Latest / Reformed Thinking / רוּחַ (Ruach): The Spirit of God Moving Over the Waters

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רוּחַ (Ruach): The Spirit of God Moving Over the Waters · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed Thinking, the deep dive where we cut
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  through the informational clutter and get straight to the
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  essential Nuggets of knowledge hiding within the source
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  material you've provided. And today we are really opening
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  up something fascinating. We've got a whole stack of
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  research here on a single but incredibly significant Hebrew
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  word ru. That's RUACH written as Quay.
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  And our mission this time, well, it's pretty ambitious.
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  We're not just going to define this word.
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  Yeah, not at all. We're going to track it's
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  incredible conceptual journey. I mean, a journey that goes from
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  a physical breeze all the way to the very power of God himself.
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  We want to see how it shifted, you know, across the Old
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  Testament, especially with the prophets.
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  Right. And for you, the learner, the
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  first thing to really get your head around is that rue isn't a
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  single static idea. You can't just plug in one
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  English word and call it a day. Not a chance.
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  It's more like a dynamic spectrum, a continuum of
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  invisible kinetic force. Wow.
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  And understanding it is so critical because it touches
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  everything creation, human life, our emotional character, and how
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  God interacts with the world. I think we need a working
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  picture right from the start just to handle how broad this
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  term is. Let's think of rue as something
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  like electrical energy. That's a great analogy.
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  It's defined almost entirely by what it does by its ability to
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  create movement and activity even when you can't see the
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  energy itself. Exactly.
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  So sometimes that energy is external.
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  It's wild, it's powerful, you know, like a bolt of lightning
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  or a destructive storm. That's the rue we see in the
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  early biblical stories. And other times, it's more like
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  a quiet, constant current that just keeps the whole system
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  running. That's the breath of life inside
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  us, the basic force that animates the body.
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  And then you have its most refined state where it's like
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  processing power. It becomes the seat of the human
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  mind, of our intellect, of our moral character.
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  It's all the same invisible force, just showing up in
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  different ways depending on the context.
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  And we're going to track that step by step, from the physical
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  to the spiritual. OK, so let's start at the very
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  beginning. The linguistics.
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  Our sources are pretty clear that the root for root is well,
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  it's ancient and shared across the whole W Semitic language
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  family. It really is.
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  It's universal. In that family.
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  You find these direct cognates, these parallel words all over
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  the place. In Aramaic, in Arabic, with re,
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  even Ugaritic role. It tells you the core idea.
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  This moving, invisible force was a shared concept long before the
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  Bible was even written down. But the picture gets a little
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  more interesting when you step outside that immediate family of
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  languages. It's not everywhere, right?
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  You look at Acadian, which is East Semitic, and the root is
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  just gone. It's completely absent.
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  So what do they use instead? They.
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  Use a totally different word, shurum.
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  But what's so fascinating is that shurum carries the exact
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  same conceptual weight as Rook. It means wind and it means
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  breath, so the words are different, but the idea of
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  linking the atmosphere to the life force is the same all
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  across the ancient Near East. That's a key point.
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  So the underlying theology or worldview is consistent.
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  You see that in phrases like the Akadi and Sherry bolea, the
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  breath of my life. It functions exactly like how
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  Hebrew talks about the king being the breath of our
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  nostrils. The mechanism of life is tied to
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  moving air, no matter which word you use for it.
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  And the sources also point out that the word rue itself is
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  probably on a metapoic. Yeah, which I love.
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  It wasn't just some abstract label they came up with.
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  The sound of it grew. It sort of mimics the whistling
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  of wind, or maybe the sound of heavy, excited breathing.
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  The word sounds like the force it's describing.
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  That's fantastic. Now, just a quick technical note
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  on the grammar, because I think it shows how flexible this term
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  is. It's usually a feminine noun in
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  Hebrew. Overwhelmingly feminine, yes.
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  But when it's talking about meteorological wind, like a
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  storm, it often switches to masculine.
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  It does. When the wind is an active,
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  powerful agent, it tends to become masculine.
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  Like an Exodus 10, the rue that brings the plague of locusts,
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  that's masculine. Or in First Kings 19, that
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  incredible mountain splitting wind that Elijah witnesses.
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  I wonder if that's a subtle signal.
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  You know when it's just a passive breeze, it stays
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  feminine, but when it becomes this active destructive force,
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  it takes on a masculine grammatical gender to signal
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  that agency. That's a very plausible way to
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  read it, though there's no hard and fast rule from scholars.
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  What we can say for sure is that in its most basic physical
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  sense, roofing means wind over 100 times in the Old Testament.
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  And the range is just huge. It can be the softest evening
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  breeze. The Rue Hyom in the Garden of
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  Eden that God walks in the. Cool of the day.
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  Right all the way to a devastating storm or Gale that
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  can park the sea in Exodus or destroy Job's house.
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  And that physical wind was also just incredibly practical for
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  daily life, specifically for knowing which way was which.
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  Their whole system of geography was based on the movement of
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  air. It makes perfect sense, doesn't
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  it? They use the Four Winds
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  Arborudo, which mirrors the Acadian idea of the Four winds.
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  It's how they oriented their world.
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  And their directions were so pragmatic.
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  For instance, the word for West was often rupa Yum, which
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  literally means sea wind. Because the Mediterranean Sea
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  was to their West. Exactly when Ezekiel is
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  measuring the temple complex in chapter 42, the text calls the
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  West side the Ruyom side. Their understanding of
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  meteorology was literally built into their architecture.
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  OK, now let's pivot to the first big metaphor that comes out of
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  this idea of wind futility. Because wind is invisible.
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  You can't grab it. You can't control it.
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  It becomes this perfect symbol for nothingness or emptiness.
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  And this is the great theme of the Book of Ecclesiastes, isn't
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  it? The whole book is wrestling with
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  the apparent meaninglessness of human effort under the sun.
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  And the key phrase, the one that just sums up all that
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  frustration, is Ruach. Often translated striving after
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  wind. Yeah, or chasing the wind.
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  I've even seen shepherding the wind, which really captures the
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  absurdity of it. It's like trying to herd
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  something that can't be herded. It's the perfect metaphor for
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  any effort that has no substance.
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  You invest all this labor, all this energy, and at the end of
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  the day, you have nothing to show for it because you are
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  pursuing something that by its very nature, can't be caught.
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  And the preacher in Ecclesiastes puts ruet right next to the word
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  habel, which means vapor or smoke.
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  If hebel is like smoke, you see it for a second and then it's
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  gone. Rue is even more elusive.
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  You can't even see the wind. That's a great point.
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  It makes Rue an even more powerful way to talk about the
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  absolute limits of human effort when it's not connected to God's
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  purpose. So from the physical world
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  outside we move to the world inside the body breath.
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  And here we need to draw a careful distinction, least
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  initially, between rue and another word, nishama.
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  Yes, this is crucial because later on they start to overlap,
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  but in the beginning they were different.
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  Nishama is your normal quiet breathing, the gentle in and out
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  that just keeps you alive. It's life on autopilot.
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  Right. Whereas Ruah in this context
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  originally meant dynamic breathing, we're talking about
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  gasping, snorting and anger. Panting from exertion.
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  It's the forceful movement of air that shows a creature is
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  animated, emotional and full of vitality.
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  You can even see this applied to God right?
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  The Ruve oppo the blast from God's nostrils.
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  It's a sign of his active, powerful and often angry
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  intervention. Yes, that connection between
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  heavy breathing and intense emotion is immediate.
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  It links the external wind to our internal state.
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  And this distinction helps us understand Genesis.
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  God breathes the neshama, the standard breath of life, into
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  Adam, but the broader concept of divine animation is often tied
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  to Ruth. And as you said, eventually
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  those two terms started to merge.
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  By the post exilic period, Ruth had basically absorbed the
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  meaning of neshama. It just became the general term
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  for the God-given life principle in all creatures, the thing that
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  leaves the body at death. You see that so clearly in Psalm
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  104, which is a key text for the Reformed view of God's
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  sovereignty over life. When God takes away the rue, the
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  creatures perish. The life force goes back to the
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  one who gave it. It stabilizes the concept,
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  whether you call it quiet breath or dynamic force.
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  It's the animating principle, and it comes from God.
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  OK, so let's follow that movement inward.
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  Yeah, as Rude goes from being external wind to internal
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  breath, it's a logical next step for it to become the spirit of a
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  person, the invisible core of emotion and character.
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  Precisely. It's no longer describing the
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  atmospheric pressure outside, it's describing your internal
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  pressure, your temperament. Hebrew is just full of these
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  idiots, isn't it? Like Quatzeruk?
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  Shortness of spirit. Which means impatience, a short
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  temper. Proverbs warns against it.
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  Your spirit is short, so you react quickly, rashly.
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  And the opposite is Eric Ruhak. Length of spirit, which means
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  patience, forbearance. It's like having a long fuse.
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  The internal state of your rue determines your reaction time.
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  And that internal state then dictates your external actions.
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  In a military context, Rue is courage.
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  It's vigor. When the people of Jericho heard
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  about what God had done for Israel, Joshua says their root
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  melted. They lost their will to fight.
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  Their inner vitality was just gone.
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  Their capacity to act was directly tied to the condition
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  of their spirit. This is probably a good place to
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  pause and clarify how rue relates to a couple of other key
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  Hebrew terms for human nature, because in English they can all
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  sound the same. I'm thinking of Nefesh and Leb.
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  Yes, let's do that. The sailboat analogy is really
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  helpful. OK, walk us through it.
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  So think of the boat, the physical hull, the wood and
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  nails, the part that's tangible and frankly, weak.
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  That is bizarre. The flesh.
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  It's frail and corruptible. Isaiah 31 makes that exact
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  contrast. Don't trust in the bazaar of
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  Egypt's armies. Trust in God's roof.
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  OK, so Basar is the hull. What about the rudder, the thing
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  that steers the boat? That's the leb or lebab, the
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  heart. And in the ancient world, you
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  have to remember the heart wasn't the seat of emotion, it
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  was the seat of intellect and will.
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  It was the cognitive center where you made decisions and
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  plans. So it's the command center.
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  It is now Rua starts to take on that function much later,
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  especially in Ezekiel, where a new spirit is linked to a new
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  heart. We'll get to that.
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  And finally, the whole boat itself, the living, moving
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  vessel. That is nephesh.
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  It's often translated soul, but it really just means the person
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  as a whole, the living being. And here's the key distinction.
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  Nephesh is the person, Rue is the wind in the sails.
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  It's the invisible force, the temper, the energy that drives
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  the vessel. I think that's such an important
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  point. Rue is often seen as something
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  external that comes upon a person, while nephesh is the
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  person's own identity. Exactly, and that keeps the door
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  open for the divine road to influence the human rue.
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  It's why the psalmist can pray for God to renew a steadfast
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  spirit within him. The Spirit, the seat of His
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  will, is something that God can grant and regulate.
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  And that brings us right back to Ezekiel, who just masterfully
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  bridges this anthropological idea with the divine solution
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  for Israel's disobedience. He really does.
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  He presents this anthropological renewal as a divine gift.
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  It's a stunning theological move.
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  He introduces the idea of the new spirit real with us.
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  Yeah. And he pairs it directly with a
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  new heart. God will take out the heart of
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  stone and give them a heart of flesh and a new spirit.
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  And for anyone listening with the background in Reformed
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  theology, your ears should be perking up right now.
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  This is the Old Testament root of the doctrine of regeneration.
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  It's the divine answer to the problem articulated in the
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  Westminster Confession that fallen man is unable to will his
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  own conversion. Right, God has to do the work.
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  He grants not only the ability, but the will to obey His laws.
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  He replaces the self willed human root with a new one that
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  is aligned with him. It makes the rule the very
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  mechanism of our moral capacity. Now let's follow this term as it
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  moves out of the Hebrew world and into the Greek, specifically
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  into the Septuagint translation, because this step had massive
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  consequences for how people understood the concept later on.
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  A. Huge step.
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  So the translators are faced with this word rue all 378 times
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  it appears, with this massive range of meanings, and they have
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  to pick a Greek word. The word they overwhelmingly
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  chose was polema Numa. The sources say it's used 277
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  times. They were clearly leaning into
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  the spiritual dynamic force idea rather than just the physical
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  wind. Right.
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  For the physical wind they use another word, enmos, enemos,
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  about 52 times. But the preference for Numa
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  shows that by that time, the spiritual sense of Roux was
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  really seen as his primary meaning.
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  But choosing Numa wasn't a neutral act, was it?
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  That word already had a history in the Greek world.
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  It was loaded with philosophical ideas.
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  It absolutely was. So when a later reader, a
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  Christian reader, encounters the Holy Spirit PIM Egon in the New
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  Testament, they're reading a term that has already been
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  filtered through Greek philosophy about spirit, mind
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  and non material reality. So the active translation itself
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  starts to shape the theology. It inevitably does.
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  It's not that it was a bad translation, and Numa is
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  etymologically very close, but it read the Hebrew concept into
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  a new intellectual environment. And that environment, well, it
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  added new layers of meaning. It creates this sort of
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  interpretive loop. Then to really understand the
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  New Testaments Numa, you have to circle back to the Hebrew Roux
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  to grasp that original idea of a forceful active power, not just
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  an abstract Greek philosophical concept.
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  That's the work of good hermeneutics, yes.
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  OK, so now we get to the theological heart of it through
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  the you, the spirit of Yahweh. And the history here is just
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  full of dramatic shifts. It goes from the sudden
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  explosive bursts of power to becoming a term that the true
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  troughets actually avoided. It's a wild ride.
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  In the earliest layers of the text, like in Judges and First
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  Samuel, the Rui You is just pure, raw, dynamic, eruptive
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  force. It's not a gentle, indwelling
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  presence. It's an intrusion.
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  It falls on or clothes someone for a specific and often violent
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  purpose. Samson is the poster child for
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  this. The classic example, the spirit
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  of Yahweh comes mightily upon him, and suddenly he has this
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  temporary superhuman strength to kill a lion or snap his bonds.
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  It was a divine power up for a military task.
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  It had nothing to do with making him a good person or giving him
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  a permanent job. And it was often tied to
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  ecstatic states, to prophecy that looked very different from
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  what we see later. Yes, the Rue saw him would fall
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  on these bands of prophets and induce trances.
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  It was seen as this contagious psychic power.
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  It even falls on King Saul when he's not expecting it and he
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  starts prophesying. It was defined purely by the
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  dramatic effects it produced. And we have to be honest here.
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  Those effects were not always good or heroic.
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  This is a point that really challenges our modern New
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  Testament ideas about the Spirit.
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  It does. The texts force us to look at
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  the dark side. God can send a malignant spirit,
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  a root RA that torments King Saul.
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  This spirit is the source of his depression, his madness, his
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  paranoia. How does that work?
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  How can a divine spirit, a force from God, be evil?
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  That seems like a contradiction. And that's the vital question.
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  The answer is that in this early worldview, the root is judged by
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  its function, not its intrinsic moral quality.
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  It's an instrument of God's sovereign will.
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  If God's purpose is to bring judgement or psychological
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  turmoil on someone, he uses a root to do it.
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  The Spirit is defined by the effect it causes.
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  So it's the mechanism of divine action, whether that action is
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  salvation or judgement. Exactly.
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  Which brings us to this really strange period, the prophetic
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  silence. If this spirit was so central,
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  why does the word rude almost disappear from the writings of
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  the great pre exilic prophets You look at Jeremiah only 18
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  mentions Hosea just 7. Micah Amir 3.
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  It seems like they should be talking about it all the time.
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  You'd think so, but this was a deliberate choice.
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  It was a polemic. The true writing prophets
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  avoided the term because it had become tainted.
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  It was the favorite word of the false prophets, the ecstatic
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  nebium. Who would claim I have the RUE
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  to legitimize their false messages of peace and security?
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  So the very language had been compromised.
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  It had the classic showdown is in First Kings 22.
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  You have the prophet Micaiah facing off against 400 court
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  prophets who are all telling King Ahab to go to war, claiming
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  the Spirit is with them. But Micaiah reveals they're all
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  operating under a lying spirit, a rutiker sent by God to deceive
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  them. Exactly.
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  So because a simple claim to have the root was no longer a
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  reliable test of a true prophet, the real prophets, they set the
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  term aside. They grounded their authority in
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  something else. The word of Yahweh.
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  The word of Yahweh, a much more stable, verifiable source of
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  authority tied to God's covenant and His actions in history, not
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  to a subjective, ecstatic experience.
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  So, to use an analogy, it's like the instrument of the spirit had
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  been used by so many false players that the true musicians
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  decided to stick only to the voice, to the direct word, to
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  avoid any confusion. That's a perfect way to put it.
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  It was a massive theological sacrifice to maintain doctrinal
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  purity. And you can see this pattern
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  when you look at which books don't use the word rue at all.
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  Right. It's completely absent from
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  Leviticus, Ruth, Song of Songs, Esther, Obadiah, Nahum and
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  Zephaniah. The pattern makes sense.
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  It's not in technical legal texts like Leviticus, where
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  there's no room for ecstatic unpredictability.
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  And it's not in books focused on human love stories or political
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  maneuvering like Ruth or Esther. It shows up where you'd expect
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  it, in poetry like the Psalms and Job, and in visionary books,
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  where God's direct, invisible action is the main event.
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  Which sets the stage perfectly for its great return.
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  The term rue comes back from this prophetic exile, but it's
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  completely transformed and the data here is just amazing.
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  Ezekiel uses Rue more than any other book 52 times.
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  With Isaiah right behind him at 51, though most of those are in
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  the later sections of the book. This is a deliberate, massive
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  revitalization of the concept, and Ezekiel is the main
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  architect. He picks that discredited
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  instrument back up, he retunes it, and he plays it more
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  beautifully and more profoundly than anyone before him.
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  Yeah, he uses it in several innovative ways.
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  One of the most striking is as a means of visionary transport.
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  The route literally lifts him up and carries him in visions from
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  his exile in Babylon back to Jerusalem.
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  That's functionally so important for the Exiles, isn't it?
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  The Spirit is bridging the physical distance.
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  It's a tangible sign that God hasn't abandoned them, that he's
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  still communicating with them even though they're far from the
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  temple. It is, and then he uses roof for
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  creation and revival. I mean, you can't talk about
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  Ezekiel without talking about the Valley of Dry Bones in
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  chapter 37. An incredible vision, The dead,
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  dry bones of the nation of Israel.
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  And God tells him to prophecy, to the rue, to the wind, to the
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  breath. And when the rue enters the
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  bones, they come to life and stand up a vast army.
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  That's such a brilliant theological connection.
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  He's linking national resurrection directly back to
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  creation in Genesis 1, where the rue of God was hovering over the
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  waters. The same power that creates life
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  from nothing is the power that can bring a dead nation back to
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  life. And that leads to his most
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  important contribution, especially for our theological
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  tradition, anthropological renewal.
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  We touched on the new spirit Rua Dasha earlier, but we really
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  need to dig in here. This is God's final answer to
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  Israel's constant willful sin, he says in chapter 36.
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  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, and
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  I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a
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  heart of flesh. This is a radical reimagining of
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  rue. It's no longer a temporary,
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  external force for fighting, like with Samson.
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  It is now an internal, permanent disposition that produces
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  obedience. The Stony, rebellious heart is
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  replaced, and the new rue provides both the will and the
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  ability to follow God's laws. This is the very heart of the
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  Covenant of Grace. It's a powerful affirmation that
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  we in our fallen state simply do not have the spiritual capacity
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  to obey. God must act first.
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  He has to change our inner disposition before obedience is
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  even possible. It aligns perfectly with the
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  Westminster Confessions language about effectual calling.
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  God gives us the desire and the ability.
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  Ezekiel places the rue at the center of that subjective
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  experience of salvation and sanctification.
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  It becomes the agent of God's internal government in the
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  believer. So while Ezekiel is focusing on
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  this internal universal renewal for the whole community, Isaiah
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  takes the concept in a slightly different direction.
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  Yes, Isaiah also has high usage, but he focuses the rule
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  primarily on one figure, the messianic king.
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  He gives it a more institutional, political role.
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  Especially in passages like Isaiah 11 and 42.
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  Here, the spirit of Yahweh isn't a temporary surge of power.
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  It's a static, permanent gift that rests on the Messiah.
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  And notice what that gift is for.
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  It's not for superhuman strength.
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  The Spirit equips him with wisdom, understanding, counsel,
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  might, knowledge, and the fear of Yahweh.
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  It's a leadership toolkit. It's the perfect endowment for a
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  righteous king and judge. It's a constant anointing that
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  makes him capable of ruling justly.
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  So you have this fascinating contrast.
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  During the Exile, Ezekiel is using Rue to talk about the
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  internal anthropological change needed for every single person
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  in the covenant. While Isaiah uses it to talk
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  about the permanent institutional empowerment for
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  the unique office of the Messiah, one's for the people,
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  the others for the king. Both are reclaiming the term for
• 21:32
  God's redemptive plan. And we should just know that
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  even in Isaiah, that older polemic is still there,
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  contrasting God's rue with human weakness.
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  Oh, absolutely. In Isaiah 30 and 31, he scoffs
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  at the idea of trusting in Egypt's armies, calling them
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  mere flesh. Bassar.
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  Trusting in human alliances is like trusting in the wind.
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  Trusting in Yahweh means trusting the Spirit that
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  controls the wind. So we've tracked Ruth through
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  its entire life cycle in the Old Testament, from a wild storm to
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  a discredited term to a regenerating force to a
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  messianic endowment. What's the final stage?
• 22:05
  Where does the concept end up in the post exilic world?
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  The final stage is, I think, the logical conclusion of where
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  Ezekiel is heading. It's democratization.
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  The promise that this exclusive gift will finally be shared with
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  everyone. Exactly.
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  The late prophetic books, especially Joel chapter 2 in the
• 22:22
  English Bible, Joel 3 in the Hebrew, promise an outpouring of
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  the Spirit on all flesh, not just kings or prophets, sons,
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  daughters, old men, young men, even servants.
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  It takes that ecstatic visionary experience that was once
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  reserved for a select few and makes it the general condition
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  of the entire covenant community.
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  It just flattens the spiritual hierarchy.
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  It does. It implies that every member of
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  the renewed people of God will have a direct, intuitive
• 22:50
  connection to His will. It's the full flowering of
• 22:53
  Ezekiel's new Spirit promise. And after the exile, you could
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  even see them reinterpreting their own history through this
• 22:58
  lens, right? They start describing the
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  skills, the Tabernacle Craftsman or the leadership of Moses as
• 23:04
  being the work of the rule. Yes, that retroactive
• 23:06
  application really cements the roof as God's all-purpose agent
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  for equipping His people for any task, whether it's art,
• 23:14
  leadership or moral renewal. It's no longer a random force.
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  It's central to God's sovereign plan throughout history.
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  OK, let's. Let's pull it all together with
• 23:22
  that final analogy. The whole evolution of Ruth is
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  like the difference between a wild, unpredictable storm and a
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  modern, comprehensive climate control system.
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  That's a great way to summarize it.
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  The early period, that's the wild storm.
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  It strikes specific people unpredictably with overwhelming
• 23:40
  force, usually for a short term military goal.
• 23:43
  It's an event. It's chaos.
• 23:44
  But the later prophetic view, the one shaped by Ezekiel and
• 23:47
  Isaiah, sees the rue is something totally different.
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  It's that climate control system.
• 23:51
  A divine climate control system, it fills the whole house, the
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  whole community of Israel, and its job is to regulate the
• 23:58
  internal temperature, the heart, the will of everyone inside.
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  And that internal regulation leads, by God's design, to new
• 24:04
  life and obedience. The term moves completely from
• 24:07
  external chaos to ordered internal governance.
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  So the single unifying thread through all of this is that rue
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  is always about dynamic, invisible movement.
• 24:16
  It's the wind, it's the breath, it's the force that moves the
• 24:20
  mind and drives God's and. The ultimate source is always
• 24:23
  God. That's the common thread.
• 24:25
  He creates the physical wind, He gives the breath of life to
• 24:28
  every living thing, and he is the one who bestows the new
• 24:31
  spirit of regeneration on his people.
• 24:33
  It all comes from Him. So what does this all mean for
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  you, the learner, as you think about this?
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  We saw how the human spirit rue and God spirit Rue Hue are often
• 24:43
  used almost interchangeably in the Psalms to talk about our
• 24:45
  emotional state, being crushed in spirit, or having a steadfast
• 24:49
  spirit. It shows how our physical life,
• 24:51
  our mental state, and our spiritual temper are all woven
• 24:54
  together. So here's a thought to take with
• 24:56
  you. Since rue governs everything
• 24:58
  from your mood to the weather, think about your own
• 25:00
  disposition. The ancient Hebrews believed the
• 25:03
  state of your spirit was tied directly to the divine source
• 25:05
  that animates you. Does the inner climate of your
• 25:08
  heart, the state of your rue, reflect that new, steadfast
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  spirit that God promises to give and to sustain?
• 25:14
  That connection between the invisible force of God and our
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  own internal state is something worth contemplating this week.