THE FEAST OF TRUMPETS

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,   “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.  You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.’”

Leviticus 23:23 -25

 

Blowing the Shofar
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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 trumpets.

Numbers 29:1

 

Today is the First of Tishrei, the seventh month according to the Jewish calendar and we are celebrating the Feast of Trumpets as commanded by the LORD.  There are two basic sounds made by the shofar, the tru'ah which is a series of short staccato blasts and the t'kiyah, a long sustained blast. The t'kiyah was a call to arms, to war, and the tru'ah was a call to gather together. The type of trumpet call we are commanded to sound on this day is the tru'ah - the call to gather together before God, a holy convocation.

 

The Bible does not explicitly give the reason for this Feast except that it is to be a memorial.  We might ask: a memorial to what? Perhaps it is the memorial of another great convocation, when the sound of the trumpets were heard,  the time when all the people of Israel gathered together and stood before the LORD God at the foot of Mt Sinai.

 

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes. ¹¹ And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. ¹² You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, ‘Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. ¹³ Not a hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with an arrow; whether man or beast, he shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come near the mountain.”....

 

Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. ¹⁷ And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. ¹⁸ Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain^[ quaked greatly. ¹⁹ And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice. ²⁰ Then the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

Exodus 19: 10-13, 16-20

 

This week's parasha begins in Deuteronomy 29:10 and is called Nitzavim . The passage begins, in Hebrew, with the words 'Atem nitzavim'( which translates as 'you shall stand'). This phrase occurs almost 300 times in Scripture and always to enter into some kind of agreement or covenant.

 

All of you stand today before the Lord your God: your leaders and your tribes and your elders and your officers, all the men of Israel, ¹¹ your little ones and your wives—also the stranger who is in your camp, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water— ¹² that you may enter into covenant with the Lord your God, and into His oath, which the Lord your God makes with you today, ¹³ that He may establish you today as a people for Himself, and that He may be God to you, just as He has spoken to you, and just as He has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Deuteronomy 29:10 - 13

 

I believe then that this Feast is intended as a memorial to the covenant relationship between God and his people. It is a time for us to stand up before God and renew our commitment to those covenants. It is a time of self-reflection and sober accounting. It heralds the 9 Days of Awe leading up to the most solemn day in the Hebrew calendar, the Day of Atonement.

 

So today  a hush has fallen on the city. All shops and businesses are closed, no work is done, and the religious are in the synagogues praying. The sound of the blowing of shofars is heard from time to time, but all else is quiet.

 

On the Eve of the First Day of the Blowing of Trumpets I participated in a holy convocation here in Jerusalem, perhaps the first of its kind ever. Somewhere between 600 - 800 Jewish, Arab and Gentile believers in Yeshua, from all over Israel, gathered together to worship at a location in the center of Jerusalem. Smaller similar events have been held in the past but this was the first that was organized and sanctioned by the majority of both Jewish and Arab congregational leaders from the whole land.  It was a very blessed night as we worshiped together seamlessly slipping from Hebrew to Arabic and back again. I could almost feel God smiling at us in pleasure, and the heavenly angels joining in song with us. How significant it is that Jews and Arabs can fellowship together as one, right here in the heart of Jerusalem, where there is so much hatred, pain and hurt. Only in Yeshua is there any hope for mutual forgiveness and reconciliation. All the world leaders can  talk and talk and talk about peace, but it cannot happen without the healing that can only be found in Yeshua.  We took up a very large offering which is to be sent to help refugees in war-torn Syria, an expression of our love even for our enemies. Yeshua taught us to love our enemies,

 

 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:43-48

 

Here in Israel, there are a wide variety of political views amongst believers about the ownership and right to the Land, but we must not allow that to cause us to hate those who stand against us, whether they be Jews or Arabs. One day we will all stand together before God to given an accounting. Not only that but God spoke through the prophet Isaiah and said that in the end times  along a highway stretching from Egypt, through Jordan and  to Assyria  in the north, a region encompassing Jordan, Syria and Iraq today, many will come to believe in the God of Israel. Many who are now our enemies will become our brothers and sisters in the LORD God of Israel. What a wonderful promise!

 

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In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear by the Lord of hosts; one will be called the City of Destruction.

¹⁹ In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border. ²⁰ And it will be for a sign and for a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the Lord because of the oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a Mighty One, and He will deliver them. ²¹ Then the Lord will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day, and will make sacrifice and offering; yes, they will make a vow to the Lord and perform it. ²² And the Lord will strike Egypt, He will strike and heal it; they will return to the Lord, and He will be entreated by them and heal them.

²³ In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians.

²⁴ In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria—a blessing in the midst of the land, ²⁵ whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”

 

Isaiah 19:19

 

At a time of great turmoil and suffering amongst the peoples of the Middle East, especially in Syria and Iraq, when the evil face of Islamic Fundamentalism is being revealed and is causing many Muslims to question their faith, here lies hope. God loves the Muslim peoples and longs for their salvation. He longs for them to be set free from the lies and the oppression, and terrible violence, they are experiencing under Islam. We hear many reports of thousands, even tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of people across the Middle East, receiving visions and dreams of Yeshua, abandoning Islam and following Yeshua. There is a great hunger for the gospel in these places. We are living in a time of terrible, horrendous events, terrible suffering, violence and genocide,  but also a time of great hope. Please join with me to pray for all the peoples of the Middle East, for we are bound together as brothers, Jew and Arab and Gentile alike.  Pray especially for those brave ones who are faithfully preaching the gospel in spite of the risk to their own lives. 

 Thousands of Muslims See Jesus in Dreams and Visions.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDAICrsmTpA