For all you OT nerds...

I'm really appreciating the inundation of OT law teaching around in Syd at the moment. As cumbersome as it can be is as amazing as it is when it all makes sense. I've looked at Acts recently for my sunday school girls and found this amazing perspective on Pentecost.

The day called "Pentecost" is named after the Greek word pentekostos, which means "fiftieth." It is the only Old Testament festival that is determined by counting. On the day after the Sabbath after Passover, the ancient Israelites were to select a sheaf of the first grain that had been harvested in the spring. This grain then became an offering, and the priest waved it "before the Lord" (Leviticus 23:11-12).Pentecost was to be observed in ancient Israel on the fiftieth day "from" this Sunday (verse 15). (The Hebrew means "from" in the sense of "beginning with.") That meant seven weeks elapsed between the day of the first grain offering and the beginning of Pentecost. That’s why Pentecost was sometimes called the Feast of Weeks (Exodus 34:22; Leviticus 23:15; Numbers 28:26; Deuteronomy 16:9-12).The grain harvest was gathered after the token of the first gleaning of the grain was given as an offering. Since the counting of Pentecost was tied to this event and it came at the end of the spring grain harvest, Pentecost was sometimes called the Feast of the Harvest and Day of First Fruits (Exodus 23:16; Numbers 28:26).Judaism came to regard Pentecost as the anniversary of the giving of the law and the old covenant at Mount Sinai (Exodus 20–24). It is not surprising, then, that Pentecost would have a symbolic meaning for the church. It was the day when God once again manifested himself in a unique way, signaling a new relationship between God and his people. As E. William Neil summarizes it:Pentecost had also come to signify for Jews the commemoration of the giving of the Law at Sinai fifty days after the Exodus Passover. For Luke this, too, would be seen as having a Christian fulfilment in the giving of the Spirit fifty days after the Christian Exodus Passover, the Crucifixion and Resurrection. (The Acts of the Apostles, The New Century Bible Commentary, page 72)The Spirit coming in human minds was a kind of "second giving of the law;" the Spirit replaced the law as the guide for God's people. It was, in Paul’s expression, "the law of the spirit of life," which came through the new righteousness that is in Christ (Romans 8:1-2).