The Horn of Salvation Happy New Year!
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Rosh Hashana “Head of the Year” - the spiritual new year when the Jewish people remember God. It coincides with a very important Festival, the Feast of Trumpets, which is part of the last feast season, The Feast of Tabernacles.
The Feast of Tabernacles is celebrated during the Hebrew month of Tishri. The Feast of Tabernacles is also called the Feast of Ingathering (Ex. 23:16), the end of the harvest season.
The teaching of the Feast of Tabernacles is that God wanted His people to learn to rest in Him.
That rest, for the believer and follower of God, is found and fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah that has come, and will return in the future.
The Feast of Passover teaches one about God’s peace. The Feast of Pentecost teaches us about God’s power. The Feast of Tabernacles teaches us about God’s rest.
The Feast of Trumpets is celebrated on the first day of the Month of Tishri, September 16-17 on our calender this year. It is important to take note of the time period before this final feast. The long summer months of Tammuz, Ab, and Elul is a time when there is no perscribed feast. It is a prophetic picture of the time period when God would not be dealing with the Jewish people on a national basis because of their rejection of Jesus as the promised Messiah. John 1:11-12 tells us,
He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in His name,
Prophetically, we would refer to this as the “time of the Gentiles” or “the Church period” (Luke 21:24). It is the time when God is calling the Gentiles into His Kingdom, known as the dispensation of Grace. From the time of Pentecost (Acts 2) to the 2nd coming of Christ and resurrection (1 Thess 4:13-18; 1 Cor. 5:15-51), falling between the 69th and 70th weeks of Daniel (Daniel 9).
The time when “the Church period” ends is when God turns His attention back to the Jewish people and deals with them once again as a nation. This will be the third and final encounter, culminating in the return of Jesus to establish His Kingdom on earth. This will be the time of the final feast, the end of the age, the Feast of Tabernacles.
The Purpose of the Feast of Trumpets
The purpose of the Feast of Trumpets is to announce the arrival of the seventh month, the beginning of the Feastival season of Tabernacles, and a prophetic sign for the people to prepare for the Day of Atonement, which follows ten days later, called Sukkot. The Feast of Trumpets is a day of no special events except for the blowing of trumpets and offering of sacrifices (Num 29:1-6). The type of trumpet blown was a ram’s horn, called a shofar. It was blown in rememberance of the ram that was sacrificed in place of Isaac (Gen 22:13). Symbolically, we would blow the horn in rememberance of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for us and our sins. John 3:16-17
“For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life —a ransom for many.”
Trumpets were used by God as a means of communicating with His covenant people. Not wanting to terrify the people, by speaking directly to them, He used the trumpet, thus representing the voice of God and the might of God in warfare. Trumpets were used to assemble the people to worship, to break camp, and to prepare for battle. Joshua marched the Hebrew army around the walls of Jericho, blew the shofar, and then everyone shouted …and the walls came tumbling down! The Jewish people came to call God, the “Horn of their salvation” because whenever God acted to deliever and fight for the Hebrews, it was proceeded by the shofar. Who is our deliever? Who is our salvation? Jesus, the horn of our salvation! Luke 1:68-69
Luke 1:68–69 (HCSB)
Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has visited and provided redemption for His people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David,
just as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets in ancient times; salvation from our enemies and from the clutches of those who hate us.
Jesus is the commander of God the Father’s army. He will return at the Feast of Tabernacles and deliever His people to salvation with the blowing of the horn! Matthew 24:31
He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.
Read Rev 19:11-16
Are we ready for His return? Jesus’ purpose was not to defeat the Roman Empire. Jesus’ purpose was to destroy the works of Satan and sin in men’s hearts making possible the evil and oppression we see in our world today. Paul reminds us that Jesus has disarmed and spoiled and overcome the powers and principalities of Satan. Col 2:14
He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it out of the way by nailing it to the cross.
He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; He triumphed over them by Him.
What debts has Jesus erased and paid for you? What debt can you not pay? Remember what Jesus has done for you …know what He has accomplished for you.
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler who exercises authority over the lower heavens, the spirit now working in the disobedient.
We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us,
made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!
If we had a debt that we could not pay, and Jesus has paid that debt, what is the battle we face today? Against powers and principalities, rulers and authorities of darkness, and against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places that blind us to the reality in which we can walk …authority, power, and by the Spirit Of God(Eph. 6:10-12; Gal 3:5 ).
Well then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?
Look, I have given you the authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy; nothing will ever harm you.
However, don’t rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Remember …you are sons and daughters of the Most High with authority, power, and the Holy Spirit. Live in the Horn of your Salvation! 2 Cor 10:3-4
For though we live in the body, we do not wage war in an unspiritual way, since the weapons of our warfare are not worldly, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments
and every high-minded thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to obey Christ.
How Does One Rest in our Salvation?
We walk in the way of the Spirit by obeying what Jesus’ will and work is; His commands. John 15:4
Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me.
You are My friends if you do what I command you.
What did God say to Moses to say to the Hebrews as they were about to cross into the promised land and face their first test of faith at the walls of Jericho? Remember Me, My commands, and love the LORD your God.
You must understand today that it is not your children who experienced or saw the discipline of the Lord your God: His greatness, strong hand, and outstretched arm;
His signs and the works He did in Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his land;
what He did to Egypt’s army, its horses and chariots, when He made the waters of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued you, and He destroyed them completely;
what He did to you in the wilderness until you reached this place;
and what He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when in the middle of the whole Israelite camp the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing with them.
Your own eyes have seen every great work the Lord has done.
“Keep every command I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to cross into and possess the land you are to inherit,
and so that you may live long in the land the Lord swore to your fathers to give them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.
For the land you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated by hand as in a vegetable garden.
But the land you are entering to possess is a land of mountains and valleys, watered by rain from the sky.
As much as the battle of Jericho was going to be a physical battle, it was first a spiritual battle. Would the people obey the will and commands of the LORD? Would they love the LORD with their whole person? If they would do this first, they would experience the rest of the LORD and HE would be the rampart before them. He would fight for them. If not, they would fall, fail, and be driven from the promised land.
Obey the commands of Christ so that you may have rest, and it will go well for you …church. Rest in the Horn of your Salvation by remembering the love of Christ for you by what He has paid for you. Remember the authority you now have in Christ. Remember that walking in the power and way of Holy Spirit leads to life.
Remember four things:
We are to love God - This command is an imperitive, not an option. It as a duty owed to a King as in covenant. The expression of our love is to be by obedience, serving, showing reverence, and being loyal to God alone (Deut. 10:12; 11:1; 22; 30:16). We are called to love Christ alone, for no other god or person has loved us so completely and thoroughly as Jesus has, does and did.
We must acknowledge His greatness. - This is another command as an imperitive, it is not an option. If you and I will not acknoledge His greatness, who will, not your children because they take their ques from you and I. They have not known the correction of the LORD, but you have. How has the LORD God corrected you in your life? Was it painful? But was it good? How do you correct your own child? For their good, even though it may be painful. Correction and discipline in the way of the LORD is to bring one to do right in the future, so we may experience His blessings, and not His cursings. Yada! Yada! Yada! Know God’s greatness, consider His greatness, learn His greatness, and confess His greatness! How great is Jesus to you, for you? Do your neighbors know? Your children? Your friends? The stranger?
Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,
Why love God and acknowledge His greatness?
So that one may have strength - Strength to occupy, to keep, to go in, to go forth, to live each day. When we remember to love God and acknowledge His person and ways we will have strength to do what needs to be done in the day, for the LORD. We have purpose. Ever had a day where you lacked emotional, spiritual, and/or physical strength? Why did that happen? What was missing most likely? Acknowledging the love and greatness of Christ. Remembering the sacrifice He made to give you life.
Remembering the promises He has made to you. Remembering the authority you have by acting upon those promises. Most people do not know what they are doing in this world, and Jesus, Timothy, and Peter confessed this.
[Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.” ] And they divided His clothes and cast lots.
At my first defense, no one stood by me, but everyone deserted me. May it not be counted against them.
Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.
So, if Jesus and His apostles knew of peoples blindness and forgave, what is holding us back from doing the same? We are to bless, not condemn, so that we may receive God’s favor, so that we may have strength, so that we may have rest in the Lord Jesus. Do so, good intentions are good for nothing. You can’t save them, spend them, build with them, and/or cash them in. As the saying goes, the road to destruction is paved with good intentions. Good intentions are the weak link in the chain of humanity. Good intentions sap our strength and rest in the LORD.
Finally, remember the LORD God and acknowledge His greatness so that you may live long in the land (v.9). The Israelites would experience a prosperity and bounty unlike anything that they ever experienced, including the land of Egypt. This is the favor of God, the blessing of God. Would we not want to experience the favor of the LORD to live without tradgedy, war, or poverty? To always have what is needed, not necessarily what we want. The Psalmist reminds us: Ps 37:4
Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
When your heart is His heart, He will give you the desires of your heart, because your heart is His heart “because the eyes of the LORD are always upon the land (you)”.
It is a land the Lord your God cares for. He is always watching over it from the beginning to the end of the year.
Would we not want the favor of the LORD God to be upon us always? Then are we remembering Jesus’ love, commands, His will, and work? Are we sharing His greatness? Acknowledging His greatness? Confessing His greatness? His eyes are always upon you, looking for those who love Him.
For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. You have done foolishly in this, for from now on you will have wars.”
IF we refuse to remember the greatness of the LORD, God will “shut up the heavens”, so that their will be no rain, no fruit”, no prosperity, and people will perish off the good land given to them (Deut 11:17). This became a reality for the Israelites as both Judah and Israel were taken into captivity until they came back to remembering, acknowledging, and following the LORD, His commands, decrees, and will.
We should not be suprised as to what we know observe in our world, in the Church. Do we want to remember the LORD? Do we want to follow His commands? Do love as He wants us to love? Are we committed as He has called us to be committed to Him?
Why remember to acknowledge, obey, and follow the LORD God? So that it might go well for you! So that it might go well for your children. Remember the Horn of your Salvation and follow Him so that His eyes and favor remain on you. So that you will multiply and fill the land. Amen.