The first mention of the Holy Spirit is in Genesis 1:2 which says that, “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”The Spirit was present and active in creation. After this we see the Spirit of God at work in the lives of various people, helping to carry out the will of God. After Joseph interpreted Pharaoh's dreams and proposed a plan (Gen 41), Pharaoh himself declared, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?” It was obvious to a foreigner that God was within Joseph and working through him. In Exodus 28-31 God’s Spirit empowered Bezalel and others to construct the various pieces of the tabernacle and priestly garments. In the time of the Judges we see the Spirit upon Othniel (3:10), clothing Gideon (6:34) and stirring in Samson (13:25) and rushing upon him (14:6). Repeatedly the Spirit worked in and through God’s chosen leaders. In every circumstance the presence of the Spirit was only temporary and/or conditional. In Judges 16:20 we see that the Spirit who had previously empowered Samson eventually left because of his sin and failure. The scripture says, “But he did not know that the Lord had left him.” We see the same thing happen with King Saul in 1 Samuel 16:14 which states, “the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him.” The Spirit in the Old testament was always working in and through people to carry out God’s will, but there was no sense of the Spirit permanently residing in Israel at that time. The Spirit also helped the Old Testament writers through the process of inspiration. 2 Peter 1:21 says, “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” We even see the Spirit speaking through people who were not part of Israel. The Spirit came upon the false prophet Balaam in Numbers 24 so that he could speak blessings over Israel.