Wisdom Lost

When God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden, God gave Adam a body and soul. The Garden was in the realm of the senses (Adam could see, hear, smell, taste, and feel). This was so he could interact with,  live in, and work in the garden. His body and soul were also the container for his spirit. Adam needed spirit so he could interact and talk to God, who is Spirit. John 4:24.

Thus, any time Adam had a question, he could ask God, and God could talk to him. For instance, it says God brought the animals to Adam to see what he would name them. God said, “Adam, what would you name this creature?” Adam looked at the thing with an exceptionally long neck and said: “I have no idea, God, what would you call it?”  God said, “I would call that a giraffe.”  Adam said, “Good, I will call it a giraffe.” Thus, Adam named all the animals. Adam could rely on the wisdom of God in any situation.

God has said that in the day they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would die. The part of Adam that died was his spirit. He no longer had a connection with God, and he no longer had access to the wisdom of God. Thus, Wisdom Lost. God promised that He would send a redeemer to redeem man out of this terrible situation he found himself in  – no spirit. After Jesus Christ had done all the work necessary to redeem mankind, on the day of Pentecost, thousands of years later, God gave the gift of the holy spirit to all who would believe that God raised Christ from the dead and confess him as lord. Then once again, man could be the way God intended for man to be, body, soul, and spirit. Now God could talk to His children again, as He originally did with Adam in the garden before he sinned.

But what was God to do in the meantime so He could communicate with Mankind? Sometimes He presented Himself as a burning bush or a pillar of fire. Sometimes He sent angels, or He put His spirit upon some men who spoke for Him.

I used to think that very, very few people in the Old Testament had the privilege of spirit. Only perhaps certain kings, prophets, priests, or maybe Levites. But as I kept reading the Old Testament, I found others who had the privilege of having spirit. There is an interesting verse in Proverbs Chapter 1. The book of Proverbs is commonly recognized as being addressed to young people, although as adults, we could learn a great deal from it.

Proverbs 1:23  Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

That does not mean that a great number of people turned at God’s reproof. In the days of Noah, he was the only one. In the times of some of the prophets, there seemed to be very few believers.

The first person said to have the spirit of God is Joseph. Here, the first characteristic attributed to the spirit of god is wisdom.

Genesis 41:38,39  And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is? And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art:

The second person the Bible mentions as being filled with the spirit was Bezaleel.

Exodus 31:1-6  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,  See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass,  And in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship.  And I, behold, I have given with him Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan: and in the hearts of all that are wise hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded thee;

So, we see that God put wisdom in the hearts of all the wise-hearted men. He did that by filling them with the spirit, as the next verse says.

Exodus 28:3  And thou shalt speak unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office.

God says all the wise-hearted He filled with the spirit of wisdom (spirit of God)!  These first verses where God talks about what He did are very important in our study here.  He filled them and called it a spirit of wisdom.  Amazing, as we shall see. Now look at this!

 Exodus 35:25,26  And all the women that were wise hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, both of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine linen. And all the women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom spun goats’ hair

Again, we see that when it says they were wise-hearted, it was because God had filled them with the spirit of wisdom.

Then in the days of Moses, God took of the spirit that He put upon Moses and put that spirit on the judges that were to work with Him. Apparently, if you were to judge righteously, God needed to be able to talk to you and to give you the wisdom to discern rightly.

Numbers 11:16-17  And the LORD said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee. And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone

God took from the spirit in Moses and filled the judges with that spirit.

It is interesting also that in the Old Testament, there are only two records of anyone losing the spirit of God once they had it. Adam in the Garden and King Saul when he walked too far away from God. God was very patient and merciful with Saul, hoping he would heed the reproof and return to walk with him.

Then there is the record of Joshua being full of the spirit of wisdom.

Deuteronomy 34:9  And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the LORD commanded Moses.

In these records, wisdom is the main attribute associated with the spirit of God. So much so that God calls it a spirit of wisdom.  And no wonder, man had lost his access to the great wisdom of God when Adam sinned in the Garden.  Wisdom is one of the greatest things people need in order to carry out what God calls them to do. To give them access to His wisdom, He filled them with spirit.  What a privilege!

God is not stingy or tight with His blessings.  He has always wanted man to have spirit and to have access to His wisdom.  On the day of Pentecost, thousands of years later, the gift God gave to all who wanted it was spirit. And as we shall see later on, the first manifestation listed in Corinthians is Word of Wisdom!

Let’s look at others with spirit who were not prophets, kings, priests, or Levites. The first one is King Cyrus of Persia.

 Ezra 1:1-2  Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

Cyrus is the man who got the credit for the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem after the 70 years of captivity. EW Bullinger states that Cyrus was the son of Esther.

We go now from a king with spirit to a young maid who is not named. First, note that during the prophet Elisha’s ministry, not one person in Israel was healed of leprosy except for Naaman the Syrian.

2Kings 5:3  And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.

Notice, she did not say the prophet might be able to help him; hopefully, the prophet could do something. NO! She said the prophet would recover him of his leprosy. How did she know this with certainty? Was she guessing? Was she hoping? No! She knew! How did she know that with such certainty? God did not make a list in the Bible of all the people He filled with His spirit. Did what she say come to pass? Absolutely! This is how you know that the spirit of God is at work within someone. The spirit of God in a captive maid – amazing! Because if these are only the thoughts of her own mind and God did NOT tell her — when it came to pass, did God say, “That was good, let’s put that in the record”? Doubtful. It was the spirit of God at work in her.

Now let’s look at two more women, Mary and Elizabeth, in the Gospels. Think about how old Mary was. Probably a young teenager!

Luke 1:39-43  And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda;  And entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth. And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

Mary did not even need to tell Elizabeth what child she was carrying. Elizabeth knew and prophesied because she, too, had spirit, and God showed her what Mary was carrying. When it says Elizabeth was filled, it means that the spirit of God in her overflowed, filled to overflowing, and she prophesied.

Once Mary heard Elizabeth’s blessing and prophecy, the spirit of God overflowed in her, and she too prophesied. This came from the spirit of God in her.

Luke 1:46-48  And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

Another woman with the spirit of God was Abigail. This is a long record and well worth reading, but  I have copied out the part we want to see. Here, David recognized the words of God coming from this woman’s mouth.

1Samuel 25:23-32  And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, And fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid. Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send. Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the LORD hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal. And now this blessing which thine handmaid hath brought unto my lord, let it even be given unto the young men that follow my lord. I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid: for the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house; because my lord fighteth the battles of the LORD, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days. Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling. And it shall come to pass, when the LORD shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel; That this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offence of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my lord hath avenged himself: but when the LORD shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thine handmaid. And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me:

It is amazing that when David was so angry that he was about to kill the whole household of Nabal, he recognized the voice of God in what the woman said and admitted that God was the one who sent her!

God does not list all the people that He filled with spirit in the Old Testament. But He gives us enough examples by way of tradesmen and women, judges and prophets, kings and priests, disciples and Levites for us to know that if people would turn at His reproof, He would pour out His spirit to them and make His words known to them. If it were possible, God would have all His children in the Old Testament filled with His spirit.

Numbers 11:29  And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD’S people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!

It is also interesting to note that the most common use of the spirit God filled these people with was for wisdom to carry out what God wanted them to do: words to speak, instructions to give, or actions they needed to take. They needed this spirit for access to God’s wisdom.

Even in the Gospels, Jesus’s disciples and the 70 he sent out were filled with the power of the spirit, They also found other people, who they did not know, also casting out spirits.

Now, you might find it interesting to look at the words “spirit upon” and see that at times it indicates:

1. They were filled with the spirit of God.
2. The spirit which God had filled them with was now in manifestation. In other words, they were speaking or acting according to God’s instructions.

When you read “spirit upon” in the Bible, you need to understand the meaning from the context.

For instance, in Luke, Jesus said:

Luke 4:18  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

It says of David that the spirit of the Lord came upon him.

1Samuel 16:13  Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah

So, you have to ask yourself a question: Is the way the spirit was upon Jesus less than when Bezaleel was filled with the spirit of God? NO! “Spirit upon” is just another way of saying “filled with the spirit”.

It has been mentioned that God temporarily placed His spirit on people in the Old Testament so He could speak to them. It has been said He would put His spirit upon them, speak to them, and take it away. I don’t know anywhere that says He used His spirit like a yo-yo only when He wanted to talk to people. This must come from a misunderstanding of the phrase “spirit upon.”

The gifts and the calling of God are without repentance. Only twice does it mention men losing the spirit of God once they had received it — Adam and Saul.

God looked forward to the time when He could have all who believed be born of His spirit, so they could never lose it or be talked out of it.

In the next article, we will look at why God chose the specific order for the manifestations in 1 Corinthians 12. It is interesting to note that once God gave us the gift of holy spirit, the very first manifestation listed in 1 Corinthians 12 is Word of Wisdom!

Wisdom Restored!