Passover to Pentecost – The Ascension         Week 6 Day 5

(Jesus) who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand. 1 Peter 3:22 (NIV)

It is forty days since Passover the wheat harvest is underway, and we have a “rest day” coming at the sacrifice of the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost.  The group has left Galilee and they are near Bethany probably on the Mount of Olives.  Doctor Luke records the most about His ascension in his Gospel and Acts.

Why just be lifted into the air?  God took Enoch and Elijah got a fiery chariot, why just lift into the air and disappear into a cloud?  Okay, I have no clue, but the “going up to God” part is very important in the whole context of the Feast and the typology from the first Passover to Pentecost and “out of Egypt” theme.

Moses went up the mountain so he could be given the Law.  Jesus went up into heaven so He could give the Holy Spirit.  The Hebrew word for “ascend” has a lot of different aspects, but some of them are associated with the idea of a journey where you are “going up” to a different place.  The whole “out of Egypt” journey to the Promised Land is a going up or ascending to a new land.   A way of looking at Jesus’ life as a whole is it was a journey of Him from birth going back to the Father.

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