About three thousand
Ex 32:28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died.
This speaks of the day Moses returned from the mountain Sinai with God’s Law written on stone tablets, only to find that in his brief (40days) absence, the people had made a golden calf and had started worshipping this idol as their god. The approximately three thousand were the ringleaders in this wickedness, and were slain by the swords of their kinsmen from the tribe of Levi. Interesting to note that nobody need to have died this way, because when Moses uttered the words, “Whoever is on the Lord’s side, let him come to me” in verse 26, he was offering God’s pardon to all who would choose to run to him, shamefaced, and admit their wrongdoing.
The rabbis of old calculated that the feast of Shavuot, or Pentecost, was the time that Moses ascended Mount Sinai to receive the Law. And so Shavuot became the day that Jews commemmorate the giving of the Law to Israel even unto this day.
But something exciting happened on this exact same day of Pentecost in the New Testament – the Holy Spirit filled the waiting believers in the upper room utterly, manifesting as tongues of fire upon each of them, which lead to the following:
Acts 2:41 Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all.
About three thousand people received eternal life on that day, after hearing the gospel supernaturally preached to them in their own languages. (According to rabbinic tradition, the soul of every Jew throughout history was present at Mont Sinai when the Law was given, and each person heard the giving of the Law in their own native tongue!) These two events, happening on the same day of Pentecost even though centuries apart, link the initiations of both the Old and the New Covenant through the use of the same phrase ‘about three thousand’. Three thousand died on the day of the giving of the Law, and three thousand received life on the same day hundreds of years later, the day of the giving of the Spirit.
It shows in a tangible way what Paul meant when he said: “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” in 2 Cor 3:5. The Law can show us what the will of God is, but we need the Spirit to give us the power and insight to live it.
Points to ponder: What ‘rules’ and ‘regulations’ am I keeping – whether self-imposed or insisted upon by my church or other religious people – without which I feel that I am not a good-enough Christian? Am I giving the Holy Spirit free reign in my life?
Priscilla Koeglenberg
Feel free to email me at questions.powerhouse@gmail.com