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Biblical Holiday Dates Printable 2024 (traditional calendar)

Image is a white piece of paper listing the Biblical holiday dates for the year of 2024, it is resting on a wooden table, with forsythia branches with yellow flowers around it. Text overlay reads: Biblical Holiday Dates Printable | Land of Honey

These are the dates for when the Biblical holidays land in 2024! I made this free printable for you to stick in your planner, on your fridge, desk, or wherever else so that you can be sure to free up these days to celebrate the set apart times of our Creator. All of these holidays are significant, and honoring them will cause your faith to grow tremendously! Some of these days are called Sabbaths in Scripture, which means we are not to do any work on those days and otherwise treat them as the weekly Sabbath. I've made a note of those days so that you can plan accordingly.

There are many different calendars that you could go by that line up the Biblical months with the Gregorian calendar used by our society, and I really don't have any strong opinions on one over another. This is the most commonly used set of dates for Passover, Unleavened Bread, and the rest of the Bible holidays.

Traditional calendar:

The traditional calendar has days going from sundown to sundown. Holidays start at sundown on the day listed. For example, Passover starts at sundown on April 22 and ends at sundown the next day, April 23. The traditional calendar also gives an extra day for Shavuot and the Feast of Trumpets, though Scripture treats both as one-day holidays.

Passover - April 22-23

Unleavened Bread - April 23-30

First Fruits - April 27-28

Shavuot - June 11-13

Feast of Trumpets - October 2-4

Yom Kippur - October 11-12

Feast of Tabernacles - October 16-24

Sabbath days:

While all of the Biblical holidays are special, some we are to treat the same way as the weekly Sabbath. This means we shouldn't do work on these days (your job, your business, household projects, etc.), or go shopping. Of course you're free to take off work on all the holidays if you'd like, but if you can't take that much time off then these are the days you should prioritize.

First day of Unleavened Bread - April 23-24
Last day of Unleavened Bread - April 29-30
Shavuot - June 11-13
Feast of Trumpets - October 2-4
Yom Kippur - October 11-12
First day of Tabernacles - October 16-17
Last day of Tabernacles - October 23-24

Click here to download the printable for the traditional calendar dates for the Biblical holidays. It's free for your personal use.

Whatever calendar you go by, now is the time to plan your schedule and put in for time off from work so that you can enjoy these set apart times.

I Hate Your Festivals - The Meaning of Amos 5:21

In this post we will tackle the meaning of God's words spoken to the prophet Amos.

"I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me." -Amos 5:21

The easy way to read this passage in Amos is to connect the despised religious festivals with the Biblical holidays. Pastors and Bible commentaries will tell you verses like these are proof that even God doesn't like the Bible holidays like Passover or the Feast of Tabernacles, so of course he doesn't expect his people to celebrate them today. You can see the logic, why should we do something if God despises that thing?

While there's logic to a view like this, pulling this one verse out of context with the book that it's in (not to mention the rest of the Bible) leads us to an extremely incorrect understanding of this Bible verse. Amos 5:21 is not about YHWH despising his own holidays that he invented and then commanded his people to keep. If that were true, that would be rather confusing to have God go back and forth about what he thinks of the holidays. But if we take a look at the book of Amos, and the context in which it was written, we will see that this is not the case.

The first thing we need to know about the context of Amos was that it was written to the northern kingdom of Israel after the unified kingdom of Israel had been split into two under the reign of King Solomon's son, Rehoboam. This matters because after the split, YHWH consistently has a specific grievance against the northern kingdom. Over and over, Scripture tells us that Israel's kings continued to follow in the sins of Jeroboam, who first ruled Israel after it was divided. The sins of Jeroboam were especially offensive to YHWH.

What were the sins of Jeroboam? For as much as they get brought up, they are not what you would expect. He didn't turn his back on YHWH and go on genocidal rampages. He didn't tell the people to worship Baal or other idols. He simply changed how the people worshipped YHWH.

God traced the blame for Israel's sins to this man for generations.

One of the adjustments Jeroboam made was changing when the Biblical holidays happened.

Amos was written many generations after Jeroboam, but the northern house of Israel was now ruled by another king who "did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam" (2 Kings 14:23). Fittingly, he was called Jeroboam II (the two weren't related, but had a spiritual connection). Given this context, knowing that an on-going sin in Israel had to do with not abiding by the directions God gave for the Biblical holidays, we should be able to see Amos 5:21 in a different light.

It was bad enough for Jeroboam to change the holidays in the first place, but more than 137 years later, you can imagine the game of 'telephone' that had been played regarding the commandments for the holidays (and surely most other areas of life). A century of sin later, the Israelites would have been even further removed from the correct ways to worship and how YHWH wanted his feasts to be kept and celebrated.

The festivals that God hates in Amos 5:21 are not his. They had been badly twisted and perverted by thirteen dysfunctional kings. Scripture doesn't tell us exactly what they were doing on these holidays, but it wasn't what God had told them to do. Under the reign of the original King Jeroboam, the northern kingdom of Israel had stopped following Biblical instructions for their religious celebrations. This was despised by the YHWH.

If we look at the context when these words were spoken and written we will see that the northern house of Israel was not diligently keeping the Biblical holidays in the times and ways that God had directed them. In fact, they had departed so much from the instructions that he had given that he did not recognize them as his own. That's why he called them your festivals. The holidays that YHWH hates in Amos are not the ones he made or told his people to celebrate.

What the Laws and Rulings of Ezekiel 20:25 Mean

Image is a man's hands holding a red Bible. He appears to be standing in a wheat field, but the background is blurry. Text overlay reads: "I gave them laws that were not good." The Meaning of Ezekiel 20:25 | Land of Honey

Ezekiel 20:25 is quite the notorious verse that can be seen as contradictory, confusing, or as a smoking gun that God doesn't like his own law, and that the commandments are now done away with. But what is the real meaning of this Old Testament verse? Let's examine this Scripture to see for ourselves that this is not talking about Biblical law or the commandments.

Let's take a look at what it says in the common NIV version:

"I gave them other statutes that were not good, and laws through which they could not live." -Ezekiel 20:25

This is an easy verse to pull out to say that the law is not good. Pastors and Bible commentary alike will use this verse as some sort of once and for all statement that Biblical law was not a good thing (God himself is talking in this passage!), and that, therefore, we are now free from the commandments.

But shouldn't this interpretation give us pause? God is talking here and he says that he gave us something that wasn't good? Does that mess with our "God is good, all the time" theology? Doesn't it sound like God is just being mean here? Didn't Jesus have a parable about not giving bad gifts? Why would YHWH give his people something that was not good?

If we look at other versions of this verse. We will see slightly different wording, that makes a significant difference.

"I gave them up to statutes that were not good, and judgments by which they could not live." -Ezekiel 20:25 NKJV

I gave them up to, reads very differently from I gave them. This is not talking about laws or statutes from the Living God, but something else entirely. If we back up and take a look at the context we will have a better idea of what is meant by this statement.

The bulk of Ezekiel 20 is YHWH himself speaking. Early on in this passage (in verse 5), he brings up Israel in Egypt. He goes on to say (verse 7) that when he brought the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery, he told them to throw away all idols and abominations. "But they rebelled against me and would not obey me." Up until verse 25, the whole chapter is about Israel rejecting God's laws in order to serve idols. In Ezekiel 20:24 it says, "They had not done my right rulings, they rejected my laws, and profaned my Sabbaths, and their eyes were on their fathers' idols."

What the Laws and Rulings of Ezekiel 20:25 Mean (it's not Biblical commandments!) | Land of Honey

Because of this context, we can see that the laws and rulings referred to in verse 25 don't mean Biblical law or the Levitical priesthood laws. If we read verse 25 as a stand alone verse, you could make the argument that laws of men - whether religious or governmental - fit the bill, but that's not the point either. The laws and rulings were about the power of idols and the corrupted nature of human flesh. These were what God gave his people up to. This passage is absolutely not saying that Biblical law was bad or that it took away life. It's saying that the paths of idolatry and serving our own flesh cannot lead to life.

We know for sure Ezekiel 20:25 isn't talking about Biblical law and the commandments because of verse 11.

"I gave them my laws and showed them my right rulings, which if a man does, he shall live by them." -Ezekiel 20:11

YHWH said that if a man does his laws, he shall live by them. This is the opposite of verse 25's laws, by which people cannot live. Both verses cannot be talking about the same laws. We see that this whole chapter is about his people willingly choosing to participate in idol worship, in spite of express warnings he had given them about this. This fits with the words of Romans.

"Therefore God gave them over to the sinful desires of their hearts to disrespect their bodies among themselves, who changed the truth of Elohim into lies, and worshipped and served the created rather than the Creator...because of this God gave them over to degrading passions." -Romans 1:24-26

Here is a New Testament passage that agrees with the idea that God let his people pursue their own desires and that his people chose to worship things besides the Creator. These are the things that don't lead to life...not the word of God or his instructions for living.

Psalm 81:9-12 echoes this idea as well.

"You shall have no foreign god among you; you shall not worship any god other than me. I am YWHH your God, who brought you out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices."

Once again, idolatry and pursuing our own desires at the expense of God's word is what is not good, and which doesn't lead to abundant life. Ezekiel 20 tells us that not only are the rulings and laws of God right, but they help us to live! Not only do the words of Ezekiel 20:25 not mean that Biblical commandments are bad or cumbersome, but this passage fits with the rest of Scripture, from Old Testament writings to the words of the Messiah and the letters of Paul, in that it calls for humanity to do what God says.

"I am YHWH your God. Walk in my laws. Guard my rulings and do them, and set apart my Sabbaths." -Ezekiel 20:19-20

What the Laws and Rulings of Ezekiel 20:25 Mean | Land of Honey

More on understanding the Old Testament:
Four Distinctions We Need to Make to Understand Scripture
What You Should Know about the Levitical Priesthood
What Were the Sins of Jeroboam?

Biblically Clean Slow Cooker Recipes

These are recipes for Biblically clean meals that can be made in a slow cooker. These warm and cozy meal ideas are a perfect way to have an easy meal ready for dinner, and they all fit within what the Bible says about what we eat. Using a slow cooker or crock pot can be a helpful way to getting dinner on the table on a busy day, or make one of these meals for the Sabbath day so that you have more time to rest! If you don't want to keep the slow cooker on overnight, just assemble the ingredients in the crock the day before, and the next day take it out of the fridge and turn on the slow cooker a few hours before you'd like to have your meal.

As always, these recipes contain no pork or shellfish, and they are great for a Biblically clean diet!

Queso Chicken Chili from Pinch of Yum