6: The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament (Part Two)

When Americans speak about the American Dream we are including the ideas of “representative democracy, rights, liberty, and equality, in which freedom is interpreted as the opportunity for individual prosperity and success, as well as upward social mobility for oneself and their children, achieved through hard work in a capitalist society with few barriers.” (Wikipedia) And what we associate with that is owning our own home. When Israel thought of the coming of the perfect kingdom of God on earth, what did they associate with that? The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all God’s people.

When the prophets speak to Israel about her future and the coming of the King to rule, they speak about the Holy Spirit as being poured out, that is, provided in abundance to believers so that they live righteously and powerfully:

[Live in mourning and misery]…till the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest. (Isaiah 32:15)

For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. (Isaiah 44:3)

“As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says Yahweh. “My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants—from this time on and forever,” says Yahweh. (Isaiah 59:21)

I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the people of Israel, declares the Sovereign Yahweh. (Ezekiel 39:29)

And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. (Joel 2:28)

And associated with this pouring out of the Spirit is the entering into a new covenant with Yahweh, a covenant that cannot be broken, as the former one was by Israel’s sinfulness, because this covenant will give Israel a new heart and complete forgiveness by the Spirit:

^{Jeremiah 31:31} “The days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. ³² It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares Yahweh. ³³ “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares Yahweh. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ³⁴ No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know Yahweh,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares Yahweh. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

Though Jeremiah does not link this directly to the work of the Holy Spirit in his people, Ezekiel does:

And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. (Ezekiel 36:27)

I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the people of Israel, declares the Sovereign Yahweh.” (Ezekiel 39:29)

The Holy Spirit is the agent of holiness, producing holiness in the people of God. Of course, Peter tells us that this outpouring of the Spirit has occurred on the Day of Pentecost:

^{Acts 2:16} No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ¹⁷ “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. ¹⁸ Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.

We are living in the days of the Holy Spirit, the Israeli and now Christian Dream, the New Covenant age in advance of the coming kingdom.