Even though Fall feasts are often referred to as “Jewish feasts”, they are more precisely the Lord’s feasts according to the Bible.
It all began in the desert.
When God gave the people of Israel His Torah and commandments, He also gave them His feasts. One of those feasts has always been wrapped in mystery, and that is the Feast of Trumpets.
Unlike every other feast in the Bible, which God explained in great detail, God never actually gives any explanations about the Feast of Trumpets. In order to understand it better we need to go into the desert and immerse ourselves in the experience people of Israel had when they first received the Torah.
The LORD said to Moses, “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.
Leviticus 23:23
That’s all that God told Moses about the Feast of Trumpets. He simply called it a memorial of blowing of trumpets — zikhr’on tru’ah (זכרון תרועה) in Hebrew.
If we go to the book of Exodus, to the events that took place prior to the commandment given for this feast, we will get a clearer understanding of why such a mysterious message about this feast became clear to the people of Israel.
On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet (shofar) blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently.
Exodus 19:16
What the people of Israel witnessed could be likened to a volcanic eruption, but it was the sheer force of the glory of the Lord. No one had ever seen anything like it before.
And when the blast of the trumpet (shofar) sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice.
Exodus 19:19
After having experienced such a powerful demonstration of God’s glory through the blast of the shofar (trumpets), the people of Israel knew exactly what God’s commandment to celebrate the Feast of Trumpets meant, because they got to witness the power of the Lord’s trumpets.
When the Lord took the people of Israel out of Egypt, He gave them the gift of Passover and the command to celebrate it. After that, He gave them Pentecost, Feast of Harvest and Firstfruits. It was a feast He was giving them for the future, indicating they would have land and harvest they would celebrate every year.
Then God proceeded to give the command to celebrate a Memorial of Blowing of Trumpets without giving any further details or explanation, yet it wasn’t needed. The people of Israel knew what that memorial was all about because they got to witness it just weeks prior to it in the desert.
That event was so powerful, dramatic and glorious, that it would be impossible that anyone would ever forget having lived through it. God was very adamant about the people remembering that sound, the blast of heavenly trumpets — kol shofar (voice of the shofar). It wasn’t an earthly sound, the voice of the shofar was a heavenly sound.
And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work. For you it is a day of blowing the (shofar) trumpets.
Numbers 29:1
It was about blowing the shofar in remembrance of the shofar blast people of Israel heard in the desert when God revealed Himself to them in all His glory.
Feast of Trumpets also holds a deep prophetic significance pertaining to the future, because the Bible says Jesus will return with the blasting sound of shofar (trumpets).
So every time we celebrate the Feast of Trumpets, we not only do it in remembrance of that holy day in the desert when God came down and revealed Himself to the people of Israel but also as a reflection of what God is doing for us today, of how He is revealing Himself to us today, of what His voice says to us today.
We also celebrate and proclaim the glorious future of the Feast of Trumpets when Yeshua returns with an army of angels by His side, to the blasting sound of trumpets declaring His glory.
The Feast of Trumpets is all about celebrating and declaring the glory of God — past, present and future.
Why the shofar?
The shofar is the trumpet God uses to declare His glory. It is actually the horn of a sacrificed animal and its sound is likened to the voice of God. The reason God chose the shofar to represent His voice is that it is not a man-made trumpet, but it is God’s creation, therefore the sound that is produced from it isn’t a sound a man could make.
That is why the sound of the shofar is such a sacred sound for the people of Israel. It isn’t a regular trumpet. It is a biblical sound traveling through the ages, connecting past, present and future, declaring God’s glory.
During this upcoming Feast of Trumpets — Rosh Hashanah — when shofars will blow all across Israel, it is a reminder that God’s voice is still heard today, that He speaks to us every day.
Why is Rosh Hashana — Feast of Trumpets so important to Christians?
Because it doesn’t only speak about past, but also about future events that we read about in the New Testament; this feast is about us as believers proclaiming the imminent return of our Lord Jesus.
Today, as the nation of Israel is preparing to celebrate the Feast of Trumpets through ceremonial prayers, cleaning their homes and ensuring everything is ready for the big feast, every Christian should also celebrate the Feast of Trumpets by preparing our hearts to meet the Lord, to walk with Him, to hear the sound of His voice in our lives and be transformed by His glory.
We pray for you today from the desert of Israel, may God visit you during these feasts, may He speak to you and release His heavenly blessings on you and your loved ones.
