The Spirit of the Lord in the Minor Prophets

Daniel Segraves

The Sanctuary UPC | Hazelwood, MO | November 18, 2018

Daniel L. Segraves, Teacher

Although specific references to the Spirit of the Lord are few in the Minor Prophets [the Book of the Twelve], when these books are read as one, they have a rich pneumatology [doctrine of the Holy Spirit] rooted in the Pentateuch [the first five books of the Bible, also known as the Torah] and pointing to the pneumatological [Holy Spirit] experience of the first century church.[1]

Joel

Joel’s promise of the pouring out of the Spirit of the Lord was fulfilled in the event of Pentecost.[2]

And it shall come to pass afterward

    That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;

    Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

    Your old men shall dream dreams,

    Your young men shall see visions.

    And also on My menservants and on My maidservants

    I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

    And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth:

    Blood and fire and pillars of smoke.

    The sun shall be turned into darkness,

    And the moon into blood,

    Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.

    And it shall come to pass

    That whoever calls on the name of the LORD

    Shall be saved.

    For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance,

    As the LORD has said,

    Among the remnant whom the LORD calls (Joel 2:28-32).

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,

That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;

Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

Your young men shall see visions,

Your old men shall dream dreams.

And on My menservants and on My maidservants

I will pour out My Spirit in those days;

And they shall prophesy.

I will show wonders in heaven above

And signs in the earth beneath:

Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.

The sun shall be turned into darkness,

And the moon into blood,

Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.

And it shall come to pass

That whoever calls on the name of the LORD

Shall be saved’ (Acts 2:16-21).

Micah

Micah declares that the Spirit of the Lord is not restricted and that he is full of power by the Spirit of the Lord.

You who are named the house of Jacob:

“Is the Spirit of the LORD restricted?

Are these His doings?

Do not My words do good

To him who walks uprightly? (Micah 2:7).

The Hebrew word qatsar translated “restricted”, includes within its range of meaning the ideas of to “be short, impatient, vexed, grieved.”[3]

Especially in view of Peter’s dependence on Joel 2:28-32, it may be possible that there is at least an echo of Micah 3:8 in Acts 1:8.

But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the LORD,

And of justice and might,

To declare to Jacob his transgression

And to Israel his sin (Micah 3:8).

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

Haggai

In Haggai, the Lord declares that His Spirit remains among His people.

I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them. I am the Lord their God (Exodus 29:45-46).

According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remains among you; do not fear (Haggai 2:5).

 Zechariah

Zechariah has four references:

  1. The Lord informs Zerubbabel that the building of the temple will not be “by might nor by power, but by My Spirit” (Zechariah 4:6).

 

  1. An angel, speaking on behalf of the Lord, informs Zechariah in a vision, “See, those who go toward the north country have given rest to My Spirit in the north country” (Zechariah 6:8).

 

  1. The Lord informs Zechariah that He sent His words by His Spirit through the former prophets (Zechariah 7:12).

 

  1. He promises, “I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication: then they will look on Me whom they pierced.[4] Yes, they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn” (Zechariah 12:10).[5] John sees this promise as connected with the events involved in the crucifixion of Christ (John 19:37) and alludes to it in conjunction with the coming of Jesus Christ (Revelation 1:7). Since the Lord declares “they will look on Me” in this messianic text, the Lord is identified as the Messiah.

[1] These references are found in Joel, Micah, Haggai, and Zechariah.

[2] For further detail on the connections between Joel and Acts, see Daniel L. Segraves, Reading Between the Lines (Hazelwood, MO: WAP Academic, 2008), Chapter 10.

[3] R. Laird Harris, ed., Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, vol. 2 (Chicago: Moody Press, 1980), 809.

[4] The change in pronoun is done for stylistic reasons; the subject is still God (John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible [Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016], Zechariah 12:10. “The character of the Messiah as both God and man is suggested by referring to Him in verse 10 as both ‘me’ (that is, God) and ‘him’ (see Isa. 9:6–7; a similar phenomenon occurs in passages where the angel of the Lord is referred to both as the Lord and as someone distinct from the Lord; see Gen. 16:7–13; Exod. 3:2–4; Judg. 6:11–27; Zech. 3:1–6)” (E. Ray Clendenen, “The Minor Prophets,” in Holman Concise Bible Commentary, ed. David S. Dockery [Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998], 388). “Because of the difficulty of the concept of the mortal piercing of God, the subject of this clause, and the shift of pronoun from ‘me’ to ‘him’ in the next, many MSS read אַלֵי אֵת אֲשֶׁר (’ale ’et ’asher, “to the one whom,” a reading followed by NAB, NRSV) rather than the MT’s אֵלַי אֵת אֲשֶׁר (’ela ’et ’asher, “to me whom”). The reasons for such alternatives, however, are clear—they are motivated by scribes who found such statements theologically objectionable—and they should be rejected in favor of the more difficult reading (lectio difficilior) of the MT” (Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition Notes [Biblical Studies Press, 2006], Zec 12:10).

[5] Since Zechariah 12:10 has to do with the Messiah pouring out the Spirit, there may be an anticipation of Acts 2:33, where the Messiah has poured out the Spirit.