Such words as “anoint,” “anointed” and “anointing” are mentioned approximately 150 times in the Holy Scriptures.  The New Testament contains twenty-two references to the act that has played such an important role in the service of the Lord throughout history.  The custom has several application and serves several purposes, most of them spiritual in nature.

All manner of things and a variety of individuals have been anointed with oil as an act of sanctification of items or persons for special situations.  For this study we will limit our subject to the anointing of human beings their sanctification for holy use in the Lord’s service, whether ministerial or social.  As the reader will see, not all whom God anoints are His people.  Some will be His people for a time, then will leave Him.  Such is the human condition, even when dealing directly with the Messiah Himself.  One of the lessons taught in this study is that, no matter the relationship between God and a human being, that person always has the power of choice.  God neither forces Himself upon, nor forcibly restrains one who has aligned himself with Him (God).  As the Scriptures reveal, man’s choice of which god he will serve is his to make.  As history reveals, man’s choice is not always wise.

Oil, when used in ministry, is symbolic of the Holy Spirit.  One will notice that anciently, when a man was anointed– oil was poured on his head.  Generally speaking, Old Testament people were not “baptized” with the Holy Spirit as  their spiritual descendants later be baptized.  In New Testament anointing the Holy Spirit entered the heart (mind) of the individual.  Some Old Testament people–those God used in ministry–had the power of the Holy Spirit WITH them.  Others, such as the prophets, might have received the Spirit internally, though no mention of this happening is recorded.

The actions attributed to the Holy Spirit became much more obvious in New Testament times as its authors bring out, especially in the Book of Acts.  Notice in Acts 1:4,5,8 that Jesus told His disciples that they would later receive “the promise of the Father.”  That transaction took place a few days later in an upper room in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost.  Recall that He had told them, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.”  The Holy Spirit was not at that time on them.  They were to return to Jerusalem and wait for the Lord’s promise to baptize them in that Spirit.

Many generations earlier the Prophet Joel had prophesied (2:28) about the true saints of God, telling them that they would receive the Holy Spirit, and that God would WRITE HIS LAW ON THEIR HEARTS (Jer. 31:33/Heb. 8:10).  As the Apostle Peter proclaimed following the coming of the Holy Spirit and the commotion it caused, “This is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel ….” (Acts 2:16-18).  THE SOLE PURPOSE FOR RECEIVING THE HOLY SPIRIT IS TO EMPOWER THE SAINT TO OBEY GOD’S LAW.  This truth also applied to the Savior of mankind.  Note that Jesus neither preached a sermon nor performed a miracle until the day He was baptized with the Holy Spirit which came on (entered) Him as He approached John for water baptism.  At that time God wrote His Law on His Son’s mind, thereby marking the beginning His ministry.  Before that moment, He was a carpenter.  From that moment on He would be God’s messenger through Whom God manifested Himself.  Therefore, as He told Nethaniel: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (Jn. 14:8,9).  Of those who profess Him as their Lord, those who “walk as He walked,” (1 Jn. 2:6) can say the same thing.  But bear in mind, those who saw Him, and therefore saw the Father, rejected Him and His message.  They did not recognize Him as God’s Son.  If you walk as He walked and have God manifesting Himself in you, be ready to be rejected on the spiritual level by those who call themselves God’s people.  Recall that it was the super-religious Jews who killed Jesus and all of the apostles but one.

God’s anointing does not guarantee that the anointed one will do what he is anointed to do.  As the Scriptures reveal, some of those who have been chosen for holy work commit some of the most egregious acts known to man.  We will be examining some of those cases.  Also, some people God anoints did not belong to Him.  As with the case of King Cyrus, one can be anointed for the sole purpose of completing a task and may not realize that such an anointing ever took place.  Such was the case of Cyrus whom the Lord used to fulfill His will.  In II Chronicles 36 we find the Almighty speaking about Cyrus, King of Persia that He (God) would put into the mind of the king to build Him a temple in Jerusalem, and that God would be with him in the endeavor (vss 22,23).  Cyrus was the king over the Jews whom his predecessor had conquered and enslaved in Babylon.  The Jews were his slaves.  In Isaiah 44:28 God calls this heathen king His “shepherd” who would “fulfill all My pleasure” by rebuilding Jerusalem and the temple.  In 45:3,4 the Lord calls him by name some 250 years before his birth and notes that he (Cyrus) will not know Him (God).  In Isaiah 45:1 God says that He will “hold his hand,” meaning that Cyrus would do what God want wanted done.  Though the kind did not know Whom he was obeying, he most certainly did as God declared that he would do by rebuilding both Jerusalem and the Temple.  He also supplied the materials needed for the task.  A similar example of people being used of God without knowing it were the Assyrians God used to defeat and enslave the Israelites of Samaria.  God called them His “strong right arm.”  Though no mention of the Assyrians being officially anointed for the task, God’s power was most certainly behind their defeat of sinning Israel.

Long before the earth was restored into its present condition (Gen. 1,2), Lucifer (son of the morning) was anointed by God for special service, that of making the newly-formed planet earth a paradise in which he (Lucifer) and one-third of the angels were to live.  In Ezekiel 28 God is speaking to Lucifer, symbolized by the King of Tyre, reminding him of what he once was and that he had been anointed (vs 14) and appointed to a most prestigious position.  But Lucifer sinned against God and became Satan the devil–His enemy.  L.J.

I