The Feast of Trumpets is about a remembrance, but the Bible does not tell us what we are supposed to remember!
On the first day of the seventh month is a Biblical Festival commonly known as the Feast of Trumpets. In Judaism it is typically called Rosh Hashanah which means, "Head of the Year." Neither the name of the festival or the meaning of the festival are made explicitly clear in the Bible. The symbolism of the festival is something of a mystery, a sort of Bible riddle begging to be solved. The Bible grants us only two sparse verses to explain the festival:
"In the seventh month, on first day of the month, it will be for you a sabbath, a trumpet blast memorial, a sacred assembly. All regular work you shall not do, and you shall cause to be brought near to the LORD an offering made by fire." (Leviticus 23:23,24)
Bible commands us to blow the shofar on the Feast of Trumpets as a memorial, but it does not tell us what the blowing of the shofar memorializes!
But when the same chapter comes to speak of the first day of the seventh month, there is only a few vague details. No explanations or deeper meanings are divulged. No explanations or deeper meanings are divulged.
From the above passage we do learn that a trumpet is to be blown as a remembrance on this day. The Hebrew says that this particular day will be a "trumpet blast memorial." But what is the trumpet blast memorial a memorial of?
Various attempts have been made to explain the Festival. By searching through the Scriptures for references to shofars and trumpets blasts, a plethora of different remembrances were suggested. Each remembrances highlights a unique aspect of the festival. Each remembrance is a key facet to the holiday and its accompanying prayer service.
The Ten Remembrances
11. CORONATION: In the Scriptures, the trumpet is sounded at the coronation of a king. The blast of the trumpet announces the newly crowned King and proclaims his ascent to sovereignty. We see this well illustrated in the coronation contest for David's throne (1 Kings 1:39). Psalm 47:5 and 98:6 also illustrate the trumpet blast as a coronation acclamation. According to ancient Jewish tradition, the first day of the seventh month is the yearly anniversary of God's completion of creation. As such, it is also the New Year's Day of the Biblical Calendar. This New Year's Day aspect is reflected in the festival's common Hebrew name: Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah, as previously mentioned, means, "Head of the Year." The first day of the seventh month then marks and remembers the anniversary of the completion of creation as well as the day that God became King over that new creation. Therefore, sound of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah is a remembrance of the coronation of the King of the Universe, and it symbolizes our acceptance of God as King.
2. REPENTANCE: Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of a ten day countdown to the Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement). Because the Yom Kippur is judgment day, the shofar is sounded as a reminder that judgment is very near and the time for repentance is short.
In Temple times, the priesthood sounded three trumpet blasts every morning to announce the opening of the Temple gates (Edersheim, 1992). So too, it is believed, that the first shofar blasts of the Feast of Trumpets announce the opening of the gates of Heaven. This is traditional Rosh Hashanah image is fully employed in Revelation 4:1 when the Apostle looks and sees a door standing open in heaven and then hears a voice like a shofar say, "Come up here . . ."
In this tradition, the gates of Heaven are opened to receive our prayers of repentance and remain open until the conclusion of the Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement service is concluded with one long shofar blast which announces that the gates of heaven have closed and judgement is complete. Therefore, the sound of the Trumpet on Feast of Trumpets is a remembrance of the need to repent before judgement is made. "When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the the door, and ye being to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are:" Luke 13:25 (read the rest of the parable)
3. SINAI: When God descended onto Mount Sinai in Exodus 19, a heavenly trumpet sounded loud and long. The sound of the trumpet at Sinai was one of the miraculous signs that accompanied the giving of the Torah and the invitation to covenant. Therefore, the sound of the trumpet on Feast of Trumpets is a remembrance of the day at Mount Sinai when Israel accepted her covenant with God: the Ten Commandments.
4. WARNING: In ancient Israel, a watchman blew a trumpet to sound an alarm when danger was approaching, much the way civil defense sirens are used in our modern world. When the Israelite heard the sound of the shofar, he knew to take warning of some imminent danger. Ezekiel employs this image by comparing the words of the prophets to the sound of the trumpet warning. Ezekiel says, "The listener who heard the voice of the trumpet and did not taking warning, and a sword came and took him, his blood will be on his own head." (Ezekiel 33:4, see also Jeremiah 4:19-21). That is to say, "If a person heard the words of the prophet but did not take warning from them, it will be his own fault when the trouble comes." Therefore, the sound of the trumpet on Rosh Hashanah is a remembrance of the need to take warning from the words of the prophets.
5. TEMPLE: In the Ancient Near East, the trumpet was blown as a battle cry during seiges and assaults. When the soldiers heard the trumpet, they knew to initiate the attack. The prophets invoke the battle cry of the trumpet as they repeatedly warn of the impending destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. For a good example of this at work consider the following passage:
"I have heard the sound of the trumpet; I have heard the battle cry. Disaster follows disaster; the whole land lies in ruins. In an instant my tents are destroyed, my shelter in a moment. How long must I see the battle standard and hear the sound of the trumpet?" (Jeremiah 4:19-21) The Seven Trumpets of Revelation are our wake up call.
6. All Nations of the earth shall be blessed: A trumpet is made from the horn of a ram. The most famous ram in the Bible is the ram of Genesis 22 which was sacrificed in Isaac's stead. Perhaps that is one reason that the Bible reading for the second day of the Feast of Trumpets is Genesis 22. The prayers of the Feast of Trumpets are filled with references to this story. "By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld they son, thine ownly son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and they seed shall possess the gate of his enemies and in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice." Gen 22:16-18
7. FEAR: As stated above, the ancient Israelite watchman blew a trumpet to sound an alarm when danger was approaching a city. When the city inhabitants heard the sound of the trumpet, they were frightened of what unknown danger might be about to befall them. Amos employs this image of the fear inspired by the shofar blast when he says, "If a trumpet is blown in a city will not the people tremble?" (Amos 3:6).
The danger which approaches is God himself as he readies the heavenly court for judgement. In Jewish observance, the intervening days between the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement are called the "Awesome Days." They are to be days of intense soul searching and repentance and even fear as we prepare to enter the presence of the judge of all creation. Amos reminds us to fear the judgement of God as we would tremble at the sound of the watchman's trumpet. Feast of Trumpets is a remembrance to fear God.
8. JUDGEMENT: The prophet Zephaniah reminds us that the "day of the trumpet" is a day of wrath, darkness, gloom and alarm. Indeed, it is the Day of the LORD (Zephaniah 1:14-16). According to the Feast of Trumpets traditions, the heavenly court is convened on the Feast of Trumpets.
Because the Feast of Trumpets is the Torah New Year's Day (that is the anniversary of the completion of creation) it is also the end of the heavenly fiscal year. As at the end of our calendar year, New Years Day is the day when the ledgers must be settled. On the Feast of Trumpets, the books of judgement are opened and all the deeds of each person are reviewed by the heavenly court for judgement. Ten days later, on Yom Kippur, everyone's name will be written and sealed for final judgement in either the Book of Life or the Book of Death. This imagery is reflected in Revelation 20:12-15 where John sees the ultimate and final Day of Judgment. On the Day of Judgment, Yom Kippur, the righteous are written in the Book of Life. The wicked are written in the Book of Death. The intervening days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are traditionally regarded as prime-time to sway the heavenly court's decision through serious prayer, repentance and acts of charity.
Therefore, the sound of the trumpet on the Feast of Trumpets is a remembrance of Judgement at the hands of heaven.
9. INGATHERING: Perhaps the most famous shofar reference out of all the prophets is Isaiah 27:13. "And it will be on that day when a great shofar will be blown, the perishing in the land of Assyria and the exiles in the land of Egypt will come, and they will worship before the LORD on the Holy Mountain in Jerusalem." This verse is a prophecy of the great Ingathering of all Israel. The Ingathering is to commence with the return of Messiah. It is anticipated and prayed for three times a day in the tenth blessing of the daily prayer. "But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect."Heb 12:22-23
"Sound the great shofar for our freedom, lift up a banner to gather us together from the four corners of the earth. Blessed are you, LORD, who gathers in the exiled of his people Israel." And we know the banner under which we are all to gether.
Therefore, the sound of the trumpets on Feast of Trumpets is a remembrance of the ultimate Ingathering of Israel.
10. RESURRECTION: The tenth and final reason given for the blowing of the shofar on the Feast of Trumpets is to remember the resurrection of the dead. Understand the words of Isaiah 18:3 to be a prophecy directed to the dead. "As a banner is lifted on the mountains, you will see, and as a shofar is sounded, you will hear." This was understood to mean that when the final shofar was blown, the dead would rise and see and hear again. The Jewish legends of the coming of Messiah include a great shofar blast which wakes up those sleeping in the dust. "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptable, and we shall be changed." 1Cor 15:52
Things to Come
In his letter to the believers at Collossians, Paul states that all of the Biblical Festivals are "shadows of things to come, the substance of Messiah." (Colossians 2:16,17). From the above list, it is obvious that the fall feasts are about the things to come. The list of remembrances reads like a synopsis of Jewish and Christian apocalyptic expectation. The warning of impending judgment, the call to repentance, the fear of the Day of the LORD, the Ingathering of Israel, the rebuilding of the Temple, the final judgment, the resurrection of the dead and the coronation of the King are all familiar eschatological themes which both Jewish and Christian communities associate with the coming of Messiah. It is clear that the Festival is ripe with end-times implications.
In view of Paul's statement that the festivals are "shadows of things to come," and in view of the ways in which the Spring Festivals of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost received a Messianic fulfillment within the events of the first coming of the Messiah, Jesus, one can hardly be surprised to find that the Fall Festivals speak to Messiah's return. Yeshua himself invokes Rosh Hashanah imagery when he says, "They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great shofar and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other." (Matthew 24:30,31)
The Riddle is Solved
The Feast of Trumpets is a remembrance of things yet to come. Revelation trumpets are a fortaste of the things to come in full blast if the world does not repent. It is a memorial of things that have not happened yet. Only with God can something be remembered before it has occurred! The Feast of Trumpets remembers the future work of Messiah.
Perhaps it is the obscurity of the future which accounts for the Bible's silence regarding the festival's meaning. The Feast of Trumpets's final fulfillment is still shrouded in the future. If so, then the sound of the shofar on Feast of Trumpets reminds us to listen for the sound of the Master's trumpet.
Parts of this article are in the magazine Bikkurei Tzion under the title "Yom Teruah, Ten Reasons for Blowing the Shofar."
Bibliography
Goodman, Phillip. 1992. Rav Se'adiah Gaon's 10 Remembrances. The Shavuot Anthology. Philadelphia - Jerusalem: Jewish Publication Society.
Edersheim, Alfred. 1992. The Temple, Its Ministry and Services. Grand Rapids, MI. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Scherman, Nosson and Zlotowitz, Meir, ed. and trans. 1994. ArtScroll Tanach Series, Bereishis. Vol. 1(a). Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah Publications Ltd.
Scherman, Nosson and Zlotowitz, Meir ed. and trans. 1985. The Complete ArtScroll Machzor, Rosh Hashanah. Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah Publications Ltd.
Patai, Raphael. 1988. The Messiah Texts. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press.
Kehilat Sar Shalom
