by Kevin Tillman | May 21, 2026 | Bible Study, Blog, Thoughts
It’s 1446 BC. God gives instructions for the Israelites to place the blood of a lamb on the doorposts of their homes. That blood would be the sign for the angel to pass over that house and spare the firstborn. This was the final and most horrific of the plagues, and it was the event that finally set the Hebrews free from slavery in Egypt. That annual celebration would become known as Passover.
But, interestingly enough, another feast was also instituted that same year.
Leviticus 23:15–16
“You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete sabbaths. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the Lord.”
This feast was to be celebrated fifty days later. Israel was instructed to count seven weeks, and because of that counting, the feast became known as Shavuot, meaning “Feast of Weeks.”
At first glance, Shavuot appears to simply be an agricultural feast … a celebration of harvest. Israel would bring the firstfruits of wheat before the Lord in gratitude for His provision. But like so many Old Testament feasts, it pointed beyond itself. This feast was prophetic.
Fifty days after the original Passover and the Exodus from Egypt, the nation of Israel found itself standing at the base of Mount Sinai. They had been delivered … but what now? On that mountain God revealed His Law to His people.
Passover was for their deliverance, but Shavuot was for their empowerment. Shavuot was God showing His people how to live in the freedom He had given them.
Every year afterward, the Feast of Weeks reminded Israel of God’s goodness in the giving of the Torah … His instruction, His Law. But like all the Feasts of the Lord, a deeper meaning was still coming.
Now it’s AD 33.
Passover and Shavuot had been celebrated annually for nearly fifteen centuries. Every year reminded Israel of God’s deliverance from Egypt and His gift of the Law. But in AD 33, everything changed.
Jesus died on the cross during Passover. The blood that had once been placed on doorposts was now flowing from the cross as the spotless Lamb of God gave His life for the sins of the world.
Then came two more feasts. The Feast of Unleavened Bread was a week-long reminder that Israel had left Egypt behind completely. There was no returning to bondage. During that feast in AD 33, Jesus’ sinless body lay in the tomb. Then came the Feast of Firstfruits, when the first portion of the harvest was presented to God in anticipation of everything still to come. On that very feast day, Jesus rose from the grave, defeating sin and death forever.
Think about that.
For centuries these feasts had been celebrated year after year as reminders of God’s faithfulness. Then in AD 33, Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits took on deeper meaning through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Each event happened precisely on the feast day itself. Some may call that coincidence … but that sure is a lot of coincidence.
While many Bible students recognize the connection between those feasts and the cross and resurrection, the next feast often becomes the forgotten feast.
Fifty days after Passover in 1446 BC, God gave His Law to a newly delivered people. It was empowerment after deliverance. That was Shavuot.
Now fast forward again to AD 33. Jesus tells His disciples to wait in an upper room.
What were they doing while they waited? I can’t prove this, but part of me wonders if there was anticipation in that room. Jesus had died on Passover. He had been buried during Unleavened Bread. He had risen on Firstfruits. Could it be they wondered if God was about to do something again on Shavuot?
I think it’s possible. And oh, did something happen.
The Greek translation of Shavuot is Pentecost, a word meaning “fiftieth.” Pentecost was not a new Christian invention. Shavuot is Pentecost. Pentecost is Shavuot. It is simply the Greek translation of the Hebrew feast. That means that by AD 33, Pentecost had already been celebrated for fifteen hundred years, just like Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits.
This was not a new day. It was a feast day. This was not a Christian creation, this was an annual reminder.
Could it be that while sitting in that upper room they wondered, “What is God going to do on Pentecost?” Deliverance had already come through the cross and resurrection, but now it was time for empowerment.
On Pentecost in 1446 BC, God gave the Law. On Pentecost in AD 33, God gave the Holy Spirit.
At Sinai, God formed a people. In the upper room, God filled a people. At Sinai, the Law came down. In the upper room, the Spirit came in.
Why is this feast so often forgotten? It’s hard to say. It aligns perfectly with the others chronologically and theologically. Maybe it’s time we remember it again.
Passover and the cross brought deliverance.
Pentecost and the Holy Spirit brought and still brings empowerment.
It all fits together with exact precision. Why are we surprised? Some may call it coincidence … but once again, that sure is a lot of coincidence.
Happy Pentecost. Let’s remember that God didn’t just send Jesus to set us free, He also sent the Holy Spirit to live inside of us, to guide us, and yes, to empower us. The same Spirit that filled that upper room in AD 33 is still filling believers today.
by Kevin Tillman | Apr 2, 2026 | Blog, Thoughts
It felt like it was over. Not loud. Not dramatic. Just that quiet kind of weight where you already know how the story ends. They had seen the crowds… They had heard the shouting… They had watched Him ride into the city like something big was finally happening…. They had been waiting on this moment for what seemed like forever.
And then it just… started slipping. What they thought would happen, wasn’t happening. Their expectations were crushed. By Friday, whatever hope they were holding onto was hanging on a cross. By Saturday… it was gone.
We skip that part pretty fast, because we know what’s coming. They didn’t. To them, this wasn’t leading anywhere. It wasn’t building toward anything. It was over.
What’s interesting is how quickly it turned.
Just a few days earlier, people were all in. They were lining the streets, celebrating, convinced that this was it. This was everything they’d been waiting for. Finally, the long awaited King was going to make everything right. They had expectations, but they were seeing it through their own lens. They had a version of how this was supposed to go. What kind of King He would be and what He would fix first.
But Jesus didn’t move that way. Not because He couldn’t… but because He wasn’t doing what they thought He should be doing. And once that started to become clear, things felt off. Expectations weren’t being met, and frustrations were rising.
You ever had that moment? Where something you were sure about… starts to not look the way you thought it would? That’s exactly where they were.
As the week progressed, it became more and more obvious that the way Jesus was dealing with things, was not the way they had hoped. More tension. More resistance. Conversations that didn’t settle anything, just stirred more and more questions. You can almost feel it building underneath everything. This isn’t going how they thought it would go.
And then Friday shows up and removes any doubt. This is done. All of the years of hoping that this Jesus was the answer were now dead and buried. There’s nothing hopeful about a cross. Nothing that suggests things are about to turn around. It looks final… because it is final. At least from where they were standing.
And then Saturday. Honestly, Saturday might be the hardest part. Because absolutely nothing happens. No explanation. No movement. Just time to sit in it.
That kind of silence can mess with you. You start replaying everything, trying to figure out where it went wrong. What you missed. You start thinking, “Maybe I misunderstood, or maybe this wasn’t what I thought. I thought I knew, but I guess I was wrong.”
We know that space so well. When nothing’s changing and you’re just… there with it…. stuck!
But then Sunday came…
There was no announcement. There was no warning. There was no dramatic music playing in the background.
Just an ordinary day. Just a couple of women walking toward a tomb, dealing with a loss and living in grief. But, as they approached… Something was off. Things didn’t seem right. The stone’s not where it should be. The tomb… empty. Then a few short words, “He is not here.” That’s it.
A short and simple message. But it changed everything, because what they thought was the end… wasn’t. It just looked like it.
And that’s where this stops being their story and starts hitting a little closer to home for us. We still do the same thing today. We have those moments that feel final and we call them finished. Things fall apart. Plans don’t work. Doors close. Prayers don’t get answered the way we thought they would. And, without even saying it out loud, we start to settle into it. We just accept things the way they are.
Our mantra becomes, “I guess this is just how it is.” But the resurrection doesn’t let you stay there. It doesn’t always explain everything. It doesn’t always fix things the way you’d want. But it does remind you of this… Just because it looks like the end… doesn’t mean God is done.
They thought it was over. They weren’t even close. Maybe there’s something in your life right now that feels just as settled. Like there’s no coming back from it. But God has a way of working in places that feel sealed off to us. The tomb looked final too.
It looked like the end… until it wasn’t!
by Kevin Tillman | Mar 5, 2026 | Blog, Thoughts
When Life Feels Stuck
What God May Be Doing When Nothing Seems to Be Moving
There are seasons when life seems to move forward without much effort. New opportunities appear. The Doors open and the decisions feel clear.
And then there are those “other” seasons. The seasons where everything seems to stall. Nothing makes sense. And, life just seems hard.
You keep doing the things you know to do. You pray. You work. You go to church. You try to stay faithful with the responsibilities in front of you. Yet, somewhere in the back of your mind there’s a quiet question that starts showing up.
Is anything actually changing? Is anything ever going to change?
It’s not always discouragement. Sometimes it’s just the feeling that you’re standing still while time keeps moving. The world is still spinning and others seem to be content and happy, but not you.
Obviously we don’t enjoy those seasons. We like progress. We like the sense that something is happening. When that feeling disappears, it can leave us wondering whether we’ve somehow missed the direction God intended for us.
But if you read Scripture carefully, you begin to notice that many of the people God used most walked through long stretches where nothing seemed to be happening at all.
Joseph spent years in places he never planned. What began as betrayal eventually led to prison. Those years must have felt confusing at times. Yet later it became clear that God was arranging circumstances Joseph himself could never have orchestrated or imagined.
David had already been anointed as the future king of Israel long before he actually wore the crown. Between those two times were years of uncertainty and waiting. Some of those years were even spent hiding in caves. From the outside, it might have looked like his life had taken a wrong turn. Yet God was shaping something in him. There was a preparation going on in the background.
There is a quiet and subtle kind of work God often does in seasons where movement feels slow. This is where character is formed. Patience develops. Perspective begins to change in ways that only time can produce. Those things rarely happen in the fast-moving times of life. They tend to grow in the quiet ones.
One of the challenges with feeling stuck is that we measure progress mostly by visible change. New opportunities and new direction. But, sometimes God measures progress differently. He’s working beneath the surface in ways that aren’t immediately obvious.
The things matter more than you likely realize are… The way you respond to frustration and the faith you display even when life feels routine. The willingness to keep walking with God despite not having clarity.
Looking back over the years, many believers discover that some of the seasons they once described as “stuck” were actually seasons where their lives were being prepared for something they couldn’t yet see. It’s difficult to recognize that while you’re in the middle of it. In the moment, it often feels like standing in the same place longer than you expected, and it can be frustrating. Still, the absence of visible change does not mean the absence of God’s work. Often the most important things God develops in a life happen slowly. Gradually enough that you may not notice the change while it’s happening. But one day you look back and realize something is different. Something has shifted. I’m the same person, but I’m not the same person. Your trust has deepened. Your perspective has matured. The things that once unsettled you don’t carry the same anxiety… You’ve grown. That growth began during a season when you thought life had stopped moving.
So if you happen to be in a season where things feel slower than you hoped. If you feel “stuck” right now try not to assume that nothing is happening. God’s work isn’t always dramatic. It often unfolds little by little, shaping a life from the inside long before the results become visible on the outside.
The seasons that feel the most uneventful at the time are the very ones that prepare us for what comes next. If you feel stuck today, just realize you might be in the best place you can possibly be. Hold on to your faith, and keep moving forward. God’s still got this!
