The Spirit in the Old Testament
The Spirit's work before Pentecost: in creation, equipping God's servants, upon judges, kings, and prophets, and the promise of a greater day
1. The Spirit Was There from the Beginning
When we open the Bible to study the Holy Spirit, we do not have to read far, for He is there in the second verse. Before the first creature ever drew breath, "the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters" (Genesis 1:2). The Spirit is no newcomer who arrives only in the book of Acts; He has been at work since the first page of Scripture. Job confessed, "The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life" (Job 33:4), and the psalmist sang to the Lord, "You send forth Your Spirit, they are created" (Psalm 104:30). The same Spirit who would one day be poured out upon the church was already brooding over the dark waters at the dawn of the world. By that same breath the skies themselves were made, for Job said, "By His Spirit He adorned the heavens" (Job 26:13), and the psalmist wrote, "By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth" (Psalm 33:6). If we would know Him well, we must follow His work through the whole Old Testament, watching what He does long before Pentecost ever comes.
2. The Spirit Who Equips for Service
One of the first things the Old Testament teaches us about the Spirit is that He gives ability for the work of God. When the tabernacle was to be built, God chose a craftsman named Bezalel and said, "I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship" (Exodus 31:3). The skill to cut a gem and to work fine gold for God's house was itself a gift of the Spirit. Later, when the burden of leading Israel grew too heavy for one man, the Lord "took of the Spirit that was upon him, and placed the same upon the seventy elders" (Numbers 11:25), and they were able to share the load with Moses. From the very beginning the Spirit has been the One who fits ordinary people for service they could never render on their own. Indeed, the great rule of all God's work was given to Zerubbabel in a single sentence: "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of hosts" (Zechariah 4:6). Whatever is truly done for God is done by the Spirit, and not by the strength of men.
3. The Spirit upon the Judges
In the days of the judges we watch the Spirit come upon men to deliver God's people. When Israel cried out under oppression, "the Spirit of the LORD came upon" Othniel, and he judged Israel and went out to war and won (Judges 3:10). The same is said of Gideon: "the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon" (Judges 6:34), and a frightened man who had been threshing wheat in hiding became a mighty deliverer. With Samson the words are stronger still, for "the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him" (Judges 14:6), and his great strength was never his own but the Spirit's gift. Notice the pattern that runs through them all: the Spirit came upon a man for a task, equipping him to do what he could never have done alone. So it was with Jephthah too, for "the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah" (Judges 11:29) before he went out to battle. These were not flawless men, as their lives plainly show, yet the Spirit came upon them to accomplish the work God had appointed.
4. The Spirit upon the Kings
When Israel asked for a king, the Spirit was given to the king as well. Of Saul it was said, "the Spirit of God came upon him" (1 Samuel 10:10); indeed Samuel had promised that the Spirit would come upon him and turn him "into another man" (1 Samuel 10:6), and for a season he prophesied and led. But Saul's life holds a solemn warning, for after his long rebellion "the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul" (1 Samuel 16:14). What had been given was taken away. When David was anointed in Saul's place, "the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward" (1 Samuel 16:13). David had seen what became of Saul, and so when he himself fell into sin he prayed that trembling prayer, "Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me" (Psalm 51:11). Here is a man who knew the Spirit's presence and dreaded above all things to lose it.
5. The Spirit in the Prophets
Above all, the Spirit was the One who spoke through the prophets. When the word of God came to a prophet, it came by the Spirit. Ezekiel testified, "the Spirit entered me when He spoke to me, and set me on my feet" (Ezekiel 2:2). Micah declared, "I am full of power by the Spirit of the LORD, and of justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression" (Micah 3:8). Long afterward Nehemiah looked back over the centuries and confessed that God had warned His people "by Your Spirit in Your prophets" (Nehemiah 9:30), and Isaiah remembered how God had set "His Holy Spirit" among His people in the days of Moses (Isaiah 63:11). So when Peter later wrote that "holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21), he was simply summing up the whole long story of the Old Testament. Zechariah said the same of the generations before him, that the Lord had sent His words "by His Spirit through the former prophets" (Zechariah 7:12). Every true word the prophets ever spoke was the Spirit's word through them.
6. The Measure of the Old Covenant
Now we must notice something common to all these accounts, for it prepares us for what comes next. In the Old Testament the Spirit usually came upon chosen individuals, a craftsman, a judge, a king, a prophet, and He came for a particular task. He was not yet poured out upon all of God's people alike. What is more, His coming could be withdrawn, as Saul learned to his sorrow and as David feared in his prayer. The Spirit was truly at work, and God's faithful people knew Him and loved Him; but His coming in those days was selective, and in some measure it could be taken away. We should not think the Old Testament saints were strangers to the Spirit, for they were not; David and the prophets walked closely with Him. The difference lay in the manner and the measure of His coming. He rested upon some and not others, He came for seasons and tasks, and He could depart. The Old Testament saints walked in the bright light of morning, but a fuller noonday was still to come, and they themselves were taught to lift their eyes and look for it.
7. The Promise of a Greater Day
For God did not leave His people without a promise. Through the prophet Joel He pledged a day unlike any they had known: "I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy" (Joel 2:28). Not a chosen few, but all flesh; not the king and the prophet only, but sons and daughters, menservants and maidservants alike. Through Ezekiel God promised an inward work as well: "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes" (Ezekiel 36:27), and in the valley of dry bones He vowed, "I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live" (Ezekiel 37:14). Isaiah waited for the same blessing, longing for the day "till the Spirit is poured upon us from on high" (Isaiah 32:15), and he heard God say, "I will pour My Spirit on your descendants" (Isaiah 44:3). What the old covenant gave to a few, the new covenant would give to all; what could once be withdrawn, God now promised to put within His people and not remove. The Old Testament does not close in the Spirit's absence; it closes leaning forward, waiting for the day when the Spirit would be poured out on all and would come to dwell within God's people to stay.
8. The Spirit and the Coming Messiah
There was one promise greater than all the rest. The Spirit who would be poured out on all flesh would first rest, in His fullness, upon the Coming One. Isaiah foretold of the Messiah, "The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might" (Isaiah 11:2). Of the same chosen Servant God said, "I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles" (Isaiah 42:1). And the Servant Himself would one day stand and say, "The Spirit of the LORD God is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor" (Isaiah 61:1). The whole Old Testament, then, points beyond itself. The Spirit who hovered over creation, who equipped the craftsmen, who came upon the judges and kings, who spoke through the prophets, and who was promised to all flesh, would come first and fully upon Christ Himself. To see how that ancient promise was kept, we must turn to the Gospels and to the great day of Pentecost, when the long waiting of the Old Testament would at last be answered.