Remembering the Healing Work of Pentecost
Pentecost is coming up this weekend, and I want to remember this sacred day for all it accomplished. I have typically recognized Pentecost as the birth of the Church, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all Believers. I have thought of Peter’s powerful sermon, seeing just how far he had come since his lowest point at the trial of Jesus. And I have often thought about the awakening that follows, the diversity of newborn followers of Jesus breaking bread together and sharing all things.
All of this is true and should be recognized. But the significance of Pentecost doesn’t stop there. The redemptive work of Christ shines in multiple ways through this event, destroying strongholds of sin that date all the way back to the first book of the Bible.
Reversing Babel
It is well known in scholarship that Genesis 1-11 gives a cosmic frame for the rest of Genesis’ story. This frame is continued through the rest of Torah and the Hebrew Scriptures. (Hamilton, 2022, Pg. 16-17)
Genesis 10 introduces us to Nimrod, who is described as a hunter and warrior. Today’s usage of those descriptions can sugarcoat just how ruthless of a description Scripture is giving.
“...when we hear that Nimrod was a mighty hunter, we’re probably not meant to imagine a bearded man donning his camos and orange for an early morning out with his buddies. The claim that Nimrod was a mighty hunter was linked clearly to his role as founder (and ruler) of empires, including the all-too-violent Assyrian Empire. These warrior-rulers ruled by conquering nature and exerting dominion over their fellow humans.”
It is through Nimrod’s tyranny that Scripture not only introduces us to human empires, but particularly Babel. (Genesis 10:10)
The Tower of Babel is a well known story, but also an often misunderstood story. Genesis does not paint a picture of a harmonious city with an ambitious building project. It is a city of oppression, led by tyrants who want to become gods. (Genesis 11:4)
When God stops Babel’s work by confusing the languages and scattering the peoples, there is a great divorce that happens between God and His image-bearers.
“Yahweh in effect decided that the people of the world’s nations were no longer going to be in relationship with him. He would begin anew. He would enter into covenant relationship with a new people that did not yet exist: Israel.”
God did not entirely give up on humanity. If humans wished to worship the God who created them, they could become Jewish and be part of Israel’s Covenant.
This is where Pentecost comes in.
The Holy Spirit gives a miraculous sign by speaking diverse languages through the Apostles, amazing the crowd of witnesses. (Acts 2:7) God confused the languages of Babel’s Kingdom, but through Christ’s Kingdom, unites the people through their languages.
The time has come for God to reconcile the rest of the world through His Son, and it is no longer limited to Israel. Jews and Gentiles can receive reconciliation.
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
It is because of Christ’s work through the cross and resurrection that I am saved, but it is also because of Christ’s work through Pentecost that I, a Gentile, have gotten to hear about His saving work.
Redeeming all Image-Bearers
Peter quotes from the prophet Joel when explaining the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost:
“After this I will pour out my Spirit on all humanity; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will have dreams, and your young men will see visions. I will even pour out my Spirit on the male and female slaves in those days.”
Going back to Genesis, we see polygamy introduced in chapter 4 through Lamech, a descendant of Cain. We see in Lamech’s brief description a violent man, taking the sin of Cain to another level. In the beginning of humanity, Adam and Eve lived in harmony with God. Before getting to chapter 5, we have already seen sin spread through violence and misogyny.
God did not create Eve to be a second class citizen. God did not make women to be abused and taken advantage of. They are equally made in God’s image, and Joel’s prophecy shows an equal anointing between men and women. But Joel doesn’t stop there, he even goes farther in declaring an equal anointing to male and female slaves.
While slavery isn’t explicitly mentioned in the testimony of Nimrod and Babel, it isn’t a stretch to connect the birth of slavery to the institutional sins recorded in Genesis 10-11. Joel’s prophecy and fulfillment in Pentecost turns against the human empires, the elite, and the dehumanization of oppressive systems like slavery.
While I wish the early Church immediately freed slaves and gave equal rights to women, that isn’t the case. Church history often shows an ugly reality of oppression and abuse.
I don’t want to downplay this uncomfortable reality. The early Church was far from perfect. As someone who enjoys studying Church history and encourages others to, it is something I believe we have to acknowledge and wrestle with. But I do believe the vision the Holy Spirit gives through Joel and Peter shows something greater than the Church’s shortcomings, past and present. In fact, when it comes to the salvation of Christ being equally offered to all, Peter doesn’t fully understand this at first when preaching at Pentecost! (Acts 10:34-35)
God is declaring the Church to be radically inclusive and redemptive for all the world. It is another step in God’s master plan of redeeming all aspects of His creation that were corrupted and broken through sin and the serpent.
Sin introduced humanity to violence, oppression, and separation. Pentecost makes a powerful statement against it through the witness of the Holy Spirit. The Church has often fallen short to live this out, but the Holy Spirit hasn’t. He was faithful through it all, and still is.
Bibliography
Hamilton, J. (2022). Typology: Understanding the Bible’s Promise-shaped Patterns. Grand Rapids, MI. Zondervan Academic.
Lynch, M. (2023). Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God. Downers Grove, IL. InterVarsity Press Academic.
Heiser, M. (2015). The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible. Bellingham, WA. Lexham Press.
Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
Thumbnail Image: “The Tower of Babel” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1563, located at Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna.