The Day of Pentacost

This week in Come Follow Me we are studying Acts 1-5.  The most dramatic passage in these chapters is the description of the Day of Pentecost found in Acts chapter 2.  In many ways this is a very strange event, especially the sound "as of a rushing mighty wind" and "cloven tongues like as of fire".  Except for when Jesus calmed the tempest on the Sea of Galilea, New Testament accounts do not show God's power in such dramatic and obvious way. What was up with the fire and the wind?

My insight about this came from The Bible Project short video on the first half of the Book of Acts.  In it he explains that in the Old Testament, God's presence and power was signified by wind and fire. In Genesis 1:2 it says "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."  In Hebrew the word for "spirit" and "wind" are the same word.  In Ezekial it was wind blowing over the dry bones that raised them to life. (Ezekial 37: 9-10).  In Ezekiel this wind is specifically tied to the idea of resurrection "Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit (think wind) in you and you will live. " (v 13-14). If the graves opening as recorded in Matt 27:52-53 happened as the same time as the rushing of the wind, it would have definitely brought into the minds of Jews the passage from Ezekiel. 

The image of the fire is even more striking.  When Moses fled Egypt, the Lord went before them in a pillar of fire. (Ex 13:24).  (I just noticed that the wind was part of that miracle too, v. 21). When they came to Mt Sinai there was a pillar of fire above the mountain as Moses talked with the Lord. (Ex 24: 15-17).  After they had been wandering in the wilderness for a while, they could tell when the Lord was in the Tabernacle because there was a pillar of fire  (Ex 40:34-38).  In Isaiah's vision of the Holy City there was a pillar of fire above the thrown of God (Chapter 4:5).  To those familiar with the Old Testament, the presence of fire indicated the presence of God, and, more specifically in the case of the Tabernacle, the God they should follow. 

By sending the wind and the fire at the Day of Pentecost, God was communicating to the people of Jerusalem that the Spirit and power of the Lord was no longer to be found in the temple, but in the new Jesus movement led by the Apostles. Since the fire and wind landed on the Apostles, they were now the source of power and protection from God.  It is no wonder that the Jews in Jerusalem for the feast day responded to the sign and lined up to be baptized and follow the new religious group. 

Two last thoughts; Within one generation of this event, the temple itself was destroyed.  It is as if, by allowing the temple to be destroyed, God was confirming the message he sent on the Day of Pentecost. Also, it is fitting that the Day of Pentecost, (or Feast of Weeks as the Jews called it) celebrated the time when God gave the Law of Moses to the people.  The events on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2 signaled a new law, a shift of power, a new beginning.