When the day of Pentecost came....

     There are places in the Bible where God's control of the timing are nothing short of astounding. Jesus' death on the day of the celebration of the Passover Lamb is a wonderful picture. The coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost is equally amazing.
     Bruce's commentary [The Book of Acts, F. F. Bruce] points out some details. Pentekostos, as we should have been able to figure out on our own, is 50. The 50th day after the first Sunday after Passover was the festival of first fruits. The first sheaf of the barley harvest was presented to God. Jewish tradition says the law was given from Mt. Sinai the same day and the Feast of Firstfruits or Feast of Weeks also remembered the giving of the Law.
     The tie to the giving of the Law at Sinai is something I've never heard before, but it is surely not coincidentally similar. According to rabbinic tradition, the ten commandments were announced in a single voice, but all the people perceived "the voices" [Ex 2-18].
     "As the voice went forth it was divided into seven voices and then went into seventy tongues, and every people received the law in its own language." [Bruce pg 54] Bruce sees that background, the feast as a commemoration of that miraculous gift of tongues at the giving of the law, in the crowd's reaction: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? --we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues! What does this mean?"
     Peter chooses a passage from Joel, a prophecy about the last days, to explain what is happening. "Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days." [Joel 2:29]. Peter is saying these last days, the days of the fulfillment of God's purpose has arrived. The key is that the Spirit is poured out on everyone, something that had never happened before. In that pouring out is foreshadowed the change to come, and the wonderful promise, "And everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved." Everyone? Yes: Jew, proselyte, Greek, gentile and barbarian. The Spirit is poured out on the world and the World is free to receive Him by faith in Jesus.
     What a remarkable change! This is not a reformation of the Mosaic Law but the announcement of a new law, the Law of Grace. Each one can hear in his own language the Spirit of God speaking into his own heart. And each one can respond out of their own heart, calling on the one who has removed all barriers between man and God.