Feast of Trumpets (2)

Calendaring

One of the responsibilities that I really enjoy is setting a calendar for the next year. I go through the upcoming year and notice how the holidays fall. From there I build into it activities and, sometimes, sermon themes to build around Christmas, Easter, missions, and more. I add to that men’s ministry, women’s ministry, and community groups. I look for opportunities to have friendship activities like Rodeo Sunday, Back to School, and Pumpkin Palooza. I am careful to make sure that big church functions don’t occur when Pastor Sonia or Cindy and I are on vacation.

It is one of the perks of the ministry and it is something I look forward to doing in early Fall.

Imagine if God Could Set the Calendar

Of course, He would not be constrained by any other calendar. And, He has all the right in the universe to say, “This feast will be about me”, and “This feast will be about me”, and then again, “This feast will be about me!” It’s not about ego but God knows that the good of man rests in knowing and trusting Him.

So far, we have seen the Feast of Passover, Feast of First Fruits/Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of Harvest (Pentecost). These were the Spring feasts. Now the year turns to the Fall, the 7th month and the Feast of Trumpets.

Leviticus 23:23–25 NIV

The Lord said to Moses, “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. Do no regular work, but present a food offering to the Lord.’ ”

There are only 2 passages in the Bible that address the Feast of Trumpets directly – this passage in Leviticus and a second in Numbers. In fact, it is never called “Feast of Trumpets” it is just that blowing trumpets was unique to the day.

Do the Jewish people still celebrate this feast? Yes, but it is called Rosh Hashanah, literally “the head of the year”. I know, the 7th month is a strange time for a new year. “There are at least two “new year’s” celebrations in the Old Testament. The earliest, the beginning of the new nation, is associated with the exodus from Egypt in the spring of the year (Exod 12:2). Here in Leviticus is a later (see Ezek 40:1), religious new yearcelebrated in the autumn (the seventh month, September/October on the Western calendar) and called Rosh Hashanah, ‘the head of the year.’”[1]

God’s Shofar Celebration

When our men’s ministry used to go to Kerrville for the big South Texas Men’s Conference, we would sometimes see men carrying in a long ram’s horn or shofar. They were used as instruments or symbols of the trumpet of God. Trumpets are found all throughout the Bible and, very significantly, at the end of the Bible to indicate the Return of Christ. Trumpets are used for several reasons: a shout or blast of war, an alarm, or joy (drawn from the Hebrew truah).

It makes a difference on how something is communicated. The Feast of Trumpets was loud! It was a blasting sound! It was an alarm! And, hopefully, it brought joy to the people. I was reading in Psalms the other day and came across a passage

Psalm 148:14 NIV

And he has raised up for his people a horn, the praise of all his faithful servants, of Israel, the people close to his heart. Praise the Lord.

The footnotes explained that the “horn” in this case symbolized strength. It makes sense. You don’t go blasting trumpets unless you’ve got something to back it up.

So, it was done with an exclamation point!

Observe!

The trumpet blasts had something to do with stirring up a memory, indicated using the word commemorated. Literally it is ‘a memorial day with resounding’. We will expand on that in a minute. But whose memory is being jogged, and what is the memory being stirred?[2]

The trumpet, or bugle, in the case of the US military has the advantage of being loud and piercing. Before HF radios, bugles were used for everything from the normal daily activities to movements and tactical commands:

Normal (Daily) Bugle Calls

· "Call to Quarters": Signals all personnel to return to their quarters for the night.

· "First Call": Sounds as a warning that personnel will prepare to assemble for a formation. This call is also used in horse racing, where it is known as Call to the Post. In that context, it indicates that jockeys need to have their mounts in position to be loaded into the starting gate.

· "Taps": Signals that unauthorized lights are to be extinguished. This is the last call of the day. The call is also sounded at the completion of a U.S. military funeral ceremony.

"Reveille": Signals the troops to awaken for morning roll call. In the U.S. Army, it accompanies the raising of the flag, thus representing the official beginning of the new day.

· "To The Colors" (or "To the Color"): In the United States, it is used to render honors to the nation. "To the Colors" commands all the same courtesies as the National Anthem. The most common use of "To The Colors" is when it is sounded immediately following "Retreat". During this use of the call, the flag is lowered.

· "Tattoo": Signals that all light in squad rooms be extinguished and that all loud talking and other disturbances be discontinued within 15 minutes.

· + “Mail Call”, “Church Call”, “Mess Call”, “Pay Call”, “Stable Call”, and more

Movement and Tactical Bugle Commands

· "Adjutant's Call": as staff officer is about to form the guard, battalion, or regiment.

· "Assembly": Signals troops to assemble at a designated place.

· "Attention": Sounded as a warning that troops are about to be called to attention.

· "Boots and Saddles": Sounded for mounted troops to mount and take their place in line.

· "Charge": Signals troops to execute a charge, or gallop forward into harm's way with deadly intent.

· "Guard Mount": Sounds as a warning that the guard is about to be assembled for guard mount.

· "Retreat": Formerly used to signal troops to retreat. Now used to signal the end of the official day.

Ft. Benning, within the last 10 years, just reintroduced the bugle calls on Post. Jane Bresko speaking for American Family Action Plan explained, "They felt that by not hearing the bugle calls, soldiers are not able to observe flag courtesies which instill pride, professionalism and discipline.”[3]

OBSERVE! With the Feast of Trumpets, maybe the obvious is the most profound. God tells His people that He demands their attention in everything from the smallest daily activity to the most important demands of life.

(YOU) Commemorate!

Effectively God wanted ALL the Israelites to REMEMBER something. Our calendars are filled with reminders to remember fallen servicemembers, mothers, fathers, 9/11, freedom, on and on. But on God’s calendar He wanted them to remember Him, His goodness, His covenant, and His atonement which would have it’s own feast only 2 weeks away.

In the Leviticus passage the Lord uses the word “commemorate” to give instructions about this feast. Commemorateis an unusual word. The Hebrew word being used is zikkaron which conveys the idea of “mention, remembrance, or protocol”. Since it doesn’t seem to be being used as ‘protocol’ we can comfortably understand that God wanted the Israelites to remember something…but what would that be?

Could it be?

1. Seven is the number for perfection. It is in the seventh month that several feasts fall.

The Feast of Trumpets is followed by the Day of Atonement (which we will see next week is very important). The Day of Atonement was the most solemn day of the year. Closely following the Day of Atonement was the Feast of Tabernacles. There were 2 groups, the Spring feasts and the Fall feasts. “But each group set forth a distinct aspect of redemption. In the Passover, we are reminded that we were redeemed fromsin: in the Atonement, that we are redeemed toGod. Do not forget to find Christ’s resurrection in v. 11, and the first-fruits of the Spirit in v. 17.[4]

Could it be?

2. A revival of the memory of the covenant between God and His people.

Here the point seems to be, as suggested by John Hartley, a mutual reviving of memory between God and his people. Trumpets had been sounded when the law was received at Sinai42 and were blown on other significant occasions. The trumpet blasts remind Israel that they are party to a covenant. Are they obedient to its stipulations and faithful in following God? Equally, the trumpet blasts remind God of the covenant he has made with Israel, not in the sense that he needs it to be recalled to his mind because he has forgotten it,44 but as a way of renewing his commitment to them to keep his promises. [5]

To tidy this up a bit, it seems to me that the Feast of Trumpets called the people to OBSERVE (pay attention) and COMMEMORATE (remember).

How Can I Do Another Year? With God’s Help!

I think the reasons for the Feast of Trumpets are very practical – knowing that God is in charge! Psalm 98 is only 9 verses long but is a powerfully hopeful and optimistic gathering of thoughts about the goodness, strength, love, and salvation of the Lord.

Psalm 98:4–6 NIV

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; make music to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn— shout for joy before the Lord, the King.

How do you approach the next day? The next year? The Lord is always good! The Lord is always strong! He is always merciful and loving! In later Judaism this day became New Year’s Day. There is no Christian equivalent to this day, although the practice of observing a watch-night service as the New Year dawns…may be modelled on this festival.[6]

Trumpets Sound

There are many references to the trumpets of God in the Word of God. The first reference was to heavenly trumpets that announced the presence of God among His people. The final trumpets in Revelation announce Christ’s return and God’s desire for the hearts of all mankind.

Many modern Christian preachers and teachers connect the Feast of Trumpets to the Return of Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:50–52 NIV

I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

1 Thessalonians 4:16–18 NIV

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. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Today we, the Church, are waiting to hear Trumpets once again. Will we be ready? Only the Heavenly Father knows the time. “Even so come Lord Jesus, come” (Rev. 22:20).

[1]David W. Baker, “Leviticus,” in Cornerstone Biblical Commentary: Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, ed. Philip W. Comfort, vol. 2 (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1996), 174. [2]Derek Tidball, The Message of Leviticus: Free to Be Holy, ed. Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball, The Bible Speaks Today (England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2005), 277. [3] https://www.army.mil/article/160873/bugle_calls_part_of_army_tradition [4]F. B. Meyer, Through the Bible Day by Day: A Devotional Commentary, vol. 1 (Philadelphia: American Sunday-School Union, 1914–1918), 130. [5]Derek Tidball, The Message of Leviticus: Free to Be Holy, ed. Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball, The Bible Speaks Today (England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2005), 277–278. [6]Derek Tidball, The Message of Leviticus: Free to Be Holy, ed. Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball, The Bible Speaks Today (England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2005), 277–278.