Pentecost: The God of great reversals
When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them.
(Acts 2:1-4 The Message)
We are all familiar with the story of what happened on the day of Pentecost: people gathered for the Holy Day, strong winds, fire and then the miracle of speaking in different languages.
Taken by itself, this event speaks to the wonderful signs that God performed that day. It certainly drew the attention of those in Jerusalem that the Holy Spirit was involved in the lives of that small group of Jesus’ followers.
But there was more going on here than meets the eye, and more to this story than the birth of the church. Many commentators throughout the ages have stated that this event was a great reversal of what happened at the tower of Babel (Genesis 11:6-9). Others also see the events recorded in Acts 2 as a fulfillment of the words found in Zephaniah 3:9. As Gordon J. Wenham writes:
In that day all the redeemed will unite in the worship of God. Zephaniah 3:9 seems to envisage an end of the confusion of Babel when he says: “At that time, I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech that all of them may call on the name of the Lord and serve him with one accord.” And Luke evidently looked at the day of Pentecost when all could understand each other’s speech as a sign of the last days when all who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved (Acts 2:8-21). The hopelessness of man’s plight at Babel is not God’s last word: at least the prophets and NT look forward to a day when sin will be destroyed and perfect unity will be restored among the nations of the world.
This familiar pattern of failure or fall and restoration is found throughout Scripture. It even starts with the two book-end writings that make up our Scriptures, Genesis and Revelation. In Genesis we see God leaving humanity outside of the “garden”; in Revelation we see that humanity is again brought into the dwelling place with God (Revelation 21).
More importantly we see it in Paul’s use of the first Adam and the restoration of humanity through the second Adam, Jesus Christ (1Corinthians 15:45-49)
When we celebrate Pentecost as the day the church began, may we also use this day to remind ourselves that we worship a God of great reversals and restoration.
Study by Bill Hall
First published on 30 April 2021 in GCI Equipper Pentecost: The God of Great Reversals – GCI Equipper
About the writer:
Bill Hall, is a minister in Grace Communion International, and is National Director in Canada.
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