Friday 7 June 2013

Isaiah 63:7-14


"And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption."
{Ephesians 4:30} (NIV) 

I love it when I read a passage like Isaiah 63 that tells us that the Holy Spirit was present during the Exodus. The word Trinity doesn’t appear in the Bible, but God in three persons is revealed through the entire Scripture, including the book of Exodus. 

Exodus contains the revelation of YHWH the LORD; who He is, some of His Names, and His own description of His character or goodness. 1 Corinthians 10 teaches us that our Lord Jesus was with them; that they ate of Him and drank of Him. Isaiah 63 teaches us that the Holy Spirit was there guiding them and giving them rest. Isaiah identifies in verse 10 that the Israelites grieved the Holy Spirit, and the result was that the Holy Spirit fought against them. What a sobering thing it is to realize that the Presence of God, that they so desired, became their enemy when they chose to sin and to serve other gods instead of the True God. 

Baptists get sorta squirrely about this realization, because we so strongly hold to the doctrine of eternal security. This doctrine is explained clearly in Ephesians 1:13,14 and is the key part of our blessed state “in Christ”. Paul quite correctly taught us this doctrine and yet Paul rightly admonishes us not to grieve the Holy Spirit. He is inside me. God Himself is present in my body! May we bless Him, welcome Him, surrender to Him and certainly not grieve Him.

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