Trinity Baptist Church

 

The first of the fall feasts is the Feast of Trumpets:

 

Leviticus 23:23-25

 

Of the seven feasts, all are described in some detail, with the exception of the Feast of Trumpets. The Biblical record for the Feast of Trumpets observance is neither lengthy nor complicated. Israel was simply commanded to memorialize the day by blowing trumpets and to keep the day as a Sabbath day of rest.

 

This feast is known in Judaism as Rosh Hashanah, but it is never known by that name in Scripture.

 

In the Bible, it is referred to as the Memorial of Blowing of Trumpets (Lev. 23:24), and the Day of Blowing of Trumpets (Num. 29:1). The "Feast of Trumpets" is a day of sounding trumpets in the Temple and throughout the land of Israel.

 

Rosh Hashanah literally means: "Head of the Year."

Remember, the Jews actually operated off of at least four different calendars. They had a civil calendar, a religious calendar, and other calendars to designate the time to count livestock and crops for tithes.   

 

The actual observance of the Feast of Trumpets is recorded only once in Scripture.

 

Ezra, the scribe, related that it was during the Feast of Trumpets that the Temple altar was rebuilt, and sacrifices were reinstituted by those who returned from Babylonian exile (Ezra 3:1-6).

 

Nehemiah recorded that sweeping revival also took place in Israel that same day as Ezra rehearsed God's law in the ears of the people (Neh. 7:73-8:13).

 

 

We know that the spring feasts were fulfilled with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 

Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, fulfilled the Passover when He was offered as a sacrifice for our sins on the Passover. He fulfilled the Feast of Unleavened Bread when in the grave. He fulfilled Firstfruits when He was resurrected. We know that the Feast of Weeks was fulfilled with the beginning of the New Covenant, fifty days later.

 

The four spring feasts were fulfilled in Jesus' first coming, the three fall feasts will be fulfilled with the rapture and events following. 

 

We are reminded both in Old Testament writing as well as New Testament, that Jesus is coming aqt the sound of a trumpet.

 

 

There are several things about this feast which should pique our interest.

 

First, this feast was to be celebrated on the first day of the month.

 

Second, this feast was to be celebrated on the first day of the seventh month.

 

Third, the feast was marked by a blowing of trumpets.

 

The Hebrew word here is teruw`ah, [ter-oo-aw'} which means: "an alarm, a signal, a sound of tempest, a shout, a shout or blast of war or alarm or joy."

 

Let’s look at those one at a time: 

 

 

The Feast of Trumpets is the only one of the seven feasts which began on the first day of the month.

 

Come all the way awake and follow me here: 

 

The Hebrew months each began on the new moon.

In other words, the months changed when the moon changed, and the only feast that was celebrated on the first of the month or at the changing of the moon was Trumpets. 

 

The other feasts occurred toward the middle of the respective months, when the moon as at, or near, full.

 

But not so with Trumpets. You might say, “So what? 

 

The beginning of each month was originally dependent upon the sighting of the New Moon when the moon was but a crescent; the nights would be dark, with little moonlight. The precise timing of the New Moon was not always easily determined due to weather conditions and a lack of witnesses.

 

So to signal the start of a new month, two concurring witnesses sighting the first sliver of the new moon determined its start. Watchfulness was a critical ingredient of this feast. The rabbis later added a second day to this feast to make sure they didn't miss it.

 

The two witnesses see the new moon and attest to it before the Sanhedrin in the Temple. This could happen during either of two days, depending on when the witnesses come.

 

Since no one knew when the witnesses would come, no one knew when the Feast of Trumpets would start. After the appearance of the new moon was confirmed, then the Feast of Trumpets could begin, and the rest of the fall feasts could be accurately calculated from that date.

Now just keep that in mind; we’ll come back to it.

 

The Feast of Trumpets is also considered a High Sabbath, and no work is to be done. Therefore, all preparations for the Feast of Trumpets had to be made in advance. Since no one knew the exact hour of the new moon's appearance, it kept people in a continual state of alertness.

 

They knew approximately when the new moon would reveal itself, but they did not know the exact hour of its appearance.

I know a lunar calendar seems quite foreign to us living in the west, but we have to understand that the ancients kept track of time in this manner for thousands of years.

 

Our ears certainly should perk up when we hear the number seven.  

 

God had ordained the seventh day as the Sabbath day, the day of rest (Exodus 20:8-11). The Sabbath day was to be a day of rest and remembrance of what God had done.

 

Not only was there to be a Sabbath day, but also a Sabbath year (Lev 25:1-7), and a year of Jubilee (Lev 25:8-17), the year following seven sevens of years.

 

The Sabbath year and the year of Jubilee were times of rest, redemption, and freedom. During both times, everyone rested. During the sixth year, God promised a triple portion, enough to carry the people over for the seventh and eighth years.

 

The seventh month was special in the same way. During the seventh month, the very special fall feasts occurred: the Feasts of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles. Nearly the entire month was set aside for these three feasts.

 

 

There are basically two kinds of trumpets in Israel:

 

Trumpets made of ram's horns, or the Shofar, and silver trumpets.

 

The shofar was a curved trumpet fashioned from a ram's horn.

 

Trumpets constructed from cows' horns were rejected due to the reminder of Israel's idolatrous worship of the golden calf in the wilderness. The ram's horn was seen as a much more pleasant reminder of God's deliverance of Isaac through the ram caught by its horns in the thicket.

 

When the Lord designated Tishri 1 as a "day of blowing" and a "memorial of blowing," the type of trumpet for the Feast of Trumpets was not specifically identified.

 

Almost without exception, historical observance and rabbinic tradition specified the shofar (ram's horn), not the silver trumpets of the priests, as the primary instrument intended by scripture.

 

Perhaps the original reason for specifying the ram's horn is to be found in the announcement of the Jubilee Year.

Scripture designated the shofar (ram's horn), not the trumpet fashioned from precious metal, as the trumpet to be blown on Yom Kippur.

 

Every 50th year, this shofar announced the arrival of the Jubilee Year in which the slaves were freed and the fields were given rest from the farming cycle.

 

Apart from the sacrificial ceremony, the trumpet had several uses for the nation of Israel.

 

The two main uses were to gather an assembly before the Lord, and it sounded an alarm to warn the people of that which was coming (Numbers 10:2-4,9).

 

The feast of Trumpets is Israel's dark day. It occurred at the New Moon when the primary night light of the heavens is darkened.

 

Israel's prophets repeatedly warned of a coming day of judgment for the nation. It was called "the day of the Lord." The day of the Lord was a time when the Lord poured out His wrath upon Israel.

 

The prophet Amos spoke of this dark day of judgment:

 

Amos 5:18-20 (NKJV) Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! For what good is the day of the LORD to you? It will be darkness, and not light. 19 It will be as though a man fled from a lion, And a bear met him! Or as though he went into the house, Leaned his hand on the wall, And a serpent bit him! 20 Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light? Is it not very dark, with no brightness in it?

The Trumpet was used to usher in the Day of the Lord:

 

Joel 2:1 (NKJV) Blow the trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; For the day of the LORD is coming, For it is at hand:

 

Zephaniah 1:14-16 (NKJV) The great day of the LORD is near; It is near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the LORD is bitter; There the mighty men shall cry out.

15 That day is a day of wrath, A day of trouble and distress, A day of devastation and desolation, A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness, 16 A day of trumpet and alarm Against the fortified cities And against the high towers.

 

We mentioned earlier that the Feast of Trumpets is the only feast day to begin when the moon is dark. This passage from Zephaniah is only one of many which speak of the Day of the Lord as a day of darkness, and a day when the shofar sounds.

 

As the darkening of the moon in the night heavens announced the Feast of Trumpets, so too, the heavens were divinely darkened in as the Day of the Lord commenced:

 

Joel 2:31 (NKJV) The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.

In the New Testament, the trumpet was to be blown at the resurrection:

 

Matthew 24:31 (NKJV) "And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

 

1 Corinthians 15:52 (NKJV) in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

 

 

 

1 Thessalonians 4:16 (NKJV) For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

 

Paul equates the resurrection with the sound of God's shofar.

 

What are the similarities between the resurrection and the Feast of Trumpets?

 

First, they both were to occur on an unknown and undetermined day and hour.

 

Second, they both were to be announced by the sounding of the shofar.

 

I find it interesting that while the Bible often speaks of men and angels blowing trumpets, only twice is it recorded that GOD blows a trumpet.

 

In both instances it is the shofar. The first occasion was at Mt. Sinai when the Lord revealed Himself from Heaven and prepared to bring the nation under the Old Covenant. The Shekinah glory of the Lord descended with a fiery tempest and with the sound of the shofar (Exodus 19:18-20).

 

The second occasion on which the Lord blew the SHOFAR (Ram's horn) was at the Messiah's return. The Lord descended from Heaven with the whirlwind, the clouds of His glory, fire, and the SOUND OF THE TRUMPET.

 

 

 

 

The prophet Zechariah declares:

 

Zechariah 9:14 (NKJV) Then the LORD will be seen over them, And His arrow will go forth like lightning. The Lord GOD will blow the trumpet, And go with whirlwinds from the south.

 

The ancient rabbis repeatedly quoted this verse in connection with the coming of the Messiah:

 

"And it is the ram's horn that the Holy One, blessed be he, is destined to blow when the son of David, our righteous one, will reveal himself, as it is said: 'And the Lord our God will blow the horn.'" (Tanna debe Eliyahu Zutta XXII)

 

Ancient Jewish tradition held that the resurrection of the dead would occur on Rosh Hashanah. Reflecting this tradition, Jewish gravestones were often engraved with a SHOFAR. God's last trump and the resurrection of the righteous are intricately connected in the New Testament:

 

1 Corinthians 15:51-52 (NKJV) Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed; 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

 

Most of us recognize this event as the first resurrection, but few of us identify it with the Feast of Trumpets.

 

Paul was a highly educated man of God's Torah and understood the Messianic fulfillment's of the Feasts of the Lord.

Paul understood how Messiah was a fulfillment of Passover and Firstfruits, and Paul also recognized Messiah's future fulfillments of the fall Feasts.

 

Remember, the blast of the shofar did two things: 

 

1.      It called the faithful home to be with the Lord. 

2.      It called judgment on the nation Israel who refused to come to Christ.

 

Both of those will be fulfilled when the trump of God sounds. Jesus appears, we are called to meet Him in the skies, and that event will initiate a time of judgment upon the earth that will center on the Jews.