“Then He remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying, Where is He that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of His flock? where is He that put His holy Spirit within him?” (Isaiah 63:11).

There are several explicit references (and many other implicit references) to this third Person of the Godhead in the ancient Scriptures. One of these is in our text and in the preceding verses which also mention the second Person of the Godhead. “For He said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so He was their Savior. In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them: in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled, and vexed His Holy Spirit: therefore He was turned to be their enemy, and He fought against them” (Isaiah 63:8–10).

It was possible to “vex the Holy Spirit” then, just as it is possible for a believer to “grieve . . . the Holy Spirit” today (Ephesians 4:30). Today, a Christian may also “quench . . . The Spirit” (I Thessalonians 5:19), an experience similar to that of David when he had deliberately committed a gross sin and finally cried out: “Take not thy Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11).

In addition to these specific references, there are approximately forty references in the Old Testament to “the Spirit of God” or “the Spirit of the LORD”—the first being at the very point of creation when “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). All three persons of the Godhead are seen in action in Isaiah 48:16: “Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and His Spirit, hath sent me.” God the Holy Spirit was, indeed, “put within” Moses and His people long ago, just as He indwells each believer today. HMM