"Speak to the people of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation. -Leviticus 23:24
Tonight begins the Feast of Trumpets, or Yom Teruah which literally means Day of the Shofar Sound. While Scripture does not reveal much about the Feast of Trumpets, it is a day for blowing trumpets as a remembrance between God and His people. In Jewish observances of this Feast today, rams horn shofars are blown over one hundred times. As their sound resounds, each blast of the trumpet calls out to God saying, “We remember you, God, please remember us.”
Numbers 10:9 - Sound an alarm with the trumpets, that you may be remembered before the Lord your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies.
This day marks the beginning of ten days of repentance in preparation for the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the year. It is the time to get right with God, repent of your sin, apologize to anyone you may have wronged, repay or return anything you have borrowed or taken, etc. The point is to get yourself in a condition acceptable to God before the Day of Atonement when the High Priest would go behind the veil in the Temple, and God’s verdict would be rendered regarding His people.
The Feast of Trumpets is the only Feast on the Biblical Calendar that begins on the first day of the month, the day of the new moon. Without modern calendars that are set in advance, people had to wait to declare the beginning of the new month until they saw in the shadows the slightest sliver of a crescent of the new moon. Their eyes were fixed on the sky, waiting in expectation until the new moon appeared and the new month had actually and truly begun.
The word shofar first appears in the Bible in the Book of Exodus when the Israelites were consecrated and called to Mount Sinai on the third day to hear the Ten Commandments from God. This first shofar blast in the Bible was the supernatural shofar of God resounding with a sound that grew louder and louder as God descended in a cloud to meet His people.
Exodus 19:16-19 16 On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. 19 And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder.
Shofars were also regularly used in the Temple as an instrument of praise.
Psalm 98:6 - 6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the LORD!
Psalm 150:3 - 3 Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp!
Other references to shofars in the Bible include using trumpets to sound alarms for the people of God to assemble for battle, convene leaders, announce the new moon/month, and proclaim the year of Jubilee. Blowing the shofar was God’s miliary strategy for giving victory to Joshua over Jericho, to Gideon over the Midianites, and shofars were blown before many military battles by the priests and Levites to prepare the way for the Lord’s victory. The blast of the shofar declares that the God of Israel is King over all the earth. He is ultimately victorious!
Psalm 47:5 - God has gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.
Watchmen were also supposed to blow the shofar as a warning to God’s people to repent of the sins in preparation for the day of the Lord.
Ezekiel 33:2-6 - 2 "Son of man, speak to your people and say to them, If I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and make him their watchman, 3 and if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, 4 then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman's hand.
It is traditional for the Jewish people to read Genesis Chapter 22 on this day. This is the story of Abraham bringing Isaac to the Mountain to offer him as a sacrifice unto the Lord, but the Lord instead supplied a ram whose horn was caught in the thicket. On this day, Abraham prophetically saw the day of the Lord and declared Yahweh Jireh “on the mount of the Lord, it will be provided.” Significantly and not accidentally, this occurred on the same mountain where the Temple was later built and where Jesus, the Lamb of God, was crucified.
As followers of Jesus, let us also remember that there are trumpets that are still yet to come. In the Book of Revelation, after the seven seals are opened to unleash plagues, pestilence, and various forms of destruction on the earth, a series of seven trumpets are blown. At the sound of the last trumpet, the great trumpet, the Lord descend on the clouds with a shout of victory! The angels will be sent out to gather the elect from all the earth, and the Kingdom of the world will become the Kingdom of the Lord!
Matthew 24:31 - 31 And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Revelation 11:15-18 - 15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever." 16 And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying, "We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. 18 The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth."
After this, the outpouring of the bowls of God’s wrath will consume and destroy all those who have not repented of their sins and turned to God through faith in Jesus. The dead will rise to eternal life or eternal condemnation. Leviathan, the ancient serpent, will ultimately be destroyed. Death will be swallowed up in victory. God will rule in the earth and we will reign with Him. Hallelujah!
However, just like the new moon/month was not on a scheduled day but had to be looked for and watched for with great anticipation to see the sign in the sky, so it will be with the days of trumpets to come and the return of the Lord. No one knows the exact day or hour, not even Jesus.
Therefore, today as you observe the Feast of Trumpets as a shadow of the days of trumpets that are yet to come, blow a shofar or cry out to God with your voice. Repent of your sin and get right with God. The ultimate day of judgement is coming. On the mount of the Lord, God provided a ram in the thicket: Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Reconsecrate yourself to Him as you wait expectantly for His return.
Shalom!
Scripture References: Leviticus 23:23-25, 25:9, Numbers 10:1-10, 29:1-6; Joshua 6:4-20; Judges 7:22; 2 Samuel 16:5; Psalm 47:5, 150:3, Isaiah 18:3, 27:13, 58:1; Jeremiah 4:5,19-21, 6:17; Ezekiel 33:2-6; Zechariah 9:14; Revelation 1:7,10, 4:1
Traditional Jewish Reading: Genesis 22
Trumpets of the End-Times & Revelation: 1 Thessalonians 4:16; Matthew 24:31; 1 Corinthians 15:52, Zephaniah 1:16; Zechariah 9:14; Joel 2:1; Revelation Chapters 8-11
Originally published as: "Feast of Trumpets" - Reprinted from The Obedience of Faith Blog - Copyright © 2013 (2022 Updated ) Wendy Bowen – ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WORLDWIDE