21. Holy Spirit Prophets

Coming Messiah Jesus

Inspiration Matthew The Holy Spirit prophets warn the people of sin in their midst. In Nehemiah 9.30, we read that the nation repents, and the leaders proclaim, "For many years you (God) were patient with them. By your Spirit, you warned them through your prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so you gave them into the hands of the neighboring peoples." The prophets warn the people, yet they do not even believe that God inspires them. 2 Peter 1.21 explains, "For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as the Holy Spirit carried them along." The inspiration of God is necessary for any prophet and their prophecy to be genuine. ✞

Proclaims Good News

As one of the prophets, Isaiah predicts relief for the afflicted when the Messiah arrives. Jesus adopts these words from Isaiah 61.1 for himself when he reads them publically in the Temple. Jesus says, "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners." We note that the Septuagint, which was the "Koine" or "day-to-day Greek" in Jesus' day translation of the Old Testament, substitutes "the blind" for "the prisoners." The "Septuagint" version of the Old Testament gets its name from the seventy Jewish scholars who translated the five books of Moses in the 3rd century BC. Jesus then concludes his reading in Luke 4.21, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." The Messiah brings light for the blind. ✞

Prophet Isaiah's Message

Jesus In Temple The Holy Spirit inspires the prophet Isaiah's message and speaks of Jesus' future healing ministry. The prophet Isaiah whose name means "God is Salvation" around BC 740, describes Jesus. His news in Isaiah 11.10 about Jesus is, "In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious." Isaiah says here that the root of Jesse or one particular direct descendant of King David shall appear in the future and stand as a royal flag or banner for the peoples to gather around. The nations will seek him, and his presence among them will be incredible. Jesse, the father of King David, is an essential branch in a kind of ancestral tree from Abraham down to Jesus. Jesus is a direct descendant of King David. ✞

Jesus' Genealogy

Matthew 1.1-17 repeats it, "A record of the origin of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham begot Isaac" and continues until "and Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ." The Isaiah message furthermore heralds Jesus healing ministry in Isaiah 35.4-6, when he writes, "say to those with fearful hearts, 'Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with a vengeance; with divine retribution, he will come to save you.' Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert." He will heal the people and have their hearts and minds opened to the truths about God found in Jesus. ✞

Jesus Healing Ministry

Noah's Ark A similar transformation occurs in 1 Peter 3.19-20, where Jesus, in the time between his death and resurrection, speaks to those in Hades. "After being made alive, he (Jesus) went and proclaimed to the imprisoned spirits to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while he was building the ark. In it, only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water." The phrase "being made alive" may also be equally translated from the Greek as "being made alive in the spirit." ✞

Isaiah's Spirit of Judgment

Judge Isaiah's spirit of judgment is brought to bear on the people of Israel by the Holy Spirit. In Isaiah 4.4, the Holy Spirit is called "a spirit of judgment and burning" and the executor of judgment. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Isaiah looks to the future, "The Lord will wash away the filth of the women of Zion; he will cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of fire." Isaiah later writes in Isaiah 63.10, "Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy, and he fought against them." God himself punishes deliberate sin and those who turn from Him. Those who rebel and grieve the Holy Spirit become God's enemies and come under his spirit of judgment, and he, therefore, punishes them. ✞

Savior Immanuel

Deliberate sin proves the point that we need a holy savior. God provides that through a young woman in a little out of the way village called Bethlehem Ephrathah, which means "house of bread." A virgin from there is to give birth to a son whose name is "Immanuel," which means "God with us." Isaiah prophesied centuries before in Isaiah 7.14 of Jesus' birth, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. " ✞

For All

It is noted here that the Hebrew for "you" is plural meaning "all of you." The sign of the virgin birth is not for a few, but everyone. The word for "virgin" also means "young woman," which might indicate a girl of fifteen or seventeen. Jesus' birthplace is revealed in the Old Testament and is well known to King Herod's advisors. The Magi are therefore told in Micah 5.2, "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." Note that "clans" may be translated as "rulers." Jesus, who is from "ancient times" one with God, is to be born in Bethlehem Ephrathah, one of two Bethlehems known during the Roman Era. The other Bethlehem is in the North near Nazareth by the Sea of Galilee. ✞

Holy Spirit Comforter

Welcome Jesus The Holy Spirit comforter to human hearts and the holiness of the Lord Jesus are, in essence, one. The Holy Spirit gives the promise of the new covenant in Christ Jesus. Jeremiah 31.31-32a,33b states, " 'The days are coming,' declares the Lord, 'when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors. 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." This new covenant from Jesus is not written on parchment or stone tablets but inscribed on human hearts within ordinary people. Jeremiah 31.34 continues, "No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. 'For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.'" "Know the Lord" is our plea today. ✞

Ordinary People

Dove Of Fire Jesus knows that he is about to introduce this new covenant. Isaiah 48.16b prophesies about Jesus and reveals the speaker as the Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, "And now the Sovereign Lord has sent me, endowed with his Spirit." Jesus comes on the authority of the Father with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, who empowers him. Albert Benjamin Simpson (1843-1919), a Canadian Presbyterian minister who moved to Louisville, Kentucky in 1873, wrote a beautiful hymn on this subject,
"O Holy Spirit Comforter,
Gentle and tender,
O holy and heavenly Dove,
We are yielding our hearts in surrender,
We're waiting Thy fullness to prove.
O come as the heart-searching fire,
O come as the sin-cleansing flood;
Consume us with holy desire,
And fill with the fullness of God."

He also wrote the endearing chorus, "Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same. All may change, but Jesus never! Glory to His Name! Glory to His Name! Glory to His Name! All may change, but Jesus never! Glory to His Name!" ✞

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