Did you ever wonder what the “seven spirits” are, mentioned in revelation? I know I have. I have read a couple of commentaries on it, and seen suggestions that seven, being a number of completion (like seven days of creation, etc.), it just means the complete presence of the Holy spirit is there.
Well, I was just reading through Isaiah and I came across this passage – Isaiah 11:2 -
The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD
That’s 1 – spirit of the LORD, 2 – of Wisdom, 3 – of understanding, 4 – counsel, 5 – power, 6 – knowledge, 7 – fear of the LORD. Seven Spirits!
Revelation 1:5 mentions the seven spirits. It reads: “Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.”
It appears on its face to be describing the Trinity. However, the seven spirits confuses, because theology tells us the Holy Spirit is a person, not a group in its own right. Interestingly, the first person described is “him who is and was and is to come” – which seems to describe Jesus. Then the seven spirits, then Jesus Christ named.
Looking back at Isaiah 11:2, we are dealing with a passage that in fact is foretelling and describing the coming of Jesus Christ – he on whom the seven spirits will rest.
Now let’s look at another passage from Revelation: chapter 3 verse 1. ”To the angel of the church in Sardis write:These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” We know from the context that the writer of these seven epistles is Jesus Christ himself. So we have the John attesting that Jesus Christ holds the seven spirits of God. That points to Jesus having fulfilled Isaiah 11:2.
The third Revelation passage dealing with seven spirits is Revelation 4:5: “From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God.” So now we have the seven spirits explained in the vision as the seven lamps. The seven lamps of revelation are the seven spirits of God. Helpful.
The last Revelation occurrence of the seven spirits is in Revelation 5:6: “Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.”
Hosanna
Anyway, here, Christ is clearly depicted as being in possession of the seven spirits – they are his eyes, sent out into all the earth. This dovetails quite well with what John wrote about Jesus’ last speech to his disciples in John 16:9-11. He declares when he goes he will send the counsellor, or the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit becomes God’s presence amongst His people and in the World, doing God’s work in men’s hearts, convicting them of “sin, righteousness and judgement”.
So, let’s go back to these seven spirits mentioned in Isaiah. The first of the Spirit of the LORD (when it is capitalized, the underlying Hebrew indicates God’s proper name – YHWH). The Holy Spirit is God, is I AM, is Lord in the same magnitude and being as the Father and the Son. This is an important fact.
The second is wisdom. I think about all these purposes or aspects in light of the purpose for which Jesus was sending the Holy Spirit: to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgement. Wisdom speaks to righteousness. Psalm 37:30 and Proverb 10:31 both speak of the connection between wisdom and righteousness.
The third is understanding, which is often synonymous with wisdom. In fact you can find 32 instances in the NIV of wisdom and understanding paired in the same verse.
The fourth is counsel. Seeing as how Jesus called the Holy Spirit “the counsellor” it’s a safe bet that this is important. A guide, one who directs your paths – when I am convicted of sin, I am guided away from sin. When I am convicted of righteousness I am led to good things.
The fifth is power. This is an interesting one. The Holy Spirit is powerful – that is a thought that doesn’t get talked about a lot. Yet, the Holy Spirit is very powerful. When I think about His job as restrainer – holding back the great evil that will be unleashed in the Tribulation, I have to be in awe of the power that He wields that the world is completely oblivious to – despite the ample evidence of it. I mean, in the last 100 years we have been privy to days of immense and disgusting evil – I think of the Holocaust, I think of the Ukrainian Famines under Stalin, I think of the genocide of Rwanda. Yet these are mere foretastes of what is to be unleashed in the end. Why do we live in a peaceful nation, and can travel the world in relative safety, despite all the corruption and evil men out there? It is only because evil is being restrained. One day it will not be, and I really hope there is a rapture before that storm hits.
The sixth is knowledge – awareness, information. The Holy Spirit often brings us an awareness or information that we might otherwise not have. It is a skill that few these days have cultivated – that of listening for the Holy Spirit to impart knowledge. I must say that I have not cultivated it enough. I can think of several instances where the Holy Spirit has given me knowledge, but you’d think I’d be listening harder. Sadly, that’s my sin nature at work still…
The seventh is the spirit of the Fear of the Lord. This fits right in with the Holy Spirit’s work of convicting of sin. Being made aware of our sin is part and parcel of recognizing that there is an authority higher than ourselves, and recognizing our rebellion against it. This is huge. This is something that I confess I harden my heart against. I don’t like to fear the Lord. Sometimes I like my sin too much. Sometimes I lean far too heavily on the forbearance, the mercy of God.
So there’s a quick run down on the Holy Spirit and the “seven spirits” of Revelation. It meshes pretty clearly for me now, since discovering the Isaiah 11:2 passage. John loved to work with Old Testament concepts in his vision of the Revelation of Jesus Christ in the end of days. A wise scholar I once heard said you won’t understand Revelation until you study the Old Testament deeply. I encourage you to do that.
Tags: isaiah, revelation, seven spirits, Theology
This is a commonplace understanding of this passage. This is a fairly old interpretation (there really is nothing new under the sun) and I’m surprised the commentaries you read didn’t mention it (what commentaries did you use?). I would encourage others to research it themselves as this interpretation is somewhat weak. As you point out; wisdom and knowledge are usually synonymous and are therefore not representing two different spirits. The same can be said for knowledge and the fear if the Lord and council and power. Also, it seems that wisdom, knowledge, etc. are descriptions of the Spirit of the Lord and serve a purpose in Isaiah without needing to be justified or extrapolated into Revelation. I would be more concerned of what Proverbs 30:5-6 says on adding to Scripture. However, like I said before this understanding is very common.