By the Firelight
The night Jesus was betrayed by Judas to be crucified, another friend betrayed Him also. A detachment of soldiers came to to the Garden of Gethsemane to make the arrest:
Luke 22:54-62
Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. But when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, "This man was with him."
But he denied it. "Woman, I don't know him," he said.
A little later someone else saw him and said, "You also are one of them."
"Man, I am not!" Peter replied.About an hour later another asserted, "Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean."
Peter replied, "Man, I don't know what you're talking about!" Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: "Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times." And he went outside and wept bitterly.
Peter had hoped to be able to sit there by the flickering firelight and not be noticed or recognized. He had hoped to hide his cowardice in the darkness.
Tongues of Fire
Shortly after His resurrection, Jesus dealt with Peter's three-fold denial in a subtle way.
John 21:15-18
When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?"
"Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Feed my lambs."Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me?"
He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep."The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?"
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you."Jesus said, "Feed my sheep. ...
But once the issue was dealt with, and it was obvious that Jesus had not rejected Peter from his role as an Apostle, Jesus indicated that no longer would Peter be the coward he had been. Jesus gave a great commission to Peter and the other Apostles:
Matthew 28:16-20
Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Go to all nations? What was going to cause a change in Peter to equip him to go from the firelight coward to being an active part of "carrying the torch" of the Gospel to the whole Earth, bringing to all mankind the message of the Light of the World? Jesus hinted of the answer before He was taken up to Heaven.
Acts 1:3-9
After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
Yet until it actually happened, it is likely that they didn't quite understand what sort of "power" they would receive as a result of the coming of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had said this would occur "in a few days." Although He didn't explain the significance of their having to wait, it became obvious later what this wait was for ... it was so that this momentous historical event could occur on a very special day prepared for this purpose long, long before the occasion:
Acts 2:1-13
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 1(both Jews and converts to Judaism Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"
Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine."
And it was then, on that Day of Pentecost, that the coward by the firelight became the man with a tongue on fire!
Acts 2:14-24,36-41Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
" 'In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
I will show wonders in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.'"Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. ...
"Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"
Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call."
With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
This day that the fearful Peter became "On Fire for Jesus" was Pentecost. And the relevance of that fact is that Pentecost wasn't just an arbitrary name for "the Day the Holy Spirit came to the Church." The Hebrew version of this name had been given to one of the "Times of Refreshing" created by God, one of the annual Feasts of the Bible, given as a time of celebration related to harvests in ancient Israel, but pointing ultimately as a shadow of one of the important elements of the plan of Salvation through Jesus Christ. (See What is a Biblical "Feast"? for clarification of this term.)
Pentecost in Old Testament times
We are first introduced, briefly, to the Feast of Pentecost in Exodus.
Exodus 34:22
"Celebrate the Feast [Hebrew: Chag] of Weeks [Hebrew: Shavuot] with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering [also called the Feast of Tabernacles] at the turn of the year.
Pentecost is here called the "Feast of Weeks" because it was timed to come seven weeks after a special ceremony that occurred near the time of the Passover, related to the early Spring barley harvest in Israel.
Leviticus 23:9-12
The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf [Hebrew: Omer] of the first grain you harvest. He is to wave the sheaf before the LORD so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. On the day you wave the sheaf, you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to the LORD a lamb a year old without defect, together with its grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil—an offering made to the LORD by fire, a pleasing aroma—and its drink offering of a quarter of a hin of wine. You must not eat any bread, or roasted or new grain, until the very day you bring this offering to your God. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live." 'From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD. From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the LORD. Present with this bread seven male lambs, each a year old and without defect, one young bull and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to the LORD, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings—an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD. Then sacrifice one male goat for a sin offering and two lambs, each a year old, for a fellowship offering. The priest is to wave the two lambs before the LORD as a wave offering, together with the bread of the firstfruits. They are a sacred offering to the LORD for the priest. On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly and do no regular work. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.
This "fiftieth day" is called in English Pentecost--which comes from a Greek word that means "fiftieth."
Barley
All of the Biblical feasts were first of all harvest
celebrations. The Feast of Pentecost is connected intimately
with the wheat harvest
in late spring. But its symbolic
significance begins seven weeks earlier,
at the time of the Passover and Days of
Unleavened Bread. It was at that time
that the barley harvest was beginning,
and a very special ceremony was involved
in presenting the “firstfruits” of that
barley harvest.
Although each farmer was to bring firstfruits of his own harvest of barley to present to the priests, there was evidently a ritual in which a representative sample of these firstfruits was offered for the whole nation. (See the article What Are "Firstfruits"? for an explanation of this term.)
Jewish records from around the time of Christ in the first century clarify what was being done by that time in the history of Israel to observe this custom. For a detailed description of this process, see
http://www.beingjewish.com/yomtov/omer/omer_sacrifice.html
The following brief description is adapted from that material.
On the same day that the lambs were being sacrificed for the Passover, three representatives of the religious leadership of the nation (the Sandhedrin) would go out to a barley field near Jerusalem and find stalks of barley at the appropriate ripeness. They would then leave them in the ground, but bind them into bundles for later harvest. After the first Holy Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, they would return in the evening to harvest an omer of this barley, about seven tenths of a bushel. Over night, this barley would be toasted, ground, and sifted, and about 14 cups of the flour taken to be used for the special "Omer Offering" (often called in English the "Wave Sheaf Offering").
The next morning, oil and frankincense were added to the flour, and a priest would take the container with this grain offering into the first room within the Temple, the Holy Place. First he would lift it a number of times ("waving" it) as a symbolic prayer to God that He would send rain and dew in their proper seasons, After this an animal sacrifice would be completed, and then a handful of the flour was placed in the fire of the incense altar.
Only after this special ceremony was complete could the Israelites eat any barley harvested that year.
The relevance of this whole scenario to the observance of the Feast of Pentecost was that the counting of the weeks to Pentecost began on the same day that this ceremony was held.
Wheat
The barley harvest was in the
early spring. The firstfruits of that harvest were brought
on the day of the Omer Offering. The next major harvest was
that of wheat, in late spring. The Feast of Pentecost, or
Feast of Weeks (referred to in Judaism as simply Shavuot,
"weeks," in Hebrew) was the day on which the firstfruits of
that wheat harvest were presented as an offering to God.
This firstfruits offering was
unusual, however. All other offerings throughout the whole
year that involved grain were made with either actual
kernels of the grain, flour made from that grain, or flour
baked into bread without any leavening agent used. (See the
article What is "Leaven?" for a
discussion of unleavened bread and the type of leavening
used in ancient Israel.) Only on Pentecost was there a grain
offering that consisted of leavened bread.
For this offering, new grain from the wheat harvest was prepared into two loaves of leavened bread to be used in the Pentecost ceremony.
The Seven Species
God had commanded that the firstfruits of all crops should be offered to Him. Although there is no specific commandment in the Old Testament that Pentecost is to be a special day for the offering of non-grain firstfruits, by the time of Christ Jewish tradition had linked the day with a special time of national offerings of the firstfruits of seven other crops.
Shavuot was also the day on which the Bikkurim (first fruits from the seven species for which Israel is praised) were brought to the Temple in Jerusalem by each individual. These species are: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates (Deut. 8:8). In the largely agrarian society of ancient Israel, Jewish farmers would tie a ribbon around the first ripening fruits from each of these species in their fields. At the time of harvest, the fruits identified by the ribbon would be cut and placed into baskets woven of gold and silver. The baskets would then be placed on oxen whose horns were laced with garlands of flowers, and who were led in a grand procession to Jerusalem. As the farmer and his entourage passed through cities and towns, they would be accompanied by music and parades. At the Temple, each farmer would present his Bikkurim to the Kohen Gadol [High Priest] in a ceremony that followed the text of Deut. 26:1-10.
Although the land had many other crops, the special ceremonies of the Feast of Pentecost specifically included the seven species because they were mentioned by name in Deuteronomy as part of the description of the abundance of the Promised Land.
Deuteronomy 8:7-10
For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and [date] honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.
Giving of the Law
By the time of Christ,
Pentecost/Shavuot was also inexorably linked in Jewish
tradition to the timing of the giving of the Law (Hebrew:
Torah) to the Israelites encamped at the foot of
Mt. Sinai, beginning with God's pronouncement of the
Ten Commandments. The Bible itself doesn't record the exact
date that this happened related to the later Hebrew
Calendar. But the general chronology given does indicate
that the momentous event happened very close to seven weeks
after the Passover of the Exodus.
Because of this connection, the primary emphasis of Jewish
celebration of Shavuot in modern times is related to
commemorating the "Giving of the Torah. "
Pentecost and the Christian
God deliberately chose to send the Holy Spirit on this precise day, as recorded in Acts 2. Thus it would seem appropriate for Christians to consider what connections there might be between the earlier history and symbolism of this Feast and its possible relevance to Christ's Church. If, as Paul said, this was one of the Feasts that were shadows pointing to Christ, what aspects of the Gospel of salvation did it foreshadow?
Continue to Part Two of On Fire!
