Rosh HaShanah
The LORD said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites: ‘On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assemble commemorated with trumpet blasts. Do no regular work, but present an offering made to the LORD by fire.’” Leviticus 23:23-25
Rosh Hashanah, or properly Yom Teruah, is the day of blowing trumpets. Most Christians and Jews see Rosh Hashanah as nothing more then the Jewish New Year. I believe we are doing ourselves a disservice by ignoring this and other biblical holidays. These feasts and festivals speak just as much to us today as they did to the children of Israel long ago, only more so to us. Why? All of these biblical feasts and festivals point to the Messiah, who we know as Yeshua (Jesus) our Messiah (Christ).
The Hebrew calendar is a lunar calendar, based on the cycle of the moon. Each new month begins with the sighting of the new moon, or more precisely, the sighting of the crescent moon. In ancient times, men all over Judea would try to spot the first sliver of moon as the sun set and when they did, they would send word to the Temple. Once the High Priest had a witness of two or three, he would command the priests to blow the trumpet, announcing the new month.
One might next ask, “So what’s the deal with the trumpet?” This is a very special trumpet called a shofar, and is made from a ram’s horn. According to tradition, the shofar is blown at this time to sound as a wake-up call. It is that sudden blast that reminds us that the Day of Judgment is at hand, and we need to “make right all the wrongs before we stand before the throne of judgment.”
Just what does Rosh Hashanah mean to new covenant believers? It is a foreshadowing of things to come. Rosh Hashanah or the Feast of Trumpets can be summed up in one word: re-gathering. The fall holidays call us to re-gather to a pure faith in God. Rosh Hashanah has come to represent the day of repentance; the day the people of Israel take stock of their spiritual condition and make the necessary changes to insure that the upcoming new year will be pleasing to God. In this aspect, it is very similar to our secular New Year. Yet this holy day takes place in the second half of God’s calendar.
When Yeshua came the first time, He fulfilled the spring feasts of Adonai. When He comes again, He will fill the fall feast up with meaning as well. In the study of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) and Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) we can better understand what is to come. He expected us to continue keeping these feasts and festivals of Adonai so that we would be prepared for what is to come. How do I know this? It is because Yeshua made reference to this holy day.
“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” Matthew 24:36 To the average Christian, this looks like He is saying, “No one knows when this will happen… not even Me.” The average Jew would look at this and say, “Oh, He’s referring to Rosh Hashanah!” Why would they say this? As the only Holy day that lands on the first day of the month, and since the new month is not established until the crescent moon is sighted, and no one really knows for sure when that would be, Yom Teruah (Rosh Hashanah) became known as “The day and hour no one knows.” This was a clue left behind for His true disciples, the ones who understand and study Torah.
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 1 Thessalonians 4:16
We often quote this verse, but do we understand what it is talking about? What is the “trumpet call of God?” That’s the sounding of the Shofar! According to tradition, this is the horn from the ram that Abraham sacrificed in the place of Isaac. This is the sound of the trumpet call of judgment! Are you ready for this? Are you ready to stand before your King (within the body of believers) and answer to His judgment? Don’t think that we don’t have to stand before the throne of judgment just because we are covered in the Blood of the Lamb.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. Psalm 1:5
If the wicked will not stand in the judgment, who will? It must be those who love and are known by the Lord. And who are they? They are those believers who have embraces God’s teachings and commands as found in the first five books of the Bible, the books of Moses.
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