word for “moving” is rachaph, which means “to flutter” or “to hover over.”10  The same word is used in Deuteronomy 32:11 to describe an eagle “hovering over” her young and providing for them.  The Holy Spirit did that at creation.  He took care of it.  He provided for it.

The verb tense for rachaph also sheds light on what the Holy Spirit did.  The verb tense shows continuous action.11  Some commentators say it could mean “to vibrate” because of its intensity.12  This was an ongoing thing that the Holy Spirit did.  For the six days of creation,13 He was constantly busy.  He did not work one day and then He was finished.  He worked non-stop. 

The Spirit, like the Father14 and the Son, created out of nothing,15 and He continued creating until the work was done.  He fluttered over creation like a mother eagle, and He continued fluttering until everything was finished.

The idea of His “moving over” the waters is the idea of administration AND oversight.16  He made sure that everything in creation went according to the plan of the Father and the Son.

The Holy Spirit was also specifically involved in creating mankind. Genesis 1:26-27 says:

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

The “Us” in verse 26 cannot refer to God and the angels because the angles do not create anything.17  It must refer to the Trinity.18

 “Us” in verse 26 is also changed to a “He” in verse 27.  Because God is One, the author uses the word “His” and, because God is the Persons, the author uses the word “Us.”  Man was created by the work of every member of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Genesis 2:7 gives us some more insight into how the Holy Spirit made man:

Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

This same idea is repeated in other verses.  Job 27:3-4 says:

For as long as life is in me,
And the breath of God is in my nostrils,
My lips certainly will not speak unjustly,
Nor will my tongue mutter deceit.

Job 33:4 says:

The Spirit of God has made me,
And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

Scholars believe that Job is the oldest book in the Bible.19 Therefore, it has the oldest account of creation and it says that the Holy Spirit gave man life.  He breathed into man’s nostrils and man lived.  He formed man out of the dust of the earth. He gave man a soul.

Several other passages mention the Holy Spirit’s work in creation including Job 26:13:

By His breath the heavens are cleared;
His hand has pierced the fleeing serpent.

Psalm 33:6 says:

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
And by the breath of His mouth all their host.

Psalm 104:30 says:

You send forth Your Spirit, they are created;
And You renew the face of the ground.

This world would not exist without the power of the Holy Spirit of God.  He created everything and, along with the Father and the Son, deserves all the glory for it.

2. He Filled Believers for a Specific Task

There are several tasks that the Holy Spirit filled believers to do in the Old Testament.  One was to govern. He came upon believers in the Old Testament to assist them in leading the people of Israel.

For instance, Moses was filled with the Spirit as he governed Israel.  In Isaiah 63:10-12, it says:

But they rebelled
And grieved His Holy Spirit;
Therefore He turned Himself to become their enemy,
He fought against them.

Then His people remembered the days of old, of Moses.
Where is He who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of His flock?
Where is He who put His Holy Spirit in the midst of them,
Who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses,
Who divided the waters before them to make for Himself an everlasting name . . .

Isaiah says that the Holy Spirit was with Moses as he led Israel into the wilderness.  He did not leave him alone. 

Joshua was also filled with the Spirit as he led Israel into the Promised Land.  Numbers 27:18 says:

So the Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him.”

The Spirit filled Joshua as he conquered Jericho and the people of Canaan.  He was with Joshua as he divided the land among the twelve tribes and brought Israel into their land.

Deuteronomy 34:9 also mentions this when it says:

Now Joshua the son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him; and the sons of Israel listened to him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Another task that the Holy Spirit filled believers to do was to judge Israel.20  The “Judges” were leaders in Israel from the time of Joshua to the time of the kings.21  They were a group of temporary leaders God gave to govern the Jews and free them from foreign rule,22 and there are several times when the Book of Judges says that the Holy Spirit came upon them.

Judges 3:10 says that the Spirit came upon Othniel and he defeated a king from Mesopotamia.23  Judges 6:34 says that the Spirit came upon Gideon and he led 300 Hebrews in a successful battle against the Midianites.24  Judges 11:29 says that the Spirit came upon Jephthah and he gathered a fighting force to defeat the Ammonites.  The Book of Judges also says that the Spirit came upon Samson three times and enabled him to tear a lion in half,25 kill 30 men from Ashkelon,26 and kill a thousand Philistines.27

Another task that the Holy Spirit filled believers to do in the Old Testament was to work in crafts.  Several times in Scripture, the Holy Spirit entered into a man in order to help him do a specific craft or trade.  Bezalel was the first of these.  Exodus 31:1-5 says:

Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship, to make artistic designs for work in gold, in silver, and in bronze, and in the cutting of stones for settings, and in the carving of wood, that he may work in all kinds of craftsmanship.”

Bezalel worked with precious metals to build the tabernacle.  The Holy Spirit enabled him to work as a highly skilled mason. 

King David was also filled with the Holy Spirit when he wrote the plans for the temple. This is hard to see in the New American Standard Bible translation, but the King James Version of First Chronicles 28:11-12 reads:

Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the inner parlours thereof, and of the place of the mercy seat, and the pattern of all that he had by the spirit, of the courts of the house of the Lord, and of all the chambers round about, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries of the dedicated things.

The phrase “by the Spirit” could be taken to mean that the Holy Spirit filled David as he made preparations for the temple. Leon Wood writes about this in The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament:

The statement that David had these plans “by the Spirit” can only mean that the Spirit had controlled his thoughts in formulating them. God had given the plans for the tabernacle supernaturally to Moses years before, and so one should only expect that God would have been equally interested in giving those for the temple.28

The Spirit showed David how to build the temple.

Another task that the Holy Spirit filled believers to do in the Old Testament is prophecy. The Holy Spirit came upon Old Testament saints and enabled them to speak His Word.  Second Chronicles 24:20 tells us:

Then the Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people and said to them, “Thus God has said, ‘Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord and do not prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, He has also forsaken you.’”

Ezekiel 8:3 says about Ezekiel:

He stretched out the form of a hand and caught me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the idol of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy, was located.

Micah 3:8 says about Micah:

On the other hand I am filled with power —
With the Spirit of the Lord —
And with justice and courage
To make known to Jacob his rebellious act,
Even to Israel his sin.

The Spirit filled believer to govern, judge, work in crafts, and prophecy.  He had a widespread ministry in the lives of Old Testament saints.

3. He Filled Unbelievers for a Specific Task

There are times in the Old Testament where the Holy Spirit filled unbelievers for specific tasks.  We often think of the Holy Spirit only working through believers and, when it concerns salvation, that is certainly the case.29  But, when it comes to other things, there were times when the Holy Spirit worked through unbelievers.

For instance, the Holy Spirit restrained sinners.  He kept wicked people from sinning as much as they wanted to.  Just before the Flood, Genesis 6:3 mentions this when it says:

Then the Lord said: “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”

This passage implies that the Holy Spirit interacted with unbelievers in the early days of the world. Obviously He did not do this in the same way that He interacted with believers but, in some way, the Spirit worked with those who are lost.  He strove with them to hold back their sin.30

We see this in the life of Saul, the first king of Israel.  It would be hard to make the case that Saul was a believer. With the exception of a few bright moments in his life, everything showed that he was lost,31 and First Samuel 10:10-11 says this about him:

When they came to the hill there, behold, a group of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came upon him mightily, so that he prophesied among them. It came about, when all who knew him previously saw that he prophesied now with the prophets, that the people said to one another, “What has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?”

The Holy Spirit came upon Saul and he prophesied, which must have been shocking to his friends.  Apparently, Saul was not the kind of man who was normally found among God’s prophets.

The Holy Spirit did not stay with Saul, however, because First Samuel 16:14 says:

Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord terrorized him.

So the Holy Spirit came upon Saul, but not in a salvific way, because He left.

Another instance of the Holy Spirit indwelling an unbeliever concerns Balaam.  Balaam was the pagan prophet who was hired by the king of Moab to curse Israel.32  Jude 11 tells us that he was a false prophet and just as lost as Saul.  Numbers 24:1-2 tells us about one of his prophecies:

When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he did not go as at other times to seek omens but he set his face toward the wilderness. And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel camping tribe by tribe; and the Spirit of God came upon him. He took up his discourse and said . . .

As Balaam was about to curse Israel, the Spirit of God came upon him. The Holy Spirit entered into this lost pagan prophet and made him prophesy blessings to Israel instead of curses.33 This is not the typical ministry that we attribute to the Holy Spirit, but there were times in the Old Testament when He controlled unbelievers to make them do His will.

II. WHAT WE DO NOT KNOW ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

So that is what we know about the Holy Spirit’s ministry in the Old Testament.  We know that He was involved in creation and that He filled believers and unbelievers for specific tasks.  However, there is a lot that we do not know.  Here are a few of the mysteries.

1. We Do Not Know What Carries Over from the Old Testament to the New Testament

You can read a lot about the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament,34 but you do not read a lot about it in the Old Testament. We know some of what He did but we know very little of what He did on a regular basis.

For instance, what ministry is the Spirit doing now that He did back then?  What is He doing for the church that He did for Israel?  We do not know.

We can give some logical answers to those questions but at the end of the day, the Scripture does not say, so neither can we.  We do not know what carries over from the Old Testament to the New Testament.

2. We Do Not Know if Old Testament Believers were Permanently Filled with the Holy Spirit

Several passages in the New Testament tell us that New Testament believers are permanently filled with the Holy Spirit.  Romans 8:9 says:

However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

Ephesians 4:30 says:

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Second Timothy 1:14 says:

Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.

First John 3:24 says:

The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.

Several passages in the New Testament teach that believers have the Holy Spirit living inside of them on a permanent basis.  It is a sign that they are saved.  It shows that they have been sealed for redemption and that they abide in God. 

The Old Testament, however, does not say all of that.  It says that the Jews were temporarily filled, but it never says that they were permanently filled.  They may have been, but we do not know for sure.  It is a mystery.35

In fact, as David is repenting of his sin with Bathsheba, he says in Psalm 51:11:

Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

An entire doctrine should not be built upon this verse36 but it does make you wonder.  Is David saying that Old Testament believers were not permanently filled by the Holy Spirit?  Is he saying that the Spirit could leave them if they committed a gross sin like murder or adultery?37

A few passages seem to indicate that the Spirit’s ministry in the Old Testament was different from His ministry in the New.  For example, in his sermon in Acts 2, Peter quotes Joel 2:28-29 to say that the church age had begun.38  In other words, Joel’s prophecy, when he originally wrote it, was a future event.  It had not happened yet.  The Spirit would minister in the church in a different way from how He ministered to Israel.39

Joel 2:28-29 says:

It will come about after this
That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind;
And your sons and daughters will prophesy,

Your old men will dream dreams,
Your young men will see visions.
Even on the male and female servants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

That says a day will come when the Holy Spirit will be poured out on all people.  He will live inside of them and minister through them and they will prophesy and dream dreams and see visions. 

Another passage that seems to indicate this is John 14:16-17:

I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

At the Last Supper, Jesus says that the Spirit lives with the disciples but not in the disciples.40  It appears that Jesus is saying that the permanent filling of the Holy Spirit has not happened yet but will happen when He leaves the earth.41

3. We Do Not Know How the Holy Spirit Saved Believers in the Old Testament

Logically, it would seem that if men are dead in their sins,42 then the Holy Spirit would have to make them alive in order to save them,43 but the Bible does not come right out and say that He did that in the Old Testament.  He could have, but we do not know for sure.  The Scriptures do not tell us how the Holy Spirit saved believers in the Old Testament. 

Furthermore, there are some New Testament passages that seem to indicate His saving work in the New Testament was different from His saving work in the Old.  John 3:1-9 says:

Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Him by night, and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” 

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.” The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.

Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”

Notice that Nicodemus is shocked by what Jesus says here about the new birth.  It amazes him.  He has never heard it before.

That could be because Nicodemus is ignorant of the Old Testament, but that does not seem to be the case.  Jesus calls him the “teacher of Israel.”44  A better solution would be that Nicodemus did not catch it because it had not been fully revealed yet.  There were some indications of the new birth in the Old Testament, but they were very limited in their teachings.45

John 7:37-39 gives another indication of this:

Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

The Apostle John says that in his day, the Spirit had not yet been given.  That was not going on in Old Testament times.

John 20:21-22 says it one more way:

So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

As He is about to leave this earth, Jesus breathes on His disciples and says to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  It would appear that the Spirit had not come on them yet.46  His ministry of permanently filling the disciples would begin some time later.47

CONCLUSION

Some of this is speculative because, again, we do not know exactly what the Spirit’s ministry was in the Old Testament. We can say that it was different from His ministry in the New Testament. 

To repeat what was mentioned earlier, there is much that the Lord has revealed to us about His blessed Holy Spirit, but there is much He has not revealed.  And that is okay.  Our job is to believe what He has revealed and to trust Him with what He has not.  As Isaiah 55:8-9 says:

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

 

1. Quoted in John MacArthur’s Because the Time is Near (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2007) 7. [↩]
2. Alex Konya, Demons: A Biblically Based Perspective (Schaumburg, Ill.: Regular Baptist Press, 1990) 19-20. The Bible does not give us a lot of information on demons or how they can be exorcised or even identified. However, there is still a lot that we can learn about them. As Alex Konya writes, “The Bible itself provides a wealth of information from which we can draw some clear conclusions. It describes many instances of undisputed demon possession. When these accounts are carefully examined, one finds that true demonic possession was so terrible and extreme that people had little difficulty in identifying it for what it was.” [↩]
3. Dave Hunt & James White, Debating Calvinism: Five Points, Two Views (Sisters, Ore.: Multnomah Publishers, 2004) 7. Predestination or “Calvinism” has been debated in the church for centuries. One book put it this way: “What did you do to be saved? What has God done? Christians from every age of history have taken aim at answering these questions from the Scriptures. And some of these voices have rung out louder than others: Augustine, Pelagius, Arminius, Calvin, Erasmus, Luther, Whitfield, Wesley.” For more information on predestination, see the JTST Theological Question: “What Does Foreknowledge Mean?” [↩]
4. Paul Benware, Understanding End Times Prophecy: A Comprehensive Approach (Chicago: Moody Press, 1995) 11. It does not take much effort to prove that Christians are often puzzled by end times. Paul Benware explains the problem like this: “Bible prophecy has suffered badly at the hands of friends and enemies alike. Some have a strong bias against supernaturalism and predictive prophecy. Consequently, they have always viewed Bible prophecy as nothing more than the fanciful expression of a person’s creative imagination or, sometimes, as history written under the guise of prophesy. People with such an attitude will never hold the prophetic Word in high esteem, but, ironically, it is those who are strong believers in the prophetic Scriptures who perhaps have hurt it the most. With newspapers in one hand and Zechariah (or another prophet) in the other, they make sensational declarations about what most likely will take place.” [↩]
5. Stanley J. Grenz, David Guretzki, & Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1999) 96. This is my own definition but a more comprehensive definition would be “the belief that God’s self-disclosure forms a progression from the Old Testament era to the New Testament era. Hence what is known about God on the basis of Jesus Christ is more complete than what was given through the Law and the Prophets. Progressive revelation implies that the Old Testament ought to be understood in the light of the fuller teaching found in the New Testament.” [↩]
6. Ps 102:25-27; Js 1:17. [↩]
7. Millard J. Erickson, The Concise Dictionary of Christian Theology, Revised Edition (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2001) 126. The doctrine that God was not the same God in the Old Testament as He was in the New Testament is known as modalism. Erickson defines it as “the view that the three members of the Trinity are different modes of God’s activity rather than distinct persons.” [↩]
8. Bernard Ramm, Protestant Biblical Interpretation, Third Revised Edition (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1970) 170-171. This is my own definition and term. Bernard Ramm, who never gives a term to this principle, explains it well when he writes, “The theologian must not extend his doctrines beyond the Scriptural evidence . . . It is our conviction that many of our troubles in theology are due to the fact that theologians have extended themselves beyond the data of Scripture and have asked questions about which no answer can be given . . . The best answer will not be the most clever nor the most sentimental, but the one within the limitations of the Biblical data on these subjects. Where Scripture has not spoken, we are wisest to be silent.” [↩]
9. 2 Tim 3:16-17; 2 Pet 1:3. [↩]
10. H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Genesis, Volumes 1 and 2 (Chillicothe, Ohio: DeWard Publishing Company, 2010) 35. Leupold describes it as a “vibrant moving, a protective hovering.” [↩]
11. Ibid. “The verb with which it is construed implied too much to let the statement merely mean that a wind fanned the face of the waters.” [↩]
12. A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, ed. by William L. Holladay (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1988) 337. Holladay says that in the piel tense it means “to hover tremulously.” [↩]
13. Genesis 1:31 says that there were six days of creation and Genesis 2:1-3 says that the Lord rested on the seventh day. [↩]
14. Psalm 33:6, 9 refers to the Father creating out of nothing when it says: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host . . . For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.” [↩]
15. John 1:3 refers to the Son creating out of nothing when it says: “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” [↩]
16. Kenneth A. Matthews, Genesis 1-11:26 in The New American Commentary (Nashville, Tenn.: B & H Publishing Group, 1996) 135. “‘The Spirit of God was hovering’ over the earth, that is, presiding over the earth, and preparing it for the creative word to follow.” [↩]
17. Angels are created beings who are never given creative powers in Scripture. Psalm 148:2, 5 says: “Praise Him, all His angels . . . For He commanded and they were created.” [↩]
18. Erickson, 204-205. The Trinity is “a reference to the doctrine that God is one and yet exists eternally in three persons.” The fact that Genesis 1:26-27 fluctuates between a plural pronoun “Us” and a singular pronoun “His” shows that these verses refer to the Trinity. [↩]
19. G. Ralinson, Job in The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. VII (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, n. d.) xv. “The manners, customs, institutions, and general mode of life described in the book are such as belong especially to the times which are commonly called ‘patriarchal’ [i.e., the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob].” [↩]
20. This is very similar to the task of governing.  The only difference is that the judges governed Israel for a period of time and then they stopped.  Moses and Joshua both governed Israel until their death. The judges also ruled in sections of Israel while Moses and Joshua governed the entire nation at once. [↩]
21. Merrill F. Unger, Unger’s Bible Dictionary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1967 ed.) 617. “There is a restricted sense of the word judge, in which it means that officer who presided over the affairs of the Hebrews in the period between Joshua and the accession of Saul.” [↩]
22. During their rule, the Judges freed Israel from the Philistines (Judges 3:31; 13-16), the Moabites (Judges 3:15-30), and the Midianites (Judges 6-8). [↩]
23. The rest of the story is told in Judges 3:9-14. [↩]
24. The rest of the story is told in Judges 6-8. [↩]
25. Judges 14:5-6. [↩]
26. Judges 14:19-20. [↩]
27. Judges 15:14-15. [↩]
28. The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament (Eugene, Ore.: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1998 ed.) 42. [↩]
29. For more information about the Spirit’s work in salvation, see “The Holy Spirit Today, Part 1” in this edition of JTST. [↩]
30. Romans 1:18-24 does not mention the Spirit’s name but it mentions God giving men “over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” [↩]
31. Saul’s spiritual condition got so bad that, towards the end of his life, he consulted a witch in order to talk to the dead Prophet Samuel. See 1 Samuel 28. [↩]
32. For more information about Balaam, see Numbers 22-24. [↩]
33. Numbers 23:11-12 describes the king of Moab’s response to this. “Then Balak said to Balaam, ‘What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, but behold, you have actually blessed them!’ [Balaam] replied, ‘Must I not be careful to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?’” [↩]
34. For more information about the Holy Spirit’s ministry in the New Testament, see “The Holy Spirit Today, Part 1” and “The Holy Spirit Today, Part 2” in this edition of JTST. [↩]
35. Passages like Ezekiel 36:27 make it sound as if the Spirit’s permanent filling was to come later in the New Testament. Here it says, “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe all My ordinances.” [↩]
36. Milton S. Terry, Biblical Hermeneutics: A Treatise on the Interpretation of the Old and New Testaments (Eugene, Ore.: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1999 ed.) 156. Psalm 51:11 is a poetic passage and not a didactic or a teaching passage. It was not written to teach doctrine as much as it was written to express a feeling. This does not mean that doctrine cannot be drawn from it; it means that we should turn to other passages in Scripture to cross-check any doctrine that we take from it. As Milton Terry writes, “It is the province of Special Hermeneutics to recognize rhetorical form, and to distinguish the essential thought from the peculiar mode of expression in which it may be set forth. And it must be obvious to every thoughtful mind that the impassioned poetry of the Hebrews is not of a nature to be subjected to a literal interpretation.” [↩]
37. David committed adultery and murder in 2 Samuel 11. He committed adultery with Bathsheba (vv. 1-5) and had Uriah killed (vv. 6-27). [↩]
38. Richard N. Longnecker, Acts in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, ed. by Frank E. Gaebelein (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1981) 276. In Acts 2:17-21, Peter quotes Joel 2:28-32 to say that this was being fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost. However, this had to have been a partial fulfillment since prophesy and visions were occurring but signs in the sky were not. As one commentator writes: “God has inaugurated, Peter proclaims, the long-awaited ‘last days’ here and now, and we know this because of the reinstitution of prophecy. Other signs, to be sure, were part of Joel’s visions, but Peter does not stress them. His emphasis is entirely on prophecy as the sign of the inauguration of the last days. Even though he might have had his own personal expectations, Peter leaves all else for God to work out in the Messianic Age that has been inaugurated.” [↩]
39. Peter says that, in the church age, the Spirit will pour Himself out on “all mankind” or on Gentile and Jew alike. There is no direct evidence in the Old Testament that the Spirit poured Himself out on the Gentiles. [↩]
40. Charles Ryrie, The Holy Spirit (Chicago: Moody Press, 1981 ed.) 42. Charles Ryrie explains this in the following words: “Although the Spirit did indwell men in Old Testament times, it was a selective ministry, both in regard to whom He indwelt and for how long. Can this relationship be summarized in any simple way? Yes, for the Lord summarized it by telling His disciples that up to that time the Spirit had been abiding with them, though on and after the day of Pentecost He would be in them (John 14:17).” [↩]
41. The Apostles served as a bridge between Israel and the church, which explains how the Holy Spirit could be with them but not yet in them. Apostles played a unique role in ministry as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12:11-12: “I have become foolish; you yourselves compelled me. Actually I should have been commended by you, for in no respect was I inferior to the most eminent apostles, even though I am a nobody. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.” The Corinthians could tell that Paul was an apostle by the uniqueness of his miracles. This uniqueness explains why it is difficult to explain Jesus’ words in John 14:17. Was it normal for Old Testament believers to have the Holy Spirit with them but not in them? We do not know. [↩]
42. Eph 2:1-3. [↩]
43. See John 3:1-9, which is quoted below in this article. [↩]
44. Jn 3:10. [↩]
45. Jeremiah 31:33 says, “‘But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’” This reference to putting the Law within them and writing it in their heart sounds like a new birth. It should also be pointed out that Jeremiah says this will be a future event. It was not going on in the Old Testament. For more about this, see Ezekiel 36:25-27. [↩]
46. F. F. Bruce, The Gospel & Epistles of John (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004 ed.) 392. The idea is not that Jesus is now bestowing salvation on the Apostles but that He is empowering them for ministry, specifically for the ministry that He talks about in verse 23: “If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.” [↩]
47. This would be shortly after the Last Supper on the Day of Pentecost. Acts 2:1-4 says: “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.” [↩]