SABBATH THOUGHT 2024-06-15—PENTECOST LIBERTY & RETIREMENT

May God bless you on His Sabbath day!

Pentecost is determined by counting or numbering 50 days starting with the day of the Wavesheaf Offering during the seven Days of Unleavened Bread. There is an obvious connection with the Jubilee year, which occurs every 50 years:

LEVITICUS 25:8-10 ‘And you shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. 9 ‘Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. 10 ‘And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you …

Like Pentecost, the Jubilee is counted or numbered. When year 50 of the Jubilee count arrives, a trumpet is sounded throughout ALL the land and a proclamation of liberty goes out. The Jubilee is a year when all those who were forced into servitude, usually because of debts or crimes, are liberated. The proclamation goes out to ALL THE LAND, even though only a few are actually liberated.

Obviously, counting the 50 days to Pentecost is similar to counting the 50 years to the Jubilee. But there are more associations. At the fulfillment of Pentecost when the count is complete, a proclamation similar to the Jubilee goes out:

1 THESSALONIANS 4:16-17 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

The return of our Lord and King is preceded by a shout from an archangel and a trumpet blast, proclaiming the day. What does it proclaim?

ROMANS 8:19-21 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

The Jubilee is proclaimed throughout the land, not just to those in bondage. The same is true for the Pentecost proclamation—it goes out to the entire earth: the “whole creation.” Just as with the Jubilee, the whole world hears the shout of the angel and blast of a trumpet proclaiming Pentecost but only a few—“the [children] of God.”—are liberated from “the bondage of corruption.”

Another interesting connection between Pentecost and the Jubilee is found in the Hebrew word for proclamation in Leviticus 25:10. It literally means to call by name or to call forth. This is exactly what happens to the children of God at the proclamation of liberty when Pentecost is fulfilled:

GALATIANS 5:13 For you, brethren, have been called to liberty …

REVELATION 17:14 “These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.”

Those who are called out of “the bondage of corruption” to liberty on the day of Pentecost are the CHOSEN. As Scripture says, “many are called, but few are chosen” (Matt. 22:14) of the “whole creation” to be liberated. But the Jubilee liberty was far more than just being released from bondage. It restored possessions and family:

LEVITICUS 25:10, 13 ‘And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family. … 13 ‘In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his possession.

Many saints have lost physical possessions and family in this life. But the Pentecost liberty will be an even greater ‘restoration’:

MATTHEW 19:29 “And everyone who has left houses [possessions] or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children [family] or lands [possessions], for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.

The Pentecost liberty brings about an eternal family, one consisting of God the Father, Jesus our Elder Brother, along with all Their chosen children:

MATTHEW 12:48-50 But He [Jesus] answered and said to the one who told Him, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” 49 And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! 50 “For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”

Pentecost also restores an inheritance that mankind was intended to possess before Adam sinned:

DANIEL 7:18 ‘But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.’

MATTHEW 25:34 “Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

Pentecost has much in common with the Jubilee. However, the fulfillment of Pentecost will be small and limited by comparison with the final Jubilee because only a “few are chosen” to be liberated out of “the bondage of corruption” of this world. But the Pentecost liberation will be an unspeakable joy of being ‘restored’ or brought into the family of God and possessing the Kingdom.

But there is still more when Pentecost is fulfilled. There will be new roles for the children of God. Looking back, the Levites were chosen by God at Mount Sinai from among all the tribes of Israel for the service of work in the Tabernacle and, later, the Temple:

DEUTERONOMY 21:5 “Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister to Him and to bless in the name of the LORD; by their word every controversy and every assault shall be settled.

Like the Levites, the saints are chosen by God and they will enter into the new priesthood on the day Pentecost is fulfilled:

1 PETER 2:9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

REVELATION 20:6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

The Levites had to strive for perfection in their work in the Tabernacle and Temple. This required experience and maturity so there was a minimum working age for the Levites. But it was also rigorous and hard work, so they were retired at age 50:

NUMBERS 4:2-3 “Take a census … from among the children of Levi, by their families, by their fathers’ house, 3 “from thirty years old and above, even to fifty years old, all who enter the service to do the work in the tabernacle of meeting.

In this physical life, the saints are striving to become perfect as they do the works pertaining to the Body of Christ[1]:

MATTHEW 5:48 “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

EPHESIANS 4:15-16 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up [mature] in all things into Him who is the head–Christ– 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

The letters from Jesus to the ekklesia in the seven cities in Asia Minor (Revelation chapters 2-3) each begin with Him saying, “I know your works.” God’s people are working in this life—maturing and becoming perfect. The Levites served the Tabernacle and Temple and so, too, will the saints. Their works apply to the Body of Christ, which IS the Temple of God:

REVELATION 3:12 “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God …

REVELATION 21:22 But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

Interestingly, even though a Levite stopped work at the mandatory retirement age of 50, he entered into a new service:

NUMBERS 8:24-26 “This is what pertains to the Levites: From twenty-five years old and above one may enter to perform service in the work of the tabernacle of meeting; 25 “and at the age of fifty years they must cease performing this work, and shall work no more. 26 “They may minister with their brethren in the tabernacle of meeting, to attend to needs, but they themselves shall do no work. Thus you shall do to the Levites regarding their duties.”

Fifty was the age of retirement for the Levites from the physical work in the Tabernacle and Temple. But it was not the end of their service. When they retired, they left the rigorous physical work of the furnishings and duties to “minister” to the younger Levites and “attend to their needs.”

The saints will likewise ‘retire’ from this physical life when Pentecost is fulfilled after the counting of days reaches 50. On that day, the children of God will cease from their physical work:

HEBREWS 4:9-10 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.

They will assume a new service within the royal priesthood. Like the retired Levites, they will minister to the people who remain on earth and attend to their needs:

ISAIAH 30:20-21 And though the Lord gives you [the rescued captives] the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, Yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, But your eyes shall see your teachers. 21 Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” Whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left.

The Jubilee is liberty for this world after the return of Jesus Christ but Pentecost is very much a jubilee for the Firstfruits that is fulfilled when He returns. It is not only liberation from the bondage and corruption of this world, it ‘restores’ us to both a family and a Kingdom into the new priesthood. When Pentecost is fulfilled, the saints will enter into an eternal “rest,” the greatest ‘retirement’ plan ever!

May God’s grace and peace be upon you!

Steven Greene

https://sabbathreflections.org

sabbathreflections@gmail.com