Between Freedom and Fire: Spiritual Formation in the In-Between

Copyright 2026. Elizabeth Shulam

In the Passover, God brings His people out. At Shavuot, God brings His people near. In between those two moments sits a practice that can seem small at first glance, but it carries remarkable weight in the life of Israel. They counted. Day by day, week by week, they marked the journey from redemption to revelation.

For many readers of the New Testament, that middle space can get overlooked. The drama of the Exodus is easy to notice. Sinai is easy to notice. The resurrection of Yeshua is easy to notice. Pentecost in Acts 2 is easy to notice. The quieter days in between can feel less important, as though they are only a bridge between major events. Scripture does not treat them that way. The count itself becomes part of obedience. It becomes part of Spiritual

Torah

formation. It teaches God’s people that redemption is about being shaped into a people who can live in covenant with the God who rescues them.

Leviticus 23:15-16 gives Israel the command to count from the day after the Sabbath associated with the festival season, beginning from the offering of firstfruits, until the fiftieth day. This is not random numbering. It is a sanctified movement through time. Israel is taught to mark the days on purpose. The calendar itself becomes a teacher.

That is one reason this season deserves more attention among believers. Many people know how to celebrate a moment of salvation. Fewer know how to walk faithfully in the days that follow. Yet most of life is lived there. Most of life is not the Red Sea splitting open in front of us. Most of life is not fire descending on a mountain. Most of life is the in-between.

Israel was brought out in order to be brought to God.

The story of Israel helps us see this clearly. The Exodus was not the end goal. Israel was brought out in order to be brought to God. Exodus 19:4 says,

“You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself” (NRSV).

God did not merely bring Israel away from oppression. He brought Israel to Himself. Freedom in the biblical sense is movement toward belonging, toward covenant, toward holiness, toward a life ordered by the presence of God, and thus should shape how we read the New Testament as well.

Too often modern believers treat redemption as a private spiritual event with no ongoing communal shape. But the Scriptures of Israel tell a different story. The God who redeems also instructs. The God who saves also teaches His people how to live in His presence. That pattern is already there in the Torah, and it remains in the apostolic writings.

When we come to Acts 2, the outpouring of the Spirit happens at Shavuot. That timing is deeply connected to the story Israel was already living. Jewish pilgrims were gathered in Jerusalem for the appointed time. The giving of the Spirit falls within the same covenantal season that looked back to God’s revelation and provision. The Spirit’s coming does not erase Israel’s story. It comes within it. The God of Israel is still forming a people, still writing His instruction more deeply, still drawing people into covenant life.

That is why the counting season can speak with such force to believers today. Many of us want the power of resurrection without the patience of formation. We want quick transformation, quick clarity, quick maturity. We want one dramatic prayer to do the work that often takes faithful obedience across ordinary days. Scripture is less hurried than we are. The biblical story has room for growth unfolded by days faithfully lived before God.

Psalm 90:12 says,

“So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart” (NRSV).

That verse is not the same command as counting the Omer, but it resonates with it. Counting in Scripture is often connected to wisdom, humility, and attentiveness. To count one’s days is to remember that time belongs to God.

This season also clarifies the relationship between grace and obedience. In the Torah, Israel is redeemed before Sinai. God does not hand the commandments to slaves in Egypt and tell them to earn release through moral effort. He redeems first. Then He calls the redeemed into covenant faithfulness. Obedience is not the purchase price of redemption. It is the life of a redeemed people.

Yeshua’s work does not create a people with no calling, no shape, no way of life. It creates a people who are brought near. It creates a people indwelt by the Spirit. It creates a people who must learn how to walk in holiness, truth, mercy, generosity, and love. The Spirit does not free believers from formation. The Spirit empowers formation.

Paul reflects this when he speaks of walking by the Spirit in Galatians 5. The language of walking already assumes a lived path, an ongoing life, a daily pattern. In Romans 6, he writes that those united with Messiah are to walk in newness of life. Again, that is not a single moment. It is a path. Redemption has direction.

Seen this way, the counting season becomes more than a Jewish custom observed somewhere in the background of the Bible. It becomes a window into the grammar of Scripture itself. God saves. God forms. God gathers. God speaks. God dwells among His people. The space between rescue and revelation is not wasted time. It is holy preparation.

There is also something deeply human in this. Many people live in an “in-between” season even when they would not use biblical language for it. They know God has brought them out of something, but they do not yet feel settled in what comes next. They are no longer where they were, but they are not yet standing in the clarity they hoped for. That can feel discouraging. Scripture gives those people a place to stand. The count says that the in-between is still under God’s care.

In the end, the count is about more than numbers. It is about becoming the kind of people who know why the days matter. The God of Israel did not only save a people from bondage. He taught them how to walk toward His presence. In Yeshua, that same story opens outward to the nations without losing its roots. Redemption still leads somewhere. The Spirit still forms a people. The days between freedom and fire are still holy ground.

If God has brought you out, do not despise the days in which He is still bringing you near.