Why Day of Trumpets is Important

Automated transcript, lightly edited for readability. Scripture appears as spoken; the video is the authoritative teaching.

Do you ever find yourself searching for something bigger than you? For a community to be a part of? A place founded on truth and love? A place to worship the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and the Son of God? Welcome to Founded in Truth, where we're more than just a fellowship. We're a family, so welcome home. Shabbat Shalom everybody. Welcome to Founded in Truth Fellowship. We are so excited to come together this week and dive into God's Word once again.

The Feast of Yom Teruah

What's so special about today is it's the biblical feast of Yom Teruah, the day of shouting or the day of trumpets, also known as Rosh Hashanah, which is translated as the head of the year. It's the beginning of the agricultural new year when the early rains come in the fall, which is always neat. That's why rain during Sukkot is always a blessing, because it's kicking off a new cycle of God's promised blessing for the next year. And we're going to talk about all of the other names that this day also has in reference to tradition in Scripture. But the reason today is an exciting time is this: as we'll see, God set up memorials in the Bible.

He set up memorials for us to acknowledge and participate in every single year. And today is the Feast of Trumpets. It is a memorial of trumpets, as Leviticus 23 says. A memorial, a time to meditate, a time to remember something important. And that thing is who God is. So join me as we open the Word and turn to everybody's absolute favorite book of the Bible, the book of Leviticus, as we begin this journey to learn a little bit about this day and its purpose.

Biblical Feasts as Memorials

Today is the Day of Trumpets, and it is one of the seven or eight biblical feasts that is mentioned in the Bible, depending on how you count them. Each one of these biblical feasts were meant to remind Israel of certain elements about their God, or to be a memorial, or to reinstitute a type of formal worship. When we come to these anniversaries in the Bible—these biblical feasts of the Lord, as Leviticus 23 calls them and as the biblical authors describe them—we have to understand the context of what the Bible is and what it's saying. I'm currently enrolled in an online Bible course by the Good Book Geeks, led by the teacher and doctoral candidate Matt Knapper. He's also one of the pastors over at Bates Shalom Fellowship in Monroe, Louisiana.

He's begun offering seminary-level classes online, which is absolutely amazing. The class is called History of the Bible 101. It's a raw look at what the Bible is, what the Bible isn't, and what the Bible went through to become what it is today. In last week's class, we discussed something that I thought was so profound. Before written languages, stories were told. I know, you're looking and you're saying, well, Matt, duh. But for some reason, I just found this so profound.

The Power of Stories

Stories were important. Narrative was important. Repetition and how you tell the story, how you tell the history of your people to the children and the next and the next and the next. Before written language, you didn't just give a child a book in the ancient world. You told them the story so they could learn, so they could go back to the history of your people or of the tribe. The thing about the biblical feasts, the biblical festivals, most of them have to do with telling a story. When we come to them, we're remembering. It's another story being told. It's the same tactic or strategy of passing on information.

Even though it's written, we're being told a story. Passover—the purpose of Passover is to retell the story of God's deliverance from slavery, to tell the story. That's the festival that Yeshua chose to emphasize the power of the kingdom of God through him, right? That through him, there would be a greater Passover, a greater exodus, not from slavery in Egypt or from the oppressive power of Pharaoh, but from sin and death itself. Unleavened bread—the same thing. It's a week-long memorial story of being without leavening. Why? To remember the story of our departure from Egypt. Yom HaBikarim, firstfruits—an indicator of the new barley harvest in the spring, a memorial that God is our provider. Shavuot, or Pentecost in the Greek, a memorial again of God's provision in our life, and later a reminder of God's covenant being made with his people.

The Other Feasts and Yom Teruah

And then you come to Yom Teruah, or Rosh Hashanah, or one of the many names that today is, and it's a memorial. It's a memorial of looking forward through winter and coming to spring as we begin to plant the new harvest. It's kicking off this new cycle. A reminder that God still sits on his throne. He is still king despite what the world looks like around us, despite what our harvest currently looks like outside, despite what our situation is. This is a reminder. It is a memorial. You remember something now: God is on his throne. And guess what? He never moved from it despite what you want to think around you.

Love that. It's also a day that reminds us of God's justice and judgments. And it's a memorial to reflect on how we've acted the past year, despite God being on his throne. This day is followed just ten days later by Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement as it's called. It's a memorial of God's grace as he provides a way through blood to purge the transgressions of Israel from his sight. That's atonement, purgation, purging of sin. That's what Leviticus 16 says. Finally, we come to the Feast of Tabernacles. A week-long event that became associated with the reestablishment of the Davidic throne on earth.

Some would say it patterns a wedding festival filled with joy and awe and worship. And it's during this time that it is our tradition, at least, to celebrate or recognize Yeshua's birthday. And I love that because despite some people feeling like it's a fact Jesus was born during this time or that time or that time, the reality is it's about as random as thinking he was born in December. But it's our tradition. This is the tradition of our community that we pass forward. This is the time when we remind our children that something happened in a manger two thousand years ago. And that's our focus.

Telling God's Story

Sometimes people get caught up in this rigid view of black and white facts about the Bible, and we forget it's telling a story to us, and it encourages us to retell the story throughout every generation. During this time of the year, we tell the story of Yeshua's birth, right? Never, ever, ever give up the opportunity, despite not having clarity on facts, to tell the story of our King. What a tragedy if that ever comes to take place. Telling the story in the ancient world was extremely important. When we read our Bible, we see that these authors write about how they see God and how they perceive God. These things were passed down from generation to generation, the stories being told over and over and over again, until eventually they were written down. And the Holy Spirit thought well to add them to the collection that we have today. And I think that's pretty neat. And that's why I think this is so valuable. That's my rambling about the history of the Bible. I love it.

The Sparse Description in Leviticus

Leviticus 23 is one of the places where we see the biblical festivals mentioned. And in verse 23 of chapter 23, it tells us about this feast day we're celebrating. And here it is: Leviticus 23, 23. Not a lot of detail from the biblical author in Leviticus. Thank you, Moses, for not expounding on this any more. And I find this funny because I think we have a slide. Here's the entire chapter. I want you to notice something in it. This is the entire chapter going over all of the seven or eight feast days, right? Look at how much content Passover has, Shavuot has, Yom Kippur has, or the Feast of Tabernacles has.

Look at that content. And I highlighted right there—those two itty bitty verses are the day that we're celebrating today, right? I find this just humorous, and maybe I have bad humor. This specific feast day is also mentioned in Numbers 29, verse 1. Again, hardly any explanation here in the Torah. Passover—tell the story, eat the bitter herbs, relive the story in order to learn about the salvation of your God. Yom Kippur—you do a ton of stuff on Yom Kippur. Here are whole chapters in the Bible devoted to just Yom Kippur. How to purge the sins of Israel away from God's sight. Feast of Tabernacles—just content.

But this day doesn't even have a formal name in the Bible. It's the day where you make some racket. It's the day of a memorial of making noise.

The Function of This Day

And it occurs on the first day of the seventh month. Come together, be one, don't mow your lawn, don't do any regular work, make a bunch of racket, blow trumpets, shout, clap your hands. And there are a ton of theories on the function of this day, Yom Teruah. One Jewish scholar, Baruch Levine, presents this with a simplicity I really enjoyed. I don't know if I agree with him or not, but I appreciated his straightforward explanation of what, according to Torah, the purpose of this day was. He believes the sole purpose of this day was to announce that Sukkot was only two weeks away. Now, I know some of us are like, well, that's just a minimal explanation.

The Mystery of the Seventh Month

How many of you guys scream and cheer and make a shout when I say, hey guys, who's excited about Sukkot? Right? The day is truly shrouded in mystery. And the fact that it kicks off in the seventh month of the year shouldn't be minimized either. We know biblically that the number seven carries a heavy significance. And here you have an announcement, a proclamation taking place initiated by the seventh new moon of the year. And not only that, this month has two other feasts in it crammed up against each other. Just 10 days apart after the Feast of Trumpets, you have the Day of Purgation or the Day of Atonement takes place.

And then just a few days after that, you have the week-long climactic festival of the year, Feast of Tabernacles. Could it be, could it be that this Jewish scholar is onto something, at least in part? Could it be that this day, the meaning of today, the meaning of the Day of Trumpets is significant because it is proclaiming something. It's announcing something. What if it was that simple? And there's a ton of Jewish theories and Jewish traditions and Jewish commentaries about this day. Oh, it's awesome stuff, and it's great. But what if in its origin it was simply to announce something very important?

Something big. Something worth an entire day of blowing trumpets and clapping and shouting and proclaiming it, announcing it. Something big is taking place. And all of Israel was commanded to stop. Be still. Raise your head up and collectively blow trumpets.

The Trumpet's Signal

Why the trumpet? Well, the trumpet's pretty significant. In Exodus 19, God calls all of Israel to consecrate themselves. This is at the foot of Mount Sinai. And all of Israel is about to approach God formally for the first time. And they're there to make themselves ready to approach him. And he tells Moses, he says, listen, you go down and you tell them to clean themselves up, wash their clothes, don't touch each other, wait for the signal. He says, wait for the signal. What's the signal? When you hear the sound of the trumpet from the mountain, they are then to approach the mountain of God. The trumpet at Mount Sinai represented the signal of the coming proximity with God. It was both a wonderful and awesome and terrifying story when it took place.

The Summer Heat of Israel

But in the culture of ancient Israel, if you know a little bit about the area, this day sits on the edge of the devastating summer heat in the Levant, the entire Middle East. And during this time of the year, specifically in Israel, everything dies. If you've ever went to Israel in August or September, yeah, great time to go, by the way, if you don't want to wait in line for any attractions. Why? Because it is the worst time to ever go to Israel in the year because it's just so hot and almost miserable. Anything that would grow... During the springtime, that turned green, now turns orange, burnt, dead.

Everything dies. The blooming green desert of Israel just turns orange. The heat is awful. This is when Jenny and I went for our five-year anniversary six years ago. Happy anniversary, baby. And it was just awful heat. We had a great time, but there were also no lines at any of the attractions. So, bet you in, we had the whole place to ourselves. Where are the options before you go? There are some perks. But I bring this up because it's important for us to try to figure out the significance of this day and where it is on the calendar. And I would submit that during this time in the ancient world, the pagan nations also had a type of myth around the changing of the seasons.

The Cycle of Tammuz

They had some really interesting beliefs based on this fact that everything gets so hot during the summertime that it dies, and then during the late fall and winter, everything starts turning green again. The pagans thought that their shepherd God, the pagan God who makes the grass grow for their sheep and their flocks, according to their myth, his name was Tammuz. They believed that he died before the summer heat hit. And that was their explanation. Well, everything's dying. Why is everything dead? Oh, Tammuz is dead, right? Obviously, he doesn't have any power. And so they had morning rituals for him every year during the seasonal cycle.

It's mentioned in the Bible. But imagine, imagine the entire green lush land of Israel turns burnt orange during the summer months. And the pagans' response to this was that the God they believe nurtured the green lush produce of the land was sucked down in the underworld for about six months, being betrayed by his girlfriend, whose name was Inanna or Ishtar, and allowed to resurrect kind of in the fall and winter months where the land of Israel would bloom again. Oh, he's back. It's this cycle. This was the reality in the rest of the world surrounding ancient Israel. That's how hot it was. They had to make up stuff to explain it.

This story is literally called the cycle of Tammuz. And I guess since we're on the topic, you may have heard of names like this before, Tammuz and Ishtar. I want to take the moment to try to clarify some stuff. There's a lot of stuff on the internet, guys, and there's a lot of farce historical teachings out there that say things like Ishtar was Tammuz's mother or Ishtar is the same person as the 10th century Assyrian queen named Semiramis. And these things are not true. There is no primary source to back this up. It was a farce fabrication that was made up in the 1800s. And I mentioned that for some reason in the messianic world, we are like flies to this type of made-up history.

But the story that's sometimes told about these pagan gods of Tammuz and Ishtar being mother and son and Ishtar being Semiramis is just traditions of man. It's made up.

God Positioned the Feasts

Now, back to the history. Those are the pagans. That's what the pagans believed during this time of the year. In Israel's secular calendar today, they actually have one of the summer months named after Tammuz, the month of Tammuz. It's a remnant from the Babylonian exile. Which is kind of neat from a historical standpoint. That's why it's named that. And it's because the summer months are so hot. The fall season comes, the early rains begin to fall, the new agricultural new year begins, nurtures the ground, and it signals this renewing of the planting season at the exact same time as the fall festivals of the Bible.

But in ancient Israel, God positioned fall feast days around these changing seasons. No, they weren't to mourn the death of some false god and then celebrate him coming back because the grass grows back. No, when the desert begins to bloom again, when the green grass begins to grow back from the dead, burnt foliage, they blow trumpets, seeing that Yahweh is their provider. During this season of renewal, they blow trumpets and proclaim God as their king. They remind themselves God has been king during this whole time. Then they fast on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. And then they dance at the Feast of Sukkot.

God's Kingship and Sovereignty

Perhaps today, the day when we shout to God, perhaps it is meant to be an ancient signal of proclaiming our faithfulness to God, acknowledging that He is King over our life and our steps. Now, throughout millennia, Judaism has come to regard this day with other themes that are really interesting, that are associated with God's kingship, with themes of God's judgment. They believe the book of life is opened and the names are written or taken out today, which we see this view mentioned in the New Testament with the whole Lamb's book of life mentioning and so on and so forth. It was associated with these types of things in the first century. How did these themes come to evolve in Judaism when there are really no direct links in the Bible?

Well, because when this day is an announcement of God being in control of seasons and His blessings outpouring onto His people, a signal to prepare our hearts for Yom Kippur and the festival of Tabernacles, it is a proclamation of His kingship and sovereignty. Natural evolution. And perhaps this day truly isn't just a day that we proclaim something. Maybe it's a fact and a warning. God is in control, and the days of atonement, the day of atonement, and the days of your presence tabernacling among us are almost here. Get ready. Get ready. This is a reminder of who God is. Get ready.

Where We've Pledged Our Allegiance

You know, sometimes we need a reminder that God is still in control, and as believers, we're always told that. I mean, come on, we're always told, yeah, God's in control, but I think just like the rest of the world, we get distracted sometimes. I sure am prone to. This day in Leviticus 23 is literally known as a memorial of clamor. That's what teruah is. Teruah sometimes translated as trumpet blast, sometimes translated as commotion or clapping, shouting, clamor. It is a memorial of a day of clamor. So much racket is to be made on this day, so much noise that it is supposed to drive away all distractions in your life.

How many of us are more focused on the elections right now, on politics in this secular country we live in, of who our new leader or our new Caesar will be? How many of us are too distracted by that, that we've lost focus on the king that we already have? Philippians 3.20 is an amazing verse. It says that we are citizens of the kingdom of heaven. That's where we've pledged our allegiance. That's where we've pledged our allegiance, right? When we call Yeshua the anointed one, the Messiah, That means king. We call him Yeshua the King, Yeshua the Christ, Yeshua HaMashiach. And then somehow we find ourselves wearing the gospel message as war paint to enforce the political views of this nation.

No, we're to be an embassy of another kingdom while we are here in this nation. When people look at you during this season, do you just look like everyone else? Are you just... angry at everyone else? Are you just upset about everything else? Have you drawn a line in the sand about people that wear masks or people that don't during the time when no one has any idea what to do in our country? Or maybe you've decided, oh, you already know what to do. As these are things to ponder on days like this, when the noise is supposed to get us to focus back on who's on the throne, who's always been on the throne.

And as a result, how have we been responding to that fact? How have we been living and reflecting that fact in this world?

I Love History Because History Is a Constant Reminder

I love history because history is a constant reminder of the cycles of mankind. So what's interesting is reading a great article the other day about plagues in the ancient world. And in 261 AD, there was a massive plague that broke out in the Roman Empire. It was devastating, just wiping out everybody. And what's fascinating is this is the time in history where Christians were being persecuted. Not like, oh, you can't gather in a church or you have to wear a mask, persecuted. No, they were being skinned alive for their refusal to give loyalty and allegiance to Caesar. Skinned alive. Take a moment and process what that would be like. Take a moment. What would the blade feel like? The gasps of the audience while they are entertained by your screaming or the screaming of your wife or children. And all you have to do is to make it stop. All you have to do to make it stop. You can make it stop right now if you just say, Caesar is my Lord. But instead, you continue to scream, Yeshua is Lord over me. It's the last thing Paul proclaimed in the book of Acts before he got his head removed.

When Everyone Hated Them, They Still Showed Up

This plague just broke out and devastated the empire. And what's interesting is a Christian bishop of Alexandria named Dionysius. He writes about how the Christians responded to the pagans that persecuted them and how they responded to the pagans that hated them becoming ill with this plague. He says that they ran to them. See, during this time, the context here, and it's very difficult for us, we always like to take what we have today and overlay it in the Roman Empire. There was no health care during this time in history. There were no public hospitals. The Roman Empire had hospitals if you were a soldier.

No, there's no hospital for you. No health care, no hospital, nothing. The Christians, the ones that everybody hated, the ones that everybody killed for entertainment because they refused to conform to the political expectations of their world, these Christians ran to their enemies, sat with them, and nursed them and helped save them. Here's a quote from this bishop. Many who had healed others fell victims themselves. The best of our brethren have been taken from us in this manner. Some were priests, some were deacons, and some laity of great worth. This death, the death that they got when they went to go help other people, their enemies, try to save their enemies, their death, this death with the faith that accompanied it, appeared to be just a little inferior to martyrdom itself.

That's how he esteemed the actions that led to the death of these believers. The best of our brethren, right here, were taken in this manner. Matt, what's your point? Well, are we supposed to put ourselves in harm's way and get sick during this time in our nation? No, that's not the point here that I'm making. No one wanted to die. No one wanted to die in the third century. Here, he's trying to foster some type of positive note of his friends dying, like they were almost martyrs because they did this. The point here wasn't necessarily that Christians got sick while helping others. The point is, in a world that did not have medical care, did not have hospitals, did not have people or government infrastructure to build any form of health care of any kind, the Christians saw a need and they jumped to fill it.

When people were hurting, it was the followers of Yeshua historically that showed up. They were willing to say, even though the rest of the world does not care about people, we are the ambassadors of another kingdom. We will still show up. We will still love. We will still care. We will still show grace. We will reflect Yeshua in the time of a political unrest, in a time of constant hatred, in a time where minority groups, which they were, were looked down upon. They said, we will respond.

The Christians Launched the Trajectory

Thank God. Thank God these Christians in the third century and in the fourth century began to actually come together and open up public hospitals. Historically, it was the Christian believers in the fourth century that had the bright idea, maybe we should have public health care because lots of people are getting sick. And maybe, maybe, maybe this would be a way that we can show the world what love and mercy and grace and self-sacrifice looks like. Yeah, thank God these Christians paved the way for us having hospitals open to us today. That's my theology. That's what I believe. I believe these Christians launched the trajectory based on Yeshua's earthly kingdom that led to our medical system today.

Because no one wanted it. No one wanted it in the first century. And although our medical system is not perfect, I believe that it exists along with the massive amount of physicians, hospitals, and medical care. I believe it is because of the impact of Jesus 2,000 years ago that we have these things today. I'm a type 1 diabetic. I believe it's because of the ministry and the person of Yeshua and his impact on the world that I have an insulin pump today. Yeah, Yeshua did that 2,000 years ago. I believe that is the expansion of the attributes of the kingdom of God. Even if the doctors are atheists and they don't know, it doesn't matter. You're working for Jesus.

Don't Twist the Point of This Story

So I'm not drawing from this story that you should run into an infected hospital right now and demand to take care of infected patients to show your loyalty to the kingdom of God. That's already been done. But in this story, it wasn't. So the Christians did everything they could to stop the spread of the virus to the people that most hated them. I'm convicted right now reading this story. The Christians wanted to do everything possible to stop this deadly plague from spreading to the people that most hated them. Fine, Matthew, that's really convicting. That's really cool. What does that have to do with today?

Well, if they could do that, can you show kindness today? Can you do that? Can you not show bitterness in the world today? If they can do that, can you not represent some form of mercy in the world? If they can do that, if they are willing to lay down their life for their enemy, willing to get sick and die so that they could live, can we not respond in some way that sets us apart from the chaos and the bitterness and the hatred going on in our country right now? That's the point to this story. Don't take this story and twist the point. I've seen people do it. Christians die for their enemies. That is part of the gospel mission.

Christians die for their enemies. Christians lay down their lives for their enemies. Christians do whatever it takes to show their enemies the attributes of God and the kingdom of God. How are we supposed to know? That doesn't make any sense. No, no. Yeshua never did that. Take up your cross and follow me. It's the hardest aspect to put into practice in the gospel.

Can You Rise Above the Politics? Here, Christians did whatever they could to stop their enemies from dying. Can you rise above the politics of our secular nation today and love like our brothers here loved the people that hated them? Can you? I'm not saying don't vote. Vote. It's important as a citizen of this country. But your priority is to be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven first. That's what Philippians 3.20 says. You're an ambassador of a greater kingdom, and everybody's watching you right now. They're watching to see if you stick out. They're watching if you look different than everyone else who's screaming or bitter towards other people or minimizing other people or labeling other people without even knowing them.

Maybe Today Is a Proclamation to Remember

Maybe today, Yom Teruah, is a proclamation to remember who our God is and what his kingdom does through the example of Yeshua. Maybe. Psalm 81 is an amazing psalm. I love it. It attests to this. It's speaking about today, this feast day. I'm going to read it from the English translation of the Greek Septuagint here because it words it a little bit more intentionally. Psalm 81 verse 3. We know that's talking about today because today is the only feast that's on a new moon. But what does the whole chapter have to do with? Well, verses 1 and 2. Verse 1: Make a shout? Why? Because this is the day of shouting, the feast day that occurs on the new moon. And of course, the rest of the chapter is interesting because it starts off being about Yom Teruah, but it ends reminding and telling the story of Israel being redeemed from slavery in Egypt, given purpose, given the Torah, given God's wisdom. And instead of becoming God's image bearers to the world, they chose to turn their backs on him. He uses agriculture terminology here to reinforce the point of the season in this chapter.

The Day Associated with Approaching the King

By the time of the first century AD, we see that this day had become associated with themes such as approaching the king and the king coming and approaching us, times of judgment, themes of enthronement. Philo of Alexandria, he was a first century Jewish philosopher. He describes the first day of the seventh month as the great trumpet feast. That's what he calls it. It's the trumpet feast because all you do is eat and have fun and blow, make noise. And he connects it with the sounding of the horn at Mount Sinai, just as we did with Exodus 12 when revelation took place. He also interprets the trumpet as an instrument and a symbol of war.

Here's the quote from Special Laws 2. Therefore the law instituted this feast, figured by the instrument of war, the trumpet, which gives it its name to be a thank-offering to God, the peacemaker and the peacekeeper, who destroys faction both in cities and in various parts of the universe and creates plenty and fertility and an abundance of other good things. It's kind of neat to see how it evolved throughout history and how it was viewed in this light. This war instrument that is blown as a thank offering to God who brings all shalom into the world, all peace into the world, who gives blessing all over. And the factions, the divisions, he destroys them all.

It's kind of neat. When we came together as we did last night in worship, in community, we came to give a shout to the Lord and to blow the shofar. Just as Israel did, we announce a season of change beginning as a community and in each of our own lives as well.

A Season of Change

But this season of change is not simply agricultural. No, this is a season when we look back on the past year and we think to ourselves, what has actually blossomed in our life? What has been taken away from the heat of time? Most importantly, when we blow the shofar, when we hear the trumpet call, we look forward into the coming season that God has prepared. And as you know, just like ancient Israel, we know our God still sits on the throne. And the sound of the shofar is a proclamation that nothing is going to change that ever.

I want to conclude with the reading of a Jewish discussion on the shofar and the binding of Isaac. In Jewish thought, this day, the Day of Trumpets, is strongly associated with the Akedah, the binding of Isaac—Abraham and that whole traumatic story.

The Akedah in Jewish Thought

And here is what the Jewish tradition says. This is a discussion—a form of storytelling amongst Jewish scribes. And it's not meant to be scripture. It's just literature, a discussion meant to expound the ideas in Scripture. Sometimes Jewish Midrash triggers people, but it shouldn't, so I wanted to give that warning. So it says: "...our sages tell us that on the entire day Abraham bound Isaac, he saw a ram tearing himself free from one thicket and becoming entangled in another. So you have this ram, just like in the story, bouncing around and he's stuck in a bush. And the point that they're telling, expounding on the story, is that he tore himself away from one bush, but there was another one and he got stuck in that one.

He couldn't break free. God told Abraham, and Abraham turned to God and asked, 'Master of the world, will it be like this forever?'" I mean, good gracious. "God responds, 'In the end, they will be redeemed by the horns of this very ram.' As the verse states in Zechariah, 'God will blow with the shofar and go forth in southern tempests.' May this speedily happen in our days."

Redemption by the Ram's Horn

So in Jewish thought, just Jewish Midrash, the sounding of the shofar is a proclamation. It's a proclamation of redemption. The anticipation here in the prophet Zechariah that's quoted in the discussion is that it will not be us blowing the final shofar like we practice doing every single year. No, the final one won't be us. It'll be God. God will be sounding the shofar. God will be blowing the shofar. God will be sounding the trumpet of his own kingship, rule, and sovereignty. It will be God who sounds the trumpet of redemption, not us. And this has caused many to associate this day, of course, with the coming day of Yeshua's return. 1 Thessalonians uses the same terminology. Also in 1 Corinthians , "Listen, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will be changed," is what Paul says, discussing his eschatological view. "In a flash, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed."

The Last Trumpet

The word used here in Leviticus 23 to describe this day, the memorial of trumpets or shouting, is teruah. And it means to shout a shofar blast or a clamor. When we hear the sound of the shofar as believers, we don't simply remember the binding of Isaac. We remember the binding of Yeshua. When he was enthroned, exalted up on the cross, a crown placed upon his head, the proclamation of his kingship on a sign nailed above him. We remember on the cross when Yeshua let loose a shout. It's the last thing he did on the cross according to Matthew. He let out a teruah in Matthew . "And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit."

Remembering Yeshua

We remember the sacrifice that took place there. But we rejoice in the proclamation of his kingship over creation through that sacrifice. And we look forward to the day when heaven has fully engulfed creation and the proclamation of one final shofar blast takes place. Our God reigns. Nothing else in today's message—I hope you take away this one fact: Our God reigns. And if you've forgotten that, I pray that when you hear the sound of the trumpet, I pray that during worship when you clap, I pray that when we cry out today with a teruah, a shout, that it is recalled: He never got off. He never left the throne.

Our God Reigns

Despite what you feel like your life is, despite what is going on, despite that sometimes it feels like God can't be in control right now, guess what? He never left. No need to fear. No need to be anxious. Focus on the throne. Focus on the kingdom that is unmovable. Our God reigns. Yeshua is our king, and we are called to be the ambassadors and an embassy of heaven on earth. And so the question, the takeaway from Yom Teruah with this proclamation and reminder of who God is: Are we? Are we? Avinu Makenu, our Father, our King. Father, we thank you for this time. Father, we thank you for the opportunity and the blessing to celebrate your holy feast days.

Father, I ask that your spirit would continue to thrive within us, that we would reflect not our own image, but the image of your son, Yeshua. That when we say we want to be his hands and feet, give us the courage to actually be his hands and feet. That when people see us, they see a reflection of the King who saves. We thank you, Father. In the name of Yeshua, we pray, you be praised on this holy day of Yom Teruah. Amen. Shalom. I'm Matthew Vandrells, and I hope you enjoyed this message. Founded in Truth exists to build a community that bears the image of God and lives the redeemed life only Yeshua gives.

If this message impacted you or if this ministry has been a blessing to you, we invite you to take part in making sure the message of Yeshua and the truth of God's word continues to reach others. To make sure this happens, you can donate through our online giving portal at foundinatruth.com slash give or by texting any amount to 704-275-0752. Don't forget to like and subscribe for new content every single week. And we thank you for your continued support. And we look forward to seeing you next time. Shalom.