The Feast of Trumpets was the fifth of seven yearly festivals on Israel’s national calendar (Leviticus 23:23-25). As I have been observing in this blog, the first four feasts recall events in Israel’s past: the exodus from Egypt, the giving of the law at Sinai, and the promise of a homeland in Canaan.
The Feast of Trumpets was to be observed three months after Pentecost. The sounding of the trumpet was to bring the people together for the three fall festivals: Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles. These feasts are forward-looking, anticipating Israel’s national restoration.
The feast of Trumpets was observed on the first day of the seventh month of the Jewish calendar, the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashana. Pilgrims came to the temple in Jerusalem from all over the land. Trumpets (ram’s horns) were blown from morning to evening. The people rested from their normal labors. They brought sin offerings and sacrifices of thanksgiving. They enjoyed feasting. One new year’s custom was to eat apples dipped in honey with the wish that the coming year would be as sweet as the fruit they had eaten.
If there was a body of water they threw stones into the water with their sins written on them. This was a symbolic act recalling God’s promise that he would cast their sins into the depths of the sea. One of the scriptures the people recited was Micah 7:18-20. “Who is a God like you who pardons sins and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.”
The feast of Trumpets looks forward to a time when ethnic Israel will repent of their sins and will recognize Jesus as their Messiah and Savior. “Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: ‘The deliverer will come from Zion and he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins'” (Romans 11:25-27).
Israel as a nation has been uniquely privileged as God’s chosen people. “Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen” (Romans 9:4-5).
Unfortunately when their Messiah and Savior came, “his own did not receive him” (John 1:11). Jesus lamented, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks and you were not willing. Your house is left desolate. You will not see me again until you say, ‘blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord'” (Matthew 23:37-39).
Because they rejected their Messiah, Israel has been scattered and their temple destroyed by the Romans. There are now no sacrifices offered there, and the Jews cannot make the three annual pilgrimages as prescribed in their scriptures. But the feast of Trumpets indicates that there will come a time when Israel as a nation will repent, and will be cleansed and restored to God’s favor. God will give his people the kingdom promised in the Old Testament prophesies.
“You, O Israelites will be gathered up one by one. And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who are perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem” (Isaiah 27:12-13). Jesus spoke of this national regathering of Israel when he prophesied, “They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other” (Matthew 24:30-31).
The feast of Trumpets also symbolizes the blessed hope of the Christian faith, the resurrection of the dead and the return of Jesus Christ for his church. “Listen, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep but we will all be changed — in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). Believers in Jesus are listening for the sound of the trumpet which will signal the return of the Savior.
Pastor Randy Faulkner
