Did you know that Rosh Hashanah (or by its biblical name: Feast of Trumpets) is the only biblical feast that God did not give a detailed explanation as to its actual meaning or significance?
Yet, according to the New Testament, there are no more mysteries left… Yeshua came to answer them all and reveal all things that were hidden before.
How then can we find the meaning of the Feast of Trumpets? Surely it isn’t merely a celebration of the new year according to the Jewish calendar. There must be more to it.
When the people of Israel were brought out of Egypt in the book of Exodus, they had just witnessed a magnificent and amazing display of God’s miracles and power. They were then brought into the desert, given the 10 commandments, followed by a series of instructions. One of those instructions was precisely how to commemorate the Feast of Trumpets.
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.
Leviticus 23:23
You can see in this scripture that The Lord is quite specific regarding what this feast is about. He emphasizes Zikhron Tru’ah (זכרון תרועה) — The sound of blowing trumpets. For some reason, the very sound of it holds a significant and prophetic meaning!
God instructs Israel to celebrate, hold a sacred assembly, and everything for the sake of one thing: to remember (commemorate) the sound of the blowing trumpet. It must mean that the very sound of the trumpet is of great importance to God.
On the morning of the third day, there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled.
Exodus 19:16
Can you imagine being up in the mountains and hearing such a loud trumpet blast, a sound that makes everything and everybody tremble? It was an absolute holy moment that made time stop. A sound out of eternity that made everything and everyone stop and stand in absolute awe!
That is the very sound that God says we are to commemorate during this Holy Feast of Trumpets. It is a sound that speaks of something imminent and of what is to come. A sound that announces the power, the glory, and the very manifestation of God Himself!
As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.
Exodus 19:19
The people of Israel heard God’s voice. All of them, not only the selected spiritual few. The entire nation standing at the foot of the mountain witnessed the sound of the trumpet, trembled, and heard it intensify until they heard God’s very voice.
This is what people of Israel are to remember and commemorate for all generations: the sound of the trumpet that preceded the visitation of God!
So when we speak about the loud sound of the shofar (trumpet), we are speaking about the voice of God speaking to His people as He prepares to visit them.