The First of Tishri on
the Hebrew calendar, which begins the Jewish New Year, is the celebration of
Rosh Hashana ("The Head of the Year") and also the Feast of Trumpets. This
day begins Israel's civil year and is celebrated for two days (the second day
was added by the rabbis around 500 b.c.).
Everything in the Torah (or the Pentateuch,
the Five Books of Moses) has a prophetic as well as historical significance and
merits our careful attention. Jesus indicated this in Matthew 5:17:
Think not that I am come to destroy the
Torah, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
Paul also emphasized this in Romans 15:4:
For whatsoever things were written aforetime
were written for our learning. . .
The New Testament is in the Old Testament
concealed; the Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed.
The Feasts of Moses
The Torah details seven feasts which take
place during the Hebrew calendar year:1
Three feasts are in the spring, in the month
of Nisan: Passover; the Feast of Unleavened Bread; and the Feast of First
Fruits. Fifty days later there is a fourth feast, Shavout, or the Feast of
Weeks, also known as Pentecost.
There are three remaining feasts in the fall,
in the month of Tishri: the Feast of Trumpets; the Yom Kippur (the Day
of Atonement); and the Feast of Tabernacles. [There are two reckonings of the
Hebrew year: the civil year starts in the fall on the First of Tishri; the
religious calendar starts in the spring in the month of Nisan.2]
Their Prophetic Role
While each of these feasts has a historical
commemoraive role, each also has a prophetic role. This role is
highlighted in Colossians 2:16-17:
Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or
in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath
days: which are a shadow of things to come.
The Feast of Trumpets
September 30th is also known as Yom Teruah,
the Feast of Trumpets.3 Observed on the First
and Second of Tishri, the celebration actually begins 29 days earlier: a series
of over 90 trumpet blasts accrue for a final blowing of blasts on the climax of
the celebration, the Teki'ah Gedolah, the Great Blowing.
In the rabbinical literature, there are many
details that are quite provocative. Among the most significant is the use of the
shofar, the ram's horn, instead of the usual silver Temple trumpets. (If
you visit the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, you can see the silver trumpets
that have been fashioned for use in the coming Temple.)
The shofar is associated with the
Akedah, Abraham's offering of Isaac on Mount Moriah, as detailed in Genesis
22. Rabbinical tradition associates the left horn of the ram as the "first
trump" and the right horn as the "last trump".
A distinguishing feature of the celebration is
the last, climactic blast, the
Teki'at Shofar. This is not the usual series of short bursts,
signalling alarm or bad news. Rather, it is a long blast, signalling victory or
good news. It is this last blast that is referred to as the last trump.
Paul's Mystery
In Paul's Resurrection Chapter, I Corinthians
15, he describes that strange event which has now become known as "The Rapture"
of the Church:
Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not
all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 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 changed.
What did he mean, "the last trump"?
Some have tried to link this phrase to the
Seventh Trumpet Judgment in Revelation, but there is no basis for it. The
Seventh Trumpet Judgment
is not the final trumpet: for a thousand years (at least) there will be
subsequent trumpets in services performed in the Millennial Temple.
So, just what is this "last trump"? Since Paul
was of Pharisaical back ground, it has been suggested that he was alluding to
the climactic trumpet of the Feast of Trumpets and that, perhaps, this feast is
prophetic of the call of God's people (which he also refers to in Romans
11:2-5). Possibly. But there are other possibilities as well.
The Other Feasts
Following the Feast of Trumpets are the Yomim
Noraim, the seven "Days of Affliction" in anticipation of Yom Kippur,
the Day of Atonement, on the 10th of Tishri (October 4).
Five days later, the 15th of Tishri (October
9-17) begins the Succoth, or the Feast of Tabernacles. We will highlight these
final feasts in our October newsletter. We have also explored them in our DVD ,
The Feasts of Israel.
Jesus's Birthday?
If, indeed, Jesus was born on the
29th
of
September, 2 b.c., as some reckon, He would have been born on the Feast of
Trumpets of that year. Review our DVD ,
The Christmas Story--What Really
Happened,
for some surprising background.
Fast of Gedaliah
While not a Feast of Moses, this ceremony on
the Third of Tishri (September 27) is observed by many Jews in memory of the
slaying of Gedaliah, who was appointed by the Babylonians as the governor of
Judah after the capture of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.4
