Did you know that Rosh Hashanah, or by its biblical name: Feast of Trumpets, is the only biblical feast that God did not give a detailed explanation as to its actual significance?
However, according to the New Testament, there are no more mysteries left…
Yeshua came to answer them all and reveal to us all things that were hidden before. How can we find the meaning of the Feast of Trumpets? Surely it isn’t merely a celebration of the new year according to the Jewish calendar. There must be more to it.
On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of sabbath rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts. Do no regular work, but present a food offering to the Lord.
Leviticus 23:23
God instructs Israel to celebrate, hold a sacred assembly, and everything for the sake of one thing: to remember (commemorate) the sound of the blowing trumpet. It must mean that the very sound of the trumpet is very important to God.
The Lord is very specific in this scripture about what is it about this feast He emphasizes Zikhron Tru’ah (זכרון תרועה) — The sound of blowing trumpets. For some reason, the very sound of it holds a very important and prophetic meaning!
When the people of Israel were just brought out of Egypt in the book of Exodus, they had just witnessed the most amazing display of God’s miracles and power. Now, they are brought into the desert, given the 10 commandments, which are followed by a series of instructions. One of those instructions was precisely how to commemorate the Feast of Trumpets.
It must have been extremely important for God if he gave instructions on how to commemorate the Feast of Trumpets out of all things to a people that has just been brought out of slavery and into the desert, with no home or means to survive their journey.
On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled
Exodus 19:16
Can you imagine being up in the mountains, and hearing such a loud trumpet blast, that the very sound makes everything and everybody tremble? It was an absolute holy moment that made time stop. A sound out of eternity that made everything and everyone stop and stand in absolute awe!
That is the very sound that God says we are to commemorate during this Holy Feast of Trumpets, because that sound speaks of something imminent, of what is to come. It’s the sound that announces the power, the glory, and the very manifestation of God Himself!
As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.
Exodus 19:19
The people of Israel heard God’s voice. All of them, not the selected spiritual few. The entire nation standing at the foot of the mountain witnessed the sound of the trumpet, trembled, and heard it intensify until they heard God’s very voice.
The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain.
Exodus 19:20
The people of Israel witnessed all that, and that is what they were to remember and commemorate for all generations: the sound of the trumpet that preceded the visitation of God!
When we speak now about the loud sound of the shofar (trumpet), we speak about the voice of God speaking to His people as He prepares to visit them.
Beit Hallel is a Messianic Jewish congregation in Ashdod, led by pastor Israel Pochtar, serving holocaust survivors and the poor and needy locally and throughout the nation of Israel, while building up the body of Messiah in the promised land of Israel.