When our family started celebrating the Biblical feasts and stopped doing some of the traditions we had been doing, I thought several times that I missed the countdowns of Lent and Advent that had helped prepare my heart to celebrate and made the ensuing holidays feel like seasons instead of just days. Then, as I studied and learned more, I realized that the Biblical holidays have their own countdowns included in the Bible!

Preparing for Passover Read Along

In Exodus 12, we are told when we are to mark the beginning of the year (in the spring) and that Passover is to then be celebrated fourteen days later. In Leviticus 23, we are commanded to count fifty days (including seven Sabbaths) from the Feast of Firstfruits on the day after the Sabbath within the week of Unleavened Bread to the day after the seventh Sabbath to mark and celebrate the Feast of Shavu’ot, also known as Pentecost and the Feast of Weeks. Both of those alternative names refer to the countdown leading up to this Feast.

And finally, after celebrating Yom Teruah, the Feast of Trumpets, at the beginning of the seventh month of the year, we must count ten days until Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, and then four more until the beginning of Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles. Then we are to count and celebrate seven days of Sukkot and add an eighth day of celebration to the end of the feast.

Even the command to remember the Sabbath includes an element of counting! Six days we must do our work, and then the seventh, we are to rest from our labors.

That is plenty of counting throughout the year to keep my little heart happy, and since this realization, I haven’t missed our old traditions at all! YHWH’s ways are always better, truer, and more real than anything we can come up with, and I am so thankful that He has adopted us into His family and invited us to walk with Him and His people through each year on His calendar, counting and recounting His grand story of redemption over and over again!

I hope this will be the first of several devotional books for these counting periods for the Biblical holidays. I believe there is a lot of value in spending these days leading up to YHWH’s Appointed Times preparing our hearts to meet with Him in a special way and to receive all He has for us!

Preparing for Passover cover

Get your own copy of this 14 day devotional to prepare our hearts for Passover from Amazon through my affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4aMYxVo – available in paperback, Kindle, or through Kindle Unlimited.

I’ve also created a playlist on YouTube where I read each day aloud, so if you prefer an audio format, those are available here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbox7vhPW1c-sGHBZ40366Xy1GcPiWWu0