The first time we meet the Holy
Spirit in the Bible is in Genesis 1, where the earth is formless and empty and
God’s Spirit hovers over the water. In the ancient Near East, water was a
common symbol for chaos as it has no regular shape and can be both a source of
life and a terrifying force of destruction (think of a storm at sea). Many
ancient creation stories spoke of a deity associated with water being defeated
by the god who would become head of the pantheon. But in Genesis, the water is
not a god; it’s just the state of disorder that exists before God forms the
world. The first chapter of Genesis is the story of God’s spirit bringing order
out of disorder.
The formless, surging waters return
a few chapters later in the story of Noah’s flood. Once again, the water is not
a deity but a tool in the hand of God. It’s also a consequence of human sin;
God sends the flood in response to the moral chaos of a world of violence and
bloodshed. But the Holy Spirit, though not mentioned in the text, still hovers
over the waters, which we know because God plans to bring new life into this
world of formlessness. That new life is Noah, his family and the animals aboard
the ark.
Skip ahead another few chapters.
Once again humanity is sinning against God, this time by building a tower
designed to reach heaven. God responds by once again returning the world to
chaos. But this time the chaos isn’t water (since God promised not to do that again).
This time the chaos is the babble of thousands of languages, which the people
now speak. Unable to understand one another, the people scatter over the face
of the earth. This time there is no Noah who escapes the judgment. But in the
next chapter, God calls a man named Abram, who will become the ancestor of a
nation through which all families of the earth will be blessed.
Thousands of years later, people
from all over the world gather in Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of
Pentecost. These are descendants of Abram (now called Abraham), but they speak
the languages of a myriad of nations. Suddenly the sound of a wind begins to
blow. The Spirit is once again hovering over the chaos. A group of men stand up
and begin speaking about Jesus, the one who fulfilled the entirety of the
promise to Abram. And everyone hears them speaking in their own language. The
chaos of Babel is finally brought to order. A new community is created. And the
mark of that new community is water – the water of baptism.
