There is a lot of talk about the Spirit in the New Testament, but where is the Spirit at in the Old Testament?  What kind of work did the Spirit do?  I think we often miss the work of the Spirit in the Old Testament and regulate its work only to the time of the New Testament. The Spirit is not mentioned in the Old Testament nearly as much as it is in the New Testament, but the Spirit and his work is by no means absent from the Old Testament.  In fact we see the Spirit in the very beginning part of the Bible.  In Genesis 1:2 we see that the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.  I thought it would be helpful in this blog entry to take a look at what the Spirit was up to in the Old Testament and how this work correlates to the New Testament.

In the Old Testament we see the Spirit mainly doing three things.  First we see that wherever the Spirit goes, he brings life (Genesis 2:7, Psalms 104:30, Ezekiel 37:1-14).  The Spirit is the very breath of God that brings life to that which was previously dead.   Second the Spirit guides and directs the people of God.  During the Exodus we see the Spirit guiding the Israelites through the wilderness by means of a pillar of fire and a cloud, both manifestations of the Spirit.  The OT talks about the Spirit guiding a person internally and externally in the way to go.  Thirdly, he communicates the truth of God and the love of God to us.  The Spirit is in this sense the divine messenger.  The Spirit reveals all sorts of things to people: judgment, love, God’s laws, what God is like, and even reveals special abilities and skills to people. 

The nature of the Spirit’s ministry is fundamentally the same with a radical shift of location and duration in the New Testament.  More often than not in the Old Testament, the Spirit is described as “coming upon” or resting upon someone.  Occasionally however, the Spirit is said to enter people or to fill people, something that many people believe only begins to happen in the NT.  It seems obvious to me however that the Spirit truly did indwell people in the Old Testament, this however was the exception and not the rule.  Despite the fact that we see this language used occasionally in the Old Testament this is not the usual way the work of the Spirit is described.  Occasions of the Spirit working in this way also seem to be rare.   To have God bring life, lead, or speak through the Spirit were not common events that the people of God regularly experienced.  It seems rather than these were special and often spectacular situations.  However the Old Testament does contain several prophecies that some day in the future, the Spirit dwelling within would be the standard and distinguishing mark of the covenant people.  In the “day of the Lord” all of the people of God would be filled with the Spirit and would be people of the Spirit.  With the coming of Pentecost we see these prophecies being fulfilled.  In the New Testament the pouring out of the Spirit on a person becomes the seal of that person’s inheritance.  The indwelling and work of the Spirit becomes the normal way of life for the people of God in the New Covenant.  Now instead of being a temporary “resting upon”, the Spirit permanently takes up residence within our hearts.  The apostle Paul said that the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Spirit (Romans 5:5). 

People in Old Testament times are saved in the same way that people in the New Testament times are: through faith in Christ.  We just happen to be standing on the other side of the death and resurrection of Christ and living in the age of the outpouring of the Spirit on all of God's people, all the time. 

What is it that makes the ‘new covenant’ in the Bible ‘new’?  In order to understand the distinction in the new covenant, it is crucial that the old covenant is first grasped.  The old covenant is found all throughout the Old Testament.  In this covenant God initiates a relationship with people so that He will be their God and they will be His people.  The relationship exists for the mutual delight in each other in loving faithfulness.  Marriage is the key to understanding the nature of the covenant relationship between God and His people.  Isaiah 54:5 says that God is a husband to his people.  God invites human beings into the trinitarian relationship that He has within Himself.  In this relationship there is the delight and love that is shared between the Father toward the Son and the Son toward the Father, all through the Holy Spirit.  This covenant that God made with His people was one that called for a response of loving faithfulness towards God as a result of God’s initiation.  The ‘law’ in the Old Testament is a covenant description of what this relationship looks like.  It’s a description of a people responding in love towards God within a relationship already established and not a description of people earning a relationship with God.  In this covenant, obedience is a natural and desired response towards God as a result of our affections (our deepest motivations) being captivated by the love of God.  This is the covenant of the Old Testament.  

The rest of the story in the Old Testament is the history of a people that reject this relationship that God has made with His people.    It is a history of unfaithfulness and of His people’s hearts being captivated by many loves other than God.  God’s people are often referred to as an adulterous people who have deserted the companion of their youth.  Nearly the entire Old Testament is marked by this kind of hard hearted unfaithfulness towards God.  After the infidelity in the Garden of Eden mankind has been marked with this attitude towards God.  Despite all of this however, God says that he will still pursue His bride.  In Jeremiah 31:31-33 God says:

"The time is coming," declares the LORD,
       "when I will make a new covenant
       with the house of Israel
       and with the house of Judah.

 32 It will not be like the covenant
       I made with their forefathers
       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 the LORD.

 33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
       after that time," declares the LORD.
       "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.

Here we begin to see the distinction between the New Covenant and that of the Old.  In the New Covenant God writes the description of the covenant relationship not merely on tablets of stone, but on the hearts of His people.  It is not that the nature of His covenant has changed, but he changes the hearts of the people in it.  In Ezekiel 36:24-29 God says:

‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.  I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.  You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God.  I will save you from all your uncleanness.’

This here is the chief difference between the new and old covenants: in the new covenant God redeems His wayward people and removes our idolatrous heart and gives us a new heart by putting His Spirit within us.  The Holy Spirit is the significant difference between the New Covenant and the Old Covenant.  This is not plan B, but God’s plan all along.  Through the redeeming work of His Son He would send His Spirit to pour out His love into our hearts (Romans 5:5) thereby transforming us into a people who are united to Christ through the Spirit, responders to God’s loving kindness, and a people marked by loving-faithfulness.    

The entire Bible is one large narrative that contains four major themes: 1) Creation 2) Fall 3) Redemption 4) The Eschaton (or the fulfillment of all things.  It is within this larger story that the Old Testament with its hefty piece of narrative fits.  Given the way that I've laid out the story (the four points above) the Old Testament does not come to a clean finish.  Instead the Old Testament ends in the middle of the story of redemption and looks towards the completion of this redemption.  What follows is a quick sketch of the central story of the Old Testament and God's set up for the New Testament and the fulfillment of the larger story. 

1) Creation.  The Old Testament begins with the story of creation and God's purposes for the world and mankind.  I this world that God has created, he has also created man to be in relationship with him, which is to share in the love relationship of his trinitarian being.  Mankind was created for the mutual delight of relationship with God.  Human beings were also given tasks: to populate the earth as a race and to be architectural, caretaker kings over it. 

2) Fall.  Right away though, things run sour.  Mankind as a vassal (lower) king to the Great (suzerain) Servant King decides to revolt and to be a king on his own terms, to be his own king.  Deciding not to trust in God's words to him and to depend on his own wisdom, man takes the one thing that was commanded of him not to be partaken - the fruit form the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  As a result of this decision towards disobedience, self-sufficiency and autonomy, cursing and alienation occur.  Adam and Eve and all their posterity now posses the knowledge of good and evil, but they have learned it through disobedience rather that learning it through obedience as God desired.  From this point onwards, the fall has an ongoing effect on the hearts of people towards God and towards other people.  Mankind follows its own desires, creates its own history and attempts to be its own race of kings apart from God. 

3) Redemption.  Beginning in the curse account in Genesis, there is a glimpse of hope.  God promises that he will crush the head of the serpent, the one who has led his people astray.  The rest of the Old Testament from that event onwards is concerned with the work of God calling a people into existence to be his people.  In this story we see ththough his people have not been faithful to him, he himself, despite this, will be faithful to them and work the redemption of an unfaithful people.  As the story progresses we see that it is God himself who will accomplish this.  He will be the one to redeem them, forgive their sins, defeat their enemies, free the captives, dwell amongst them, return them to the land of promise, put his spirit in them, write his law on their hearts and cause their hearts to return to him.  With the close of the Old Testament we see that the people of God, still dwelling under the curse, have continued to be unfaithful to him and as a result are sent into exile, still waiting the promised redemption.  In the New Testament we see the long awaited redemption come.