MOSES & THE HOLY SPIRIT
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. Retold Burning Bush account: "Moses, listen to Me. I have good news, and bad news."
2. Moses says, “Tell me the good news first.”
3. “OK.” The voice continues: "You, Moses, will lead the
people of Israel out from bondage. Pharaoh will refuse to let Israel go, so I will release a series of plagues – including blood, frogs, gnats, boils, disease, hail stones, locusts, and many more, all by your hand. At last I will open the Red Sea and all Israel will cross over on dry ground.
4. Moses stammered, "Wow God! That's fantastic - but what's the bad news?"
5. “The bad news is that You have to write the environmental impact statement."
B. THESIS
1. Tonight we’re starting a new series centering on the Person of the Holy Spirit. I thought it would be interesting to see the Holy Spirit at work during different periods of time.
2. To tonight we’re going to start with the first five books of the Bible and look at “Moses and the Holy Spirit.”
I. MOSES’ HISTORY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
A. CREATION OF THE WORLD
1. Genesis 1:2 states that “the Spirit of God moved (continually) over the face of the waters.”
2. This Hebrew word “moved” is used in this way in only one other place (Deut. 32:11) and there it describes a mother bird hovering or fluttering over her young in a vibrant, protective way.
B. THE CREATION OF MAN/WOMAN
1. The climax of God’s creation comes when God says, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Gen. 1:26).
2. Though nothing is said about the Holy Spirit here, the Bible does say, “Then the Lord God formed a man[a] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being (soul)” Gen. 2:7.
3. The Holy Spirit is active in every instance of Creation, as Ps. 104:30 points out, "You send forth Your Spirit and they are created: and you renew the face of the earth."
C. THE SPIRIT STRIVING IN NOAH’S TIME
1. When mankind sinned, they (Adam & Eve) were cut off from fellowship even from the time of the Garden of Eden.
2. But God's Spirit continued to deal with us after the Fall. This is brought out in Gen. 6:3 where God proclaims; "My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for he (mankind) also is flesh; yet his days shall be 120 years."
3. This “striving” is the wooing of the Spirit and the convicting work of the Spirit, endeavoring to turn us from sin and draw us to God; to quicken our understandings to spiritual things.
D. ABRAHAM: PROPHET OF THE SPIRIT
1. Moses revealed that Abraham was a prophet, when God asked Abraham to pray for Abimelech (Gen. 20:7).
2. A "prophet" means "a spokesman for God." More importantly, prophets were men of the Spirit: "Holy men of God spoke as they were moved (born along, led a long) by the Holy Ghost" 2 Peter 1:21. Abraham was such a man.
E. JOSEPH
1. Joseph was especially recognized for the anointing which the Psalm 105:15-22, speaks of: “Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm.”…17 [God] sent a man before them—Joseph, sold as a slave. 18 They bruised his feet with shackles, his neck was put in irons, 19 till what he foretold came to pass, till the word of the Lord proved him true. 20 The king sent and released him, the ruler of peoples set him free.”
2. After Joseph interpreted Pharaoh's dream, Pharaoh said, "Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?" Gen. 41:38. Sacred history says Joseph was a man filled with the Holy Spirit!
II. HOLY SPIRIT IN MOSES’ LIFE
A. AT THE BURNING BUSH
1. Moses definite call occurred when he heard the voice of God speaking to him out of the burning bush (Ex. 3).
2. The Voice of the Lord is ever associated with the Holy Spirit, “The Lord God has spoken, who can but prophesy?” Amos 3:8.
3. Stephen pointed out that Moses already knew God had called him to deliver Israel (Acts 7:25), but his school of the Spirit, like Paul & John the Baptist, was held out in the wilderness with long solitude. We too need to get quiet where we can hear God!
B. SPOKE FACE TO FACE WITH GOD
1. God himself recognized Moses as the greatest prophet of all time. Other prophets God would speak to through dreams and visions only.
2. But with Moses God spoke directly, face-to-face, or literally "mouth-to-mouth" -- just as a man would carry on a conversation with a friend (Numbers 12:6-8).
3. Other people who were involved with the Holy Spirit sometimes thought they could challenge Moses, but Moses was unique in his calling and anointing.
C. ISRAEL LED BY THE SPIRIT
1. The Bible says, “By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night” Ex. 13:21.
2. The Holy Spirit is frequently identified with similarities of water, whether as liquid, precipitation, or gas.
3. In John 7 Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as waters we can drink. David (Ps. 133:1-3) described the anointing to be similar to the “dew” on Mt. Hermon.
4. When Moses dedicated the Tabernacle, the glory “cloud” of God filled it (Ex. 40:34). They were led for the 40 years by the Presence of the Lord. So should we!
D. TABERNACLE CONSTRUCTION
1. When God called Moses to build the Tabernacle, Moses felt incapable of doing it.
2. So God told him he had raised up two men, Bezalel and Oholiab, and filled them with his Spirit (Exodus 31:2-3,6; 35:30-31).
3. The purpose of this filling was to sharpen their skills in working with metal, the loom, etc., and to enable them to do the technical and precise work of making the Tabernacle sacred objects, furniture, & tools.
E. MOSES & THE 70 ELDERS
1. Moses tried to take care of all the needs of the 2 ½ million Israelites himself. The pressure became too great.
Can you imagine?
2. HUMOR. Q: Do you known why Moses was called the Mathematician in the Bible? A: Because he wrote the book of Numbers.
3. At some point God told Moses to select 70 Elders of Israel, mature men, with proven ability and make them officers over the people (Exodus 18:18-26).
4. He was to bring them to the Tabernacle where they would stand in a semicircle with Moses. Then the Lord would come down and take of the Spirit which was on Moses and put it on them.
5. Thus, they would help Moses bear the burden of the people (Numbers 11:17).
6. On the day this was done, it happened that two the 70 elders – Eldad& Medad – didn’t make it to the Tabernacle, but were still among the tents.
7. When the Spirit came down on the other 68 elders and they began to prophesy, Eldad and Medad began to prophesy out in the camp of Israel (Numbers 11:29.)
8. When Joshua objected to their prophesying in the camp, Moses corrected him, “Do you envy them for my sake? Or "are you jealous over my authority or my ministry as a prophet?"
9. Moses recognized something even more important when he added, "Would that all the Lord's people were prophets and the Lord would put his Spirit upon them all."
10. Later on, Jeremiah (31:31-34) and Ezekiel (36:25-26) caught a glimpse of a time when this would indeed be true of Israel. Joel (2:28-29) prophesied God would put His Spirit on all flesh.
11. Not until the Day of Pentecost did the Spirit fulfill the prophecy of Joel by filling every believer present with the Spirit (Acts 2:4,16).
F. THE SPIRIT ON BALAAM
1. King Balak of Moab (Num. 22-24) knew the only way to defeat Israel was to get Israel’s God to turn against them.
2. So he sent for Balaam, near the Euphrates River, an unable prophet (2 Pet. 2:15; Jude 11; Rev. 2:14).
3. Balaam eventually went to King Balak and offered sacrifices on mountains overlooking the camping place of Israel. After making offerings, he would yield himself to the Spirit and see if he could prophesy.
4. He was given true prophecies by God, even though at other times he was a soothsayer and false prophet. In prophecy he saw the fair tents of Israel crowned with victory.
5. He told the king that there was no divination against Israel there was no curse that could work.
6. In one of his last prophecies, he saw the distant future. He said, "There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel" (Num. 24:7). He went on to say that this Messiah that would rise and conquer Moab.
G. THE SPIRIT IN JOSHUA
1. Joshua was filled with the Spirit of God and wisdom (Deut. 34:9). More importantly, he remained full and learned to depend on the Spirit for wisdom (insight, ability to carry out God's purposes and bring them to completion).
2. Because Moses was about to die, God prepared a leader to take his place. Moses had been the prophet, the man of the Spirit -- for 40 years.
3. Their entering into the Promised Land would be a critical time and it would be not be easy for anyone to take Moses place. Joshua was well trained. He had already won victories (Ex. 17:9-14).
4. Yet the key was the Spirit. The same Spirit that moved Moses, would now move Joshua. Although Moses laid his hands on Joshua and the Spirit was transferred (Deut. 34:9), it’s clear that from Num. 27:18 that Joshua was already filled with the spirit.
5. This means the laying on of hands by Moses was simply a public recognition of the ministry God had already given to Joshua as the successor of Moses.
6. HUMOR. Q: By the way, do you know who was the only person in the Bible without a father? A: Joshua the son of Nun.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: SOURCE OF THE POWER
1. Bible teacher F.B. Meyer once had a firewood factory that employed prisoners. He give them a job to do, good wages, a place to live, and, when possible, spiritual encouragement.
2. In exchange, he expected them to render good employment. They didn’t, and he lost money. Finally he fired them all and purchased a circular saw powered by a gas engine.
3. In one hour, it turned out more boards than all the men had turned out in a day. Meyer asked the saw, “How can you turn out so much work?” he asked.
4. “Are you sharper than the saws my men were using? No? Is your blade shinier? No? What then? Better oil or lubrication against the wood?”
5. The saw’s answer, could it speak, would have been, “There’s a stronger driving power behind me. Something is working through me with a new force. It is not I, it is the power behind.”
6. The failure of many Christians in achieving God’s purposes for their lives probably isn’t due to lack of desire, but to their working in the power of the flesh.
7. They need to become linked to the power of God through the Holy Spirit.
B. THE CALL
1. Let’s ask God to fill us with the Holy Spirit and begin leading us into the supernatural.
2. Moses was no smarter or talented than we are, he was just more yielded to the Spirit.
3. Prayer & Salvation call.
[Much of this message was influenced by Stanley Horton’s book, “What the Bible Says About the Holy Spirit.”]
