HEBREW WORD STUDY – CONVICTNG SPIRIT – RAUCH KODESH – רוח  קודש   Resh Vav Cheth   Qop Vav Daleth Shin

I Samuel 18:10: “And it came to pass on the morrow, that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul.”

Psalms 51:11: “Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.”

Mark 3:29: “But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation: (30) Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.”

Today in our online Hebrew Bible Study class on All Access we talked about this evil spirit that was sent from God.   I mean what did King Saul do that was so horrible that God had to sic an evil spirit upon him?  David committed adultery and then murder and before he even asked God to forgive him Nathan comes along and tells David that God already forgave him: II Samuel 12:13: “And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.”  Yet, Scripture is silent on King’s Saul’s sin. As far as we know he never committed adultery or murder. In fact, Saul’s sin was that he offered a sacrifice that only Samuel should have offered, but at least he was offering a sacrifice, yet God rewarded him with an evil spirit. I mean if I were Saul I would cry out “Foul, unfair why should David get off so easy for his gross sin and I get punished for trying to do what I thought was the right thing?”

Here is what we found in the Hebrew.  The word for Spirit for each of the above verses is rauch which is always associated with God. In the Hebrew in Psalms 51:11 it is the Rauch Kodesh, Holy Spirit. In Aramaic, it is the same Rauch Kodesh both which mean the Holy Spirit. In Saul’s case, it was a Rauch Ra’ah.  Ra’ah is rendered in Psalms 23:1 as shepherd.  Sometimes it is rendered as friend.  Many times it is rendered as evil. Only the context will tell you whether to render it as evil or friend. In its Semitic root, ra’ah means a consuming passion. If God has a consuming passion for us is that evil?  It might be if we were Saul and in a state of rebellion.

Note John 16:7-8: “…for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.(8) And when he comes, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:” It is commonly believed by Bible Scholars that this Comforter is the Holy Spirit.”  The word comforter in Aramaic is paraq which means to separate.  He is the one who shows us the difference or separates right from wrong. He is the one who convicts us of sin so we can confess that sin and find rest and comfort in being free from sin.  Mark 3:29 tells us that if we blaspheme against the Holy Spirit we will never be forgiven. So what is blaspheme?  In the Aramaic, the word used for blasphemy is gadaph which means to shut down, close up.  To tell someone to shut up, stop talking. 

So you see, our conviction of sin comes from the Holy Spirit.  When we reach the point where we tell the Holy Spirit to “shut up” that is to say: “Stop bothering me about this sin of adultery, lying or whatever, I am going to keep doing it because I want to so your conviction will do no good.”  When we keep doing that, keep rebelling the Bible says in Genesis 6:3: “And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man…”  There comes a point where the Holy Spirit will convict you only for so long and then just leave.  That is what happened to Saul. God sent a friendly spirit, actually I believe God sent the Holy Spirit to convict Saul of his sins.  Yet Saul remained in rebellion. “No, I will not give up my kingdom to David, I want my son Jonathan to be king. No, I will not honor David.” King Saul proved his rebellion against God by throwing a spear at David to kill him, God’s anointed.  There came a time when the Holy Spirit, which to King Saul was evil, stopped pestering him. When David had the chance to kill God’s anointed he refused to do it.  Without the Spirit of God convicting you of sin, you can keep sinning all you want without guilt but then without guilt, you will not confess your sins and receive forgiveness which as a result you will die in your sins and you know what happens then.

David had hidden his sin to himself so well that he resisted the convicting of the Holy Spirit. But God sent a prophet, perhaps his final warning to point out his sin.  David was aghast at his sin, he immediately confessed and was so shaken that he allowed the presence of God to be removed from him that he begged God to restore him to His presence but not only that to not take that Convicting Spirit Rauch Ra’ah from him.  In simple language, David begged God to never let him not feel guilty over his sin again.