With a Subtitle: Pentecost undid Babel — and invites you out of your lane.

A brief Excerpt: At Pentecost, God didn't just let Parthians sound like Parthians — He made Galileans speak like them. The miracle wasn't sameness; it was crossing over. The same Spirit still calls His people to step outside the familiar so others can hear.

The Author is: Rich Holt

Scripture

Our verse for today comes from Acts 2:8, “And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born?”

Background

One of the many delightful scenes revealing one of the numerous ingenious inventions of Willy Wonka in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory includes the revelation of the lickable wallpaper. This wallpaper, Wonka explains to the few remaining in the group, was made for nurseries so that the little ones could taste the fruit that was pictured on the paper. With his insatiable excitement, Wonka exclaims, “Lick an orange, it tastes like an orange. Lick a pineapple; it tastes like a pineapple. The strawberries taste like strawberries. The snozzberries taste like snozzberries.” Now, ignoring the fact that this wallpaper may have wiped out the entire human race by its spread of every germ imaginable, what we hear Wonka say with such exuberance is that the pictures taste exactly like what they are. There is no uncertainty, no confusion. In my mind, I can hear someone describing the scene at Pentecost in a similar way: the Parthians sound like Parthians, and the Elamites sound like Elamites. The Asians sound like Asians, the Cretans sound like Cretans. Except in this scene, something has broken through. There is confusion, but in the best way.

Application

Galileans are sounding like Parthians, and Galileans are sounding like Elamites. The God of the universe was, for the moment, undoing some of what happened at the Tower of Babel, bringing together peoples and nations that had been separate. And in doing so, we can see His model laid out for us. We Galileans love to sound like Galileans. We feel most comfortable when what we hear and who we’re with are what we’re used to. But God desires us to cross over. If the unbelieving Cappadocians only ever heard from other unbelieving Cappadocians, what would their fate for eternity be? Somehow, somewhere, you can be one who is more than the orange who always tastes like an orange. Go ahead, be a pineapple that tastes like a razzleberry. And let God do His wonders.

Charge

As we seek Him today, step outside your lane and try something a little different.