[Music] it's late spring in the third decade of the first century Jerusalem is swarming with Jews from Judea and the far-flung provinces of the Roman Empire the streets are abuzz with a cacophony of various languages the temple courts are jam-packed with worshippers they've all made this pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the festival of Shavuot Corps as it's commonly known Pentecost over time this festival had become a great celebration of the giving of the Torah and Mount Sinai and all of a sudden there's this loud and vivid disturbance in one part of the city a loud rushing
wind fills the air fiery tongues shaped flames of fire appear and a group of Jews who were followers of a recently crucified rabbi named Jesus whom they preach was raised from the dead these fathers begin to preach their message in a variety of languages that they've never even learned some of the bystanders think they're drunk others don't know what to make of it but we do we know this is the promised outpouring the Spirit of God the so called birthday at the Christian Church this is when some people think the Holy Spirit makes his grand
entrance onto the world stage but there they would be wrong and not a little wrong but completely wrong we sometimes get the impression that Pentecost was the opening day for the work of the Holy Spirit as if he had just been waiting in heaven for millennia biting at the bit to finally make his way down to earth and begin to be active in the lives of God's people but when we look at Old Testament texts beginning already in the book of Genesis we realized just how flawed this view of the work of the Spirit is
so in this video we're going to investigate what I call the ancient resume of the Spirit of God and we're going to see how from the very beginning the Spirit has been at work in creation in equipping the Saints in empowering warriors to deliver Israel in teaching and in a multitude of other ways so we're going to jump right away into the opening chapter of the Bible to Genesis chapter 1 and going to take a look at the work of the spirit in creation and then we're gonna move to the work of the spirit in
the creation of the tabernacle and on from there so let's jump right now to Genesis chapter 1 and see how the Spirit is at work in creation so the Bible starts out in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth the earth was up without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters and God said let there be light and there was light the Hebrew word for her spirit is Ruach and just like its Greek counterpart Noah it's
a word that can mean spirit it can mean when it can mean breaths so it's capable of many different meanings depending upon the context when the Ruach is in reference to God it's God's Spirit or as it's sometimes called the spirit of Yahweh or in a few Old Testament acts the holy spirit so what is this Ruach of God doing well in Genesis 1:2 he's hovering the particular hebrew word that's used here is mara have't and that particular verb is used also in Deuteronomy chapter 32 verses 10 through 12 where we read that God found
him it's talking about God finding Israel in a desert land in the howling wastes of the wilderness and he encircled him and he cared for him and he kept him as the apple of the eye like an eagle that stirs up its nest that flutters over its young that's that Hebrew verb again flutters over at young spreading out its wings catching them and bearing them on its pinions the Lord alone guided them no foreign God was with him so this work of the Holy Spirit as it first appears in creation is that of some sort
of bird-like spirit it's hovering over the face of the waters just like a bird would flutter or hover over its young and of course this becomes the basis for all of these various iconographic depictions of the Holy Spirit as a dove because of course it's also connected with the Holy Spirit the form of a dove appearing to G and alighting upon him that is his baptism so right from the opening chapters of this of the of the Bible we we see that first of all the Spirit is present the Spirit is involved in the work
of creation the Spirit is intimately connected with the water and the spirit appears in this form of a dove but that's not everything also right after the appearance of this fluttering spirit this bird-like spirit over the face of these waters God speaks the first to recorded divine words he says yeah he or let there be light now this is significant because we sometimes make a disconnect between the appearance of the spirit and God speaking but this appearance of the Spirit and this divine speech you he or let there be light these are intimately connected because
though out the scriptures we have the Holy Spirit also connected with enlightenment the spirit gives light the spirit and lumens in fact in the early church the baptized those who had received the Holy Spirit through the creative Word of God in the water were referred to as those who were the enlightened ones the illumined ones so I don't why we had this grouping of images with a spirit he's referred to as the spirit this Ruach he's connected with water he's connected with the work of creation and he's also connected with illumination so through all of
this right away we get this image of the spirit as one who is a creator one who is an enlightener and one who is active in the stuff of creation particularly in water in order to bring about God's creative will let's skip ahead from creation to another kind of creation to the creation of the tabernacle so in Exodus chapter 31 we also hear the work of the Spirit in this case we have spirit filled artisans who are at work in the tabernacle and Exodus 31 it says that the Lord spoke to Moses and he said
see I have called by name Bezalel the son of Erie the son of hur the tribe of judah and i have filled him with the Ruach elohim with a spirit of God with ability and intelligence with knowledge in all craftsmanship to devise artistic designs to work in gold silver and bronze and cutting stones for setting and in carving wood to work in every craft so the spirit was involved in creation and now the spirit is involved in another creation he's involved in the work of the tabernacle he's the one who's giving the abilities to the
powers the wisdom to these particular workers in order to make this new creation if you will this microcosm of all creation which is present in the tabernacle see there's these connections that exists between the story of creation itself in Genesis chapter 1 and the story of the creation of the tabernacle it's a it's fascinating and and deep connection to get into it but I just want to touch on it here and give you kind of a a very quick review of the connection between creation and the tabernacle for instance in both Genesis 1 and in
the description of the making of the tabernacle you have repeated references to Badal that's the Hebrew word for divide so just like God divides night from day and waters above from waters below so in the tabernacle you have various kinds of divisions that are set up divisions between the Holy of Holies in the holy place in the forecourt divisions that are symbolized by the presence of the veil so we have all kinds of separations divisions certain divinely designed places that are also in the tabernacle another significant parallel between creation the tabernacle is that of units
of seven or as we might say six plus one so we have six days of creation plus one the Sabbath in Genesis chapter 1 in the opening verses of chapter 2 of Genesis and then we have seven speeches that are given to by God to Moses about the making of the tabernacle six of these are describing in various details how the tabernacle is to be made and the seventh is all about the Sabbath and there's other connections of seven between Genesis 1 and Exodus as well but there's also all sorts of verbal borrowing that takes
place between the way that creation is described and the way that the creation of the tabernacle is described like I say there's more that we can get into I don't want to do it in this video but I just want to highlight the fact that the creation of the tabernacle and the creation of the cosmos are told in such a way that we are to read these together to understand that they are part of the same story of God's work in the world he makes all of creation and then once creation falls apart becomes sinful
then he makes this new creation this one place in the fallen world where everything is right where God is designed everything to be specific the way that he wants it to be so that at the tabernacle you return to Eden as it were you returned to a new creation and here God dwells with his people to purge them of their sins to give them his sanctification and to draw them into his presence so the tabernacle becomes the microcosm of a new creation for the people of Israel and of course this has amazing implications for understanding
of the Incarnation when the word of God becomes flesh and Tabernacles among us so that he is the locus of new creation for us but the main point here is that the Spirit of God is active in creation as well as the creation of the tabernacle now moving on or moving on at least to one particular aspect of the tabernacle noticed that in the holy place of the tabernacle there's the lampstand or the menorah now we read in revelation that the lamp stand was iconic of the spirit once it once again there's a connection here
between the holy spirit and the work of illumination so Revelation chapter 4 says that before the throne of God that we're burning the seven torches of fire and these are the seven spirits of God these this is not like seven individual spirits this is the this is revelations way and Zechariah's way of referring to the seven full work of the Spirit so the Sevenfold Holy Spirit who is the complete the perfect Spirit of God so there's a connection there between the Old Testament menorah or this lamp stand and the Spirit of God this lamp stand
is a picture of the ongoing presence of the Holy Spirit which gives light to the people of Israel not only is the Holy Spirit active in creation as well as the creation of the tabernacle but he's also throughout the Old Testament active in the work of the prophets we see this already in numbers chapter 11 where Moses went out and he tells the people the words of God and he gathers the 70 men of the elders of people and then the Lord comes down speaks to him and he takes some of the spirit that was
on Moses and he puts it on the 70 elders and as soon as the spirit rested on them they prophesied so numbers chapter 11 connects the work or the spirit with prophecy but it's not just there we also have this rather humorous story of Balaam who is not an Israelite and who is hired in order to curse Israel but of course on the way God stops him he the picture that you're looking at is when the angel was standing before the donkey that Balaam was riding and of course the donkey would not go forward because
he could see the angel but Balaam could not so Balaam is beating his donkey but God reveals himself to Balaam and tells Balaam that he had to bless Israel instead of cursing him and the Spirit of God comes upon Balaam and allows him then to bless Israel instead of cursing them and then there's other references to the Spirit of God at work in the prophets of old Saul for instance the Spirit of God Spirit of God rushed upon him and he prophesied in 1st Samuel chapter 10 David is said to be filled with the Spirit
of God as he prophesized in 2nd Samuel 23 and the Prophet Zechariah and Ezekiel are both connected with the Spirit of God so the Spirit of God was at work in creation he was involved at work in illumination in the creation of the tabernacle and he also was the the one who gave the insight and the wisdom the prophets of old to say what God wanted them to say he was the word giver to the Old Testament prophets but it wasn't just their if you read the book of Judges he realized that when God raised
up these sofa team these judges who really were deliverers or saviors for Israel these Warriors that God empowered in order to deliver his people from the various other Gentile peoples around them who had enslaved them and oppressed them these judges that these Warriors were empowered by the spirit to carry out these mighty acts of deliverance for the people of Israel and it's made explicit in reference to the first judge to often yell as well as to Gideon and Jeptha and multiple times and reference to two Samson so these Warriors of judges the Old Testament were
also empowered by the Spirit of God in order to carry out works of salvation of deliverance for the people of Israel and then finally we get to the connection between the spirit and his work in and through the Messiah there's a couple of references here in the prophet Isaiah to this so first of all Isaiah chapter 61 is the famous passage that but Jesus himself quotes and his synagogue sermon in his hometown when he stands up to read it says the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me that's
our Hebrew word from whence we get Messiah Mashiach the Anointed One so this Ruach of God is upon him because he has Messiah at him he has mocked him to be to bring good news to the poor he sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim Liberty to the captives the opening of the prison to those who are bound or claimed the year of the Lord's favor and the day of the vengeance of our God to comfort all who mourn to grant to those who mourn in Zion to give them a beautiful headdress instead
of ashes the oil of gladness instead of mourning the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit that they may be called oaks of righteousness the planning of the Lord that he may be glorified now it's significant to keep in mind in this particular passage of Isaiah that seven different verbs seven infinitive verbs are used to describe the work of The Anointed One of God upon whom the spirit rest that's significant because as we've already seen there is the connection between the spirit and the number seven the Sevenfold work of the Spirit of God or
the Sevenfold Spirit who is engaged in the work of God so seven verbs are connected with the holy spirit here and his presence in The Anointed One of God to bring about this messianic Kingdom now we jump now to another passage in Isaiah this is Isaiah chapter 11 and we see the same Sevenfold Spirit at work again Isaiah 11 there shall come forth us us a route a shoot from the stump of Jesse and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit 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 once more we have seven references to the spirit here so he's the spirit of the Lord and he's the spirit who's characterized by all of these other kinds of powers the might the strength of wisdom and so forth so the work of the spirit connected to the cyma SIA and the Sevenfold spirit this perfect complete spirit of God who was working through the Messiah now all of this is providing us with a much deeper understanding of the work
of the Spirit he didn't simply just appear when Pentecost rolled around in the first century and Jesus poured out his Holy Spirit upon his people rather to understand the work of the Spirit would go back to creation we understand that the Spirit was there with the word and with the father and the spirit was a co-creator was involved in the work of creation along with the father and the son this Trinitarian work of creation is where we first encounter the work of the Spirit and then he perpetuates his work of creation in the making of
the tabernacle which again is like Genesis one all over again the tabernacle is this microcosm in a fallen world where the spirit draws the people of God to him and cleanses him and sanctifies them and gives them all the gifts that God wants them to have and the Spirit then is empowering warriors to deliver Israel he's inspiring the prop it's who proclaimed the coming of the Messiah and then finally in Isaiah chapter 61 and in Chapter 11 we hear how the spirit is upon the Messiah in order that he might carry out his work of
establishing the Messianic Kingdom all of this is the ancient resume of the Holy Spirit and all this provides us with a background for understanding exactly what Pentecost was all about Pentecost was not the first entrance the Holy Spirit into the lives of God's people Pentecost was when yes there was this grand outpouring of the Holy Spirit but the Holy Spirit who now comes to bring about a new creation for the people of God the spirit who inspires on in an ongoing way the prophets and the apostles of the New Testament in order to proclaim this
message in the Messianic Kingdom the Prophet who is present in the life of Christ so that he can be our true judge our true warrior who delivers the people of Israel this one who is active in an ongoing way in the life of the church in order to bring us to Christ in order that we in Christ we might receive this kingdom receive this new creation receive this wisdom or seed this illumination that comes from him so thank you for listening I pray that this has been helpful to you as a an Old Testament way
of looking at the work of the Spirit so that you can better understand how the Spirit is at work now in the life of the church which is the true temple of God the true tabernacle the place of illumination the place of new creation in this world in which we are drawn into the Messianic Kingdom through the work of that same sanctifying spirit so thanks for watching and I pray that you all are safe and I will see you next week with another video thanks
