Shalom chaverim and mishpachah! Peace to friends and family.
A timely reminder that the
Day of Blowing /Rosh HaShannah – Trumpets
is this weekend. The New Moon Day of the seventh month is called
Yom Teruah – יוֹם תְּרוּעָה.
This is also translated as the ‘Day of Trumpets’,
although it actually translates more accurately as
the ‘Day of Blowing,’
Rosh HaShanah as Yom Teruah
Day of blowing (the Shofar)
or YomhaZikkaron – Day of Remembering.
Hebrew: רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה, Rōʾš hašŠānā,
literally
“head of the year”
There are four ‘New Years’ in the Jewish calendar: Nisan 1 – Beginning of the Festival cycle; first month in the religious calendar Elul 1 – New year for tithing animals Tishri 1 – Counting years; Sabbatical years, sh’mitah; counting Jubilee, yovel Shevat 15 – Tu Bishvat for tithing fruit trees
Rosh HaShannah marks the beginning of what many term the
“high holy days,”
the days of repentance/teshuvah and seeking to have one’s life right before the Lord God and man. The month preceding Rosh HaShanah, Elul, is marked by blowing the shofar or ram’s horn every morning at the morning service. The common greeting for Rosh HaShanah
is:
Leshanah tovah – for a good year
or
leshanah tovah tikatevu
may you be inscribed for a good year.
The Rabbis taught that on Rosh HaShanah God inscribes the names of all the righteous in His book of life for the coming year, so this is the greeting.
For this reason, the greeting is not used after Rosh HaShanah, as it would be rude to suggest that the person you are greeting is not written in the book. The Rabbis further taught that those whose righteous and unrighteous deeds are equal, hang in the balance and their inscription in the book of life is put off until the coming Yom Kippur. The rabbinic emphasis upon “deeds weighed in the balance” cannot stand in light of the truth of the gospel proclaimed throughout the Scriptures. Our standing before the Lord is not a matter of our good deeds, but the result of being brought near through the atoning work of our Savior, Jesus/Yeshua.
Rather than being a day of ultimate trembling, as followers of Messiah Jesus/Yeshua we find in Yom Teruah, or Rosh HaShannah, a day of reflection upon the value of our being written in the book of life, and the debt of love we owe to the One Who has called us to Him.
Obviously, this rabbinic view is not how a Messianic believer thinks or believes because, we recognize that having our name written in the Lambs Book of Life is not a dependent on an individual’s good deeds/works, but by the advantage through grace and mercy of having the blood of Yeshua /Jesus cover and remove our sins. That is why leshanah tovah, “for a good year” is used as the traditional greeting.
The ten days between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur are called the 10 days of repentance/teshuavah; looked at in previous posts.According to the Rabbis, this is the season when those who are not certain that their righteous deeds outweigh their sins strive to “tip the balance” on the side of righteousness. The Sabbath that falls in these days is called Shabbat Shuvah /Sabbath of returning or Shabbat Teshuvah /Sabbath of repentance and is marked by additions to the service with those seeking repentance and making their life right before God.
The meaning of this Celebration: When the shofar sounded in ancient Israel, it signaled that:
heaven and earth were about to meet, that divine power, the supernatural forces of heaven was about to break into the mundane affairs of men!
It signaled that great things were about to happen!
Rosh HaShanah emphasizes the sovereignty of our Heavenly Father in creation and that He cares about the world and remembers all our deeds and that He is not removed from the world that He created. It reminds us of His kingship over us personally, and of our need to affirm Him as our King. Through the sounding of the shofar, we are reminded of the Scriptures that He has graciously given to us, and of our need to willingly receive all they say to us and to plant His word deeply into our hearts and lives. Rosh HaShanah brings to us the true image of our Heavenly Father and reminds us that as creatures created in His image, we are to reflect His likeness to the world around us. Messiah Yeshua /Jesus did this perfectly and He stands before us as the perfect example of One who fully accepted His heavenly Fathers kingship and lived accordingly.
Rosh HaShanah also carries with it an emphasis on Messiah’s return, it looks to the future when Messiah will reign as king on the earth. According to 1 Thess. 4:16 when He returns, the shofar will sound announcing His kingship, and He will set up His throne in Jerusalem. we can look forward the coming of our King Messiah, as we celebrate Rosh HaShanah, because one of these days, every knee will bow to Him, and every tongue will confess that He is Lord of all.
Many believe that the return of Messiah will coincide with this celebration being the season of
Blowing the trumpet or shofar
and is significant with the scriptures
the last trump will sound etc.
The Word of our Father tells us through Messiahs own words in Matthew 24:36
1 Corinthians 15:52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be 1Thess 4:16 17 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
The sound of the Shofar reminds us that He continues to call us back to Him.
In those areas of our lives were we have strayed into sin, the call of this Lord is to “return,” to seek repentance/teshuvah and forgiveness. We also remind ourselves of the reality that He is our King, and that we are to show him our full allegiance and loyalty. Rosh HaShannah is a time of renewal, and Father’s appointed time to remind us of who we are in light of what He has done for us. It is therefore very needful, a critical and timely appointment in our walk with Him. Present Relevance for Believers and Prophetic End-Time Implications of Yom Teruah or the Day of Shouting.
The Shofar blasts prophetically, the summer months between the spring feast of Shavuot/Weeks/Pentecost, and the fall feast of Yom Teruah is a spiritual picture of what is often called the Church Age, which is the period of time from the Feast of Pentecost in Acts 2 until the return of Jesus/Yeshua the Messiah at the end of the age and lasting for approximately 2000 years.
For many, especially those living in a hotter climate, summer is a time of weariness and fatigue due to the excessive heat. In the same way, many believers have fallen asleep or are growing spiritually weary while waiting for the return of the Messiah.
Jesus/Yeshua discusses this issue in the Parable of the Ten Virgins Matt. 25, who all grew weary and fell asleep awaiting the coming of the Bridegroom Jesus/Yeshua. This all changes on the first day of the seventh month of the biblical Hebrew calendar when off in the distance the sound of a shofar blast suddenly pierces the atmosphere and wakes up those who have fallen asleep. Not only does this blast on the shofar signal the beginning of the 7th month when the new crescent moon is sighted, but it announces the return of the Bridegroom Messiah Yeshua coming for His bride – the redeemed saints. As in the Parable, the cry went forth that the bridegroom was coming and all woke up to prepare for His arrival. In these end days, that cry is going forth even now for all to hear, to awake and to prepare for the arrival of Jesus/Yeshua the Messiah.
The ram’s horn shofar is bent into a curved shape and it represents the repentant humble hearts of both the one blowing and those hearing. This is the season for the righteous to get right with the Father and bend their hearts in humility before Him and shake ourselves out of spiritual lukewarmness and instead to wake up to spiritual action and preparation. The fall/autumn Appointed Times point to last days events that will occur at some point in time in the near future. It is a time to be refreshed by the breath of God, His Ruach HaKodesh, and to be aware of a time of new beginnings.
Let’s allow Him to breathe on us, to revive us and empower us as we enter into this prophetic season, and as every day we prepare ourselves so that when the moment comes for each of us, we are ready to meet our Savior, Lord, King and Redeemer, Messiah Jesus/Yeshua, in the air. Yom Teruah also begins a season that prophetically speaks of war and battle, in ancient times in Israel, the shofar was a weapon of warfare, and in the last days it will be used again as such. It was used to call Israel to battle, to defeat her enemies with Gods’ help. The shofar was also used to proclaim victory after the battle was won and to worship our Heavenly Father who had given them the victory.
Israel’s fight against her enemies still continues on even in these end times. The enemies of the redeemed Israelites, us, are mostly spiritual, being the world, the flesh and the devil.
James 3:15; Ephesians 2:2–3.
The shofar’s blowing is a call to awaken out of spiritual sleep, lethargy, stagnation, slumber and to repent of sin. No man knows the day or the hour of the new moon’s arrival each month, although one who is alert can know the season, however the human tendency is to grow weary in waiting, and to grow slack in one’s obedience to Father’s commands. When the new moon is sighted and the shofar sounds, this is the signal for
the slumbering to awake,
for hope to arise,
renewal and spiritual revival to occur
and
action to be taken to put off sin
and to draw closer spiritually to our Heavenly Father.
The awakening sound of the shofar blast is the Hebrew word
teruah
Strong’s G8643,
Lev. 23:24 and Num. 29:1
where the phrase “blowing of trumpets” is teruah,
Teruah means
the shout or blast of war, alarm, alarm of war,
war cry, signal, and sound of tempest.
Teruah derives from the Hebrew root word ruah meaning “alarm, signal, sound or blast of the shofar, to raise a shout.”
The name Yom Teruah could therefore have several literal meanings:
the day of the shout,
the day of the war alarm or
the day of the shofar blast.
When we understand the significance of this day from a biblical understanding, we realize that Yom Teruah is a day of shouting with extreme joy or as a shriek in alarm, or a day of shofar blowing. As previously mentioned shofars were blown in biblical times to rally the people together, to alert the people in time of war, to warn the people, or as an instrument along with shouts to express the people’s joy, or to praise our Heavenly Father. Yom Teruah prophetically involves all these concepts, for it is a day when His people will shout with joy as they gather to meet Jesus/Yeshua in the air after having been bodily resurrected at the sound of the last shofar blast, but it is also a time of alarm and shrieking on the part of the wicked, as a time of war and terror brought on by the judgments of our Father are about to come upon the earth.
Yom Teruah is a day of new beginnings or renewal, to wake up from lethargy and slumber, to be broken out of that sleepy, comfort zone state and to be awakened to action. Again, remember the ten virgins of Matthew 25 who slept in anticipation of the bridegroom’s arrival? When the shout went forth that he was coming they were all awakened. Some were prepared to go into the marriage supper of the bridegroom and some were not.
Are we awake… and ready??
Our Bridegroom is Jesus/Yeshua….So keep looking up, our redemption draws very near!
Rosh Hashanah 2023, which begins the Jewish year 5784, starts just before sundown on Friday, Sept. 15, 2023, and ends after nightfall on Sunday, Sept. 17, 2023. Believed to be the day Adam and Eve were created, it’s celebrated as the head of the Jewish year.
Shavua Tov, Have a blessed week. Make certain Messiah Jesus/Yeshua is your Redeemer, Savior, Lord and soon returning King and that you have a personal relationship with Him. It’s all about Life and Relationship, NOT Religion. You are very precious in His sight. Not sure ..you can be… SIMPLY SAY THE FOLLOWING MEANING IT FROM YOUR HEART..
don’t delay one more minute, SAY IT RIGHT NOW… Heavenly Father I come to you in the Name of Jesus/Yeshua asking for forgiveness of my sins for which I am truly sorry. I repent of them all and turn away from my past. I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus/Yeshua is your Son and that He died on the cross at calvary to pay the price for my sin, so that I might be forgiven and have eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven. Father I believe that Jesus/Yeshua rose from the dead and I ask you to come into my life right now and be my personal Savior and Lord and I will worship you all the days of my life. Because your word is truth I say that I am now forgiven and born again and by faith I am washed clean with the blood of Jesus/Yeshua. Thank you that you have accepted me into your family in Jesus’/Yeshua’s name.
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