In churches today the two most widely celebrated holidays are Christmas and Easter Sunday. Sadly, it has now become routine that many Christians only attend church on those two days. But in the early Church, the two most emphasized holidays were Resurrection Day (Easter) and Pentecost. Even in Israel today, “Shavuot” (Pentecost) is a major and much celebrated two-day holiday. What is it about Pentecost that is overlooked by the Church today? What is the hidden meaning of Pentecost that seems to have been lost?
Last week we saw how our resurrected Jesus Christ is depicted in the Feast of Firstfruits, which is the start of the 50-day countdown towards the day of Pentecost. Scripture tells us that Pentecost is one of three feast dates that all Hebrew males were required to attend in Jerusalem. Paul reminds us that these holy days and feast dates are “a foreshadowing of events to come” (Colossians 2:16-7). Not only are the feast dates predictive, but they are fulfilled on the date they are observed. With that in mind, let’s consider the historical context.
The Bible tells us that, after leaving Egypt, the Jews completed 50 days of wandering from Ramses into the wilderness of Sinai and that on the third day of the month of Sivan they arrived at the base of Mount Sinai. Here in approximately 1491 B.C., Israel waited for three days for Moses to return from conversing with God. The Lord told the people, “Be ready against the third day: for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai.” (Exodus 19:11) According to the Exodus account, it was on this day (the 6th of Sivan) that having chosen Israel by His grace through Abraham, that the Lord now confirmed this covenant 430 years later, by presenting His Law on the Feast of Pentecost. (430 years-Genesis 15:13 to Exodus 12:41)
It was on this day of Pentecost that God implemented the Dispensation of Law and which transformed all human moral law. A new era was born of spiritual stewardship as a further revelation of the will of God. The book, The Jewish Holidays-A Guide and Commentary, describes this feast this way: “Shavuot (Pentecost-Feast of Weeks) occurs on the sixth day of Sivan. It celebrates the giving of the Torah, God’s gift to the Jewish people.” Most observant Jews consider this date to depict the marriage of Israel to God.
Remarkably, it was on this same 6th of Sivan around 32 A.D. that the Church was born. Precisely fifty days after the Feast of Firstfruits, the day the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead, that 120 disciples gathered “together in one place” to await the promise of Christ when He prophesied that they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit. “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place” (Acts 2:1). On the sixth day of Sivan the Holy Spirit manifested Himself and “they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (verse 4).
“It is no coincidence that, on the same day of Pentecost in which God appeared to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai and revealed to man a new relationship based upon His sacred Law, He again revealed to man a new relationship based on the Holy Spirit. The mystical union of God and Israel that occurred on the Feast of Pentecost at the foot of Mount Sinai is exactly mirrored in the union of God’s Holy Spirit with Christ’s Bride, the Church, on Pentecost, fifty days after Christ rose from the dead.”
-Grant Jeffrey (1948-2012), former Canadian pastor, writer and Biblical archeologist
Thus, it was on this same day of Pentecost that God also implemented the Dispensation of Grace, that is the Age of Grace or Church age.
Ever since, Jews have adopted Pentecost and the giving of the Law, as taken from the Exodus 19 account, to commemorate the symbolism of the marriage between God, the Groom, and Israel, the bride. They view Mt. Sinai as an enormous “ketubah”, or wedding canopy and see the two tablets that Moses brought down from the mountain to represent the marriage contract. For most Christians, this is quite remarkable to discover as we know that the Church is the Bride of Christ.
Many observant Jews therefore stay up the night before Shavuot in their synagogue’s house of study, poring over “tikkun” which consists of small sections from each book of the Torah and the Talmud. In view of how the Israelites of Sinai, according to tradition, slept late that morning, this practice of staying up all night in preparation is heightened by a mystical tradition that the skies open for a brief moment, and God will answer any prayer. Therefore, this practice of staying up all night before Pentecost is known as “decorating the bride.”
And, according to Jewish tradition, David was born and died on the 6th of Sivan and Enoch was born on this date. Also, Moses was pulled up as a baby from the basket in the Nile by a daughter of Pharoah on this date.
Again, these Feasts of Moses are not only commemorative but prophetic. The first three feasts in the month of Nisan (Passover, Unleavened Bread and Firstfruits) are predictive of the First Coming of Jesus Christ. The last three (Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles) are associated with His Second Coming. It is the one feast date in between, Pentecost, which is associated with the Church.
In agricultural terms it is also important to remember that the Old Testament has always revealed three distinct harvests: firstfruits, the main harvest, and the gleanings. This translates prophetically as Jesus the Firstfruits, the Rapture of the Church as the main harvest, and the tribulation saints and the saved remnant of Israel as the gleanings. Thus, Pentecost points directly to the main harvest, the Rapture of the Church.
In Judaism, the Book of Ruth, a beautiful love story, is always read during Shavuot. It is the story of a “goel” or kinsmen redeemer named Boaz who returns land lost to Naomi by performing requirements for redemption. He also takes himself a Gentile bride (Ruth) who we know is destined to appear in the family tree of David and of Jesus Christ. In terms of Bible typology, the parallels are obvious: Naomi (typifying Israel) returning to the Land, Ruth (typifying the Bride of Christ) each established by the act of redemption by the kinsmen redeemer. Just as the redemption of Ruth occurred in the middle of the night likewise, we know that the Rapture will come “like a thief in the night.” And this aligns succinctly with the ancient rites of a Jewish wedding when traditionally, the groom accompanied by his groomsmen, would come down the streets in the middle of the night shouting for his bride and her bridesmaids to come out.
Finally, just as God descended upon Mount Sinai to confirm His covenant with Israel with a voice sounding like a trumpet (Exodus 19:19; 20:18-19), so to will Jesus descend to call up His bride with a shout, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (1st Thessalonians 4:16-17)(Revelation 1:10; 4:1)
Does this mean the Rapture occurs on Pentecost? It could be on this date or any other, but no one knows the date, and history has proven it counterproductive to speculate. The Levitical feast dates are a beautiful demonstration by God showing how He will gather all of His people together over a sequence of time.
Pentecost is observed by the Church this year on June 9th. In Israel, the two-day celebration of Shavuot is June 9-10 and is a national holiday.
“And every man who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” (1st John 3:3)