The Fall Festivals, Part 1: Yom Teruah

Leviticus 23:1-2                     1The LORD said to Moses, 2“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed festivals, the appointed festivals of the LORD, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.

Leviticus 23:22-25                 23The LORD said to Moses, 24“Say to the Israelites: ‘On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of sabbath rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts. 25Do no regular work but present a food offering to the LORD.’ ”

In the culture of the West, even the culture of the Western Church, it is frequently the case that people sort of coast through their lives in often meaningless expression of their faith.  Such was not the case for the Biblical Hebrews.  They were as sinful as any other society, but they had one thing going for them:  They regularly ‘re-upped’ with their LORD God.  In addition to the weekly Sabbath they celebrated their relationship with God seven times each year.  The first four, known as the Spring Festivals, celebrated God’s provision through the spring harvest.  As followers of Jesus Christ, whose Hebrew name is Yeshua, we understand the Spring Festivals to be a foreshadow of Yeshua’s First Coming and that Yeshua perfectly fulfilled the Spring Festivals when He came the first time.  The Fall Festivals contain three festivals, Yom Teruah, Yom Kippur, and Tabernacles, which will be perfectly fulfilled at the time of Yeshua’s Second Coming.

Today we begin a three week exploration of those Fall Festivals.

Yom Teruah means the Day of the Blowing or the Day of the Awakening Blast and comes from the root Hebrew word ruah meaning breath or spirit.  Every ancient Hebrew family had at least one Shofar or at least had access to one.  The Shofar was an ancient Jewish trumpet made from a ram’s horn and came in a variety of shapes, sizes, and tones.  On the first day of the seventh month, generally September – October in our modern calendar, the entire nation of approximately 3 million persons would blow their Shofars.  The sound must have been deafening.  The blowing of the trumpets signaled the beginning of the ten day trial in the heavenly court during which the books were opened and the destiny of each individual was decided in a permanent way.

The sound of the trumpet was seen as a call by God for his people to turn from their wicked ways, to repent of their sins, and to seek his forgiveness and vindication.  They also saw it in a very practical way as a summons by God to amend their lives in light of the judgment going on in Heaven.  Those who successfully repented of the sins of the previous year received blessings and prosperity in the following year.  Those who didn’t, didn’t.

This Festival is profound because it is a foreshadow of the Second Coming.  The sound of that shofar blast will be so loud, so deafening that all in the world will hear it at the same time.  Whether they reside in the north, south, east, or west hemispheres they will hear it.  That is because YHWH himself will be blowing it (one of only two times, the other being the giving of the Torah at Sinai)!

14Then the LORD will appear over them; his arrow will flash like lightning. The Sovereign LORD will sound the trumpet; he will march in the storms of the south, 15and the LORD Almighty will shield them. They will destroy and overcome with slingstones. They will drink and roar as with wine; they will be full like a bowl used for sprinkling the corners of the altar. 16The LORD their God will save his people on that day as a shepherd saves his flock. They will sparkle in his land like jewels in a crown. (Zechariah 9:14-16)

The understanding of the implications of that verse, that God HIMSELF will announce the coming of His Son sends shivers down my spine because it so underscores the Judgment that is on its way.  But as profound as this understanding is, it is incomplete for those of us who follow the King of the Universe and recognize he will soon be returning to heal his planet.  Those of us who have accepted Christ as our Savior are guaranteed a place in Heaven:

10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. (2Corinthians 2:10)

That means that those of us who have accepted Yeshua as our Lord will receive our glorified bodies, rise in the air with those believers who have already died to join God’s heavenly armies to defeat Satan and his dominions.  At that time there will be three types of people on the planet:  those who have received their glorified bodies (us), those who have accepted the Mark of the Beast and who will soon be cast away, and those who survived the Great Tribulation but never accepted Yeshua as Savior.  By the time the Millennium begins, some 30-75 days after Yeshua returns, we glorified people will begin governing the earth under Yeshua’s authority while those unsaved survivors begin to repopulate the earth.

But if I am going to appear before God to have my life adjudicated I want to be as ready as possible.  That means I must not be caught by surprise at those gates, but that I must be spending the rest of my life getting ready.  Just because the ancient Hebrews lived thousands of years ago doesn’t mean they weren’t right about some things.  I need to hear the annual trumpet call of the Feast of Trumpets to remind myself that I will one day stand before God’s judgment.  I need to daily cleanse myself of my sins, turn from those wicked ways, and repent before God.

Yes, those of us who are saved are permanently saved.  We will make it into the Millennium and eternity.  But being saved does not relieve ourselves from the responsibility of furthering the Kingdom.  We have a job to do in the here and now: to help those who don’t know Yeshua come into the fold.  That means we have to be studied up and prayed up, constantly striving to improve our relationship with Jesus.  If He tarries, let’s use the time well, drawing close to Him on Shabbat, at the Festivals, and in our intimate times of prayer.

Bacchiocchi, S. (2001).  God’s Festivals In Scripture and History, Part II: The Fall Festivals.  Berrien Springs, MI.

Olsen, P. (2020).  Preparing for Yom Teruah.  Englewood, CO.