Pentecost 2014

Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks, begins today at sundown (June 3). In Hebrew it is called Shavuot, which means 'weeks' or 'sevens'. It is interesting that Pentecost gets so little attention among Christians, especially evangelicals. Among Jews, it is one of the 3 primary holidays, one of the 3 when the Old Testament called for traveling to Jerusalem to be at the temple for the celebration of this holiday. Why was this such an important time to the Jewish people who took their faith seriously? And why was it chosen as the day for the Holy Spirit to initiate the church age in the book of Acts?


I ran across this short post by a Jewish rabbi about the significance of both Shavuot and the number seven in the Bible. It is interesting and fun, and of course lists 49 (seven times seven) examples of the significance of the number seven:

http://judaism.about.com/library/3_askrabbi_o/bl_simmons_seven.htm

At the start of this post he speaks of what happened when the time of Shavuot came around for the first time after Israel left Egypt in the exodus: Moses was on Mt. Sinai receiving the Torah from God. He calls this 'the most seminal event in the history of mankind'.  This event is recounted in Exodus 19, and in Exodus 19:18 the scripture points out that 'Mt. Sinai was all in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire'. At this same holiday in Acts, the believers in Jesus were also descended upon with 'tongues of fire' to inaugurate the church age. The similarity of the way God made His presence known and the choosing of the same date is striking! The coming of Pentecost should be just as important to the church as it is to Israel.

It is also of interest that God included in His revelation to Moses the instructions for His dwelling among them, the tabernacle. After the conquest of the Promised Land it was later replaced by the temple in Jerusalem. At Pentecost in Acts 2, He took up residence in His people through the Holy Spirit instead of in a building. This is amazing since it took Christ's atonement to create a people no longer in need of ongoing atonement over and over each year, so that God's presence could be among His people!


The prophet Jeremiah had foretold a time when the Torah would be written on the hearts of believers.(Jer. 31:31-33).  At the first Pentecost in Exodus 19, the Torah was given; at the 'fulfillment' of Pentecost in Acts 2, the Torah was written on the hearts of believers to inaugurate the new covenant time that Jeremiah spoke about.

I have not heard much about Pentecost through the years. We mostly take it for granted. I read a best-selling Christian book recently that described it as a 'minor Jewish holiday'. We in the western church clearly do not understand how important it was for Israel, or how important it should be to us as the church. Let's take some time tonight or tomorrow to reflect on how blessed we are to have our God dwelling with us in His Spirit and not separated from us in a temple, writing His Torah on our hearts!