David Diga Hernandez - Symbols of the Holy Spirit: The Dove

Now I want to talk to you about the heavenly dove, the Holy Spirit. Luke chapter 3, verses 21 and 22 say this: One day, when the crowds were being baptized, Jesus himself was baptized. As he was praying, the heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit, in bodily form, descended on him like a dove, and a voice from heaven said, «You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.» Now Matthew, Mark, and John also account for this story, but Luke’s account stands out because he very specifically states that the Holy Spirit, in bodily form, descended upon Jesus like a dove. This means that this was a physical manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s presence. Now let me be very clear: I am not saying, nor is Luke saying, that the Holy Spirit is a dove; rather, the Scripture teaches us things about doves, and because the dove is a symbol for the Holy Spirit, we can learn certain things about the Holy Spirit’s nature by looking at what the Scripture says about doves. So there’s a tie-in here, a symbolism, that helps us to understand the nature of the Holy Spirit. Matthew 10:16 says this: «I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.» So the dove in Scripture is described as being innocent; this speaks to the innocence of the Holy Spirit. Leviticus chapter 14, verse 22 says, «And two turtle doves or two pigeons, which are within his means, the one shall be a sin offering and the other a burnt offering.» Why were doves accepted for sacrifice? They were considered pure, so this speaks to the purity of the Holy Spirit. Nahum chapter 2, verse 7 teaches us something interesting: «It is decreed that Nineveh be exiled and carried away; her female slaves moan like doves, or cry like doves, or mourn like doves.» This reminds me of the Scripture in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30, where we’re told, «And grieve not the Holy Spirit.» The Holy Spirit cries over sin; the Holy Spirit is the one who grieves over sin. So we see Scripture telling us of the Holy Spirit’s innocence, of the Holy Spirit’s purity, and of the Holy Spirit’s ability to mourn and grieve. Then we see something else here, and this one may not have been seen so easily, but I want to show it to you anyway. I want to show you what the Scripture says in Genesis chapter 1, verse 2. Watch this: «The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering.» That word is key—hovering—over the face of the waters. That’s Genesis chapter 1, verse 2. Now I’m going to show you why the dove, the Holy Spirit, represents new beginnings. We’ve already seen that the dove is innocent, the dove is pure, and the dove cries. Now I want to show you that the dove represents new beginnings. Let’s go to Genesis chapter 8 and I’m going to read verses 8 through 12: «Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground, but the dove could find nowhere to perch, because there was water all over the surface of the earth. So it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf. Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.» So going back now to Genesis chapter 1, verse 2, that word «hover» means «to brood.» That word «brood» is descriptive of a bird brooding over its eggs or incubating its eggs. So at the dawn of creation, the beginning of time, God the Father speaks the Word; the Word goes forth, and the dove hovered or brooded over the Word. In other words, the Holy Spirit incubated the words of God, causing all creation to come into existence. So from the very beginning, we see this partnership between the Word of God, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, the dove. Now the Holy Spirit was there, as we just saw in Genesis 1:2; the Holy Spirit was present at the beginning of creation, at the beginning of time. So the Holy Spirit was there when God created the world. Now we know that after God creates the earth, after God creates man, man falls into sin; God has to send a worldwide flood to wipe out humanity, and then on an ark, God preserves Noah and his family. In other words, God was looking for somewhere to begin his creation anew. When Noah stepped foot on that ark, he was on an assignment, and that assignment was to begin creation again. So we see the dove present in Genesis 1:2 the first time God begins to create—the Holy Spirit present brooding over the Word of God—and then we move into Genesis chapter 8 and we see the dove present again, but this time he’s going in search of dry land. He’s looking for the place where God can begin the creation again; he’s looking for the place where God could create anew. So we know that Noah releases the dove. Once the dove comes back, no dry land. Noah releases the dove a second time; this time the dove comes back with a branch. The third time Noah releases that dove, the dove is never seen.