Living in the Presence of God: A Study of the Holy Spirit Week 2: The Holy Spirit in the Torah pt. 1

Living in the Presence of God: A Study of the Holy Spirit

Week 2: The Holy Spirit in the Torah pt. 1

I. Genesis

a. Creation

i. Genesis 1:2 – “ Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.”

1. Formless, empty, dark, watery depths

a. This imagery is the Hebrew way of describing nothing – chaos, purposelessness, lack of light.

b. 2:5 – no life, lack of water – wilderness desert – also a way of describing nothing.

2. Ruach Elohim entered into this nothingness.

a. Vs. 1 – God existed before there was anything.

b. Vs. 2 – God’s presence entered into the purposeless, dark, chaotic nothing, and moved to create something from nothing.

ii. Genesis 2:7 – “Then the LORD God formed the human out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.”

1. Formed the human out of nothing (dust = nothing).

2. Yippah nismat hayim– breathed the breath of life

a. Remember our other word for breath – Nishmah

b. God instills his spirit of life into the human.

c. Established the human as physical and spiritual.

d. Our original state before the fall was to be filled with the Spirit and the life of God!

iii. Genesis 2:9 – “The LORD God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden, as well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

1. The ets hayim Tree of Life is a direct link to vs. 2:7 and the nismat hayim.

2. The Tree of Life is the life-giving presence of God that sustains the humans.

iv. Applications from the Creation Stories

1. God’s Spirit breaths life into dead things

2. What seems hopeless and dead is where God, through His Spirit, brings life.

3. Jesus did not come to make bad people good, but to make dead people live.

v. Consequences of the fall

1. Before the fall, the Spirit of God resided within the humans, and God’s presence sustained their spiritual and physical lives.

2. The fall of humans meant that the humans listened to the lies of the enemy, believed God was holding out on them (He wasn’t), and they were lacking something (they weren’t).

3. Sin is telling God that you are going to do things your way and not His.

4. Sin removed humans from the presence of God, the source of physical and spiritual life.

5. Although humans still had the image of God on them, that image was broken by sin, and physical and spiritual death entered the picture.

vi. The Flood

1. With sin, humanity increased in number, but they also increased in evil.

2. Injustice (exploiting weaker people), violence (causing harm to others), immorality (living in an ungodly way), and unrighteousness (living in broken relationships) prevailed.

3. Genesis 6:1-2 - "When humanity began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God (ben Elohim) saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful, and they took any they chose as wives for themselves."

a. Ben Elohim - Sons of heavenly beings – could be demons, could be kings and leaders who thought they were gods.

4. 3:5-6- "When the LORD saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time, the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved."

5. The consequences of humanity’s deepening sin in Vs. 3 – “And the LORD said, 'My Spirit will not remain with humanity forever, because they are corrupt., Their days will be 120 years.’”

a. Remain – dwn – stay and argue, contend

b. God’s Spirit never left humanity completely, but it was altered in a way that:

i. God’s Spirit acted as humanity’s conscience and pleaded with them for right living.

ii. Removing God’s Spirit has two consequences:

6. Limited physical life.

7. Limited spiritual life.

vii. Joseph

1. God’s Spirit does not show up again until Abraham’s great-grandson Joseph.

2. Joseph started as a braggart and was full of pride because of his position as his father’s favorite son.

3. After being sold into slavery and then put into an Egyptian prison, something happened to Joseph:

a. He was humbled.

b. He received the prophetic gift of interpreting dreams.

i. First with Pharaoh’s cupbearer and food taster (40:1-23)

ii. Then with Pharaoh’s dream (41:14-36)

iii. Joseph attributed this gift directly to God: Vs. 16 - "'I am not able to,' Joseph answered Pharaoh. 'It is God who will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.'”

4. Pharaoh attributes this gift directly to God: Vs. 38 - “Can we find anyone like this, a man who has God’s spirit in him?”

5. It is the presence of God that ultimately sets Joseph apart from all of the other spiritual advisors to Pharaoh.