Until recently, I had never heard of a condition known as synesthesia. It is a rare neurological disorder that is caused by a mis-wiring of sectors in the brain that relate to the five senses. Amazingly, some people who have the condition can taste shapes! Others, including some well known composers, were known to see colors when they heard music. After hearing about the condition, I was struck by how much this phenomenon resembles what took place on the Day of Pentecost.
When I say the "Day of Pentecost" in this instance, I actually mean a composite of two days of Pentecost. One from the book of Exodus and the other from a book that is yet to be written. The Day of Pentecost in the book of Exodus? Let's deal with that claim first and then what happened on that day.
Everything that I had ever known about the Day of Pentecost, changed on the night of February 18th 2004. As mentioned in Behind the Baptist, while I was reading the entire account of the Exodus, the Lord revealed to me that the day Moses received the law on Mount Sinai was in fact the Day of Pentecost.
The idea was absolutely foreign to me. I had never made the connection before. But there it was right in front of me. Here in Exodus was a vision of God descending on the mountain in fire, with a mighty rushing trumpet blast and a voice that made people drunk with fear:
"On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him." (Exodus 19:16-19)
The very next day I confirmed the revelation from Scripture by doing a simple online search. I was shocked to find out that the whole idea was not some obscure conjecture, but actually a concept known and celebrated worldwide. It turned out, that people have commemorated the Day of Pentecost as the day the fire fell on Sinai for centuries, it's just that these people were not Pentecostal, per se. They were Jews! To me the discovery was like stumbling upon Noah's Ark. To Jews, I came to find out, it was like stumbling upon a McDonald's around the next street corner.
My search results were inundated with rabbinical teachings and traditions concerning that day. I was absolutely overwhelmed by all the Pentecostal themes that rabbis throughout the centuries have expounded upon and passed down to their Jewish congregations.
From there, my trail of discovery went from the shocking to the absolutely unbelievable. This is where the condition of synesthesia comes in.
As I researched more, I ran into strange references by rabbis who spoke of the visible thunders that emanated from the mountain1. Some rabbinical traditions even went so far as to say that the whole mountain, ablaze in fire, was supernaturally uprooted and came to rest above the heads of the assembly as a luminous "beacon2". Others even went further and wrote that the law was carried around the world on that day to every living person in their own tongue!3 At this point, if I could not see Pentecost written all over the events at Sinai, I must be blind. I had to wonder who was more Pentecostal, me or the rabbis?
But one question haunted me, what did the rabbis mean when they talked about visible thunders?
That afternoon, just before dinner, I rushed to my Bible and looked for any reference in the exodus account to visible thunders. It took some time because I could not match the traditional translations to English from Hebrew that I found on the Jewish sites to my Bible translation. Finally I found the reference in Exodus 20:18:
"When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance"
The reference is somewhat veiled in this translation, but in the Hebrew and in the rabbinical teachings, there is no doubt that the people saw what appeared to be voices coming from the mountain.
Over the last two years, the sights and sounds of Pentecost have taken on a whole new feeling for me. I used to think of the Day of Pentecost as a festival day in the Jewish calendar that just so happened to be the birthday of the church. It also represented the Pentecostal experience in the life of a believer. I know it had proven to be the most empowering and edifying experience in my life. Pentecost also stood for the fastest growing and perhaps most influential movement in Christianity today.
All these ideas are true, but I now believe that Pentecost encompasses these and a million more truths. For one, I have come to realize that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is a covenantal act of the same magnitude of the major covenantal acts in the Bible. I now see that Pentecost is actually related to all these acts and that its types appear all throughout Scripture. And what's more, I now sense a unity between the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and the acts of salvation and baptism in water that I have never known before.
Just like all the previous covenants before it, I now appreciate the fact that Pentecost was put into effect by blood and a mediator. That blood and mediator are found in the person of Jesus Christ, whom I am now call the Baptist to make the point clear and to give Him the honor that He and His baptism are due - a baptism that is intimately tied to His messiahship:
Together with salvation and baptism in water, Pentecost is now a primary color in the multi-spectral truth I have known all along as the New Covenant."See, a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice. Each man will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land. Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen. The mind of the rash will know and understand, and the stammering tongue will be fluent and clear. (Isaiah 32:1-4)
"Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs." (Isaiah 35:5-7a)
"For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. (Isaiah 44:3)
"The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. John answered them all, 'I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.'" (Luke 3:15-16)
"On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, 'If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.' By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. On hearing his words, some of the people said, "Surely this man is the Prophet." Others said, 'He is the Christ.'" (John 7:37-41)
"Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear ... 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." (Acts 2:32, 37-39)
"When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit." (Acts 8:14-17)
"Then Peter said, 'Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.'" (Acts 10:47)
"While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, 'Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?' They answered, 'No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.' So Paul asked, 'Then what baptism did you receive?' 'John's baptism,' they replied. Paul said, 'John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.' On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied." (Acts 19:1-6)
"But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises." (Hebrews 8:6)When you look at Pentecost in this light all of a sudden complex concepts and issues, the colors of Pentecost if you will, begin to become clear. In fact, they will not only become clear, they will speak to you and through you.
"He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." (2 Corinthians 3:6)
I pray as the Lord's coming approaches that the theological differences concerning Pentecost will be resolved and that this confusion will at last lift through a mighty work of the Spirit. As I have said to many of my friends, God is not coming back for a disembodied church.
I believe the Lord is about to pour out His Spirit in one last deluge before His coming. This will be the opening chapter in the second "book" of Acts - written not by adding dot or tiddle but by the fiery finger of God on the tablets of hearts. There is coming a worldwide Baptism of the Holy Spirit and it will be mediated by none other than Jesus the Baptist. As prophesied by the Prophet Joel and the Baptist Himself, this long-awaited event will at last unite and empower the end-time Church for her finest hour:
"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" (Acts 1:8)
To all those who await that day when the outpouring of the Holy Spirit will wash away theological lines and prepare the Bride for her ascension, I leave you with this prayer composed from a synthesis of ideas from Jesus the Baptist, a prayer with a hint of synesthesia:
May the fire of God come to rest on you. May the Lord Jesus make your whole being a blazing torch and a smoking firepot. May your lips become circumcised as you begin to tremble like Mount Sinai. In the name of Jesus, who baptizes you now, speak in rainbows as the Holy Spirit enables you! Amen.
The Moment Lightning Shared the Sky with a Rainbow
"Part your heavens, O LORD, and come down; touch the mountains, so that they smoke." (Psalm 144:5)1. "Lifeline." Rabbi Yaakov Menken. 1995-2006. Project Genesis, Inc. 11 Nov. 2006 <http://www.torah.org/learning/lifeline/5761/yisro.html>"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world." (Psalm:19:1-4b)
"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." (Acts 2:2-3)
"we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!' Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, 'What does this mean?'" (Acts 2:11-12)
2. The Aramaic Targum of Jonathan Ben Uzziel states: "And it was on the third day, on the sixth of the month, in the time of the morning, that on the mountain there were voices of thunders, and lightnings, and mighty clouds of smoke, and a voice of a trumpet exceeding loud; and all the people in the camp trembled. And Mosheh brought forth the people from the camp to meet the glorious Presence of the Lord; and suddenly the Lord of the world uprooted the mountain, and lifted it in the air, and it became luminous as a beacon, and they stood beneath the mountain. And all the mount of Sinai was in flame; for the heavens had overspread it, and He was revealed over it in flaming fire, and the smoke went up as the smoke of a furnace, and all the mountain quaked greatly." Targum Pseudo-Jonathan commentary on Exodus Chapter 19.
3. The Babylonian Talmud comments: "'And all the people saw the voices' (Ex. 20:14). Since there was only one voice, why 'voices' in the plural? Because G-d’s voice mutated into seven voices, and the seven voices into seventy languages, so that all the nations might hear it." Shemot Rabbah 5:9. Tanchuma, Buber, Shemot 22.
Light the Fire Ministries ©2006
