The Holy Spirit. Mitch Pacwa
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Read Wisdom 7:22-30 and list the qualities of the Spirit.
Each quality bears reflection to help us deepen our understanding of the Spirit of the Lord. Some of the characteristics are intellectual — as when the Spirit is described as intelligent, manifold, and keen. Some characteristics are moral qualities — holy, unpolluted, loving the good. Some characteristics belong more to the divine nature — invulnerable, irresistible, all-powerful. Human beings cannot fully understand these characteristics, but they can consider them prayerfully and meditatively so as to grow in wonder and awe at the greatness of God’s Holy Spirit. This is a way to avoid taking him for granted or thinking we are more intelligent than he.
Discuss
1. What was, and still is, the role of the Spirit in creation?
2. Which of the Old Testament passages you’ve read this week gave you new insights into the Holy Spirit?
3. What quality of the Holy Spirit do you wish to incorporate into your daily life?
Practice
This week, think about how the Holy Spirit is active in the creation of your life. What areas of your being need the enlightenment and work of the Spirit to activate them? How can you live a richer and fuller life with the assistance of the Spirit? Choose one of the qualities of the Spirit and look for ways to bring it to life in your own life over the next few days.
Session 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