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The meaning of 50--The law of grace

The number 50 is written in Hebrew with the single letter noon (or nun).

Noon (נ) is a school of fish darting here and there, signifying life and activity. The number itself is built upon the numbers 5 (“grace”) and 10 (“law”). Hence, 50 is the law of grace, manifested primarily through the coming of the Holy Spirit. So we read in Acts 2:1-4,

¹ When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. ² And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³ And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. ⁴ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance.

Pentecost was the Greek name for the Hebrew feast of weeks, as we read in Exodus 34:22,

²² You shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks, that is, the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.

Pentecost was to be celebrated 7 weeks after the wave-sheaf offering (Leviticus 23:15-17).

Jesus was raised from the dead early in the morning on the day of the wave-sheaf offering, and He presented Himself to the Father while the high priest was waving the sheaf of barley in the temple. This was the first Sunday after Passover, marking the day when the first fruits of barley were offered to God. From that day, the people themselves were to set aside 50 small piles of barley grain and count one pile each day for 50 days inclusive. So it is called the “counting the barley.”

Seven weeks later (or 50 days inclusive) was Pentecost, when the high priest offered “the first fruits of the wheat harvest” (Exodus 34:22). This is when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples in the upper room in Acts 2.

A greater manifestation of 50 is pictured in the law of Jubilee, wherein all debts were supposed to be cancelled in the 50^th year of the Hebrew calendar. Although the Jews never actually followed this law on a national level, this law of grace stands as the promise of God. Grace itself is a matter of God fulfilling His promise by the power of His sovereign will. Hence, the remnant of grace has to do with God choosing them, rather than men choosing God. Romans 11:4-6 says,

⁴ But what is the divine response to him? “I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” ⁵ In the same way, then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice. ⁶ But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.

Works are done by the will of man; grace is done by the will of God. This is a law, an expression of the nature of God, and it is seen in the number 50, first through Pentecost and later through the Jubilee. At Pentecost in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit’s grace was given to the disciples whom Jesus chose, while they waited in the upper room.

Jesus told His disciples in John 15:16, “You did not choose Me but I chose you.”

Paul too refers to this in Ephesians 1:4-6,

⁴ just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love ⁵ He predestinated us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, ⁶ to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

When the Creation Jubilee is fulfilled in the future, the Holy Spirit’s grace will be manifested to the whole world—again, according to the council of His own will. This, I believe, will fully manifest after 50,000 years of Adamic history. It will take that long to eradicate the effects of Adam’s sin so that God may be “all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28).

A major prophetic type and shadow of this is seen in the 50^th time that Abraham’s name is mentioned (Genesis 21:29). The story is found in Genesis 21:29-32,

²⁹ Abimelech [king of the Philistines] said to Abraham, “What do these seven ewe lambs mean, which you have set by themselves?” ³⁰ He said, “You shall take these seven ewe lambs from my hand, so that it may be a witness to me, that I dug this well.” ³¹ Therefore he called that place Beersheba, because there the two of them took an oath. ³² So they made a covenant at Beersheba; and Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, arose and returned to the land of the Philistines.

The well of Beersheba represents the wells of salvation (Isaiah 12:3 KJV), that is, the wells of Yeshua-Jesus. The covenant with the Philistines pictures God’s New Covenant with the world as a whole, for Abraham was called to be a blessing to all nations (Genesis 12:3). The 7 ewe lambs were not demanded by Abimelech but were offered freely by Abraham himself. It was a gesture of grace, given to Abimelech, even as God had chosen Abraham prior to that time.

The fact that this story includes the 50^th time that Abraham’s name appears in Scripture shows us how we are to interpret it on a deeper level.

Both Pentecost and the Jubilee are said to be Sabbaths. Pentecost was a day of rest; the Jubilee was a year of rest, where the people were to cease from their labor. Ultimately, it refers to the idea of entering God’s rest, which is only possible when one is released from the bondage of sin. The 50^th time that the name Israel is mentioned is found in Exodus 2:25, when Israel was in bondage in Egypt. We read in Exodus 2:24 that “God heard their groanings,” and verse 25 says,

²⁵ God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them.

In other words, God accepted their case and began to move toward setting them free, so that they could rest from their labors. Ultimately, they entered the first phase of rest at Passover, when they left Egypt. Pentecost at Sinai was when they were supposed to enter a second level of rest, but because they were too afraid to hear God’s voice for themselves, the Pentecostal rest was deferred until Acts 2. Of course, we know from Hebrews 4:8-10 that they were unable to enter God’s Jubilee rest, even though they physically entered the Promised Land.

We should note also that Joshua was “the son of Nun” (Exodus 33:11), picturing the Hebrew letter noon (or nun) and the law of grace in the Jubilee. Joshua failed to bring Israel into God’s rest, because he was only a type and shadow of Yeshua-Jesus who was destined to implement this law of grace in His second coming.

The 50^th time that Peter’s name appears in the book of Acts is found in Acts 12:6, 7 where the angel of the Lord freed Peter from prison.

⁶ On the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, Peter [50] was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains; and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison. ⁷ And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared, and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter’s [51] side and woke him up, saying, “Get up quickly.” And his chains fell off his hands.

Though he was bound in prison, we find him sleeping, or resting, when the angel delivered him from the bondage of prison. In the broader context, the first 12 chapters of the book of Acts gives us examples of the two works of Christ. So we see two people being compared, where the first dies even as Jesus died in His first appearance, while the second is delivered alive. The first comparison is between Stephen and Philip (Acts 7 and 8).

In Acts 12 we see a similar contrast between James and Peter. James was killed (Acts 12:2), but Peter was delivered alive. Therefore, Peter’s deliverance represents prophetically the deliverance that comes through the second work of Christ in His second coming. Yet we must also understand that the second coming of Christ is the time when the overcomers from past generations will be raised, while the living overcomers will be transformed into His image without dying.

This will mark the time when the first squadron (tagma in 1 Corinthians 15:23) enters God’s rest. It will include only a limited number of believers—those chosen by the grace of God. But these chosen ones will be the first fruits of a greater harvest yet to come.

In Acts 19:6 we see the 50^th time that Paul’s name is mentioned.

⁶ And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying.

This event occurred in Ephesus (Acts 19:1), and it paralleled the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. Whether we associate the number 50 with Pentecost or the Jubilee, both set forth the law of grace by which the promise of God is fulfilled.