Bonus Study One: Air

Air

I now turn to the element of ‘air’. While it may seem to some that the early writers of scripture may have anthropomorphized just a bit, we of the present still ended up with what God wanted us to work with. There is little doubt that early man tackled the mysteries of nature, the physical and invisible realms, with comfortable concepts and terms that worked for them. Their grasping capabilities might rather seem like mittens than gloves, but they held on. We, too, must get some kind of hold on these issues. God brought them to us as He wanted us to have them. It would be a mistake to assume that the writers of scripture were ignorant of spiritual fine points, though zealous and somewhat poetic. It is never so much that man discovers, as it is that God reveals.

If ‘water’ was cement steps, ‘air’ is a marble staircase.

As with water, air had more than one symbolic significance. Though the divergent meanings, like startled swallows, flew to the four winds – over time, a transition of meanings coalesced into the kernel of our present study, which is best summed up in Christ’s reference to the invisible wind. That is where this study is going, but a proper study demands a close inspection, first, of those earlier divergent meanings. Higher meanings normally develop upward through common applications of understanding.

Man’s understanding of the wind comes from his relationship with something powerful though unseen. Sometimes the wind was good, sometimes the wind was bad. Even today, all of us are inclined toward a healthy respect of the wind for the things it can do. In researching this topic, I found that the early writers attributed unique qualities to each of the four winds as if each had a personality of its own.

What was the East wind? The East wind was a bane and a sorrow. It was a hot dry wind that brought destruction of crops on land, and ships on water. It brought plagues and sucked up wells. It has been described as both ‘strong’ and ‘vehement’; as the ‘wind of the Lord’. Men associated the East wind with the might of the invisible God, which could either terribly destroy life or miraculously spare it. Witness the following verses.

Genesis 41:6, “. . . blasted with the east wind . . .”,

Genesis 41:23, “. . . blasted with the east wind . . .”,

Genesis 41:27, “. . . blasted with the east wind . . .”

On the other hand, the east wind can be a two-edged sword. God fought for Israel; He fought against Egypt.

Exodus 14:21, “And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.”

Exodus 15:10, “Thou didst blow with Thy wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters.”

Isaiah 11:15, “And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with His mighty wind shall He shake His hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod.”

God also used the east wind to bring plagues.

Exodus 10:13, “And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.”

It was the opposite, or west, wind that drove the locust plague into the red sea (where the Egyptians would also drown). They knew that the east wind both spared Israel and spoiled Egypt. The east wind came to be associated with God’s corrective retribution. God has rough winds at His disposal, but when He wants to accomplish something special, He calls out the east wind.

Isaiah 27:8, “In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: He stayeth His rough wind in the day of the east wind.”

This next verse from Ezekiel points to the fact that ‘air’ is a preparation for ‘fire’. While the last two verses may border on higher meaning, they point, however, to the power of air over water and earth.

Ezekiel 19:12, “But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed them.”

Ezekiel 27:26, “Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas.”

Ezekiel 17:10, “Yea, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? Shall it not utterly wither, when the east wind toucheth it? It shall wither in the furrows where it grew.”

By extension, the east wind was used to signify man’s inclination toward destruction by way of his own folly.

Job 15:2, “Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?”

Job 21:17 and 18, “How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! And how oft cometh their destruction upon them! God distributeth sorrows in His anger. They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.”

Note the connection between air and water by way of the storm.

Job 27:21, “The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth: and as a storm hurleth him out of his place.”

Man tries to understand the connection between God and the forces of nature that they attribute to Him.

Psalms 48:7, “Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.”

Psalms 78:26, “He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by His power He brought in the south wind.”

Job 38:24, “By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth?”

I have often noticed that a breeze is brought forth from a still morning when the sun comes up.

Ecclesiastes 1:6, “The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.”

Hosea 13:15, “Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the wind of the Lord shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: He shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.”

Jonah 4:8, “And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, it is better for me to die than to live.”

Acts 27:14, “But not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon.”

Thoughts of the mysteries of wind enlarged to include man’s transience in general, meaninglessness, and destructions that fall upon the enemies of a Holy God.

Psalms 78:39, “For He remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.”

Psalms 103:16, “For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; the place thereof shall know it no more.”

Job 6:26, “Do ye imagine to reprove words, and the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind?”

Job 7:7 - “O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more see good.”

Job 30:15, “Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud.”

Job 30:22, “Thou liftest me up to the wind; Thou causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest my substance.”

Psalms 1:4, “The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.”

Ecclesiastes 3:19 - “For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they all have one breath.”

Isaiah 11:4, “And He shall smite the earth: with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked.”

Man believed that God owned and controlled the wind; that it was the breath of God. It was not a long jump for man, also, to associate the wind with God’s spiritual nature, or by extension to believe that winds and clouds were angelic beings, donned for different occasions, like clothing worn by men. By the same wind or spiritual breath, God could give life and take it back again.

Amos 4:13, “For, Lo, He that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is His thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, the Lord, the God of hosts, is His name.”

Isaiah 42:5, “Thus saith God the Lord, He that created the heavens, and stretched them out; He that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; He that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein . . .”

Proverbs 30:4, “Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? Who hath gathered the wind in His fists? Who hath bound the waters in a garment? Who hath established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is His Son’s name, if thou canst tell?”

Ezekiel 37:9, “Then said He unto me, prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, thus saith the Lord God; come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.”

Ezekiel 37:6, “And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I Am the Lord.”

Daniel 5:23, “But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified.”

Just a quick note for all the people who like to distance themselves from God: according to the preceding verse, even the wicked and the non-believer share their nature in common with God, they just prefer to live a lie.

Job 4:9, “By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of His nostrils are they consumed.”

2 Samuel 22:16, “And the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were discovered, at the rebuking of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of His nostrils.”

Job 12:10, “In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.”

Job 27:3, “All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils.”

Job 33:4, “The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.”

Job 34:14 and 15, “If He set His heart upon man, if He gather unto Himself His spirit and His breath; all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust.”

Genesis 7:15, “And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.”

Genesis 7:22, “All in whose nostrils was the breath of life . . .”

Psalms 104:29, “Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled: Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.”

Psalms 146:4, “His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” (Our mental attributes depend upon spiritual attributes.)

Psalms 33:6, “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.”

It is amazing that both man and angel live by the same breath. Speaking of angels, they minister in curious ways. Some, clothed in the invisible wind, chase sinners; some, like airplanes, are transportation for God. Here are some verses.

2 Samuel 22:11, “And He rode upon a cherub, and did fly: and He was seen upon the wings of the wind.”

Psalms 35:5, “Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of the Lord chase them.”

And here is one of the truly rare instances where angels are described as women rather than men.

Zechariah 5:9, “Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven.”

I have been racing along without mentioning in each instance the connections that are embedded: for they appear easily to me. A reader should keep in mind, however, that any verse that contains two points, must necessarily include some kind of connection between those points. So it is with this study of the elements: two or three of them may be in a verse – air and water or air and earth; water and earth or air and fire; fire and earth or even water, air, and fire. The elements of this study are not intended to infuse cult concepts into Christian thinking; they are simply four reference points by which the broader issues may be simplified for digestion.

For instance, a man may read about the red sea being divided, but totally overlook the part about the east wind. That man is thus deprived of a clear sense of connection between the act and the action, the doing and the accomplishment, not to mention the more subtle levels of understanding required for enlightenment. One may see in black and white, or one may see in color. Noah had to see in color, else he would have missed the rainbow.

The east wind seems most associated with God, in regard of it being mentioned more often but the east wind is but a single wind in a suite of four winds and I wonder if, like the circuit of the four elements, the four winds have an order of their own. The west wind, for example, can be seen as following the east, as it was responsible for driving off the locust that the east wind brought.

Exodus 10:19, “And the Lord turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts, and cast them into the red sea; there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt.”

Now, it was an east wind blowing all night that dried up the red sea for the children of Israel. Was it,

therefore, a west wind that drowned the Egyptian soldiers like so many locusts? If the east wind is

destruction, the west wind may well be deliverance.

What about the north and south winds?

The north and south winds seem to be intermediary between the extremes of retribution and

deliverance. They are the pleasant and sustaining winds; they are the smaller winds that apply most

to smaller lives. They are also transitional winds.

Song of Solomon 4:16, “Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.”

Proverbs 25:23, “The north wind driveth away rain.”

Job 37:22, “Fair weather cometh out of the north.”

Job 37:10, “By the breath of God frost is given.”

Job 37:17, “How thy garments are warm, when He quieteth the earth by the south wind?”

Luke 12:55, “And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, there will be heat; and it cometh to pass.”

It is known that the early Hebrew included the element of water within his temple rites, that water played an important role. What is not clear is the part wind played in ceremony, if any. However, just as water was thought to cleanse, so also was the wind thought to cleanse.

Job 37:21, “And now men see not the bright light which is in the clouds: but the wind passeth, and cleanseth them.”

I think it possible that the wind was represented by the smoke of incense, which seems cloud-like. I say this because clouds are a half-way point between water and air, just as blood may be considered a half-way point between earth and water.

Concepts of wind take a decidedly spiritual inclination. Anything spiritual can be related in terms of the wind. Angels are wind; God is wind; the Son of man is wind; spiritual purposes and ends, good or bad, are wind, and God owns all of it.

Psalms 104:3, “Who layeth the beams of His chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: (cherub?) who walketh upon the wings of the wind.”

Psalms 135:7, “He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; He maketh lightnings for the rain; He bringeth the wind out of His treasuries.”

He controls all four elements, but – are they more than physical elements?

Psalms 148:8, “Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling His word.”

Can we see or know such things on the next higher plain? Consider the next verse; if water has been used to symbolize the masses, and waves have symbolized nations and governments, what kind of ‘stormy wind’ will lift up those waves?

Psalms 107:25, “For He commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.”

Christ our Lord is spoken of both as a protection from wind (tribulation; evil), and as the wind in our make-up (the breath of life itself).

Isaiah 32:2, “And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; (stormy wind) as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.”

Lamentations 4:20, “The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits, of Whom we said, under His shadow we shall live among the heathen.”

Things evil and contrary, in a spiritual sense, were portrayed by the wind.

Ephesians 4:14, “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.”

We are painted as little children adrift in a storm, tossed from wave to wave, having many directions

but no path. We find in this study that wind is a mover and a shaker – it accomplishes the will of

God.

Numbers 11:31, “And there went forth a wind from the Lord, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day’s journey on this side, and as it were a day’s journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth.”

That was one colossal accomplishment. God does great things. He owns everything, is in everything, but most truly He is not the vehicle so much as the operator.

1 Kings 19:11 and 12, “And He said, go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.”

In this study we see the good wind push against the bad wind. We are molded by these forces.

Revelation 6:13, “And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.”

Revelation 7:1, “And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.”

As the mightier wind blows against all lesser winds, it gathers them into its train. They become a part of that mighty wind; they magnify that mighty wind. To be taken from the lesser and included into the greater is considered a birth of sorts. To be born of the spirit (the wind) is to be born all over again into something greater. We become a part of the greatness, taking on the nature of greatness, and the greatness is thus magnified. We see this connection clearly in the New Testament verses about being born again. The elemental concept of air is now everything God, everything Jesus, every enhancement of man that leads him toward and includes him within the greatness that Jesus, the Son of man, was the model of.

I’ll take just a moment to point out the concept of a son. The general thought was that the son was the strength and glory of the father – he was an enhancement of all that came before. In leading mankind forward by example, Christ took on the appellation ‘Son of man’, which may be understood to mean ‘Son of mankind’: an application of ‘Son of God’.

Luke 1:35, “And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”

Let’s do a little interconnective tracing. The Holy Ghost is the power of the Highest; two other names for the Holy Ghost are ‘Holy Spirit’, and ‘Holy Spirit of Truth’. Spirit is wind, as in the ‘breath of God’ or the ‘breath of life’. Jesus is both truth and life. Truth, the word of God, is a light: a lamp unto our feet. Jesus is also the light. Being of God (the still small voice), and being brought about by the Holy Spirit (air), Christ is, therefore, that core wind that, in pushing against opposing winds, turns them into His own. Around Him are the apostles and disciples, and then those of the rest of us who are all gathered in.

It is no wonder Jesus said in 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.”

To be born of the spirit, to become part of the greater wind, is to be born of Christ, to be born of God, to be born of the word, to be born of love, to be molded by the ‘stormy wind’.

1 John 2:29, “If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him.”

1 John 4:7 and 8, “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”

Let us recall that similar things were written of Christ: in that, in the beginning, He was with God, of God; and was and still is God. If God is love, love is Christ.

1 Peter 1:23 through 25, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. (Jesus Christ is the word) For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.”

1 John 3:9 and 10, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.”

1 John 5:18, “We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.”

1 John 5:1 and 2, 4 and 5, “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth Him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments. For whosoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?”

Matthew 3:11, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: (water) but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, (air) whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, (air, which is a preparation for) and with fire.”

I’ve already stated that the element of air prepares for the next element in the cycle, which is fire, and I

take this from a highly reputable source: Luke 12:49, “I am come to send fire on earth; and what

will I, if it be already kindled?”