In this message we want to fellowship concerning the functions of the Spirit in the Old Testament. God carries out and accomplishes things as the Spirit. The Spirit of God is actually the Spirit as God. The Spirit of Jehovah is the Spirit as Jehovah. The Spirit is God in action. When God does something, He does it as the Spirit.
The first function of the Spirit as revealed in the Old Testament is the function of life-producing by brooding (Gen. 1:2). The record of Genesis 1 concerning God’s creation is a record of the producing of life. God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth became waste and void. Then the Spirit of God came to brood over the death waters with the intention of producing life. As a result of the brooding of the Spirit, life was produced. First, the plant life was produced (Gen. 1:11-12). The plant life is for beautifying the earth, but it is also for food. Genesis 2 tells us that the trees are good for food (v. 9). The plant life is food for the animal life. After the plant life was produced, the animal life was created. This animal life includes the birds, the aquatic animals, the cattle, and the creeping things (Gen. 1:20-25). The animal life is for the human life. Eventually, the human life is for the divine life, the highest life. The record of God’s creation is actually a record of life-producing by the brooding of the Spirit. The brooding of the Spirit as God produced life for the fulfillment of God’s purpose.
Today in the new creation, the Spirit is also brooding for the producing of life. God created man, but man, like the earth, eventually became “waste and void.” Then the Spirit of God comes to brood over man. This brooding function of the Spirit of God always goes along with the preaching of the gospel. When we preach the gospel, the Spirit is brooding to produce life in the unbelievers.
The Spirit also functioned to strive with or rule in fallen man (Gen. 6:3). Man fell by the time of Genesis 3, and he continued to fall. Therefore, there was a struggle between the Spirit and fallen man. Because the fallen man was still falling, the Spirit was striving with him. God’s Spirit was striving against man’s rebellion. The Hebrew word for striving here could also be translated rule in. God’s striving with man implies His ruling in man. In Genesis 6 a point was reached when the Spirit of God would strive with man no longer. Eventually, man became so corrupted that God had to judge the earth with a flood. The judgment of the flood came in because of the unbridled corruption of man.
Although the situation with man had reached a point where the Spirit of God would no longer strive with him, God would never give up man. Therefore, God came to man to call him, to redeem him, and to rescue him from his fallen situation. After God brought the children of Israel into the wilderness, the Spirit, who was brooding over and striving with man, became the filling Spirit. God filled man with the Spirit of God in wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and skill (Exo. 31:3; 35:31; Deut. 34:9). The Spirit filling man “in” these items means that the Spirit is these items. The filling Spirit that fills us is the Spirit as wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and skill. In the Old Testament, the people who were filled with the Spirit as wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and skill were the builders of the tabernacle. (For more fellowship concerning this, see Life-study of Exodus, message one hundred seventy, pp. 1803-1811.)