The Holy Spirit During Inter-Testament Time

Scripture  Reading: Mark 1:1-8

 This is the beginning of the Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God,^[a] 2as the prophet Isaiah wrote:   “I will send my messenger ahead of you,  who will prepare your way.” Malachi 3:1  ³ “This is a voice of one who calls out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way for the Lord.  Make the road straight for him.’” Isaiah 40:3

⁴ John was baptizing people in the desert and preaching a baptism of changed hearts and lives for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵ All the people from Judea and Jerusalem were going out to him. They confessed their sins and were baptized by him in the Jordan River. ⁶ John wore clothes made from camel’s hair, had a leather belt around his waist, and ate locusts and wild honey. ⁷ This is what John preached to the people: “There is one coming after me who is greater than I; I am not good enough even to kneel down and untie his sandals. ⁸ I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

Key Verse: The whole Judean countryside.. .went out to him... ( Mark 1:5).

Mediation: At least 400 years transpired after the last Old Testament writer’s recorded the words of God. Until recently little was known about the Spirit’s working during this inter-testament time. Many Bible scholars assumed that, due to the sins of the people, God had withdrawn His presence from the temples and the people of Israel until such a time that the Messiah would appear.

However, the recent discovery of the literature of the Qumran community near the Dead Sea seems to contradict the supposed absence of the Holy Spirit during this time. Both in the hymns and in their manual of discipline the Holy Spirit is frequently mentioned as the divine purifier of man’s mind and heart. We can be assured there has never been a time since creation that God has not been at work in our world. Even when the Shekinah presence of God lifted from the temple, the Holy Spirit’s ministry continued in individual lives.

How else can we explain, apart from the Spirit’s working, the growing, sense of expectancy regarding the coming of the Messiah? The promises of the prophets concerning the Messiah had not been forgotten, at least not by a large number of people. That hope crystallized into eager questioning when someone like John the Baptist appeared. People flocked to hear John, expecting him to be the Messiah. We attribute this atmosphere of intense expectation to the direct ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Thought for the Day: There has not been a day since the creation when the Holy Spirit has been absent in our world.