el took the horn
of oil and anointed him: and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him
from that day forward;" comp. 1 Sam. x. 6, 10. The circumstance that
the Spirit of the Lord resteth upon the Messiah does not form a
contradiction to His _divine nature_, which is intimated by his being
born of the Virgin, chap. vii. 14, by the name [Hebrew: al gbvr] in
chap. ix. 5, and elsewhere (comp. Vol. I., p. 490, 491), and is
witnessed even in this prophecy itself; but, on the contrary, the
pouring out of the Spirit fully and not by measure (John iii. 39) which
is here spoken of, _implies_ the divine nature. In order to receive the
Spirit of God in such a measure that He could baptize with the Holy
Spirit (John i. 33), that out of His fulness all received (John i. 16),
that, in consequence of His fulness of the Spirit overflowing from Him
to the Church, the earth could be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters covering the sea (ver. 9), He could not but be highly
exalted above human nature. It was just because they remained limited
to the insufficient substratum of human nature, that even the best
kings, that even David, the man after God's own heart, received the
Spirit in a scanty measure only, and were constantly in danger of [Pg
114] losing again that which they possessed, as is shown by David's
pitiful prayer: "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me" (Ps. li. 13). It was
just for this reason, therefore, that the theocracy possessed in the
kings a very sufficient organ of its realization, and that the stream
of the divine blessings could not flow freely. In Matt. iii. 16:
[Greek: kai eide to pneuma tou theou katabainon hosei peristeran kai
erchomenon ep'auton], it is not the passage before us only which lies
at the foundation, but also, and indeed pre-eminently, the parallel
passage, chap. xlii. 1: "Behold my Servant whom I uphold, mine Elect in
whom my soul delighteth; I put my Spirit upon Him," as is apparent from
the circumstance that it is to this passage that the voice from heaven
refers in Matt. iii. 17: [Greek: houtos estin ho huios mou ho agapetos
en ho eudokesa]. But a reference to the passage before us we meet most
decidedly in John i. 32, 33: [Greek: Tetheamai to pneuma katabainon
hosei peristeran ex ouranou, kai emeinen ep'auton. Kago ouk edein
auton. all'ho pempsas me baptizein en hudati, ekeinos moi eipen. eph'hon
an ides to pneuma katabainon kai menon ep'auton, houtos estin ho
baptizon en pneumati hagio]. T