Message 54 - By Leroy Surface
Pentecost:
“The Fiftieth Day”
Definition
of the word “Pentecost:” (Strong’s
#4005) “pentēkostē -
Feminine of G4004; fiftieth
(G2250, ‘day’ being implied) from
Passover, that is, the festival of Pentecost.”
Introduction
The meaning of the word “Pentecost” is simply “fiftieth.” When the scripture says, “…when the day of Pentecost was fully come,”
it is actually saying, “…when the
fiftieth day was fully come,” and refers to the “feast of Pentecost,” or literally, “the festival of the fiftieth day.” The children of Israel had
celebrated “Pentecost” on the “fiftieth day” after the Passover for
almost fifteen hundred years before the hundred and twenty disciples of Jesus
received the Holy Ghost on the “Day of
Pentecost,” as recorded in the Book of Acts. The first “Pentecost,” or “fiftieth
day,” is the day God appeared in fire on Mount Horeb to speak to the
children of Israel. This was the day He gave His “Ten Commandments,” speaking to the entire nation in an audible
voice. It was in memory of that day, that Moses instituted the “festival of the fiftieth day” which we
call “the feast of Pentecost.” The
children of Israel were commanded to keep the feast every year on the fiftieth
day after the feast of Passover. For the sake of understanding this message, we
will refer to the day God spoke to the children of Israel from Mount Horeb as
the “original” or “first” Pentecost, and we will refer to
the day that the hundred and twenty received the Holy Ghost as the “second Pentecost,” because, it was on
this day, the day of the “second
Pentecost,” that God was finally able to fulfill the promise of the “first Pentecost,” upon all who believed
and obeyed Him.
The
Promise of the “Fiftieth Day”
In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone
forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.
Exodus 19:1
The children of Israel left the land of
Egypt on the fifteenth day of the first month, which the modern Jewish calendar
calls “Nissan.” We recall that Moses
had commanded them to take a lamb, one “without
spot or blemish,” out of their flocks on the tenth day of the first month,
to be slain in the evening of the fourteenth day. They were to brush the blood
of the lamb above the door and on the door posts of their house. During the
night hours they were commanded to eat the flesh of the lamb with unleavened
bread and bitter herbs. This was the first “Passover feast,” which took place on
the night the death angel passed through the land of Egypt to slay the
firstborn child of every household. Only those who believed God and placed the
blood over their doors were spared from the death angel. God said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you” (Exodus 12:13), hence the name “Passover.” It was early in the morning
of the fifteenth day that they left the land of Egypt. Forty five days later
they came into the wilderness of Sinai, which would have been the first day of
the third month. There they made their camp at the foot of Mount Horeb, where they
would stay for almost a year. On the next day Moses went up into the mountain
to speak with God, and returned with a message for the people.
And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him
out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and
tell the children of Israel; Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and
brought you unto myself.
Exodus 19:3
God had certainly proven His great power
when He sent the plagues on Egypt and delivered the children of Israel out of
the cruel hand of Pharaoh. The final plague came on the night the death angel
passed through the land to slay the firstborn of every house. They saw the
power of God to protect them from the plague of death when they placed the
blood of the Passover lamb over the entry doors to their house. Possibly the
greatest display of His power was the day He parted the waters of the Red Sea
to make a “way” for the children of
Israel to pass over. God reminds them, “Ye
have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.”
The term, “I bare you on eagles’ wings”
refers to the great love and care God demonstrated in delivering His people,
protecting them, providing food and drink for them, and in the last words of
the verse, “I…brought you unto myself.”
In these few words we see the reason God saved them out of Egypt; it was to “bring them to God,” whom they would
meet at Mount Horeb. Their ultimate destination, according to the promise God
made to Abraham concerning his descendants, would be the land of Canaan, which
God would give to them for their inheritance. More important than Canaan,
however, is Mount Horeb, where God “introduced
Himself” to His people, the children of Israel.
Now
therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall
be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a
kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of
Israel.
Exodus 19:3-6
This wonderful promise that Moses brought
from God to the children of Israel on the forty eighth day was to be fulfilled
on the “fiftieth day,” which would be
the “original” or “first Pentecost.” Notice the two
conditions, which were required to receive the wonderful threefold promise.
1.
Obey my voice: The apostle
Paul tells us that sin entered into the world by Adam’s “disobedience” (Romans 5:12,
19). When He gave the covenant of
blessing to Abraham and his seed, God said it was because “…thou hast obeyed my voice”
(Genesis 22:18). The children of
Israel, who were Abraham’s descendants through Isaac and Jacob, fell into
bondage in the land of Egypt where they had dwelt for four hundred and thirty
years. God delivered them from slavery to bring them to Himself at Mount Horeb,
where He would bestow upon them His great blessing if they would simply “obey His voice.”
2.
Keep my covenant: The
covenant God spoke of was not the Law of Moses, which would later be “added because of transgressions” (Galatians 3:19). Instead, it was the
covenant that God had confirmed in Christ and given to Abraham hundreds of
years before (Galatians 3:17). It
was the covenant of blessing they would enjoy forever, if they would only “believe God” and “obey His voice.” The words of God, which we call the “Ten Commandments,” actually defined
what the children of Israel would be if they
would “obey His voice.”
The “blessing”
that would be theirs was threefold:
1.
Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: God had already delivered them out of
slavery, which is the lowest estate known to man. In slavery, they were “beneath all people,” but God promised
they would be “above all people” if
they would “obey His voice.” In fact,
they would be God’s “special people,”
a people that God would display among the nations as proof that He is God.
2.
Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests: Every person among them would be a “priest unto God.” God would continue speaking to each of them, not
as the voice which thundered from the mountain, but in His “still small voice,” which they would obey and be greatly blessed.
3.
Ye shall be unto me…an holy nation: The words that God spoke from Mount Horeb, which became known as “The Ten Commandments,” would be written
in the hearts of the people by the “finger
of God” (the Holy Ghost). Righteousness would be their nature and holiness
would be their fruit. They would be known among the nations as “the nation that obeys the voice of their
God.”
The blessings of Abraham would come upon
them to the fullness. “I will make of
thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou
shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth
be blessed” (Genesis 12:2-3).
They would be the spiritual seed of Abraham according to the covenant given to
Abraham; “…in blessing I will bless thee,
and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as
the sand which is upon the sea
shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed
shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my
voice” (Genesis 22:17-18).
Horeb,
the “Burning Mountain”
Things did not work out at Horeb as God had
intended. This “fiftieth day” was a
day of destiny for the children of Israel. It was the day the living God of
Israel would speak to His people out of the burning mountain, just as He had
spoken to Moses from the burning bush, only a year or so before on this very
same mountain. Moses had met God for the first time at Horeb; and now, the
entire nation would “meet God” and “hear His voice” at the same place. It
was meant to be a day of rejoicing in the receiving of the blessings God had
promised to Abraham and “his seed.”
The people would rush forward to the mountain, hoping to catch just a glimpse
of the wonderful God who was speaking these wonderful words. When they arrived
at Horeb they were still slaves in their hearts; but, from this day forward,
they would be the “special people” of
God, His “holy nation,” and a “kingdom of priests.”
Over forty years before this day, Moses had
fled from Egypt under a death sentence. About a year before this day, Moses met
God on this same mountain. God introduced Himself to Moses out of the fire in a
bush, saying, “I am the God of thy
father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob…I have
surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have
heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters…And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians,
and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land
flowing with milk and honey…come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my
people the children of Israel out of Egypt” (Exodus 6-10). Consider what happened to Moses at the burning bush
on Mount Horeb. He met God; he heard the voice of God; he believed God; he obeyed
His voice, and God made Moses to be His “peculiar
treasure.” Embodied in this one man was a “kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.” When Moses went before
Pharaoh, he did not go in the name of a sheepherder from Midian.
He did not go as one who had a death warrant against him in Egypt. Instead, he
went to Pharaoh with a “death warrant”
for every household in Egypt if Pharaoh refused to release the children of
Israel. In Exodus 7:1, God says an
incredible thing to Moses; “See, I have
made thee a god to Pharaoh.” Nothing could “by any means hurt him” (Luke
10:19), because Moses belongs to God; he is God’s “special treasure.”
Let me be so foolish (a ‘fool for Christ;’ I Corinthians 4:10) as to say it was
God’s will to do for all the children of Israel the same thing He did for Moses
at the burning bush. They would become, on that “fiftieth day,” a “peculiar treasure” to God, a “kingdom of priests” and His “holy nation.” As a “kingdom of priests” they would “reign
on earth” according to the promise of God to the redeemed (Revelation 5:9-10). Less than a year
later they would enter the land of Canaan, which, at their coming, would
blossom as a rose, and God would send hornets before them to drive out the evil
inhabitants of the land (Exodus 23:27-28).
Sadly, however, nothing went the way it should have on the fiftieth day. The
children of Israel missed their “day of
destiny.” Instead of rushing to the mountain to see God, they turned their
backs and ran from God. Instead of obeying God’s voice, they refused to even
listen to His voice. Most theologians accept the position of the unbelieving
Jews, that this was a wonderful day for Israel; the day God made covenant with
His people in the Law of Moses and promised to be their God forever. Moses,
however, told a different story on the last day of His life on earth.
The
Law of Moses; a Witness Against the People
Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the
ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee.
Deuteronomy 31:26
According to the account given by Moses in
the fifth chapter of Deuteronomy, God spoke Ten Commandments to the people from
Mount Horeb, and “He added no more” (Deuteronomy 5:22). According to the
apostle Paul, the Law of Moses “…was
added because of transgressions…” (Galatians
3:19). The Law of Moses, which contains six hundred and thirteen
commandments and ordinances, would have never been given if the children of
Israel had listened to and obeyed the voice of God which spoke from Horeb. In
fact, the Ten Commandments, which were later written in tables of stone, would
have been written in the hearts of the people, and they would have been
governed by the working of the Spirit of God in their hearts. The apostle Paul
relates to this very issue when writing to the children of God at Corinth; “…ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle
of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the
living God; not in tables of stone, but
in fleshy tables of the heart” (II
Corinthians 3:3).
After forty years of wandering in the
wilderness, the Law of Moses was at last complete. It was on the last day of
His life that Moses called the entire congregation together to speak to them.
He read the Law to them in its entirety, after which He commanded the Levites,
who were in charge of the Ark of the Covenant, to place the law in the side of
the ark, where it would remain as a “witness
against thee.” Moses understood
that his law was not given to bless the people, but to curse them for their
rejection of God forty years before at Horeb. The apostle Paul understood this
when he wrote in Galatians 3:10, “…as
many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written,
Cursed is every one that
continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them.” There were, however, those whom the Law could not curse. These were
those who “believed God.” Even though
these also “kept” the Law of Moses,
their “righteousness” was not of the
law, but of God. Joshua and Caleb were first among these, because they “believed God” and “obeyed His voice” from the first day they heard Him speak from
Horeb. In the same day that God “sware in
His wrath (Psalms 95:10-11)” against those who did not believe Him,
He gave this testimony of Caleb; “But my
servant Caleb, because he had another
spirit with him, and hath followed
me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto
he went; and his seed shall possess it” (Numbers 14:24). Both Joshua and Caleb had received the same “Spirit” at Horeb that Moses received
when God first introduced Himself at the “burning
bush.”
The eleventh chapter of Hebrews gives a
list of others who lived “under the Law,”
yet “believed God” for their
righteousness. “…Gideon, and Barak, and
Samson, and Jephthae; David also, and Samuel, and the
prophets: Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained
promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped
the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in
fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens” (Hebrews 11:32-34). These were all justified by their faith; they “believed God” and “obeyed His voice.” God blessed them and raised them up to deliver
the nation from its enemies. Each of these became God’s “peculiar treasure,” a people whom He could use to deliver and govern
the nation during their lifetimes.
As long as the Law of Moses is in force, it
remains as a “witness” against all
those who trust in it. The apostle answers the question as to why it was added,
and for what purpose. “Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the
promise was made” (Galatians 3:19).
Notice that it was “added because of transgressions.” It is not a part of the Law
of God, because, as Moses tells us, God “added no more.” The Ten Commandments,
when spoken by the voice of God from Horeb, were actually defining what His “holy nation” would be. The only “covenant” in effect at the time was the
covenant of blessing which God gave to Abraham in Genesis 22:16-18. In fact, the “Ten
Commandments” were part and parcel of the covenant which was given to
Abraham “because thou hast obeyed my
voice” (Genesis 22:18). To these
children of Abraham, God says, “Obey my
voice and you will be my special people above all people; and you will be my
kingdom of priest, and a holy nation unto me.” There is no curse, but only
a blessing set before them if they will “obey
His voice.” They did not obey His voice, and they were, in fact, “cursed” for their disobedience, but the
curse was not as most would believe. The “curse”
that came upon them was the Law of Moses, which was added “because of transgressions.” What were their transgressions? First,
they heard the voice of God, and turned away. They cried to Moses, “Let not God speak with us lest we die”
(Exodus 20:19). They rejected His
voice. Second, within six weeks they had built a golden calf, and actually
named it Jehovah, saying, “Tomorrow is a
feast unto the LORD (Jehovah)” (Exodus 32:5). When Aaron presented the
golden calf to the children of Israel, he said, “These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of
Egypt” (Exodus 32:4). In so
doing, he “provoked God to anger”
against His people whom He had “chosen”
and “set His love upon.”
The
Song of Moses; a Second Witness
Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it
the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel.
Deuteronomy 31:19
Moses not only gave his Law to be a witness
“against” the children of Israel, but
he also wrote a song, and sang it to them in the last day of his life among
them. The Song of Moses is a prophecy of the things that would come upon them
in their latter days. He told Moses to teach it to the congregation and command
them to teach it to their children, to be a “witness”
for God “against the children of Israel”
in the day of their trouble. This is the second “Song of Moses,” and should not be confused with the wonderful song
of praise they sang to God for “redeeming”
them from the bondage of Egypt and destroying the armies of Pharaoh in the
depths of the sea; a song they sang on the shores of the Red Sea while shouting
for joy and dancing before the LORD (Exodus
15:1-21). The “second song of Moses”
could by no stretch of the imagination be called “wonderful,” but neither did it curse them as the Law of Moses did.
It simply describes in detail the things that would befall them in the future
based upon their continued rejection of God and refusal to “obey His voice.”
This message would be incomplete if we
ignored the lyrics of “The Song of
Moses.” It is difficult, when reading the Song of Moses, to comprehend that
God is actually speaking about His “chosen
people,” whom He had “set His love
upon” and delivered out of bondage in Egypt to be His special people. It
would be much simpler to believe that God is speaking about their enemies, but
that is not the case. The language Moses uses in his song is unmistakable. For
example:
Deuteronomy
32:4-6: He (God) is
the Rock, his work is perfect:
for all his ways are judgment:
a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he. They (the
children of Israel) have corrupted
themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they
are a perverse and crooked generation. Do ye thus requite the LORD,
O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy father that hath bought thee?
While Moses acknowledges that God is their “father,” he says the “children” have corrupted themselves. “Their ‘spot
(identifying mark)’
is not the spot of His children.” There is nothing about them that would
indicate that they are the people of God. “They
are a perverse and crooked generation.” Nothing happened during the next
fifteen hundred years to change this analogy which Moses gave. Peter told those
Jews who heard his message on the Day of Pentecost, “Save yourselves from the untoward generation,” which, literally
translated from the Greek, speaks of a “warped
(crooked) and perverse generation.”
Deuteronomy
32:9-10: The LORD'S portion is his people;
Jacob is the lot of his
inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling
wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.”
In Deuteronomy
7:7-8, Moses explains why God had chosen the children of Israel in the
first place; “The LORD did not set his
love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people;
for ye were the fewest of all people: But because the LORD loved you, and because
he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers….”
Deuteronomy
32:15: But Jeshurun
waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick,
thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
Jeshurun is a Hebrew word which means “upright” and “straight.” It describes the children of Israel when God “found them.” They had been few in
number, but they were “upright” and “straight.” Now, according to Moses, they
had become a great multitude in number, but they were “perverse and crooked.”
Deuteronomy
32:16-17: They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they
him to anger. They sacrificed unto
devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your
fathers feared not.
The second commandment of the ten forbids
making “graven images” and “bowing down” to them to “serve” them. “…for I the LORD thy God am
a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto
the third and fourth generation
of them that hate me” (Exodus 20:5). God is a “jealous God.” He will be jealous “for” His people against every adversary if they wholly trust in
Him, but He will also be jealous “against
His people” if they turn aside to serve other things. The children of
Israel not only “provoked God” to “jealousy,” but to “great anger” also when they turned away from Him to worship the
golden calf at Mount Horeb, which was called “the mountain of God.” “They sacrificed unto Devils, not to God.”
Deuteronomy
32:18-20: Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that
formed thee. And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred (scorned) them,
because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters. And he said, I will
hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are
a very forward (perverse and fraudulent)
generation, children in whom is no faith.
We find an eternal truth in the message God
sent to King Asa of Judah; “The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he
will be found of you; but if ye forsake
him, he will forsake you” (II
Chronicles 15:2). The children of Israel “scorned” God at Horeb, which was the provocation that caused God
to scorn them. Again, Moses says, “…they
are a perverse and fraudulent generation, children in whom there is no faith.”
Deuteronomy
32:21: They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their
vanities: and I
will move them to jealousy with those
which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish
nation.
The generation of the children of Israel
that rejected God and worshiped the golden calf had all perished in the
wilderness by the time Moses sings His song to the second generation. Why was
God yet angry against His people? This same question is asked of the apostle
Paul fifteen hundred years later in Romans
9:19; “Why doth he yet find fault?
For who hath resisted his will?” Paul’s answer gives a wonderful insight
into God’s eternal purpose for His people, as well as who His people are. “Nay
but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?
Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel
unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What
if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with
much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he
might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had
afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
As he saith also in Osee (Hosea 2:23), I will call them my people, which were not
my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to
pass, that in the place where it was
said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children
of the living God” (Romans
9:20-26).
God said, “They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God…and I
will move them to jealousy with those
which are not a people.” What an incredible pronouncement this
is. God does not simply warn them, He tells them in no uncertain terms that the
day will come that He will give the wonderful blessing of Abraham to the
Gentiles, if they continue in unbelief as at Horeb. This was not a “plan B,” however. When God gave promise
to Abraham and his seed in Genesis
22:16-18, He said, “…and in thy seed
shall all the nations (Gentiles) of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.” The
people “who were not a people” in the
days of Moses were the Gentile nations. The apostle Peter speaks of those
Gentiles who have received Christ in I
Peter 2:9-10, saying, “…ye are a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the
praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people,
but are now the people of God.”
Deuteronomy
32:28-31: For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter
end! How should one chase a thousand,
and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the
LORD had shut them up? For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.
God said they are a nation in which there
is no understanding. Paul questions this very issue in Romans 10:18-21; “But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their
sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. But
I say, Did not Israel know? First
Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by
a foolish nation I will anger you.” The apostle answers his own questions. “Have they not heard?” Yes, they “heard” the sound of God’s words from
Horeb and His warnings from Moses and the prophets, but they never “heard God.” God told Ezekiel some nine
hundred years after Moses, “Son of man,
thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and
see not; they have ears to hear, and
hear not: for they are a rebellious house” (Ezekiel 12:2). Six hundred years later, Jesus says of the same
people in His day, “Therefore speak I to
them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.” They could
not understand that God would turn from them to another nation if they, as
their fathers before them, refused to “hear
His word.” They did not understand the clear words of Jesus in Matthew 21:43, “I say unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given
to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” This was not just a “warning” because it would soon be their
reality when they finally and completely rejected Christ, whom God sent into
the world. Jesus questioned the Jews in John
8:43, “Why do ye not understand my
speech? even because ye cannot
hear my word.”
The Song of Moses tells of the time when
God first chose the children of Israel and “set
His love upon them.” It says, “…He
kept him as the apple of his eye” (Deuteronomy
32:10). The prophet Zechariah explains this in Zechariah 2:8, prophesying of the generation of Israel that will
turn back to God through faith in Jesus Christ, saying, “…he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.” This
literally means that God will shield His people as a man will shield his eyes. If
anyone harms even the least of God’s children, it is all the same as if they
had poked God in the eye, and He will respond in anger. One of the “blessings of Abraham” is, “I will bless them that bless thee, and
curse him that curseth thee” (Genesis 12:3).
How is it possible then, that the enemies
could afflict the children of Israel at will, take them captive, impoverish and
abuse them, without an immediate response from God? That is the question asked
in the Song of Moses; “How should one chase
a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold
them?” It is a question that demands an answer. Actually, it is impossible,
unless God has delivered them into the hands of their enemies because of their
ways. How could two put ten thousand to flight, “except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?”
How could Babylon destroy Jerusalem if God had not delivered Jerusalem up to be
destroyed? They could not. When Jeremiah wept over Jerusalem after its
destruction, he said, “The kings of the
earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the
adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem” (Lamentations 4:12). This people, for
whom God destroyed Egypt; for whom He parted the waters of the Red Sea; the
nation He fed with manna in the wilderness, and gave them to drink out of a dry
flinty rock, how could this people, after they possessed the land of Canaan and
built the greatest kingdom on earth under David, how could they be utterly cut
off and destroyed by their adversary? God, who is their Rock; God, who alone is
God, could have stopped Babylon with the flick of His finger; instead, he “sold them” to Nebuchadnezzar because
they had sold themselves to idols, and had gotten nothing in return (Isaiah 52:3).
Deuteronomy
32:35-38: To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence;
their foot shall slide in due
time: for the day of their calamity is
at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent
himself for his servants, when
he seeth that their power is
gone, and there is none shut up, or left. And he shall say, Where are their gods, their
rock in whom they trusted, which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink
offerings? let them rise up and help you,
and be your protection.
The apostle Paul writes in Hebrews 10:28, “He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three
witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy,
who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the
covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite
unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth
unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his
people.” Paul applies these words, which I have highlighted, to those
who have “trodden underfoot the Son of
God, and have counted the blood of Christ (to be) an unholy thing, and have done despite (scorned) the Spirit of grace.” These are those
for whom God has reserved His greatest vengeance and wrath, whether they are
Jews or Gentiles. In the book of Hebrews, however, Paul is speaking to those
Jews who professed to believe, but seemed ready to draw back from Christ to
return to the Law of Moses. Paul reminds them that it was Moses who prophesied
the vengeance of God against them.
Jesus forewarned His disciples of the “days of vengeance” that would soon come
upon the unbelieving Jews. “And when ye
shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation
thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and
let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in
the countries enter thereinto. For these
be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be
fulfilled” (Luke 21:20-22).
These words of Jesus were fulfilled to perfection only forty years after Christ
was denied and crucified. Jerusalem and the temple were utterly destroyed by
Titus and his armies in 70 A.D., with the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of
unbelieving Jews. This was the second time that Jerusalem was destroyed, the
first being by King Nebuchadnezzar some six centuries before Christ. There was
absolutely no mercy shown by either God or man in either of these destructions.
Moses wrote in his song, “…when he (God) seeth that their power is gone, and there
is none shut up, or left. And he shall say, Where are their gods,
their rock in whom they
trusted, which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection.
This very condition is described in Psalms 107:11-12; “Because they rebelled against
the words of God, and contemned (scorned) the counsel of the most High: Therefore he brought down their heart
with labour; they fell down, and there
was none to help.” As long as the children of Israel have hope from any
source other than their Christ in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, God will not
save them from their enemies. In vain they trust in Moses, because it is his
Law that has cursed them. In vain, they will look to America, because that help
will not come in the day of their great trouble. Their enemies will cover the
land like a cloud (Ezekiel 38:12).
God says of that day, “I will gather all nations against Jerusalem
to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women
ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue
of the people shall not be cut off from the city” (Zechariah 14:2).
“And
it shall come to pass, that in
all the land, saith the LORD, two parts
therein shall be cut off and
die; but the third shall be left therein” (Zechariah 13:8).
“And
it shall come to pass in that day, that
I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and
upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications:
and they shall look upon me whom they
have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son” (Zechariah 12:9-10).
Two
Mountains
In the twelfth
chapter of Hebrews, Paul speaks of two “mountains,”
the first, a “mountain that might be
touched,” and the second, a “spiritual
mountain” that “cannot be touched”
by the hand of man. The first is
Mount Horeb, also known as Sinai, where God came down in fire to speak to the
children of Israel. The second is the spiritual Mount Zion,
where all who profess Jesus Christ are being brought.
For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto
blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice
of words; which voice they that
heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to
them anymore.
Hebrews 12:18
Mount Sinai (Horeb) is a mountain in Arabia
(Galatians 4:25), which is visible
to the eye and can be touched by hand. Tourists visit and explore it, but in
the day that God came down on the mountain to speak to the children of Israel,
they were commanded not to touch it. Paul says that it “burned with fire,” but Deuteronomy
19:18 says, “…the LORD descended upon
it in fire.” The “fire” that
burned upon the mountain was the same “fire”
that “burned” in the bush in the third chapter of Exodus.
“Now
Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the
priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the
backside of the desert, and came to the
mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in
a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush” (Exodus
3:1-2). It is likely that Mount Horeb actually became known as the “Mountain of God” because of this incident
of the “burning bush.” It was there
that God first revealed Himself to Moses, speaking to him out of a flame of
fire in a bush. It is also likely that Mount Horeb received the name “Sinai” because of the burning bush. It
is believed that the name “Sinai” is
derived from the Hebrew word “seneh” (meaning, a bramble bush) hence, “Mount Sinai,” or “bush mountain.”
God revealed Himself to Moses for the first
time from the burning bush. He introduced Himself, saying, “I am the God of thy father, the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” This was a forerunner of
the day that God would reveal Himself to the entire congregation of the
children of Israel out of the burning mountain.
The
“Second Mountain”
But ye are come
unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living
God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the
general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and
to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to
Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh
better things than that of
Abel.
Hebrews 12:22-24
The “Mount Sion,”
which Paul speaks of, is a spiritual mountain that cannot be touched by hands
of man. Neither can it be seen by the eyes of man; but, it is the “reality” of all who do “see”
it, “touch” it, and “enter into it.” In Mount Sion is “the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem.” It is inhabited both by “an
innumerable company of angels,” and “the
spirits of just men made perfect (those who ‘died in faith’ before Christ
died for us).” It is the gathering
place of “the general assembly and church
of the first born.” God, who is “the
judge of all,” is there, as is “Jesus,
the mediator of the new covenant.” Last of all, we hear a voice speaking
from Mount Sion. It is the “voice” of “the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that
of Abel.”
Horeb and Sion
(Zion) are two different mountains; the first being a natural mountain that can
be touched by hand, and the second being spiritual, which cannot be touched by
the hand of flesh. To the first, God gathered His chosen people to speak to
them, and if they would hear and obey His voice, they would be blessed beyond
measure to be His special people, above all people. They would also be a
kingdom of priest and His holy nation. We know what happened at that mountain
as the people began to hear God speaking. They drew back and refused to hear
His voice. We have seen the “documentation,”
given by Moses in his song, which proves that the children of Israel never
received the blessing that God had promised them at Horeb, if they would “obey His
voice.” The purpose of gathering the people to spiritual Mount Sion is to give the “blessing”
to those who will “hear” and “obey” His voice.
The
Speaking Blood
The voice that speaks from Mount Sion is the blood of Jesus Christ, our “Passover Lamb,” which was sprinkled on the mercy seat of Heaven to
“take away our sin.” For this reason,
the apostle Paul warns, “See that ye refuse not him that
speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that
spake on earth, much more shall
not we escape, if we
turn away from him that speaketh
from heaven” (Hebrews 12:25). Oh
how important it is that we understand that it is the blood of Christ that
speaks from the heavenly mountain. The apostle Paul understands that the
children of Israel refused God when He spoke to them at Horeb, crying unto
Moses, “Speak thou with us, and we will
hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die” (Exodus 20:19), and they never received the blessing that God had
promised to give on that day. Like Adam before, they could have eaten of the “tree of life” which the voice of God
would have been to them, but they chose to obey Moses, who in turn, gave them a
law with six hundred and thirteen commandments and ordinances. This law, which
became their “tree of knowledge of good
and evil,” could not give them life, but held them in bondage, through fear
of death, all the days of their life (Hebrews
2:15).
The scripture tells us that the blood of Christ,
which is the voice that speaks from Mount Sion, “…speaketh better
things than that of Abel.” It is easy to believe that this verse compares
the blood of Christ to the blood of Abel, which, as God told Cain, “...crieth unto me
from the ground” (Genesis 4:9-10).
This is not, however, the comparison the apostle makes. Instead, he refers back
to his own epistle, Hebrews 11:4,
where he writes, “By faith Abel offered
unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness
that he was righteous.” Abel’s “more
excellent sacrifice” was a spotless lamb from the flock, whose blood he
shed as a sacrifice to God. This was the “blood”
that Abel “sprinkled,” which was a
forerunner of the millions of lambs that would be slain over the centuries to
cover the sins of the people; but in all those lambs, whose blood flowed as a
river, there was not found one drop of blood that could “take away sins” (Hebrews
10:4). The blood of Abel’s sacrifice, which was “more excellent” than Cain’s bloodless sacrifice, spoke of sins
covered. The blood of Christ, which was “sprinkled”
for us, speaks of sins “taken away” (John 1:29). It speaks of “sanctifying the people” (Hebrews 13:12), thus producing a “holy
nation.” The apostle John writes in his introduction to the “revelation,” “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
And hath made us kings and priests (a kingdom
of priests) unto God…” (Revelation 1:5-6). “See
that ye refuse not him that speaketh.” None of these
wonderful things are true for those who refuse to hear the “speaking” of the blood of Christ and do not believe its voice.
The
“Second Passover”
Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
I
Corinthians 5:7
When the blood of the Passover lamb was
offered in Egypt, it delivered the children of Israel from Pharaoh and the
Egyptians, but it could not deliver them from sin and Satan. When the blood of “Christ, our Passover” was offered at Calvary, He “delivered us from the power of darkness, and
hath translated us into the kingdom
of his dear Son” (Colossians 1:13).
The apostle Paul explains that Christ was offered, that “…through death, He might destroy him that had the power of death, that
is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14),
thus He is the “seed of the woman”
that “bruised the head of the serpent”
(Genesis 3:15). Through His
resurrection, all those who “believe
God,” i.e., believe that “Jesus is
the Christ” (I John 5:1), are “begotten again unto a lively hope” (I Peter 1:3). The hundred and twenty
Jews that “trusted in Christ” received
the “new heart” and the “new spirit” God had promised in Ezekiel 36:26, and when the “fiftieth day” came, God would give them
the blessing He had promised to give the children of Israel at Horeb, “if” they would “obey His voice, and keep His covenant.” “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh.”
The
“Second (the new) Creation”
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature: old things are passed away.
II Corinthians 5:17
The “first
Pentecost” was the “fiftieth day” from
the day the Passover lamb was offered in Egypt. Sadly, that “first Pentecost” turned out to be a “dry run,” because the children of
Israel did not have a “heart” to
receive the things of God. God said to Moses, in the same day the people rejected
His voice, “O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me,
and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with
their children forever!” (Deuteronomy
5:29). The second “fiftieth day,” however, was not a “dry run” for those hundred and twenty
Jews who believed that Jesus is the Christ. His offering at Calvary (our
Passover) was sufficient to sanctify the people “with His own blood” (Hebrews
13:12), and they became fit vessels for the glory of God. The prophet
Isaiah foretold the result of Christ’s death on the cross; “…when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his
hand” (Isaiah 53:10).
David, after describing almost perfectly
the sufferings of Christ in the twenty
second Psalm, said, “A seed shall serve him; it shall be
accounted to the Lord for a generation”
(Psalms 22:30). This is a prophecy of the “new creation” of the children of
God. They are God’s “holy nation.”
They shall “serve Him.” There
is a people who will “obey His
voice” when they hear it. They do not look to Moses or to his law, or to
the commands and principles of those who would be a “modern day Moses.” They
“know God” because they are “born of God.” They are “His
Seed.” And because they have the “new heart” and the “new spirit”
of the “new creation,” God has placed “His Spirit (the Holy
Ghost)” in them, and they “obey His voice” when He speaks. These
are those who “turned the world upside down” in the first generation
after the death and resurrection of Christ, and no wonder, because they were a
people such as the world had never seen since the fall of Adam. Only fifty days
after Jesus Christ, who is “our Passover,” was offered, they were both “baptized”
and “filled” with the Holy Ghost on the Day of Pentecost, which was the “second
fiftieth day.” On that day they became God’s “peculiar treasure;” they
were His “kingdom of priests” and His “holy nation.”
They
shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be
born, that he hath done this.
Psalms 22:31
David, with
words given to Him by God, describes perfectly the purpose and ministry of the
hundred and twenty Jews who received the Holy Ghost on the Day of Pentecost. He
began, in the previous verse, “A
seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.” The “generation
of the Lord” is the “new creation”
of the “sons of God.” The apostle
John was not ashamed to say so; hence, “Beloved,
now are we the sons of God…” (I John 3:2). Our ministry, as those who
are blood sanctified and Holy Ghost filled, is to “declare His righteousness
to a people that shall be born, that He
hath done this.” Sadly, many well meaning people, who are very “zealous for the Lord,” have believed
that “declaring His righteousness”
consists of preaching the law, and giving the people another “tree of knowledge of good and evil.”
Those who eat of that tree, like Adam and Eve, always die a spiritual death.
The apostle Paul reveals what it means to “declare
His righteousness” in Romans 3:24-25:
“Being justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in
his blood, to declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.”
Jesus Christ is
our “propitiation” which means that He is our “Passover Lamb”
which God has provided to “take away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). This act of the Father and
His Son is what “declares His righteousness,” that is, it “proves”
that God is righteous to save sinners who call upon Him, and will be righteous
when He judges the ungodly and sinners with great wrath at Christ’s second
coming. Christ-crucified declares the righteousness of God, not only to “forgive”
sins that are past (he did not say ‘present and future’), but in the
next verse the apostle adds, “To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Romans 3:26). It is in this verse that the apostle shows the
righteousness of God for the present and future. Christ’s death at Calvary not
only provides forgiveness for the past, but His provision for our present (“at this time”) and future, is “justification”
through death with Him and “freedom from sin” (Romans 6:6-7). This is the truth that the children of God know, and
it is the righteousness they will declare, that “He hath done this.” He
did it all, through His death at Calvary.
Pentecost;
the Second “Fiftieth Day”
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were
all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven
as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were
sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it
sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began
to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Acts 2:1-4
When God poured out His Spirit on the Day
of Pentecost, it was on the hundred and twenty Jews who believed Christ and
obeyed His voice when He told them to “wait
for the promise of the Father.” We know that they were filled with the Holy
Ghost with a mighty baptism. We know that it came suddenly from heaven with the
sound of a rushing, mighty, wind. We know that tongues of fire appeared, and
sat upon each of them. We know that they all began speaking with “other tongues” as the Spirit gave them
the utterance. What they received when they received the Holy Ghost, however,
was far beyond the phenomenal things that were both seen and heard by the multitude
around them. With this mighty baptism, the “church”
was born. It was not, however, a “church”
like anything we have seen in our generation. The apostle Paul speaks of Christ
and His church in Ephesians 1:22-23,
saying, “…and gave him (Christ) to
be the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.” We have
never seen a “church” that is the “fullness” of all that Christ is, but
that is what the hundred and twenty became that day. They received the blessing
God had promised to give the children of Israel at Horeb, but could not because
of the “evil heart of unbelief” that
dwelt in them (Hebrews 3:12). The
hundred and twenty became God’s “peculiar
treasure,” His “kingdom of priests,”
and His “holy nation.” Jesus had
already instructed them to “go into all the world, and preach the gospel to
every creature.” God had anointed them to carry His salvation, not only to
the Jews in Judea, but ultimately to the Gentiles in every nation on earth.
They were His witnesses, not only of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead,
but of salvation itself. In them was the proof of salvation that everyone could
see. The apostle John says, “He that
believeth on the Son of God hath the witness (evidence) in himself (I John 5:10). The “evidence”
that is “in them” is Christ, for He
is “the life” of all those who are
born of God. Paul says, “…I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me.”
Provoked
to Anger
I will
move them to jealousy with those which
are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
Deuteronomy 32:21
God is moving on two fronts to fulfill this
incredible prophecy from the Song of Moses. On one hand, God said, “I
will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be
taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city
shall go forth into captivity…” (Zechariah
14:2). These prophecies, given thousands of years ago, are being fulfilled
in our generation, as we see the nations surrounding Israel being taken over by
the radical Islamic element. The support of the western nations is also
drifting away from Israel because of their fear of Muslim retaliation. We have
watched throughout this generation as a very “foolish” nation continually “provokes”
Israel to anger. The “foolish nation”
is Islam, who is deceived to think they can destroy the nation of Israel.
Actually, they will bring great sorrow and destruction upon the land before God
stops them. They will succeed in bringing another holocaust upon the Jews, one
even greater than the one Hitler inflicted upon them seventy years ago when six
million innocent men, women, and children were mercilessly slaughtered in the
ovens of Auschwitz. The prophet Zechariah says that two thirds in the land will
be “cut off, and die,” but he gives
the promise of a “remnant” consisting
of one third of Israel that will be saved. God says, “I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as
silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my
name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God” (Zechariah 13:9).
Oh, how foolish the Islamic nations are to
fight against Jerusalem. God says, “I
will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem” (Zechariah 12:9). The prophet even tells
us how they will be destroyed; ““This
shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have
fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon
their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue
shall consume away in their mouth” (Zechariah
14:12).
God’s
Last Day Witnesses
But ye
shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall
be witnesses unto me…
Acts 1:8
And I
will give power unto my two
witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in
sackcloth.
Revelation 11:3
Compare these two verses, the first
speaking to the hundred and twenty “believing”
Jews just before God poured His Spirit upon them, and the second, speaking of
the “witnesses” that will preach the
gospel to the Jews during their time of great tribulation. These verses are
saying the exact same thing to two different groups of people, one in the
beginning of the church age, and another at the end. We can know what God will
do for His “witnesses” in this last
day if we know what He did for the hundred and twenty, who were His witnesses
in the first generation after Christ. They were anointed with the Holy Ghost to
carry the gospel of Christ “into all the
world,” to every “…nation, kindred, people,
and tongue” (Revelation 7:9).
The last day outpouring of the God’s Spirit will be upon a faithful “remnant” of the church, one who
understands that “Jesus is The Christ”
whom God sent into the world to “make an
end of sins (Daniel 9:24-25)
through His death at Calvary. Once again, the world will see God’s “peculiar treasure” among men; a “people above all people,” They will be
a “kingdom of priests” and God’s “holy nation.” They will be anointed by
God and given grace by the working of the Holy Ghost in them, to literally “invade” the nation of Israel with the
gospel of Christ to the Jew, during the time of their great tribulation. They
will be the “two witnesses” spoken of
in the eleventh chapter of Revelation.
The scriptures speak of the “two witnesses” as being the “two olive trees” (Revelation 11:4). These are not fulfilled in just two men, but as
the “olive tree” has many branches,
so there will be “many witnesses” in
that day. The apostle Paul speaks of God’s olive tree as having two kinds of
branches. The “natural branches” are
those Jews which have received Jesus as “The
Christ,” and the “wild branches,”
are those Gentiles that have been grafted into the good olive tree through
faith in Christ (Romans 11:17-24).
Perhaps the “two witnesses” are made
up of both Jews and Gentiles who have been made “one in Christ” (Galatians
3:28-29). One thing we can be assured of, however, is that these are the
ones God will use to “move the children
of Israel to jealousy” (Deuteronomy
32:21). Paul speaks of this in Romans
11:11, saying, “…salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to
provoke them (the Jews) to jealousy.”
It will be the kind of “jealousy”
that sees the blessing of Abraham fulfilled in these witnesses and says, “God promised that blessing to us, yet we
see it fulfilled in Gentiles who have never been God’s people.” Isaiah
prophesied of this “jealousy” in Isaiah 63:19; “We are thine: thou never barest rule over them; they were not called
by thy name.” Moses even sang about these “Gentiles” in the closing verse of his song;: “Rejoice, O ye nations, with
his people” (Deuteronomy 32:43). Literally
translated from the Hebrew, Moses said, “Rejoice
O ye Gentiles, His people.” These will be the witnesses to the children of
Israel that Jesus is “The Christ.”
Their “witness” will not be with
words only, however, but the fact that “Christ
liveth in His witnesses (Galatians
2:20)” will be proof enough to
the surviving Jews that Jesus is their Messiah. In Zechariah 12:10, God says, “I
will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the
spirit of grace and of supplications: and
they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for
him, as one mourneth for his
only son….” Thus the “salvation of God (Acts 28:28)” will be brought to
the Jew in Israel during the time of their “great tribulation,” which
Jesus said is “such as was not since the beginning of the world to this
time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew
24:21). God will pour out His Spirit upon the remnant of Jews as their eyes
are opened to “look upon Him whom they pierced,” and they will rejoice
in Jesus, Jews and Gentiles together, as God utterly destroys the nations that
fight against Jerusalem. The last words of the Song of Moses speak of this
wonderful outcome to those who will understand; “Rejoice, O ye nations, with
his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render
vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his
people” (Deuteronomy 32:43).
Message 54 - By Leroy Surface - Pentecost:
The Fiftieth Day
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