© 1996
Mail Wagon
"Then the Lord spoke to Moses,
saying, "Speak to the children of Israel,saying: 'In the seventh month, on the
first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of
trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it; and you
shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.'""11
Leviticus 23: 23-25 NKJV
I would like to separate this study
of this festival into three parts; 1) An Overview 2) Origin and practice, and
3) The significance of the feast and its elements for both Christians and
Hebrews, both now and prophetically.
Overview
The Feast of Trumpets is the
festival of God that occurs during September or October of our calendar
year. In the Hebrew reckoning, this is
the seventh month of the religious calendar and the first month of the civil
calendar. This festival marks the end
of the season know as the time of repentance, or Teshuvah.
During this period leading up to
this time, people are to examine and reflect on their past years' actions and
repent when necessary.
Another common name for this
festival is Rosh Hashanah, meaning "head of the year." Hebrew tradition states that this day is the
day the world was created. Other names
for this time of year are the Day of Awakening and the Day of Judgment.
The major themes of the first day
of this festival, as seen in the scripture quoted earlier, is blowing of the
trumpets, a day of rest, and customary sacrifices. As we move further into this study, we will begin to understand
the significance of each of these themes.
Before we examine this Feast of God
in detail, somebody may be asking, "Why should I even bother with this, I'm not
a Jew?"
Addressing the second part of this
question first, these feasts are not Jewish, they are God's. Leviticus 23:2 makes this abundantly clear.
"Speak to the children of Israel,
and say to them: 'The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be
holy convocations, these are My feasts.'"11
Leviticus 23:2
Now as to
the first part of this question, the apostle Paul tells us in Colossians
2:16-17 that these festivals as well as some other things are shadows of things
to come. In other words, these periods
can, and will as you will see, teach us a great deal about things to come. This same lesson is told to us also in
Romans 15:4.
All things
were given by God to us for our benefit, in order to instruct us (2 Timothy
3:16-17), to teach us of heavenly things as seen in Hebrews 8:5.
Origin and Practice
As we read the scriptures given above,
we can see that the festival called the Feast of Trumpets, or now commonly
called Rosh Hashanah, originated when God taught Moses the teachings of God
upon Mt. Sinai.
This festival is held over two
days, because it is on the first of the month.
The declaration of the first of the month is based upon the observance
of the first sliver of the moon by two or more witnesses. Since the new moon's observation and
subsequent declaration by the priests could be hindered by many factors, two
days were given for the observance of the feast so no one would be left
out. Thus, Rosh Hashanah is also known
as the hidden day.
Originally, a prescribed series of
sacrifices were given. Since the temple
has been destroyed, these sacrifices are no longer given. The service is now held at a synagogue each
year. On the first day worshippers will
arrive wearing a festive garment. On
the second day, many followers will arrive at the service in new clothes.
Early on, the Hebrew leaders would
fast on this day believing that one third of Israel's sins would be
pardoned. A fast between Rosh Hashanah
and Yom Kippur would eliminate another third of Israel's sins. Finally, on Yom Kippur, a final fast would
eliminate the remaining third.8
Interestingly enough, this is not
the case today. Instead of fasting, the
Israelites enjoy large meals with lots of sweets. Symbolically signifying the desire for a good year. After dinner, blessings and greetings are
often traded for the purpose of obtaining God's blessing during the course of
the New Year.
One of the most recognizable
features of this festival is the blowing of the shofar after the service. A shofar is a trumpet made from the horn of
an animal. Only the cow horn is not
permissible.5 The reason for this is because of the idolatry
pertaining to the golden calf incident at Mt. Sinai (Exodus 32). Before the shofar is sounded, Psalm 47 is
recited seven times.
After the service, the people will
gather at a body of water and empty their pockets into the water (Micah
7:18-19).
The Significance of the Feast and Its Elements
The Hebraic Perspective
According to Hebrew legend, on Rosh
Hashanah, God sits in judgment of the whole universe and decides who will live
and who will die, who will have abundance and who will face poverty in the
coming year.
God is believed to decide these
things by opening a set of three books.
The first book has written in it the names of those who are
righteous. The second book has the
names of those who are wicked. The
final book has the names of those that are neither righteous or wicked, but
somewhere in between. Those people
found in the third book have ten days to repent and perform good deeds in order
to tip the scales in their favor.8
Judgment was held afterwards on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement).
The blowing of the shofar is
supposed to remind the people of certain things. First it is a reminder for the people to return to and live for
God, a spiritual alarm clock (i.e. God's sovereignty). Secondly, it is to remind people of their
faith in the coming of the Messiah and the ingathering of the people of Israel
back to their homeland.6 We
can see the relation of the shofar and the Messiah's (the bridegroom) return in
a passage of the book of Joel.
Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; Gather
the people, Sanctify the congregation, Assemble the elders, Gather the children
and nursing babes; Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, And the bride
from her dressing room. Let the
priests, who minister to the Lord, Weep between the porch and the altar; Let
them say, "Spare Your people, O Lord, And do not give Your heritage to
reproach, That the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their
God?'" Then the Lord will be zealous
for His land, And pity His people. The
Lord will answer and say to His people, "
Behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil, And you will be satisfied
by them; I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations. "But I will remove far from you the northern
army, and will drive him away into a barren and desolate land, With his face
toward the western sea; His stench will come up, And his foul odor will rise,
Because he has done monstrous things." Fear not, O land; Be glad and rejoice,
For the Lord has done marvelous things!11
Joel 2:15-21
The theme of regathering with the
sounding of the shofar can be seen in the following verse from the book of
Isaiah.
And it shall come to pass in that
day That the Lord will thresh, From the channel of the River to the Brook of
Egypt; And you will be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel. So it shall be in that day: The great trumpet will be blown; They will come, who are about to perish in
the land of Assyria, And they who are outcasts in the land of Egypt, And shall
worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.11
Isaiah 27:12-13
The sounding of the shofar is also
believed to be a reminder to God. Upon
hearing its should, God will remember Israel for good and not evil, thereby
leaving his seat of judgment and sit on his seat of mercy and forgiveness.
The
Christian Perspective
From a Christian perspective, we
can find prophetic significance between the seven major festivals of God and
the history, (past, present, and future) of Jesus Christ. Without getting into too much detail about
each festival let me summarize them with respect to the life of Christ.
The first four festivals occur in
the spring. They are symbolic reminders
of the Christ's first coming. The first
three festivals, (Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits) were and still
are reminders of Christ's death, sanctification, and resurrection. Pentecost, the fourth festival, reminds us
and symbolizes the giving of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2).
The final three festivals occur in the
fall. These festivals tell us
prophetically about the second coming of Christ. These three festivals, (Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and
Tabernacles) are glimpses into the future events of Christ's ingathering and
tribulation, judgment, and establishment of His kingdom.
The Feast of Trumpets, signifying
the ingathering of God's people and the period of tribulation, is the next
event to happen on God's prophetic timetable.
It has been approximately two
thousand years since the first coming of Christ. What does this have to do with the Feast of Trumpets? According to the Bible, one day to the Lord
is a thousand years in our reckoning (Psalm 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8). In another rabbinic text, the Talmud, it
states the following.
"[A Sage] of the School of Eliyahu
taught: "The world will exist for six thousand years: Two thousand years of
chaos, two thousand years of Torah, two thousand years of the days of the
Messiah. But because of our
transgressions, which were many, what came out came out." 9
According to the above school of
thought (which originated with the creation story, with seven having the
meaning of completion), we are possibly nearing the time when Christ will
return (the end of the two thousand years of Messiah). Of course the Hebrews believe that because
of their sins, the Messiah didn't return.
We as Christians, however, believe that because of our many sins Christ,
the Messiah, did come.
There are clues in the Bible that
point to the Feast of Trumpets as the time of Christ's return. Read this passage found in 1 Thessalonians.
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. Then we who are
alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet
the Lord in the air. And thus we shall
always be with the Lord.11
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
Now
before you go telling me I'm a date setter, I tell you that I'm not setting the
date. What I am telling you is what the
Bible teaches. In only a few verses
later (1 Thessalonians 5:2), God tells us that the day of the Lord so comes as
a thief (unexpectedly). This falls
right in line with the concept of Rosh Hashanah being known as the hidden
day. Continuing on just a bit further,
God also teaches us these things concerning his return in 1 Thessalonians 5:4.
But you, brethren, are not in
darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.11
1 Thessalonians 5:4
The Bible teaches us seemingly
contradictory verses saying in one place we won't know the day or hour, yet in
other places, we will not be surprised or caught off guard. One way that we can reconcile such teachings
is apply them both to the Feast of Trumpets.
When this festival approaches, we should be in eager anticipation of its
beginning. The laypeople would listen
for the shofar. We as Christians should
also be waiting eagerly for the sound of that blessed horn.
We can also find in the book of 1
Corinthians another passage that can easily be interpreted as referring to Rosh
Hashanah.
Behold, I tell you a mystery: We
shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed - 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.11
1 Corinthians 15:51-52
Earlier
on, I briefly referred to the bridegroom through a reading from the book of
Joel. As Christians, we often refer to
ourselves as the bride of Christ. I
would like to expound upon that concept further in relation to Christ's second
coming and the blowing of the shofar.
In
his book, The Seven Festivals Of the Messiah, Eddie Chumney discusses
the Hebrew wedding process. From this
process we can gather a great deal of understanding concerning this whole idea
of God's marriage to His people as seen in Joel. This wedding process is a wonderful, symbolic representation of
the relationship between the Christian bride and our bridegroom in Christ. I would like to summarize his work below as
it pertains to our study, but highly recommend a further more in-depth study
when you felt led to do so.
There
are traditionally twelve steps that occur during the wedding process. The first one is the selection of the
bride. In ancient times, the father was
the one that chose the bride for his son.
Christ's bride was also chosen by the Father (John 10:29). We are to be like Rebekah who consented to
marry Isaac before she even met him (1 Peter 1:8).
The
second step was that a price for the bride was established. Christ paid for His bride with the most
precious thing He had, His life! (1 Corinthians 6:20 and 1 Peter 1:18-19)
The
third step was the betrothal. In the
Hebrew world, this legally bound the two to be wed although they did not live
together. So binding was this
arrangement that even at this stage, one would have to get a divorce to be
separated. In our Western world, the
closest thing we have to this is the engagement (i.e. the bride in waiting).
After
this, the fourth step was drawing up the betrothal contract. This contract stated the bride's price, the
promises of the groom, and the rights of the bride (2 Corinthians 20-22).
The
fifth step was the act of the bride giving consent, the proverbial "I do." We can see a similar arrangement by Christians
in the belief of the words spoken in Romans 10:8-10.
During
the sixth step, gifts were given to the bride and the cup of the covenant was
shared between the bride and the bridegroom.
We as Christians were given the gift of the Holy Spirit as seen in Acts
2 and 2 Corinthians 1:22. The cup of
the covenant can clearly be seen in Luke 22:20.
The
seventh step was that the bride was given a ritual cleansing or as we commonly
call baptism today. This ritual
indicates a separation from a former way to a new way (Acts 19:4).
The
eighth step is that the bridegroom leaves and goes to the father to prepare a
place where he and his bride will live.
This verse describes exactly what Jesus told his disciples in John
14:1-3.
Let not your heart be troubled; you
believe in God, believe also in Me. In
My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told
you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I
will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be
also.11
John 14:1-3
The ninth
step in this process is that while the bridegroom is away, the bride is
consecrated and set apart. She should
be eagerly awaiting her groom who could come at any moment. Only the Father at this time knows when the
groom will be allowed to return for His bride.
Only when the Father gives the o.k. to the Groom's preparations will the
Groom be allowed to return. We can see
this waiting portrayed in Matthew 25:1-13, the parable of the foolish virgins.
The tenth
step is the step where all the excitement begins. After a long wait with much anticipation, the bridegroom
returns. His appearance, usually at
midnight, will be preceded with a shout, "Behold, the bridegroom comes,"
immediately followed with a blast of the
shofar. This kind of appearance is described in
Matthew 25:6, the parable of the foolish virgins as seen above. Additionally, the return accompanied with
the sound of the shofar can be seen in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17. The marriage ceremony follows and as the
Groom approaches the wedding canopy, a chant can be heard, "Blessed is he who
comes, blessed is he who comes." (Matthew 23:39)
Step eleven
follows the ceremony. The Groom will
take His bride into the wedding chamber and consummate the marriage. Interestingly enough, they will stay in
their wedding chamber for seven days.
Now for those of you who follow eschatology, most Christians now believe
that the book of Daniel speaks of a seven-year tribulation (Daniel 9:27); one
week, or seven days being equal to seven years. It is commonly believed that the bride will be with Christ, the
groom, while the earth suffers through the tribulation.
Step twelve,
the final step, has the setting of a great feast. This is when the father invites all the guests to partake of the
marriage supper. This supper starts as
the bride and groom emerge from their wedding chamber. This marriage supper is
prophetically displayed in Revelation 19:7-9.
Luke 12:35-40 portrays the awaiting of this blessed supper.1
Conclusion
We've now come to the end of this particular study. I hope that as a result, you have a better understanding as well as a deeper appreciation for the rich symbolism associated with the festival of Rosh Hashanah. What an exciting time we live in. Any day, we could hear the shout and the sound of the shofar. When this festival is fulfilled prophetically, we can be assured that we will be with our Bridegroom forever more. Regardless of your convictions about the observance of this feast, you now should at least have your eyes trained upward in the hope that our Messiah will come back to take His bride on the hidden day of Rosh Hashanah.
Bibliography
© 1996
Mail Wagon