The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament

The Holy Spirit is not new to the New Testament. From the second verse of the Bible the Spirit of God is moving over the waters at creation, and through the Old Testament He comes upon chosen people to give life, wisdom, strength, and prophecy. Yet the prophets also looked ahead to a greater day when God would pour out His Spirit on all flesh, a promise fulfilled at Pentecost.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.Genesis 1:2 (KJV)

Present at creation

The Spirit is there on the first page. Before there was light or land, when the earth was without form and void and darkness lay upon the deep, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, brooding over the formless world like a bird over its nest, ready to bring order and life out of chaos. The same Spirit is the breath of every living thing. Scripture says that God formed man of the dust and breathed into him the breath of life, and the Psalms confess that when God sends forth His Spirit, creatures are made, and when He takes their breath away, they die.

So from the beginning the Spirit is the giver of life, the one through whom the living God touches the world He has made. He is not a latecomer to the story of salvation. He was there before the story of the world began, hovering over the waters, and He has been the breath of life ever since.

Coming upon chosen people

In the Old Testament the Spirit characteristically comes upon particular people for particular tasks. He filled Bezaleel with wisdom to craft the tabernacle, showing that skill and artistry are His gifts too. The Spirit of the LORD came upon the judges, upon Othniel and Gideon and Samson, to deliver Israel from her enemies. When Samuel anointed David, the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. Above all, the Spirit spoke through the prophets, so that Peter later said holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

There is a pattern here worth noticing. In those days the Spirit often came upon people for a season and a purpose, and He could depart. This is why David, after his great sin, prayed, Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. That trembling prayer belongs to an age before Pentecost, when the abiding, indwelling gift of the Spirit had not yet been poured out on all God's people.

The promise of an outpouring

The most striking thing about the Spirit in the Old Testament is that the prophets are not content with what they have. They look forward. Through Ezekiel God promises, A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and, I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes. Through Joel He promises a day when, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, so that not just kings and prophets but sons and daughters, old and young, servants and free, would know the Spirit for themselves.

This was the great hope that hung over the whole Old Testament: not merely a Spirit who comes upon a few, but a Spirit poured out upon all who belong to God, writing His law on the heart and dwelling within. Every believer under the old covenant was waiting, whether they knew it or not, for the day when that promise would come true.

The Spirit who spoke through the prophets

One of the surest works of the Spirit under the old covenant was speech. The prophets did not invent their message; they were carried along by the Spirit of God. Peter later summed it up by saying that prophecy came not by the will of man, but that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So when Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the rest declared, Thus saith the LORD, it was the Spirit giving them the very words. The Spirit is the breath behind the Scriptures.

This is a comfort when we open the Old Testament. These are not the guesses of ancient men about God, but the words the Spirit gave, pointing forward across the centuries to the coming of Christ. The same Spirit who inspired them now opens them to us, so that the whole of the older Scriptures becomes a long preparation for the Savior they promised.

A foretaste, not the fullness

It helps to see the Old Testament work of the Spirit as a foretaste rather than the fullness. He came upon craftsmen, judges, kings, and prophets for particular tasks, often for a time, and He could withdraw, as David feared. The gift was real but not yet poured out on all God's people, nor made to abide within them for ever. The believers of that age lived in genuine faith, but they leaned forward, longing for more.

That longing was not disappointed. Everything the Old Testament shows of the Spirit, life-giving, wisdom-giving, word-giving, prepares us to receive the far greater gift that came when Christ had finished His work. To read the Old Testament well is to feel the ache of the promise and then to rejoice that in Jesus the promise has come true.

The breath of life and the coming rivers

The word the Old Testament uses for Spirit also means breath and wind, and that is no accident. The Spirit is the breath of the living God, the one by whom the world was made alive and by whom it is kept alive still. Job confessed, The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life, and Ezekiel saw a valley of dry bones come to life only when the breath of God, His Spirit, was breathed into them. Wherever there is life, the Spirit of God is its unseen source.

That vision of dry bones made living by the Spirit is a picture of what God had promised to do for His whole people, and what He does for every soul He saves. The Old Testament ends with the bones still waiting, the promise still hanging in the air, the breath not yet fully come. It leaves us leaning forward toward the day when the Spirit would be poured out and the dead made alive, the day that dawned in Christ.

So the Old Testament is not a lesser book about a lesser God, but the first half of one unbroken story of the Spirit's work. He hovered over the waters at creation, breathed life into man, gave skill and strength and prophecy, and promised more. Every page of it leans toward the Christ on whom the Spirit would rest without measure, and toward the day He would pour that Spirit out on all who believe. To read it with the Spirit's help is to see Jesus foreshadowed everywhere, and to long, with the saints of old, for the fullness that has now come.

Pointing forward to Christ

That day would come only through the Christ, on whom the Spirit rested without measure. Isaiah foresaw a coming servant on whom the Spirit of the LORD would rest, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and might. He foresaw the Messiah anointed to preach good tidings to the meek and to bind up the brokenhearted, words Jesus took upon His own lips in the synagogue at Nazareth and said, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

So the Spirit in the Old Testament is like the light before dawn. He is truly present, truly at work, giving life and wisdom and prophecy, yet always pointing beyond Himself to the fuller day. That day dawned when the anointed one came, died, rose, and ascended, and poured out on His people the Spirit the prophets had promised. The Old Testament raises the longing; only in Christ is it satisfied.

Related: Pentecost and the coming of the Spirit · The promise of the Spirit · The symbols of the Holy Spirit · The Holy Spirit