Wed.’s Devo - Pentecost

Read: Judges 15:1-16:31; John 2:1-25; Psalm 103:1-22; Proverbs 14:17-19
Samson is an interesting study but I want to bring out some things you might miss when reading it. Today’s reading starts out during the wheat harvest which is the season of Pentecost. God set his seasons and feasts around certain things that he does during those times. Pentecost is about spiritual warfare, multiplication, and the Spirit of God manifesting on earth. On the first pentecost, God gave the law and appeared on the mountain with thunder lightning and fire. Eventually, 3,000 were killed because of the golden calf they made. On the pentecost in Acts, the sound of a rising wind came and filled the disciples with the Holy Spirit and the had fire on their heads. Eventually 3,000 who had come to Jerusalem for the feast were saved. On the pentecost in Samson’s day, fire was spread by 300 foxes to the fields of the Philistines. This caused 3,000 of the men from Judah to give Samson over to the Philistines. Because of this, Samson was able to kill 1,000 of his enemies with the jawbone of a donkey.
All of these have the same key ingredients. Pentecost happens in the spring after Easter and it is a great time of spreading the fire of the Holy Spirit to the world and seeing prayers answered.
God has placed his pentecost inside each one of his believers if we want it.
In John, Jesus performs his first miracle prodded by his mother. This was a significant place to start because it was the end. The whole purpose of earth was to find a bride for the Son of God. Jesus told his mother that “his time has not yet come” meaning that it was not time for him to produce the wine at the wedding. But to demonstrate why he was here, Jesus took 6 earthen vessels and filled them with water. When he poured them out they produced wine. Six is the number of man since man was created on the sixth day. We are the earthen vessels that God places his spirit (the water) in. When we are poured out in the earth, we are like wine - the Holy Spirit.
Jesus went from the wedding to Jerusalem where he cleansed the temple of the money changers. No one knew who Jesus was since he hadn’t even started his ministry so can you imagine what the people thought of what he did! When Jesus talked about the Temple being his Father’s house the disciples remembered what the Psalms said about how the zeal for God’s house would consume him…speaking of the Messiah. They understood what he did, but the people wanted to know by whose authority he did this. Jesus reply to them was “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” We know that he was talking about his death and resurrection because he is the temple, but they thought he was crazy.
Jesus always spoke in spiritual terms and they only had natural understanding so they couldn’t understand his teachings.
Lord, give us spiritual understanding into your kingdom.