Rosh Hashannah… Jewish new year… blowing of trumpets… The Gathering… makes me tingle all over. Every year the Feast of Trumpets is celebrated and I search for a place to celebrate with my Jewish brothers and sisters in Christ. I didn't find one this year. But…
When I lived in Baton Rouge, I had a delicious opportunity to go to a Messianic Jewish celebration of Rosh Hashannah (Feast of Trumpets). If you ever get a chance to celebrate this you are in for such a wonderful experience.
I had never before heard the Shofar blow. The lights were dim and there was a hush as everyone found their seats. I looked at my friend with a, “Well, now what?” expression. There was a trembling excitement from the unknown and the known. The known because I was wondering if it would be like the Passach we had at our church and how thrilling that was to find out how every single bit of the Passover pointed to Jesus. The unknown because we were worshiping with a group of Messianic Jews that I had never met before. What a blessing.
The first blast sent chills up my arms and legs and made my feet lift up off the floor. Three short blasts and I was ready to see God. Every gathering of God's people came to mind. Mount Sinai and Moses and most especially the march around Jericho. It was like I was there and lived it in the space of the Shofar blasts.
The Shofar lifted me up. I had to literally hold on to my seat so I wouldn't just jump up in the air. It is the single most thrilling sound I have ever heard and that includes my babies' first cries.
When Jesus comes to get us, I believe that it will be on His shout such as that He gave to Lazarus in front of the dead man's tomb. I believe only we Christians will hear the trumpet blow for The Gathering to Himself. Even now I can feel the thrill of God. How I love Him! How I can hardly wait to hear His shout.
I have found it on YouTube, but the best was at a Jewish website that explains Yom Teruah. If you would like to hear this magnificent sound click Shofar go down the page a bit and you'll see “Shofar Wave”. I just listened to it again and it raised that same excitement in my breast and the chills on my arms and the tears in my eyes. You will be blessed.
It is very difficult for me to understand why some Christians reject this feast as something old and ousted by God because of the New Testament. This feast is even now being fulfilled as the Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast of First Fruits, Feast of Pentecost have already been fulfilled. It is such an interesting study.
To get a deeper understanding of the Blowing of the Trumpets, we must look in Ezekiel 33:1-6. 6)But if the watchman sees the sword coming, and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned; if the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity. But I will require his blood at the watchman's hand. We Christians are the watchment who are charged with warning of the sword. While we are individually responsible for what we do with Jesus, we are individually and corporately responsible for spreading the gospel being charged personally by Jesus in Matthew 28:18ff in the Great Commission. It is a difficult portion of scripture to understand. Paul refers to this when he states he is innocent of the blood of all men in Acts 20:26. He affirms that he has declared God's counsel to men, never shunning his duty.
I am wondering if there is anyone reading this who has remained silent when God's counsel would have shaped or changed the life direction of another. I know I have fallen in this endeavor in the past. I cringe in shame at my silence in high school. I writhe in pain at disappointing my LORD in the past. Yet, now I am determined to be the candle on the hill and the salt for others if they choose to hear. We are not responsible after the words leave our mouths or our fingertips. It is then an individual thing and the responsibility transfers. When we remain silent, then we are disappointing our LORD and we won't hear those coveted words, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”
For more information about Shofar and other Holy Temple instruments, we have written extensively on the Shofar and have three websites hearingshofar (dot) com shofar-sounders(dot) com
Thank you so very much for this information! I shall be studying these. I appreciate you 🙂
Evidence of Shofar Usage in the Holy Temple Arthur L. Finkle In the Mishnah, Arakhin, 2:3 provides evidence that the shofar was sounded never less than 21 blasts nor more than 48 blasts each day. 1) There are never less than twenty-one blasts in the Temple and never more than forty-eight. There was a minimum of 21 daily trumpet blasts in the Temple and a maximum of 48. The explanation of this section can be found in the Mishnah, Sukkah 5:5. The shofar sounded: • one blast in the Temple • three at the opening of the gates • nine at the morning daily burnt offering • nine at the evening daily burnt offering. At the additional offerings, they added another nine. At the eve of the Sabbath they added six more; three to cause the people to lay down their work and three to mark the distinction between the sacred and the profane. If the eve of a Sabbath were within the Festival of Tabernacles (Succot), there were forty eight: • three at the opening of the gates • three at the upper gate • three at the lower gate; three at the drawing of water • three at the Altar • nine at the morning daily burnt offering • nine at the evening daily burnt offering • nine at the additional offerings, three to make the people cease work, and three to differentiate between the sacred and the profane.