Pentecost (the Feast of Weeks)

All good Christian Bible students know that Shavuot, more commonly known as Pentecost, is the day when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church and made available to all mankind.  This made available to the entire church what many refer to as the ‘gifts of the Holy Spirit’:  tools used in the proclamation and demonstration of the kingdom of God, like healing, prophecy, deliverance (the ability to cast out demons), etc. which previously were only available to a select few people like kings, priests, and prophets.  But there are two things most people don’t know about Pentecost:

1.  The Law of Moses was also given to Israel on the very first Pentecost.  There were both  similarities and distinct opposites between the events that occurred on the first Pentecost in Exodus and the day when this feast was fulfilled in Acts 2.  Fire and wind appeared in both instances, and men were gathered together in expectation of God’s presence.  But at the giving of the Law, there was a rebellion which led to the death of 3000 Israelites, whereas at the giving of the Spirit, there were 3000 who yielded to the Lordship of Christ and were raised to life spiritually.   This was no coincidence—God planned for these events to be linked to each other.  The priestly Law revealed our death; the Holy Spirit reveals our life in Christ and enables us to obey His moral Law, which leads us to point #2 below.

2. Most who believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit do not see past them.  What I mean by this is that they tend to make the gifts the goal—they want to see miracles.  But the gifts are just tools and signposts to reveal what the Holy Spirit is really doing:  transforming lives.  The goal of having the actual presence and power of the Holy Spirit is to enable us to experience God, to learn all things from Him, to become a people marked by love (see my earlier note called Paul Misinterpreted?), and to testify to what God is doing in front of other people. 

In the Levitical text where Pentecost was commanded in the Law, the people were to count out fifty days from Firstfruits.  If you remember from my earlier note on the Feast of Firstfruits, a grain offering was brought the day after the Shabbat falling after Passover during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which consecrated the field as holy to the Lord.  Fifty days later on Pentecost, loaves were baked and presented to the Lord, which showed the evidence of the holiness of the field.  Just as Christ made us holy, so the Holy Spirit works this holiness into our lives and presents us as holy to the Father.  As we become the people of love; as we exhibit the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23); as we obey the moral Law as Jesus summarized it (Matt 22:37-39); we are presented as holy to the Father. 

Thank you, Holy Spirit, for indwelling us and making us clean!