Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

I would say that the Holy Spirit's activity in the Bible is sometimes represented or symbolized by, or likened to, a wind, but that the Bible also contains references (as in Acts 27, for example) to the wind as a purely physical or meteorological force that is a "natural" part of the world as God created it, and that is used as a metaphor for the Holy Spirit (as Jesus did in talking with Nicodemus), because it is a concept that is easier to grasp than speaking of the Holy Spirit in purely theological terms.

January 17 2022 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report

Jack Gutknecht ABC/DTS graduate, guitar music ministry Baptist church

Does "wind" only symbolize the Holy Spirit in the Bible like this most famous use of wind as a symbol representing the Holy Spirit?

John 3:8: “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” 

No, “wind” symbolizes other things in the Bible besides just the Holy Spirit in John 3:8. 

Scripture warns that the lives of the wicked are like husks that the wind blows away (Ps 1:4; 35:5; 83:13). The implication is that God is the Judge who provides the wind.

WIND AS A NEGATIVE SYMBOL 

In the Old Testament, wind is often used as a picture of temporality or futility. The length of a human life is frequently imagined as a “whisper in the wind” (Ps 39:5, 11; 62:9; 78:33). “It’s like trying to catch the wind” is the common refrain of Ecclesiastes to show pointless or meaningless actions (Ecclesiastes 1:14, 17; 2:11, 17, 26; 4:4, 6:9). Isiah tells us that the people of God went through labor but gave birth only to wind, symbolizing the futility of their actions (Isa 26:18). They went through the motions to brings forth life but did not bring salvation to the earth. Troublemakers are said to “[inherit] only wind” (Prov 11:29), indicating the futility of their lives. --Wiersbe, Index of Biblical Images, in which he says "Wind" symbolizes Vanity, Futility of Life."

https://jesusway4you.com/2019/01/29/signs-symbols-of-the-bible-wind/ 

No, "wind" is more than just an image of the Spirit of God (Ezek. 37:4-10; John 3:8, and Acts 2:2. 

It also symbolizes “sin” in Isaiah 64:6: “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf; And our iniquities, like the WIND have taken us away.” Our works, even our good deeds, are not good enough to get us into Heaven, says Isaiah, here in Isaiah 64:6. ONLY THE REDEMPTIVE WORK OF CHRIST ON THE CROSS OF CALVARY CAN GET US INTO HEAVEN, if and only if we accept it as our due payment of a substitutionary death for our sins.

January 18 2022 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report