The Feasts of The Lord

Leviticus 23 – Part 5

by Earlene Davis

The Feast of Trumpets

V. 23-25, “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,  Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.”

Trumpets is the first of the year-end feasts. A long time elapses between the feast of Pentecost which is in the third month and the feast of trumpets in the seventh month. This is very significant and portrays the two thousand plus years that have passed since Pentecost. It reaches on to the end of this age and the fulfillment of the seventh-month feasts.

The Jewish name for this feast is Rosh HaShanah, which means “Head of the Year.” The Jews have two calendars. The seventh-month of their religious calendar marks the beginning of their civil year, so it is their New Year’s Day.

God commanded the blowing of trumpets to call the congregation of Israel together for a solemn assembly, a day for rest and worship. Their day begins in the evening. The high priest would sound a trumpet to signal the field workers to come into the Temple. The faithful would stop harvesting and leave immediately for the worship service. Remember the feast is a sabbath, a rest, they were to do no servile work. God insists that His blessings to the church, to Israel and the world are all of grace. It is a holy convocation, no works of man allowed.

God seems to enjoy the trumpet. In biblical times the trumpet was a ram’s horn. It is called the Shofar. Remember how Isaac was spared by the ram being caught in the thicket by its horns – Gen. 22:13. In Isaac’s place, the ram was offered. The ram’s horn is the symbol of this sacrifice. This typifies gloriously the sacrifice by our heavenly Father of His Son. Also the willingness of the Son to offer Himself up for the salvation of all men. He was the only one who could accomplish this. Eph. 5:2 “… walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.”

In Exodus 19:16, the blast of the trumpet acknowledged the presence of God before His people. It was sounded to herald the year of Jubilee – Lev. 25:8-10; signaling the release of slaves and debt, proclaiming liberty throughout all the land. God also used the blowing of trumpets when Joshua conquered Jericho – Josh. 6:5. Joshua’s name is Yeshua in Hebrew, the Old Testament name for Jesus. Ehud blew the trumpet to call the Israelites to battle – Judg. 3:27. The sound of the trumpet was heard as the people went to the fortified cities in Jeremiah 4:5. It was blown to warn of danger as enemies tried to stop the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. “In whatever place ye hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye there unto us: Our God shall fight for us” – Neh. 4:20. Also when a new king took the throne, the trumpet would sound a loud blast – I Kings 1:5-39.

According to Jewish teaching, Rosh HaShanah is the beginning of ten days of judgment when all the children of men pass before the Creator. The righteous are written into the book of life, and the wicked are condemned and given ten days to repent and escape judgment. We, who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life do not fear judgment, for Jesus bore our judgment on the cross.

This feast like the other feasts is prophetic. It tells us of the home call of the saints of this dispensation, the Church Age, as well as that of Israel. The Church will be taken up to heaven and Israel called to their homeland. We are looking and waiting for Jesus, when He shall come with the trumpet sound and the voice of the archangel to bring us into His sabbath of rest. There remaineth a rest for the people of God – Heb. 4:9. When that trumpet sounds, a great miracle will take place. The graves will give up the believing dead and the living believers will rise up from the earth. Oh, what a day that will be, to see Jesus and enjoy heaven. I Thess. 4:16-17.

I Cor. 15:51-52, “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” All believers will be clothed with a body like unto Christ’s – I Jn. 3:2.

The last trumpet sound means there are other trumpet sounds, a first, a second, etc. Read I Cor. 15:21-23, “…every man in his own order (or rank).” One of the big controversies in Christendom is that some say the rapture of the church is pre-tribulation and some say post-tribulation. What does the Scripture say?

Rev. 3:10 tells us of a group or rank that will go up before the tribulation, for they will be kept out of that hour that is coming on the earth. We see this group in Rev. 4 & 5 as the elders and living creatures in heaven. Rev. 5:8-10, they are redeemed ones out of every kindred, tongue, people and nation, made unto God, kings and priests. They are the first group to arrive in heaven, the first rank taken up.

In Rev. 7:9 we see an innumerable company of saints in heaven. Verse 14 tells us, they come out of tribulation days. This is another rank or company of the church that cannot be numbered.

In Rev. 14, we see another rank of the church in heaven, the 144,000 of Israel. So there will be more than one trumpet sound. There will be an holy convocation convening in heaven with each trumpet sound.

A remnant of Jews will be in the church, but Jeremiah tells us concerning the nation of Israel – Jer. 8:20. The nation will come into their blessings after the church has all been gathered home and tribulation ended. Then the trumpet will sound for their return to their land – Isa. 27:12-13. God will move on to fulfill the next and most sacred of Jewish feasts, Day of Atonement, in next month’s issue.