Sound Like

Royal Priesthood, Holy Nation                                          Acts 2:2

Sound Like

by Robert T. Cooper

When playing charades, sometimes one has a syllable that it is easier to act out a rhyming word or syllable than the actual syllable. So the player pulls on the ear lobe to signal “sounds like”, and then proceeds with the substitute.

Some people think that a mighty or violent wind tore through the place where the Pentecost 120 were praying. Yet when one reads the Scripture, that is not what it says. It says there was the sound of a mighty or violent, rushing wind. What does that sound like?

Luke does not give us an explanation of why the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was preceded by such a sound. Perhaps it was because the 120 were so deeply into their prayer the sound was simply an alarm to interrupt them and cause them to pay attention. We will never know this side of glory, and probably it doesn’t really matter, at least to us. Had it mattered, it would have been clarified in the Scriptures.

Of course, the word for wind and the word for Spirit are one and the same. But what is the sound of a mighty, rushing Spirit? Plus we surely would describe the Holy Spirit as mighty. But the word also has the connotation of violence. Would we consider the Holy Spirit to be violent? What about the idea of the Holy Spirit rushing? I think the pursuit of equating wind and Spirit is a dead end, at least for this verse.

The point I would like to make is that when we are engaged in group prayer, we need to all be deeply involved in it. However, when God wants to get our collective attention we need to be prepared to be interrupted and give Him that attention.

Do you think the sound of the mighty, rushing wind was significant? If so, what do you think was its significance?