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ОглавлениеSession 2
Authority and Power Come by the Holy Spirit
“The Church, therefore, instructed by the words of Christ, and drawing on the experience of Pentecost and her own apostolic history, has proclaimed since the earliest centuries her faith in the Holy Spirit, as the giver of life, the one in whom the inscrutable Triune God communicates himself to human beings, constituting in them the source of eternal life.”
— Pope St. John Paul II, Dominum et Vivificantem (n. 1)
Another very distinct theme in the Old Testament is that the Spirit of God grants authority to various human beings, either to hold particular offices or to have particular powers. This will be a very important background and prefiguring for the New Testament teaching on the Holy Spirit as the source of gifts, or charisms, in the Church. In this session, we will be looking at how the Holy Spirit dealt with Joshua, Moses’ successor; the judges, the rulers of Israel; and the kings of Israel.
Joshua
The Lord God had famously called Moses from the burning bush to lead Israel to freedom from slavery in Egypt. This was a unique role and not a hereditary or elected office or institution. Still, after Moses died, someone needed to lead the people of Israel into the Promised Land. That role fell to a younger man — Joshua, son of Nun — who had been at his side in various roles from the time right after the people’s escape from Egypt.
Investigate
Joshua and the Wilderness
Look up the following passages and note Joshua’s actions.
| PASSAGE | NOTES |
| Exodus 17:1-14 | |
| Exodus 24:13-14 | |
| Exodus 32:17-18 | |
| Exodus 33:11 | |
| Numbers 11:27-29 | |
| Numbers 13:1-16 | |
| Numbers 14:1-38 |
Study
Throughout the wandering in the wilderness, Joshua showed himself to be courageous in battle, loyal to Moses, and faithful to and trusting in the Lord. The Lord’s choice of Joshua to lead Israel was not a reward but the result of Joshua having proven himself capable of the role through his previous actions, virtues, and faith.
Two passages depict the choice of Joshua as Moses’ successor in leading Israel: one before Moses died and one after. At both stages, the role of the Spirit of God is key.
Stop here and read Numbers 27:12-23 in your own Bible.
The passage opens with the Lord’s command that Moses go up another mountain, this time to see the Promised Land before he dies. Moses had failed to obey the Lord’s command to speak to the rock in order to make water flow out for the people (see Num 20:8-13). The nature of this sin derived from the Lord’s intention to bring water out by his word rather than by Moses’ act of striking the rock; the people might think Moses’ action brought out the water, when it was the power of the Lord’s word. Moses failed to obey God and thus failed to give the people an important teaching moment about the authority of God’s word. Therefore, he will be permitted to see the Promised Land but not to enter it. At this point, Moses petitions the Lord to appoint another man to lead the people of Israel after him:
Moses said to the LORD, “Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation, who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in; that the congregation of the LORD may not be as sheep which have no shepherd.” (Num 27:15-17).
The Lord is identified as the “God of the spirits of all flesh,” echoing a similar expression in Job 12:10: “In his hand is the soul of every living thing and the spirit of all mankind” (author’s translation). The reason for Moses to include this description here is that he wants the Lord to appoint a well-qualified leader. This will not be defined merely by external accomplishments but by the inner spirit of a man, which only the Lord can know. The Lord responds positively to Moses’ request by naming Joshua the son of Nun.
Not only does the Lord know Joshua’s spirit, as he knows the spirits of all people, but he also knows that “the Spirit” — that is, the Spirit of God — is upon him. The presence of God’s Spirit will be a key qualification for Joshua to lead the people morally as well as militarily and organizationally.
At the same time that the presence of God’s Spirit is made clear by the Lord himself, the Lord orders Moses to commission Joshua by laying his hands upon him in the presence of the high priest Eleazar (Aaron’s son) and the whole congregation of Israel. Moses confers some of his authority upon Joshua by the laying on of hands, but the high priest and the people are present to signal their approval of Joshua and therefore their willingness to follow and obey him. In this scene, we see that the special gift of the Spirit is bestowed, along with the ceremonial and liturgical actions of approval. Even though the Lord bestows the Spirit, as only the Lord can, the liturgical celebration of this office is very important to the life of the nation.
Stop here and read Deuteronomy 34:7-12 in your own Bible.
This text begins at the death of Moses at 120 years of age and the thirty-day period of grieving for him. At the end of this period, Joshua takes up the leadership role he was chosen to have about five weeks earlier. Briefly, the text notes that Joshua takes up the reins and the people obey him, as the Lord commanded Moses. Yet note that Joshua is also described as having God’s Spirit, who is characterized by wisdom. The ways Joshua lives under the influence of the Spirit of wisdom will be demonstrated throughout the Book of Joshua. It is worth noting the epilogue to this notification about Joshua’s leadership:
And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, none like him for all the signs and the wonders which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, and for all the mighty power and all the great and terrible deeds which Moses wrought in the sight of all Israel. (Deut 34:10-12).
As filled with the Spirit of wisdom that Joshua might be, he still does not equal Moses for two key reasons: Moses knew the Lord “face to face,” thereby making him the greatest of all prophets; and no one did miracles as Moses did, with mighty power and great wonder. Christians might consider this from the perspective that Jesus (in Hebrew Jehoshua or Jeshua, a form of Joshua) will exceed Moses both in his knowledge of God (from all eternity as God’s only begotten Son) as well as the many miracles he performed, most especially his resurrection from the dead — Moses still remains dead. An interesting comparison indeed.
Judges
Modern readers understand the term “judge” primarily through the lens of the law court and the respect due to those addressed as “Your Honor” because they adjudicate cases. However, the Hebrew term shafat and its Ugaritic equivalent th-ph-t include the sense of ruling people as well as adjudicating cases in court. The Book of Judges relates the stories of such leaders in Israel, roughly from 1200 B.C. to 1050 B.C., a period of political insecurity throughout the Middle East that affected the tribes of Israel as they settled into the land of Canaan, the land promised to their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
The World of the Judges
Egypt had reached the pinnacle of its power under Rameses II, considered by a majority of scholars as the pharaoh of the Exodus period. After many wars in Canaan and elsewhere, Rameses died in 1212 B.C., after a sixty-seven-year reign, and was succeeded by a son, Merneptah, who mentioned defeating Israel in a battle in 1207 B.C. His first successors were not strong until Rameses III, who defeated a Philistine invasion of Egypt and forced them to settle in Canaan as agents of the Egyptian Empire in 1178 B.C. These iron-smelting tribes from the Mediterranean islands caused Israel much trouble during the period of the Judges and the time of King David. Other tribes were very active, particularly the Moabites and Edomites, who were Bedouin tribes settling in the territory of modern Jordan, east of Israel. They fought the Egyptians and Israelites alike in an attempt to gain control over the land of Canaan. Such is the background of the chaotic world of the judges.
In addition to the political turmoil caused by the increasing weakness of Egypt, the Hittite Empire, and the Assyrian Empire, the Israelites brought chaos upon themselves by worshiping the pagan deities Baal and Anath, despite the first commandment to have “no other gods before me” (Ex 20:3). Israel’s spiritual weakness typically led to attacks and invasions by the Philistines, Moabites, Edomites, and others, which the Israelites understood as the Lord’s punishment for their sins. At those points, they cried out for help, and the Lord sent them judges.
The chronology of the judges adds up to 400 years, which is longer than most scholars would grant to the period of the judges. The best explanation is that the judges ruled in different tribes of Israel, as the text says. It is fairly likely that they overlapped one another in time, though in different parts of the country, making possible the occurrence of their deeds and rule within the 150 years or so between Joshua and King Saul.
Investigate
The Spirit of the Lord
Look up the following passages and make notes on who is involved and how the Spirit of the Lord came upon them before reading the explanations below.
| PASSAGE | NOTES |
| Judges 3:8-10 | |
| Judges 6:33-35 | |
| Judges 11:29-40 |
Study
Othniel
The Israelites worshiped Baal and the female Asheroth deities of Canaan, so the Lord allowed them to be invaded by Cushan-rishathaim from Aram of the two rivers — that is, northern Mesopotamia. Othniel was from Judah, and therefore far to the south of Aram (modern-day Syria). When Israel repented of worshiping Canaanite gods, the Lord raised up Othniel by pouring his Spirit upon him. The Spirit made Othniel into a military leader able to defeat Cushan-rishathaim and deliver Israel. After that, Israel was at peace for forty years until Othniel died.
Gideon
Again Israel sinned, so the Lord allowed the Midianites — a Bedouin tribe that had conquered the area of modern Jordan south of Amman, along the east side of the Dead Sea — to attack. Before the Israelites met the Midianites in battle, the Spirit of the Lord “clothed” (literal translation of the Hebrew) Gideon, strengthening him to sound a trumpet call to all the tribes to help attack the Midianites and Amalekites.
This empowerment stands in stark contrast to Gideon’s self-description at his call by an angel, “Pray, Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family” (Judg 6:15). Manasseh was the youngest tribe, Gideon’s Abiezrite clan was the least clan in Manasseh, and he was the least member of his clan. This means that Gideon was at the very bottom of the Israelite totem pole, the man with the least status in the whole nation. Yet the Lord’s Spirit was powerful enough to transform even Gideon into a warrior capable of driving out the oppressive raiders.
Jephthah
Like Gideon, Jephthah was extremely low in the social order of Israel. His father was called Gilead, the name of the Jordanian plateau north of Amman, and his mother was an unnamed prostitute. His father’s legitimate sons drove him away from the family to the arid region northeast of Gilead, where he gathered a group of fellow outsiders and bandits. However, the Ammonites attacked the Israelite tribes living east of the Jordan River. At that point, the Israelites living on the Gilead plateau begged Jephthah to lead them, to which, after some negotiations, he agreed. Next, he tried negotiation with the Ammonites, but these negotiations failed, so war became inevitable.
Before Jephthah began his march to battle, the “Spirit of the LORD” came upon him (Judg 11:29), enabling him to lead the eastern Israelite tribes to victory. However, he did not receive the gift of wisdom, since he made an open-ended vow to sacrifice the first one who came out to meet him — probably assuming it would be one of the domestic animals. Tragically, his only daughter came out first, so he sacrificed her, much to his and her lament (Judg 11:32-40).
Samson
Samson is regarded as the last of the major judges.
Investigate
The Story of Samson
Look up the following passages and make notes about Samson before reading the explanation below.
| PASSAGE | NOTES |
| Judges 13:24-25 | |
| Judges 14:5-6, 18-20 | |
| Judges 15:14-15 | |
| Judges 16 |
A childless woman of the tribe of Dan was approached by an angel of the Lord with a promise that she would bear a son who would save the southern tribes from the Philistines. The angel confirmed this message to her doubting husband, Manoah. At this point, the Danites still lived in the south, near Judah and Simeon, but closer to the Philistines living on the southern coastal plane in five cities along the Mediterranean Sea. The Philistines had brought iron smelting to the region and maintained a monopoly on iron in a region where people knew how to smelt copper and tin, which were used to make the alloy called bronze. Iron was stronger than bronze, giving the Philistines a technological advantage over Israel.
Though Dan was a small tribe that would eventually be forced to move to the far north of the country due to their military weakness in the face of the Philistine threat, the Spirit of the Lord would come upon one warrior and use him to punish the Philistines. As with Jephthah, the Spirit of the Lord gave young Samson great strength to fight the Philistines on his own, but he was not very wise in his general conduct.
Samson desired to marry a Philistine woman, despite his parents’ objections to marrying a non-Israelite. On the way to the marriage, at Timnah, the Spirit of the Lord came so mightily upon him that he was able to tear apart a lion. From seeing the carcass of that lion filled with bees and honey, he composed a riddle for the guests at his wedding. They cheated in solving the riddle, leading him to kill thirty Philistine men in their city of Ashkelon so that he could pay those who solved the riddle. However, he lost his wife to his best man because of killing the thirty Philistines. Samson was physically strengthened by the Lord’s Spirit, but not made wise.
Samson’s next adventure started with a failed attempt to reconcile with his estranged wife. In revenge for not getting his wife back, he set the tails of 300 foxes on fire and let the crazed animals run through the Philistine fields and crops. The Philistines retaliated against Judah with war, so the Judahites convinced Samson to be bound and handed over to the Philistines at the town of Lehi. At that point, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him so powerfully that he snapped the ropes holding him, grabbed the jawbone of a dead ass, and killed the Philistine soldiers with it.
Samson never became very wise. His final adventures began with a fatal attraction to a prostitute in Gaza named Delilah. Though her first two attempts to trick him to reveal the secret of his strength failed, her third succeeded. The Philistines overpowered him, blinded him, and made him a slave. In one final, fatal retaliation, the blind Samson knocked down the main supporting pillars of the Philistine temple, killing many of them and himself in the process. Clearly he was strong but never wise.
Consider
The Kings and the Spirit of the Lord
In the time of the judges, the Spirit of the Lord strengthened each of them to save Israel from one of the many enemies in the area, in response to the people’s repentance for sin and the Lord’s decision to show them mercy. However, most of the judges were local, capable of leading one or a few tribes but not all of Israel. Further, they were able to muster local militias but not any standing armies ready to defend the nation from attackers. Nor did they establish a dynasty or some other institution of ongoing leadership.
In the middle of the eleventh century B.C., Samuel was a combination prophet and judge, but his sons were too corrupt to continue his service to the nation. The people clamored for a king in 1 Samuel 8, and the Lord permitted it, guiding Samuel to choose and anoint Saul as the first king and then get popular support for his leadership (1 Sam 9-10). The first crisis arose when the Ammonites besieged the town of Jabesh-gilead, a town somewhere along modern Wadi el-Jabis, which flows from the Gilead plateau in Jordan down to the Jordan River.
Stop here and read 1 Samuel 11:1-7 in your own Bible.
When the Spirit of God “rushed” (“came mightily” is a bit interpretive) upon Saul at hearing the plea of the threatened people of Jabesh-gilead, his anger was “kindled,” or became hot (1 Sam 11:6). His action of cutting two oxen into pieces to be sent throughout the land of Israel as a threat to those who refuse to help save Jabesh-gilead was a symbol for those who belonged to the national covenant. People who broke covenants were threatened with being cut to pieces, and that was the nature of Saul’s threat. Of course, the people responded and saved Jabesh-gilead. Years later, when the Philistines hanged Saul’s decapitated body on the walls of Beth-shan, the men of Jabesh-gilead took it down at night and buried it honorably in repayment.
Study
King Saul did not always obey the word of the Lord, and the prophet Samuel informed him that his kingdom was to be removed from him and his family (1 Sam 15). Therefore, the Lord sent Samuel to anoint a new king in Bethlehem. He examined the sons of Jesse, until the Lord chose the youngest son, David, but not on the basis of his strength, height, or good looks — characteristics that had impressed the historian in regard to Saul, as well as Samuel and the people, and had impressed Samuel about David’s older brothers. Rather, the Lord looked on the heart and designated David, who also happened to be handsome and ruddy in appearance:
Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah. Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD tormented him. (1 Sam 16:13-14)
Somewhat parallel to the laying of hands on Joshua in the religious assembly, the Spirit of the Lord “rushed upon” David as Samuel anointed him “in the midst of his brothers” during a peace-offering sacrifice. Though the Spirit rushed upon David, no specific attitude or action is described in connection with this gift of the Spirit; his effects will have to be seen as David’s life and reign unfold over the coming years. The text also says that the Spirit of the Lord “departed” from Saul, upon whom the Lord’s Spirit had rushed at the beginning of his reign. Saul is not left in a neutral spiritual state, but an evil spirit has taken the place of the Lord’s Spirit. Like nature, the supernatural does not like a vacuum. The effects of Saul’s evil spirit will be manifest as he tries to kill David, and even his own son.
Even though the Lord did not want the people to have a king with a standing army, military draft, and large government bureaucracy, he nonetheless sent his own Spirit to empower the first two kings to be able to do their missions of leading Israel. Yet the presence of the Spirit of the Lord depended on the fidelity of the king to doing the Lord’s will and avoiding sin. The active role of the Spirit depends on fidelity to God’s moral law, as Saul learns to his chagrin.
Consider
Stop here and read 1 Chronicles 12:16-18 in your own Bible.
The Chronicles retell much of the history of the kings of Israel and Judah, often using the material in the Books of Samuel and Kings, but also drawing on other traditions and records. One interesting notice about the role of the Spirit occurs after Saul had died in battle with the Philistines and after all the tribes assembled at the city of Hebron (meaning “Confederacy” in Hebrew) to anoint David king, not only of Judah but of all twelve tribes. Various warriors assembled to pledge loyalty to David from each of the tribes, including Benjamin, which was the tribe of King Saul. They required special attention because of their natural inclination to remain loyal to Saul, their now dead tribesman and former enemy of David. David meets them with a special offer, that if they have come in friendship, his “heart will be knit” (1 Chron 12:17) to them.
Amasai, the chief of thirty elite Benjaminite warriors, is “clothed” with the Spirit and makes his pledge of loyalty and peace to David and his assistants. This clothing with the Spirit of God makes it possible for these warriors to overcome the natural loyalties of tribe and kinship with Saul so that they can join the new king, David, who had also been endowed with the same Spirit of the Lord at his secret anointing by Samuel.
Study
The political leadership within Israel is understood to be instituted and guided by the Lord’s Spirit from the time of Joshua through the time of the first kings, Saul and David. Because of their sins, their successors are not portrayed as being so filled with the Spirit. In fact, their sins are included in Israel’s royal histories with an honesty rarely seen among their neighboring kingdoms. This history points out that the institution of leadership might be begun with the Spirit, but the sins of the people can make them incapable of sensitivity to his divine influence. Even when someone like Saul has the Spirit rush upon him, he can lose the presence of the Lord’s Spirit because of his disobedience to God’s commands. Human inconstancy is a serious issue in their life of the Spirit, such that sin might block his actions and cut off the life of the Spirit.
Recall the Book of Wisdom on the Lord’s Spirit and judgment of people:
For your immortal spirit is in all things.
Therefore you correct little by little those who trespass,
and remind and warn them of the things wherein they sin,
that they may be freed from wickedness and put their trust in you, O Lord. (Wis 12:1-2)
The Spirit of the Lord works to correct the people of Israel for their national sins, especially of idolatry, and the sins of the kings, especially disobedience. It is not farfetched to think that Wisdom 12:1-2 may be a reflection how individuals and institutions who were inspired by the Spirit of the Lord can go wrong due to human sin, and the same Spirit will bring the correction. Every human, especially those who claim to have Spirit-inspired authority, must stay extra alert to their responsibilities lest their trust in the Lord sour into self-confidence that precedes their downfall, as with Saul and others.
Discuss
1. What differences do you see between the action of the Lord’s Spirit in the Old Testament and the Holy Spirit in the New Testament?
2. How can someone have the Lord’s Spirit for power but not wisdom (see Samson)?
3. What is the relationship between the Spirit and human sin?
Practice
This week, think about how the Holy Spirit acted in the lives of Old Testament figures. What aspects of the Holy Spirit that were shown in the Old Testament can you see in your life or the lives of believers around you? How can you more fully develop the wisdom and power offered by the Spirit in your life? Consider if it is possible that some sin might be blocking the power of the Spirit to work through you.
