Psalm 106:33

Psalm 106:33

They rebelled against the Spirit of God

The Spirit of God is rarely mentioned in the Old Testament. God is Elohim or Adonai or the Lord (YAWEH), He has many other names but all of them describe a singular Being who is the Most High, in contrast to the many lesser gods of the pagan nations. God speaks, God acts, God chooses, God provides but, on every occasion, it is the mystical, divine Being who is in view. Of course, the people of Old Testament times knew that God was a spiritual Being, and they also knew that He sent spiritual representatives in human form, they knew that on occasions He appeared in clouds and glory to a select few, but the concept of the Spirit of God is not often mentioned. In the same way that Messiah remained mystical and distant, God as the Holy Spirit seemed to be an enigma clouded by anonymity!

Maybe, this rebellion at Meribah is a warning to us as much as to the Israelites. The Psalm writer is led to explain that when we may behave and speak rebelliously, we are not rejecting a distant deity, His Spirit is present and is immediately aware and offended by our behaviour. Isaiah describes this event in a few simple words, “Yet they rebelled, and grieved His Holy Spirit. So He turned and became their enemy and He Himself fought against them.” Isaiah 63:10. There is an underlying suggestion in these verses that a deeper battle was being fought here. A spiritual battle, the rebellion was not just to do with hunger or thirst or unwelcome suffering, the people had endured 40 years of those deprivations. Here, they were driven by unseen forces to rebel, and Moses and Aaron were driven to act and speak rashly. In other words, demonic forces were at work which fought against the Lord God and He turned and became their enemy! This all happened on the borders of the Promised Land! Of course it did, the Satan didn’t want them to go in, He still doesn’t want them there! 

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