Don't Read Unless

you're prepared to have your world rocked.

Today I read the second to last Exodus lesson over at TorahClass.com and wowzers....here's an excerpt for you:

Let me also make a quick observation about Pentecost; Pentecost being the day the Holy Spirit came and began indwelling men. We know of this event primarily as that day when people started suddenly speaking in tongues, and some very strange ideas have formed about what actually happened there.

First, Pentecost is just a Greek word that means 50 days. Second, the 50 days means this holiday occurs exactly 50 days after the day Christ rose from the dead. Pentecost is not a NEW holiday designed by Christians to celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit…although that IS the way it is typically taught. Rather, Pentecost is a Greek word that the early Christians used in place of the Hebrew Shavuot. Third, understand: when the Holy Spirit descended upon man a NEW holiday was NOT created in remembrance of that event. Rather, it was on Shavuot, a Biblical Feast instituted by God at the time of Moses, that the Holy Spirit descended……which is exactly what the Feast of Shavuot was prophetic of.

The Holy Spirit descended upon a whole bunch of Jews, who had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Festival of Weeks, Shavuot. But, these were special Jews, because they were Believing Jews….they believed Yeshua was the Messiah. They had come, because as we see right here in Exodus, Israelites are commanded to do so…..that is, they are commanded to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for this festival (as well as 2 others). The language issue, speaking in tongues, I’d like to straighten out; Jesus died and the Holy Spirit descended about 30 A.D. The known world, including Judah and Jerusalem, was under Roman rule. Jews now lived all over the Roman Empire. Probably only something on the order of 10% of the total population of Jews lived in the Holy Land, all the rest lived scattered around the known world. These scattered Jews are, to this day, called the Diaspora…..the dispersed. And, naturally, these scattered Jews took on the language of whatever nation or culture they were a part of. But…..they fiercely held on to their Jewish ways and religion. So, these Diaspora Jews, as well as the Jews still remaining in the Holy Land, came to Jerusalem, as usual, for the Feast of Weeks, each speaking various languages. There is no Greek work that translates to the English word “language”. Rather, in that era the term was “tongue”. Therefore the Bible word used for languages is literally “tongues”.

The miracle of tongues that occurred on Pentecost was that Jews from one area, who therefore spoke a certain language, could suddenly and supernaturally speak a language that they didn’t know, or, they could understand a language they couldn’t speak. So we get this Biblical description of how some observers (undoubtedly Judean Jews who lived there in Jerusalem) were saying that these guys were just drunk and babbling meaningless nonsense. But some of the Diaspora Jews who had come a long way from remote nations are saying no, I recognize that language they’re speaking, and I know exactly what they’re saying, because it’s MY language. Just how many languages, tongues, were represented we don’t know……but at this time in history there were scores of languages spoken within the vast Roman Empire.

Here’s another way to look at it: what happened at Pentecost was a kind of reversal of what happened at the tower of Babel. At the Tower of Babel a whole lot of people who were rebelling against the Lord, and who spoke a single universal language, were suddenly and supernaturally given a whole bucketful of different and new languages and so they could no longer understand one another. But at Pentecost, a whole lot of people who trusted the Lord, and who came to Jerusalem unable to understand each other because they spoke so many different languages, suddenly could understand one another! Amazing connection, is it not?

Also I'm listening to the following series currently: (right click and save as to avoid virtual traffic jams. Please and thank you.)

Thriving in the Last Days: Ephesus (Part I)

Thriving in the Last Days: Ephesus (Part II)

Thriving in the Last Days: Ephesus (Part III)