The Glorious Disturbance - Understanding And Receiving The Baptism Of The Holy Spirit

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A GLORIOUS DISTURBANCE INTERRUPTS PENTECOSTAL FESTIVITIES

the chosen city and this particular religious holiday was the chosen time; the place would, in retrospect, seem the ideal location-for this occasion was the fulfillment of prophecy to Israel and to the world. NoJew present that day had the slightest inkling of the glorious disturbance that was about to break upon the beloved city. It was Pentecost, the great harvest festival, when the firstfruits of the wheat harvest and certain produce crops were presented to the Lord. This second great feast of theJewish year was taking place at the beginning ofJune (in the approximate year of A.D. 33). Improved weather conditions afforded Jews from far-flung places the safest opportunity for travel to Zion, so this was possibly the best attended of Israel's festivals. "In the spring time the sea was troubled violently, and in the winter almost impassable," Joseph Parker comments, "but in the quiet solemn harvest time everybody seemed to be more at liberty than at any other period of the year, and the sea and the land seemed rather to invite than to repel the traveller." 1 The previous day, new arrivals had poured into the city, filling it to over flowing.Jerusalem never witnessed a more international crowd than at this happy time. The pilgrims came in a grand parade of colors, costumes and customs-accompanied by the babble of distinctive languages and dialects spoken in their native lands. These travelers represented the Diaspora, or dispersion, ofJewswho had been flung out into the nations. Now they re turned, proudly displaying their various national characteristics, yet anxious to bond in spirit with ethnic kinsmen in the worship of their God. 2 A large portion of those gathered were, of course, nativeJews, bringing their homegrown offerings to the house of the Lord, for only fruits grown in the soil of the Holy Land, the earth flowing with milk and honey, could be presented. SholemAsch, acclaimedJewish historical novelist, gives this colorful description: Every province sent the fruits and vegetables which ripened earliest within its borders.There was a rivalry of long standing between the patricians of Jericho, great landowners in the rich Jordan valley, and the poorer Galileans of the north, as to who should bring to Jerusalem the first figs ripened in advance ofthe season, or a new variety ofvegetable, a thornless artichoke, a stringless bean, or some other novelty springing in sacred soil....[A]ccording to the custom, the shopkeepers and artisans of Jerusalem waited in the streets for the deputations from their native provinces; and when these approached, carrying their baskets of first fruits, the cry of welcome rose: