Pentecostal Theophany and the Covenant People

Part 1: New Exodus & New Sinai

Israel is a people of pilgrimage. Singing the Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120-134), they walk the pilgrimage road towards the temple in Jerusalem three times a year. Deuteronomy 16:16 (cf. Exodus 23:14-17) commands:

Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the Lord empty-handed.

(Deuteronomy 16:16)

The pilgrimage is not just a national identity, but also an annual rehearsal of the salvation story that marks the seasons of God’s people. The Festival of Unleavened Bread recalls the redemption at the Passover; the Festival of Weeks celebrates God’s provision and covenant; and the Festival of Tabernacles utters dependence on God’s presence. Grace and hope abound, the pilgrims sing from their hearts: “I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” (Psalm 122:1).

The disciples were waiting and praying in Jerusalem after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. As the Festival of Weeks (Pentecost) approached, the pilgrims started to gather in Jerusalem and offer the firstfruits of the harvest in the temple. “When the day of Pentecost came,” Acts 2:1 and 5 recorded, “they were all together in one place…. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.” Seven weeks ago, during the Festival of Unleavened Bread, another wave of pilgrims witnessed a Nazarite rabbi cleansing the temple and being crucified outside of the city. When he breathed his last, the sky darkened, the earth shook, and the veil in the temple tore apart. Many confessed at that moment: “Surely he was the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:54). Not only did Jesus’ crucifixion prove and fulfill his sonship, in which he was obedient unto death, but his subsequent resurrection also proclaimed that Jesus was the living God. His resurrected body was manifested on earth for forty days, and before Jesus was taken up to the heaven, he promised the gift and baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:1-11). Little did the disciples know that the promise would soon come to pass, and their mission was just getting started.

Nothing marks the time and identity of a people more than the Exodus of the Israelites. The month of the Passover became the first month of the Jewish calendar (see Exodus 12:2), time was therefore oriented by God’s work of salvation. According to Exodus 19:1:

On the first day of the third month after the Israelites left Egypt—on that very day—they came to the Desert of Sinai.

That was roughly a six-to-eight-week journey from the Red Sea to Sinai, from which originates the Festival of Weeks (Hebrew Shavuot), later known as Pentecost (meaning “fifty” in Greek). It was at Sinai that the Lord manifested Himself to Moses and the children of Israel, the covenant was established, and the Law was given. Looking back from Sinai, the purpose of the Exodus deliverance was made clear—God was calling and gathering His people back to Himself, which could not happen without liberation and formation. [1] In the same way, looking back from Pentecost, we can see that the cross was indeed the new Exodus inaugurated by Jesus.

Isaiah foresaw a new Exodus led by the Messiah:

There will be a highway for the remnant of His people

that is left from Assyria,

as there was for Israel

when they came up from Egypt.

(Isaiah 11:16; see also Isaiah 40:3-5, 43:16-21, 51:10-11, and 52:11-12) [2]

This theme of the new Exodus was carried over to the Mount of Transfiguration, where Moses and Elijah appealed before Jesus, and they “spoke about his departure (Greek exodus), which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:31). In the first Exodus, the blood of lamb on the doorframes became the sign for the Lord to pass over the households of Israel; in the second Exodus, the blood of the sacrificial Lamb was shed on another wood frame—the cursed tree called cross (see Galatians 3:13). It was the blood of Jesus, the suffering Servant in Isaiah’s prophecy, that marked God's covenant people (Luke 22:20). Therefore, the divine wrath passed over them by passing through the Lamb on the cross. The historical Exodus was a deliverance of the people of Israel from Egyptian slavery and oppression, but the greater Exodus brought by Jesus was a liberation of the entire humanity from the power of sin and death.

By leading the people of God out of slavery and bondages, Jesus served as a “new Moses” figure. In a striking expression, Apostle Paul drew the connection between the Red Sea crossing and baptism: the children of Israel were “baptized into Moses" in the Red Sea (1 Corinthians 10:2). In the same way, believers are baptized into the death and resurrection of Lord Jesus. This is a crossing from death to life because of the salvation accomplished on the cross and the restoration inaugurated at the resurrection. In the rest of this paper, with the backdrops of the Exodus old and new, we will closely examine the Pentecost account in Acts 2 and compare it to the historical Sinai account in Exodus 19-34. The Day of Pentecost was characterized with the manifest presence of God, the establishment of the new covenant community, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. With that pattern to be observed, we can conclude that the Pentecost was the new Sinai moment following after the new Exodus of Jesus. On this very day, the Church was born, carrying the mission to the nations as the people of God.

Part 2: Pentecostal Theophany vs. Sinai Theophany

The chariots of God are tens of thousands

and thousands of thousands;

the Lord has come from Sinai into His sanctuary.

(Psalm 68:17)

Theophany means the manifest appearance of God. If we trace through the biblical theme of God’s presence and glory, we will discover various forms of theophany: 1. localized presence (God walked in the Garden, God visited Abraham, etc.); 2. mediated glory (the glory of God filled the tabernacle and the temple, validating sacred spaces); 3. visionary presence (the prophets entered God’s presence in visions and dreams, like Isaiah in the throne room and Ezekiel measuring the temple); 4. personal presence (we behold the glory of Jesus as the Word Incarnate dwelling among us); 5. distributed presence (the Spirit-filled Church as the tabernacling presence of God); 6. cosmic presence (the glory of God everywhere in the new creation). From a biblical-theological (typological) perspective, Scripture reveals a theophanic trajectory: God first appeared to humanity, then dwells among His people, and finally fills the renewed creation with His presence. [3]

What people witnessed on the Day of Pentecost were not merely miracles, but the very signals of theophany. In both Sinai and Pentecost, God descended in fire, wind, and sound. “By using many of the same words and phrases describing the Sinai theophany,” biblical theologian G. K. Beale pointed out, “Luke depicts God’s revelation to believers at Pentecost and the portrayal of God’s descending presence there in the Spirit, establishing a new spiritual sanctuary composed of His people.” [4] This is as if Luke were saying to his readers: “The God of Sinai has returned on the Day of Pentecost.” The table below presents a parallel comparison between the Sinai theophany (Exodus 19:16-20) and the Pentecostal theophany (Acts 2:2-4).

At the center of both theophanic events was God descending from His heavenly dwelling: the mountain burnt with fire as God stepped on Sinai, and the people spoke with tongues of fire as the Spirit of God rested on them. Elsewhere in the Old Testament, the description of “thick cloud over or filling the space” refers to God’s dwelling places like the tabernacle or the temple (see Exodus 40:34-35 and 1 Kings 8:10-11), thus the theophanic presence marked Sinai as a sacred place, as if it were a temple. Mount Sinai was divided into three sections that were similar to the trifold structure of the tabernacle or the temple: the Outer Court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. The majority of the the camp of Israel remained at the foot of the mountain, some priests and elders were allowed to come up to the mountain in some distance (see Exodus 24), but only Moses could ascend to the top of the mountain and enter into the presence of the Lord (Exodus 19:20). [5] Mount Sinai was thereafter referred to as “the mountain of God” (see Exodus 24:13), a name that was later associated with Mount Zion, where the Jerusalem temple stood. Like the priests ministering to God in the temple sanctuary, Moses mediated God’s glory on Mount Sinai, resulting in his face being radiant (see Exodus 34:29-35).

However, God’s descent was not merely a spatial movement from the heavenly spiritual realm to a temporary dwelling on earth. As many scholars have observed, the dramatic theophanic description overlaps with the ancient Near Eastern royal language, falling under a larger wedding motif throughout the Sinai account. The wedding narrative provides a perspective that the Sinai theophany is not legal or political, but relational and covenantal.

In Exodus 19:3-6, by declaring “you will be My treasured possession… a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”, God offered an exclusive relationship with Israel, as if He initiated a marriage proposal. Then in Exodus 19:8 (cf. Exodus 24:3), the people all responded together, “We will do everything the Lord has said.” The corporate consent served as vows. After that, the people of Israel followed Moses’s instructions to consecrate themselves—washing garments, abstaining from sex, and setting boundaries around the mountain (Exodus 19:10-15). The consecration resembled the bridal preparation before a wedding. Then the wedding ceremony reached its climax at the Sinai theophany, which was the dramatic appearance of the royal Bridegroom. First, the arrival of the heavenly King was announced by the trumpet sounds. As God came down from His heavenly throne, His royal presence filled the entire mountain like a thick cloud. What arrived with the Bridegroom were the covenant terms. By giving the Law, including the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20-23), God announced the marriage obligations. “You shall have no other gods before Me.” (Exodus 20:3). Once again, exclusivity was emphasized.

Responding in obedience, Moses built an altar at the foot of the mountain and offered burnt offerings (Exodus 24:4-5).

Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.’

(Exodus 24:8)

The blood ratification of the covenant formed a binding, life-and-death union between God and His bride. Lastly, the wedding ceremony was not complete without a feast. Moses and the elders of Israel went up to the mountain and had a covenant meal before the presence of the Lord, as it was recorded in Exodus 24:11: “They saw God, and they ate and drank.” Israel joined the covenant union with her Husband.

Sinai contains a vivid “tongues of fire” image, as it was reflected in Deuteronomy:

You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while it blazed with fire to the very heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness. Then the Lord spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice.

(Deuteronomy 4:11-12)

However, the actual phrase of “tongues of fire” exists in some other passages, and most of them are related to the Lord’s judgment. For example, in Jeremiah 5:14, the Lord says: “I will make My words in your mouth a fire”, and Jeremiah later responded: “His word is in my heart like a fire” (Jeremiah 20:9). The divine word became the internal fire that drove Jeremiah (and other prophets) to bring forth the message of judgment to both the nations and God’s own people, who were on the self-destructive path of idolatry. The tone of judgment was intensified in Isaiah 5:24:

Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw

and as dry grass sinks down in the flames,

so their roots will decay

and their flowers blow away like dust;

for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty

and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Here the consuming fire was the burning anger of the Lord. The directly following scene in Isaiah 6 involves fiery images of God’s presence resulting both in blessing and judgment. [6] Isaiah’s mouth was touched by a burning coal, and his “unclean lips” were purified by fire (Isaiah 6:6-7).

Out of all other “tongues of fire” passages, Isaiah 30:27-30 is the most clear allusion to the Sinai theophany. Compare it to the other “Day of the Lord” prophecy in Joel 2:28-32, which Peter quoted on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:17-21), some connections can be drawn.

Both the Isaiah 30 passage and the Joel 2 passage can serve as bridges between the Sinai theophany and the Pentecostal theophany, but there is a shift of tones from judgment-dominant to salvation-expanding. Isaiah recaptures the terrifying holy presence at Sinai, whereas Joel moves toward an eschatological theophany that is more expansive, restorative, and participatory.

Part 3: The Covenant People

The Sinai Covenant was unique among the Old Testament covenants because unlike other covenants that were between God and individual covenant partners (such as Noah, Abraham, and David), at Sinai, God established a covenant with a group of people. Remembering the covenant promises He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exodus 2:24), God initiated the Exodus deliverance. As biblical theologian Michael Morales commented, “Exodus is God bringing His people near,” [7] liberation is a means to an end, and the end goal is the restoration of the covenant relationship between God and His people.

Through signs and wonders, God made His Name known to both Israel and the nations. Exodus 6:3 told us that the Patriarchs only knew God as God Almighty (El Shaddai), but God revealed His name to Moses and the children of Israel as the Lord (YHWH). The special revelation went even further in Exodus 34:6-7, as God proclaimed His own characters:

The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.

When the people of Israel encountered the God who existed in their forefathers’ stories in a tangible way, their relationship with God was no longer abstract but personal. They knew God as the Creator in the past, who was transcendent and yet distant. After the Exodus, they knew God as the Savior, who was powerful and yet intimate.

The call to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” in Exodus 19:6 was not only a commandment, but also a blessing of promise. It echoed God’s original calling-blessing for humanity: “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.” (Genesis 1:28) and the pledge God made with Abraham:

I will make you into a great nation,

and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing.

(Genesis 12:2)

God’s intention for His covenant partners was not just to give blessings to them, but always to bless the nations through them. The covenant reality was not exclusive but inclusive, and it was created by the pledges of the covenant-making, covenant-keeping God. Under the covenant reality, the categories of people were no longer “who God chose” and “who God chose not”, but “who God chose” and “who God sent them to”. Whether it was through an individual (Adam), a family (Noah), a tribe (Abraham), a nation (Moses and Israel), or a kingdom (David), the heart of the mission has never been changed. Therefore, to partner with God on the missions He initiated (missio Dei) was to bless the nations, to advance the theocratic Kingdom, and to mediate the glory of God to the end of the earth. [8] The covenant people had been bestowed a priestly mission.

Another unique part of the Sinai covenant was that it was bilateral. Most of the other covenants were unilateral, which means God would fulfill His covenant promises in spite of the faithlessness of the covenant partners. For example, with the sign of the rainbow, God promised in the Noahic covenant that He would no longer flood the earth. However, in the re-created, post-pluvial world, like Adam, Noah sinned and failed in carrying the role of the new humanity. Despite Noah’s failure, God did not change His promise of preservation that was made with the entire creation. If the Noahic covenant was characterized as universal and unconditional, then the Sinai covenant would be particular and conditional. Let us once again turn to Exodus 19:5:

Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine….

God particularly chose Israel to be His covenant people, and particularly revealed Himself to them and gave them the Law as the way of life. Meanwhile, obedience was expected not as a prerequisite to salvation, but as a response to God’s saving grace. The choice was set before the children of Israel: “See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.” (Deuteronomy 30:15). Only through obedience was the people of Israel able to inherit God’s life-giving blessings in the Promised Land.

The covenant is never a casual agreement, but a life-and-death bond. In Genesis 15, Abram brought some animals to the Lord, cut them in halves, and lay the pieces opposite each other. The blood path was the ancient Near Eastern covenant-making ritual that bore the weight of the covenant consequences. Both sides of the covenant parties ought to walk through the blood path, as if they were saying that: “May I become like these slain animals if I break this covenant.” What Abram saw in his vision was astonishing:

When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.

(Genesis 15:17)

Abram did not walk the blood path; instead, the presence of the Lord alone passed through the pieces. By doing this, God bound Himself to Abram’s lineage and took the covenant curse upon Himself. Blood not just represents sacrifice, but also signifies life. At Sinai, by the sprinkle of the blood of the sacrificed animals, the life of the people of Israel was bound to the Lord under the covenant.

Sealed by the blood (Exodus 24:8), the Sinai Covenant foreshadowed the New Covenant of Jesus. At the Last Supper, Jesus took the cup and said to his disciples: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” (Luke 22:20). This time, it was not the blood of any animal, but Jesus’ own blood. God once again walked through the blood path alone by carrying the cross in human flesh (see Philippians 2:6-8). All the sacrifices in history according to the Law pointed forward to Jesus’ death on the cross, where he bore the covenant curse (see Galatians 3:13-14).

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

(Isaiah 53:5)

Jesus poured out the blood of redemption, which brought the people of God back to the covenant family. In his life, Jesus is the covenant mediator. In his death, Jesus is the sacrificial offering. In his resurrection, Jesus is the divine covenant Lord.

Salvation was accomplished on the cross and inaugurated at the resurrection [9], and that was the foundation on which the new covenant community in Acts 2 was standing. Following the covenant trajectory, the same missionary identity that formed Israel, a people who embody God's creational intention (Exodus 19:3-6), now becomes the identity of the New Testament church (1 Peter 2:5-9). [10] Let the same words from Peter’s epistle remind us today of our calling as God’s covenant people:

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

(1 Peter 2:9)

Part 4: Law & Spirit (Death & Life)

He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

(2 Corinthians 3:6)

What did Apostle Paul mean in his message to the Corinthians church that the letter (the Mosaic Law) kills? How did the Law turn from God’s instructions for life to a means of death? What has been made new in the new covenant? The tension is not between a “bad” Law and a “good” Spirit, but how they work differently to human hearts. God’s Law is good, and it reveals what is good. However, the nature of the Law is diagnostic but not prescriptive, which means it exposes human sin but lacks the power to cure. Because people cannot perfectly keep the Law, it ends up condemning rather than giving life. To address the root issue in human hearts, the Law alone as the external force is not sufficient. It requires an internal transformation to live the covenant life.

The golden calf incident happened almost immediately after the covenant wedding. Moses ascended to the presence of God for forty days and nights, and the people of Israel ran out of patience (Exodus 24:18; 32:1). The worshipping nature—whether worshiping to God or to idols—drove them to Aaron and asked for a visible god. Aaron made an image of a calf out of gold and called it “god”, and the people bowed down to it and made sacrifices to it. Beale commented that “They become like what they worship. In other words, they resemble what they revere.” [11] Indeed, the people of Israel became “a stiff-necked people” (Exodus 32:9) exactly like the golden calf they worshiped. As it was captured in Psalm 106:20:

They exchanged their glorious God

for an image of a bull, which eats grass

Idol worshiping deforms humanity as God’s image-bearers into the image of created things. [12] Furthermore, what made the golden calf episode so devastating was its timing. Israel violated the covenant soon after entering it, which was like a betrayal during the honeymoon. It was not merely rule breaking, but spiritual adultery and covenant infidelity.

Moses came down from the mountain with two tablets of the covenant law inscribed by the finger of God (Exodus 31:28; cf. 32:15). But before they were fully delivered to the people, out of righteous anger, Moses “threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain.” (Exodus 32:19). The shattered tablets symbolized the broken covenant between Israel and God, and the people of Israel soon received the consequence of their idolatrous hearts. The judgment came to the camp of Israel executed by the Levites, and “that day about three thousand of the people died” (Exodus 32:28). The golden calf incident reveals that God’s holiness is dangerous when approached through idolatry and rebellion, and the Law without transformed hearts leads to condemnation. That’s how “the letter kills”.

Yet mercy remains. Exodus 32 was not just about the condemning judgment for the rebellious idolatry, it also stood out as one of the greatest intercession scenes in the Bible. Moses became the mediator, standing between God and the people and pleading for forgiveness. He sought the Lord’s favor and asked Him the Lord to remember His covenant faithfulness:

Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’

(Exodus 32:13)

Moses even offered himself to take the consequences of people’s sin: “But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.” (Exodus 32:32). In response, the Lord “relented and did not bring on His people the disaster He had threatened” (Exodus 32:14). Intercession moves the heart of the Lord, which leads to covenant restoration.

Out of Sinai’s unfaithfulness came the anticipation for a new covenant with a greater mediator, an empowering Spirit, and a transformed heart. This was the new covenant reality according to the prophet Jeremiah:

The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke My covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.

(Jeremiah 31:31-34, emphasis added)

Just as the ascent of Moses preceded the giving of the Law at Sinai, the ascension of Jesus—the greater Moses—preceded the gift of the Spirit and revelation at Pentecost. At Sinai, the theophanic presence was restricted—the people of Israel couldn’t cross the boundaries of the mountain, and the access to the presence of God was limited to Moses and a few elders. However, at Pentecost, the theophanic presence was distributed, as the Spirit of God was poured out to all people. Instead of communication only between God and the mediator (Exodus 19:19), all of the people who gathered on the Day of Pentecost “were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them” (Acts 2:4). Peter explained to the congregation that they just witnessed the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy:

In the last days, God says,

I will pour out My Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy,

your young men will see visions,

your old men will dream dreams.

Even on my servants, both men and women,

I will pour out My Spirit in those days,

and they will prophesy.

(Acts 2:17-18; cf. Joel 2:28-29)

God’s presence no longer remained external as was at Sinai, but was internalized through the indwelling Spirit.

Here is a little interlude. One year after the Exodus, the people of Israel were complaining about the hardships in the wilderness. God asked Moses to elect seventy elders so that the power of the Spirit can be shared with them (Numbers 11:17). When they gathered around the tent of meeting, God’s Spirit rested on them, and they prophesied (Numbers 11:25). There were two elders who did not go to the tent, “yet the Spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied in the camp” (Numbers 11:26). Joshua asked Moses to stop them, but Moses’ had a quite interesting response: “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” (Numbers 11:29). Little did Moses know that his wish would come true on the day of Pentecost. “The Spirit’s gifts, formerly limited to prophets, kings and priests,” Beale stated, “are universalized to all of God’s people from every race, young and old, male and female.” [13]

As the Pentecost congregation were receiving the gift of the Spirit, Peter offered them an opportunity to respond to the Gospel by declaring: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Acts 2:21; cf. Joel 2:32). It turned out that “those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day” (Acts 2:41). They were included into God’s covenant family, walking into their new life through the saving power of the Gospel. From three thousand deaths at Sinai to three thousand salvations at Pentecost, indeed, the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Part 5: Reversed Babel (Nations & Church)

In the last days

the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established

as the highest of the mountains;

it will be exalted above the hills,

and all nations will stream to it.

(Isaiah 2:2)

Genesis 10 listed the table of nations. The descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth—Noah’s sons—became the seventy (Septuagint, seventy two) nations after the flood. At that time the whole world had one language and a common speech (Genesis 11:1). People moved eastward to a plain and planned to build a tower in order to “make a name for themselves” and for them not to be “scattered over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:4). Far before the tower reached the heavens as the people fantasized, God had to “come down to see the city and the tower the people were building” (Genesis 11:5). Ever since the Fall, humanity has stepped into a downward spiral of sin and rebellion, but at Babel, human pride reached its climax. As a consequence, God confused people’s language so that they couldn't continue to build the city (Genesis 11:7-8). That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused (Hebrew, balel) the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth (Genesis 11:9).

In an ancient Babylonian language called Akkadian, the name Babel means “gate of heaven”, while in Hebrews, it means confusion. The double meaning that the name carries reflects the ironic nature of the Babel event—humanity’s desire to secure unity by power and seek glory for themselves, but resulting in humiliation as God’s divine judgment. Instead of “filling the earth”, people gathered at one place. Babel’s pride was a direct rebellion against the creational intention God had for humanity.

The turning point occurred in Genesis 12. Rather than seizing security through power, a man was called to leave behind his country, people, and father’s household where his security would come from. Rather than seeking to make their own name great, a humble and obedient person was exalted by God with the promise that “I will make your name great” (Genesis 12:2). Abraham was that “father of faith” who answered God’s calling. Through him the pattern of the Babel started to be reversed, and through his future Seed, God’s blessing will be channeled to the nations. Fast forward to the time when Jacob had a dream in which “he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” (Genesis 28:12). Even though God extended the Abrahamic Covenant with its promises and blessings to Jacob in the dream, it still frightened him. After professing: “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.” (Genesis 28:17), Jacob named the place Bethel (Genesis 28:19).

Babel or Bethel, which one was the true “gate of God”? Babel was the human's attempt to access heaven, while Bethel was the house which God chose to dwell. There was no confusion but only clarity in Jacob’s dream that the heaven’s gate was not built from the earth upward, but was opened from the heaven downward. Human striving led not to transcendence but Babel’s confusion; yet Bethel’s revelation was transcendence given as grace. This is the Great Reversal—one of the unified themes in the Bible—that God comes down to those who cannot climb up. Love comes down in the same way—“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14). Jesus was the house God chose to dwell. Jesus also revealed to Nathanael that he was the stairway Jacob dreamed about: “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.” (John 1:51).

The pattern of Babel continued to be reversed. In Luke 10, Jesus appointed seventy (some manuscripts: seventy-two) disciples and sent them out as witnesses. Beale pointed out that “they represent the nations of the world to be evangelized, since seventy (or seventy-two) nations was the traditional number associated with the number of the nations listed in Genesis 10.” [14] In other words, by echoing the table of nations in Genesis 10, Jesus was symbolically commissioning a mission that extended to the fullness of the nations. The focus of a worldwide mission was carried onto the second volume of Luke’s Gospel. In Acts 2, around fifteen named geographic regions or people groups among the Pentecost congregation were listed explicitly (Acts 2:9-11), representing the known world of the Jewish community at that time. “Nations” became an exclusive word after Babel, but it became inclusive after Pentecost. In the Jerusalem temple that was originally built not for human glory but for the Name of the Lord (see 1 Kings 8:29), the nations gathered in a way that fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy: “In the last days…. all nations will stream to it.” (Isaiah 2:2). This was the ongoing mission of the Holy Spirit to reclaim the nations at the end time, not by having people ascending, but by Himself descending and resting on them.

Pentecost was not merely the reversal of Babel, it also brought healing and transformation to it. The wound of Babel laid in broken humanity—striving leading to scattering, ambition becoming alienation, and “making a name” resulting in losing identity. At Babel, one language became many; but on the Day of Pentecost, many nations heard one Gospel, and languages were unified in praising God’s wonderful deeds. God did not flatten culture-making by removing the cultural boundaries and restoring humanity into one earthly language, but through the heavenly language, He turned division into unity-in-diversity and brought understanding over confusion. God is forming a new humanity whose sins are forgiven and hearts are renewed by the Holy Spirit. They are not characterized by the uniformity in power but the unity in love. In the new creation, there will be a worshipping people that is “from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9), harmonizing together:

to the Lamb

be praise and honor and glory and power,

for ever and ever!

(Revelation 5:13)

Alienation is restored into communion, that’s how the nations are blessed.

Part 6: The Mission of the Corporate End-time Temple

The chariots of God are tens of thousands

and thousands of thousands;

the Lord has come from Sinai into His sanctuary.

When You ascended on high,

You took many captives;

You received gifts from people,

even from the rebellious—

that You, Lord God, might dwell there.

(Psalm 68:17-18)

It is hard to read this psalm without the imagination of Sinai. Exodus 19 was the Sinai theophany where God descended in thunder, lightning, and fire. After the giving of the Law and the covenant ratification (or wedding ceremony), Moses ascended to God’s presence (Exodus 24:18), where God commanded the construction of the tabernacle: “Then have them make a sanctuary for Me, and I will dwell among them.” (Exodus 25:8). Then, after the golden calf episode and the re-establishment of the covenant (Exodus 32-34), the people of Israel offered gifts to the Lord:

They (skilled workers) received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing the sanctuary. And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning…. And they said to Moses, ‘The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the Lord commanded to be done.’

(Exodus 36:3-5)

Israel was a rebellious and heart-hardened people, yet they were willing to offer gifts for the dwelling place of the Lord. When “the tabernacle was set up on the first day of the first month in the second year (Exodus 40:17)”, “the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” (Exodus 40:34). This was when the Lord came from Sinai into His sanctuary.

Apostle Paul cited Psalm 68:18 when he taught about the gifts of the Spirit: “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says:

When he ascended on high,

he took many captives

and gave gifts to his people.

(Ephesians 4:7-8)

Why was there a shift from receiving gifts to giving gifts? In fact, Paul was not wrong, because both giving and receiving gifts happened at Sinai. Other than the seventy elders prophesying because the Spirit rested on them, the tabernacle constructors also received the gift of the Spirit. “I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills.” said God in Exodus 31:3. We have talked about how the theophanic presence at Sinai was restricted, while the theophanic presence at Pentecost was distributed (see part 4: Law & Spirit). Paul was likely to see Psalm 68 being fulfilled in the ascended Lord, as Peter testified about Jesus on the Day of Pentecost:

Exalted to the right hand of God, he (Jesus) has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.

(Acts 2:33)

It is also hard to read this psalm without the imagination of Pentecost.

Both the psalm and history demonstrated that theophany and God’s dwelling place go hand in hand. In Beale’s view, the Pentecostal theophany was followed by the establishment of the corporate, end-time temple of God: “Acts 2 depicts not merely a theophany but instead a theophany in a newly inaugurated eschatological temple, whereby the heavenly temple is being extended to earth in a greater way than it had been to the holy of holies in Israel’s temple.” [15] Throughout the Bible, the defining moment of a temple is when God’s presence fills it (see part 2: Pentecost Theophany vs. Sinai Theophany). Just as the cloud filled the tabernacle in Exodus 40 and the glory filled the temple in 1 Kings 8, the Spirit filled the entire house in Acts 2. However, Pentecost was not about localizing a sacred geography, the people themselves became the holy dwelling because the Holy Spirit rested upon them. “It is here at Pentecost where the church officially becomes the end-time temple of God.” [16] Benjamin Gladd commented.

Apostle Paul summarized this corporate temple identity well:

For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of His household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.

(Ephesians 2:18-22)

Jesus himself was the greater, end-time temple that the prophets envisioned after the first temple was destroyed during the exile. In him, the temple was transformed from a place into a person. When Jesus declared, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days (John 2:19),” he was speaking of his own body through death and resurrection (John 2:21-22). Jesus’ death on the cross became the once-for-all, eschatological atonement that fulfilled and replaced the sacrificial system of the temple (see Hebrews 10:1-18). The veil in the temple that separated the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies split into two at Jesus’ death (Matthew 27:51), representing the removal of the barrier that kept people from entering God’s presence. Because Jesus Christ is the true temple and the cornerstone, and believers are united to Christ through his Spirit, the church corporately shares the missional identity as the temple of God. The temple reality expanded from a place to a person, now to a people.

The new covenant community was formed immediately after Pentecost. In Acts 2:42-47, the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, prayer, generosity, and worship. This is not any ordinary community life, but the temple life that centers its gravity on the Word and the presence of God. Moreover, temple life fuels temple mission. As the restored people of God, the corporate true Israel [17], the church is anointed by the Holy Spirit to carry her vocations as kings, priests, and prophets. As kings, the church imitates Christ by spiritually ruling over the world by becoming physically overcome by it. As priests, the church is depicted as a lampstand that enjoys God’s glory and radiates it to a hostile world. And as prophets, the church bears witness to God’s truth at all costs, just as Christ bore witness. [18]

Marked by the resurrection life, Spirit outpouring, and covenant renewal, the people of God as the temple of God continues to expand. Part of the theological concept of “inaugurated eschatology” is that we live in the presence in light of the future. So, what is the destination of the expansion of God’s dwelling place through His people? The book of Revelation shows us what began in Christ in his first coming is completed in the new heavens and earth at his second coming. John the Seer, who wrote Revelation, gave his audience three images to contemplate—a new cosmos, a city, and a bride.

Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’

(Revelation 21:1-4)

The new creation is a new cosmos with “a new heaven and a new earth”, and the church already participates in it as renewed humanity: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The overarching narrative of the Bible begins in a garden and consummates in a garden-city, and the heavenly city—New Jerusalem—is where the citizenship of the believers comes from (see Philippians 3:20). There is no temple (physical architecture) in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple (Revelation 21:22). The presence of the Lord goes beyond localized glory and becomes an all-encompassing reality in the entire new cosmos, which fulfills Habakkuk’s prophecy:

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord

as the waters cover the sea.

(Habakkuk 2:14; cf. Isaiah 11:9)

What stands out the most is that the city identifies with the bride. In Revelation 21:9, an angel told John that “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”, preceded by the angel showing him “the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God” (Revelation 21:10). The people of God are not merely citizens, but covenant partners in intimate union with Jesus—the Lamb of God.

With the Lamb as the bridegroom and the church as the bride, the long-anticipated wedding between God and His people resumes. The theophanic elements reappear in Revelation 11:19, recalling the arrival of the royal bridegroom at the Sinai wedding ceremony:

Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a severe hailstorm.

(Revelation 11:19)

Meanwhile, the bride is preparing herself for the marriage:

Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: ‘Hallelujah!

For our Lord God Almighty reigns.

Let us rejoice and be glad

and give him glory!

For the wedding of the Lamb has come,

and his bride has made herself ready.’

(Revelation 19:6-7; cf. Revelation 21:2)

As on Mount Sinai, the blood ratification was followed by the covenant meal, here the wedding supper was announced: “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” (Revelation 19:9). Why was the covenant ratification omitted in Revelation? Because the blood and the Spirit of Jesus has already been poured out on Calvary and on the Day of Pentecost. Pentecost is not yet the wedding feast itself, but the empowering preparation of the bride.

Until that day, the Spirit and the bride together say, “Come!” (Revelation 22:17).

So come, Lord Jesus come!

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