Passover Leads to Pentecost

"In the fourteenth day of the first month...is the Lord's passover." ²⁶ Then "it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt." ²⁷ Next "in the third month...the same day came they unto the wilderness of Sinai." ²⁸ If God causes an event to take place on exactly the "selfsame day," then it behooves us to consider the timing of other events as well.

For instance, there is about one-half of a month after Passover remaining in the first month and at least three days ²⁹ transpire in the third month, which is a passage of approximately fifty days (the word pentecost means "fiftieth"). The Lord said, "shall ye number fifty days" ³⁰ and celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. "The day of Pentecost was fully come" ³¹ when the Spirit was poured forth because God waited until precisely the right day for it to happen.

We see a similar passage of time in the New Testament between the resurrection and Pentecost where Jesus "shewed himself...forty days", ³² and after He departed the disciples returned to Jerusalem, which was a "sabbath day's journey" ³³ away. Then in the Old Testament "the Lord said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them...and be ready against the third day." ³⁴ So Moses and Joshua waited for God to invite them up to Mt. Sinai. ³⁵ In the New Testament Jesus "commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me." ³⁶ So they tarried in Jerusalem ³⁷ and "continued with one accord in prayer and supplication" ³⁸ in the "upper room." ³⁹ in preparation for the Feast of Pentecost. We see that the travel, consecration, and waiting situations are similar in the Old and New Testaments.