Coincidence or Commentary?

In a another post I give some examples related to the Jewish calendar. Within this calendar there are annual feast days that occur every year. One of these feast days is called "Pentecost" which means “50” and occurs 50 days after the sabbath of another feast. (The calendar date can differ a few days each year due to this instruction). Pentecost is the feast of the harvest or first fruits. Besides the things that happened as part of this feast it is interesting that two major events occur at the time of this feast day, separated by about 1,500 years.

The first major event was the giving of the 10 Commandments by Moses to the Israelites. The text doesn’t clearly state this date but it does provide dates and durations of what happened before Moses went up into the mountain to meet God and we know he was there 40 days with God before he returned to the people. By spending some time on the preceding passages and doing the math we can see that the timing of Moses return with the 10 Commandments coincided with this feast day. (Even though the feast day was part of the new instructions God was giving Moses and it would not be instituted until the next year.)

Unfortunately this first Pentecost was a sad day as the people had gotten impatient with Moses’ return and they created a golden calf that they started worshiping. When Moses arrived he saw that the people had already broken the first commandment God just gave him – to have no other gods before Him and to not make any graven image to bow down and worship. Because of this disobedience Moses ordered the leaders of the rebellion to be killed and 3,000 of them died.

Hundreds of years later, after Jesus had been crucified, rose from the dead and returned to Heaven, the feast of Pentecost coincided with the giving of the Holy Spirit and the empowering of the Christian Church. On that day we read that 3,000 people were saved.

Pentecost is the feast of the harvest or first fruits. On this feast day the Law was given and 3,000 people died. On this same feast day the Spirit was given and 3,000 people were saved. Coincidence or God making a point?