"When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance." (Acts 2:1-4)
(*Please note, when the text mentions "one place" the disciples are not still in the upper room where there were in chapter one. "One place" is a nickname for the Holy Temple. Since it was Shavuot (Pentecost), the disciples were required to be at the Holy Temple on this day. Furthermore, in verse 41 of chapter 2, it says 3,000 people received the word and were baptized. Three thousand people could not fit in the upper room. The only place where this could have happened (and where there would have been mikvehs (water immersion tanks similar to a large bath tub needed for ritual purification before entering the Holy Temple)) would have been at the Holy Temple.)
Pentecost in the Old Testament
The Feast of Weeks (also known as Shavuot and Pentecost) will be celebrated this year from sundown on Saturday, May 30 to sundown on Sunday, May 31. Described in Leviticus 23, the Feast of Weeks is the second of the three pilgrim feasts which required all Jewish males to travel to Jerusalem to observe (Exodus 23:14-7, Exodus 34:22-23, and Deuteronomy 16:6). The Feast of Weeks derives its name from the fact that it starts seven full weeks (exactly 50 days) after the shabbat of Passover. Since the festival takes place exactly 50 days after the shabbat of Passover, it is also known as Pentecost, which means "fifty" in Greek.
Each of the three "solemn feasts" (Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast of Weeks and Feast of Tabernacles) required all Jewish men to travel to Jerusalem to attend the festival and offer sacrifices. All three of these feasts required that a first fruit offering be made at the temple as a way of expressing thanks for God's abundance. The Feast of First Fruits (celebrated during the Feast of Unleavened Bread) included the first fruit offerings of the barley harvest. The Feast of Weeks was the celebration of the first fruits of the wheat harvest. The Feast of Tabernacles involved the first fruit offerings of the olive and grape harvests.
Exodus
The giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai happened on Pentecost.
"In the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. When they set out from Rephidim, they came to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness; and there Israel camped in front of the mountain." (Exodus 19:1-2)
"Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the LORD descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke to and God answered him with thunder." (Exodus 19:18-19)
"Then God spoke all these words, saying, 'I am the LORD your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery..."(Exodus 20:1-2)
The similarities between the two accounts given in Acts and Exodus
Both accounts have a large gathering of a mixed multitude from many different cultures, nations and languages. A mixed multitude came up with the Israelites out of Egypt. A mixed multitude was with the disciples at the Holy Temple as they were celebrating Shavuot.
Both accounts have a loud noise described in Acts as a noise like rushing wind and in Exodus as a trumpet and thunder. (God's voice is described in Scripture as water falling, a great wind and thunder. These are all people's attempts at describing an indescribable noise.)
Both accounts have bright light. In Exodus it is as fire and lightning. Acts describes it as tongues of fire. (This Hebraic term is used to describe lightning.)
Both accounts have God revealing Himself to common people. Unlike pagan religions in which the deities only spoke to one person or a very selected priestly line, here God is making His ways known to all the world.
God's Word to all the world
After the revelation of God Word at Mount Sinai, God commands His people to recite the whole Torah before the entire nation of Israel.
"At the end of every seven years, in the Sabbatical year, during the Festival of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the place He will choose, you shall read this law [Torah] before them in their hearing. Assemble the people--men, women and children, and the foreigners residing in your towns--so they can listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and follow carefully all the words of this law [Torah]. Their children, who do not know this law [Torah], must hear it and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess." (Deuteronomy 31:10-13).
Again, God's word is being declared to ALL the people and not to an elite or special subset of people within it. This is similarly stated in Isaiah 54:13: "And all your children shall be learned of the LORD and great shall be the peace of your children." This remains one of the unique features of the Torah. It is a written constitution of the Jewish people. Everyone is expected not merely to keep the Torah but to know it!
There were two further key moments in the history of getting God's word to all the world. The first was when Ezra gathered the people, after the Babylonian exile, to the Water Gate in Jerusalem. This occurred on Rosh HaShanah (the first day of the seventh month often referred to as the "New Year"). The Torah was read to the people. Levites were dispersed through the crowd to teach and to explain to the folks what was being said. This was a defining moment in Jewish history. This was a mass adult education program to help the people learn and apply God's word to their lives. (Nehemiah 8). Ezra and Nehemiah realized the most significant battles for the Jewish people were cultural and not military. To keep God's word alive, they needed the people to know God's word and how to apply it to their lives.
The second key moment was the creation of the world's first system of universal compulsory education in the first century. The High Priest Joshua Ben Gamla created an education system which dispersed teachers into each district in Israel. Children starting at the age of six or seven attended and learned Torah and how to read. Josephus writes about the education system as follows: "Should any one of our nation be asked about our laws, he will repeat them as readily as his own name. The result of our thorough education in our laws from the very dawn of intelligence is that they are, as it were, engraved on our souls."
Lessons we can learn
If we are to do God's word, we need to know God's word. How often do we read God's word? How many times have we read the entire Bible? Do we teach the Bible to our children? Do we use the Bible as a basis for our education?
When I think about church services, how much time is devoted to reading Scripture? Is more time spent singing songs than hearing God's word?
The state of the church is in serious decay. There are many false teachers and blind parishioners. Many people have no idea the names of the books in the Bible much less the words written within them. Our ways and the world's ways are the same. There is no distinction except for an hour on Sunday mornings we gather to sing songs and hear a short sermon on a broad category such as showing compassion to the less fortunate or being nice to one another. We then leave the building feeling warm and fuzzy, but our knowledge of God's word has not increased.
In a time when the Bible is available on demand via the internet, we have no excuse for not studying God's word. We can read or listen to it anywhere. Would you take the challenge to read through the Bible in one year? If we want to be God's people, we must know what He expects from us. Every day is a test to show the world God's word. Every day we can pour out God's word to those around us by knowing and acting in ways which represent Him.
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