The Spirit Within the Prophets

There is a careful line between two kinds of appearing. At the Jabbok God met Jacob in a form taken for a time, as a man who wrestled with him through the night. In the incarnation the Word took human nature for ever, when He became flesh. That line is true, and it matters. But it is a difference in the manner of appearing. It does not mean that God was only ever outside Jacob, meeting him in visions and in the dark, while only believers after Pentecost have known God within. The record says otherwise, and the evidence is in Jacob’s own words.

Where Jacob’s Words Came From

Jacob’s last words hold three names: the messenger “who has redeemed me from all evil” in Genesis 48:16; Shiloh, in the blessing of Judah, Genesis 49:10; and yeshuah יְשׁוּעָה yesh-oo'-aw, the LORD’s salvation, for which he waited, in Genesis 49:18. Jacob himself introduced the last of these chapters as a word about the future.

Genesis 49:1 And Jacob called to his sons and said, "Gather yourselves together, and I will tell you what shall befall you in the end of days.

That is not the language of a father giving advice; it is the language of prophecy. And Scripture tells us plainly where prophecy comes from.

2 Peter 1:21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the thelema θέλημα thel'-ay-mah(will) of man, but holy men of God spoke, being carried along by the hagio(holy) pneuma πνεῦμα pnyoo'-mah(spirit).

This is the human side of prophecy: the prophet speaks, but the word does not begin in him. He is carried along.

Within Them

Peter’s first letter describes the same thing from the other side, and it adds a small word that carries great weight.

1 Peter 1:10-11 Concerning this Salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the charis χάρις khar'-ece(grace) that was to come to you searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or what kairos καιρός kahee-ros'(appointed-time) the pneuma(spirit) of Messiah within them was indicating when it testified in advance to the sufferings of Messiah and the doxai(glories) to follow.

The prophets searched and inquired, trying to understand what person and what appointed time was meant by the testimony they were giving, and the One giving that testimony was the Spirit of Messiah within them.

The word “within” is the Greek preposition en, followed by the dative case. Used this way, it names a place inside, not a place alongside. Peter does not say that the Spirit of Messiah stood beside the prophets, or came near them from outside, or spoke to them from a distance. He says that the Spirit of Messiah was in them. The One who was at work when the prophets spoke in advance of Messiah’s sufferings and glories was the Spirit of Messiah within them.

That is a striking statement. The prophets lived centuries before Messiah came in the flesh, yet the Spirit who spoke through them is called the Spirit of Messiah. It was the same Spirit and the same Messiah, at work within men long before Bethlehem.

A Witness from the Same Household

There is also a witness from inside Jacob’s own family. When Joseph, Jacob’s son, stood before Pharaoh and explained his dreams, Pharaoh said this to his servants.

Genesis 41:38 And Pharaoh said to his servants, "Can we find a man (ish אִישׁ eesh) like this, in whom is the spirit (ruach רוּחַ roo'-akh) of God?"

Pharaoh was no prophet of Israel, but he saw what was plain: the understanding that came from Joseph’s mouth did not come from Joseph alone. The spirit of God was in him.

Genesis 49, where Joseph’s father names the future of each of his twelve sons one by one, and picks out Shiloh from the line of Judah, is speech of exactly the same kind. If Pharaoh could see the spirit of God in the son who interpreted dreams, we should not be slow to see the same Spirit in the father who spoke of the end of days.

Teaching and Remembering

On the night He was handed over, Yeshua told His disciples what the Spirit would do for them.

John 14:26 But the Parakletos(the One who comes alongside to call), the hagio(holy) pneuma(spirit), whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

Two works are named: the Spirit teaches, and the Spirit brings to remembrance.

These two works are exactly what Jacob is doing on his deathbed. He begins this way when Joseph brings his sons to him.

Genesis 48:3-4 And Jacob said to Joseph, "God Almighty (El Shaddai) appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, and said to me, 'Behold, I am making you fruitful, and I will multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples; and I will give this land to your seed after you for an everlasting possession.'

Old, nearly blind, close to death, Jacob reaches back to Luz, the place he had named Bethel, and he recalls what God Almighty said to him there. Then, a few verses later, he reaches back to another night as well, when he blesses the boys in the name of “the messenger who has redeemed me from all evil” (Genesis 48:16). Jacob is calling up the night at the Jabbok, decades earlier, and the One he wrestled with there, the One who had already told him, “I am the God of Bethel.” He remembers, and in remembering he teaches. He gives the One he met the name ha-goel הַגֹּאֵל gaw-al', the One who redeems, the word that, as Chapter 1 showed, stands here for the first time in Scripture. He hands that name on to his grandsons and to all who would read his words after them.

Jacob remembered what God had said and taught what it meant, at the edge of death. That is the work that Yeshua said the Spirit would do, and it is what the Spirit was doing in Jacob.

The Same Spirit

So the difference between Jacob and those who believe now is not that Jacob knew God only from outside while believers know Him from within. Peter says that the Spirit of Messiah was within the prophets. Pharaoh saw the spirit of God in Joseph. Jacob’s own last words bear the marks of the Spirit’s teaching and remembering.

What Jacob had, then, was real. The Spirit was in him, and what that Spirit did through him is the three names of his last words.

And yet something did change when the Word became flesh, died, rose, and poured out the Spirit. It was not that God began to dwell in His people for the first time. What changed can be named precisely, with Jacob on one side and those who believe now on the other.