The Feast of Trumpets was one of the 7 main festivals of Israel. It was the first of the fall or harvest festivals. It occurred in the 7th month of the religious calendar on the 1st day of the month. (The religious calendar is used for this and other Jewish festivals in the Bible.) The Feast of Trumpets is more commonly known today by its alternate name in Hebrew Rosh Hashanah which means Head of the Year. The Feast of Trumpets has this name because it is also the first day of the civil Jewish calendar and marks the start of a new Jewish year. The Jewish years are numbered from what is considered to be the time of creation which is thought to have occurred on Rosh Hashanah in the Garden of Eden. The current Jewish year is 5764 which will be the case until September 16, 2004 when the day of Rosh Hashanah will begin the year 5765 on the Jewish calendar. The Feast of Trumpets also always occurs at a new moon usually in the western month of September. The Feast of Trumpets or Rosh Hashanah is the first Feast in the Jewish calendar since the Feast of Pentecost or Feast of Weeks called Shavuot in Hebrew that usually occurs in May on the 6th day of the 3rd Jewish month.
One of the main features of Rosh Hashanah or the Feast of Trumpets is the blowing of trumpets currently a ram's horn or shofar although some of the events associated with the Feast of Trumpets in the Bible could be the silver trumpets for redemption or used for war. The shofar can not only be from the horns of rams but from any other animal except cows which have an unholy connotation because of the golden cow the Israelites made at Mount Sinai. The shofar has a very sombre or wailing sound and is associated with a call to self-examination before God for the previous year and a look ahead to the coming year. This period of self-examination or reflection continues for ten days until the Day of Atonement are sometimes called "The 10 Days of Awe" or "The 10 Days of Penitence". Jewish people state that God will in these 10 days judge the world for that year and determine who will live and who will die in the coming year. These ten days are also a time of asking forgiveness from God for sins committed against Him and of other people of sins committed against them in the past year. On a lighter note on the 1st and 2nd nights of Rosh Hashanah Jewish families have holiday meals during which they dip a piece of bread and apple in honey to symbolize their hope the coming year will be a sweet year. A popular Jewish greeting at the Feast of Trumpets is "May you be inscribed in the Book of Life". The celebration of Rosh Hashanah is regarded as a celebration of the beginning of the universe when God said "let there be light" in Genesis 1:3. On Rosh Hashanah some Jewish people observe the ceremony of Tashlikh in which they go to a place with open water like the ocean or a river and cast bread in it symbolizing casting their sins in this water. This ceremony is said to have started from the scripture in Micah 7:19 in which the prophet Micah says on the Feast of Trumpets or Rosh Hashanah Jewish people are to remember "thou(you(God)) will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." The 7 Feast of the LORD including the Feast of Trumpets are found in Leviticus 23. The section in Leviticus 23 about the Feast of Trumpets is as follows:
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, shall ye(you) have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. Ye shall no servile (livelihood) work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD. Leviticus 23:23-25
Although some details about the scriptural characteristics of observing Rosh Hashanah or the Feast of Trumpets are given in Leviticus 23, more details about the sacrifices are given in Numbers 29. In Numbers 29 the Jews are again commanded to do no work on the Feast of Trumpets and have a day of blowing of trumpets. However the part about sacrifices goes into much more detail and mentions how much animals or materials are to be given for burnt offerings, a sin offering and meal offerings. The burnt offering symbolized total devotion or dedication to God on the part of the offerer in this case for all the people of Israel. The sin offering was offered to God as an atonement or covering of sin for their sin nature. The meal offering with its flour and oil can be thought of as dedication back to God of what He had blessed Israel in their crops and as a recognition of His sovereignty in providing them sufficient food through sunshine, rain etc. as in 1 Chronicles 29:10-14. Flour represented the main nourisment for life, oil the richness of life and for the drink offering wine refreshing and vitality of life as in Psalm 104:15. The reference of the commands of God in His word for Rosh Hashanah or Feast of Trumpets to the Jewish people with emphasis on the appropriate sacrifices in Numbers 29 is as follows:
And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have an holy convocation; you shall do no servile(livelihood) work: it is a day of blowing the trumpets unto you. And ye shall offer a burnt offering for a sweet savour unto the LORD; one young bullock, one ram, and seven lambs of the first year without blemish; And their meat(meal) offering shall be of flour mingled with oil, three tenth deals for a ram, And one tenth deal for one lamb, throughout the seven lambs: And one kid of the goats for a sin offering, to make an atonement for you: Beside the burnt offering of the month, and his meat(meal) offering, and the daily burnt offering, and his meat(meal) offering, and their drink offerings, according unto their manner, for a sweet savour, a sacrifice made by fire unto the LORD. Numbers 29:1-6
In the first two verses there is mentioned a nation that is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia that is also a coastal nation. Although this nation isn't specified in the immediate future when this prophecy was given it was probably Egypt with whom Israel was trying to make an alliance in order to obtain more protection from a probable invasion from Assyria instead of trusting in the LORD. In the current last days starting with the time leading up to Israel becoming a nation again the coastal country is probably Great Britain. This is because it had the United Nations mandate over the Holy Land since World War 1 and agreed to give some of the Holy Land to the Jewish people as the nation of Israel in 1948 in fulfillment of end times Bible prophecy. The land shadowing with wings which means buzzing with wings could mean that this is a nation that is trying to protect or support Israel which Great Britain did to some extent by granting Israel part of the Promised Land although they could have given Israel all the Promised Land between the Meditteranean and the Jordan River and designated Transjordan or the current country of Jordan as a place for Palestianian Arabs to settle and saved quite a few decades of strife between the Jews and Palestinian Arabs. The nation scattered and peeled is the Jewish people who have long been scattered among the nations and persecuted and trodden down (oppressed). The scripture reference to the Gentile nation of Egypt then probably Great Britain sending ambassadors to help Israel in connection with God's Trumpet call of the Jewish people back to their land in Isaiah 18 is as follows:
Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia: That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled! Isaiah 18:1-2
God first calls on all the nations or inhabitants of all the Earth to pay attention to what he is about to say. He then says to pay attention when he lifts an ensign or flag on the mountains and blows a trumpet. This lifting of the flag on the mountains means lifting the Israeli flag on the mountains of the Promised Land including Mount Moriah or the Temple Mount which won't be the case on a more long-term basis until the covenant with Israel and the Antichrist to rebuilt the Jewish temple on the Temple Mount at the beginning of the 70th week of Daniel. This will be the same time God blows His trumpet calling the Jewish people to return to Israel from all the nations of the Earth where they are still living at that time. In verse 4 God says He will take his rest and allow things to happen without directly intervening. This could include his allowing the covenant between the Antichrist and Israel that could also allow for more Jewish return to the Holy Land. God says he will also be like a clear (sunny) heat and a dew to Israel to let them grow in their land for the harvest. God talks also about pruning Israel before the harvest that will involve persecution of the Jews there by Arabs and other Gentiles or non-Jewish people. The fowls could represent demons or evil spirits and the beasts of the earth could represent the nations of the earth who will both persecute the Jewish people in their land in the tribulation or 70th week of Daniel after God's trumpet call of them back to their land. The clear or sunny heat upon herbs could be God using the light of His Word - the Holy Bible while the dew could represent the work of His Holy Spirit led witnesses such as Moses and Elijah and the 144,000 Messianic Jewish witnesses to bring the Jewish people to a spiritual harvest of relationship with Him through their Messiah Jesus of Nazareth. The picture of the Feast of Trumpets or Rosh Hashanah as God's Trumpet Call of Israel back to their land and His helping them with his light and dew for harvest and by persecution of the nations and demons to bring Israel also spiritually to God in Isaiah 18 is as follows:
All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. For so the LORD said unto me, I will take my rest, and I will consider in my dwelling place like a clear heat upon herbs, and like a dew in the heat of harvest. For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening with flower, he shall cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches. They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beast of the earth: and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them. Isaiah 18:3-6
All God's sitting back but still giving the Jews His heat of clear day and dew probably refers to His Word and Holy Spirit led witnesses and pruning and giving permission of persecution by the nations and possibly evil spirits will result in a spiritual harvest. This harvest will be like a present of the Jewish people back to God including many of them trusting in Jesus of Nazareth as their promised Messiah who they will realize came about 2000 years ago the first time and will then soon come again to set up God's Messianic Kingdom for Israel. God will also restore the Jewish people spiritually to Himself by giving them freedom to worship Him including the animal sacrifices and temple worship in the Millenial Kingdom Temple mentioned in Ezekiel 40-48 and here spoken of as the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, the mount Zion. The Jews will also then use this temple and its animal sacrifices as a reminder of their Messiah - Jesus' one sacrifice that took away all their and the world's sins for all time on Calvary about 2000 years ago. The title of God here as the LORD of (warrior) hosts means He will fight for Israel at the end of the tribulation or 70th week of Daniel when He comes from Heaven with Jesus the Messiah, Church age saints, and Old Testament and martyred tribulation saints and holy angels from Heaven at Messiah Jesus second coming. At this time also the LORD of hosts (God the Father) will come as the Shekinah Glory to dwell in the holy of holies of the Messianic Age Temple mentioned in Ezekiel 40-48. The scripture of God's giving the spiritually restored chosen Earthly people of Israel as a present to Himself to reign over and dwell among in the Messianic Age as a result of God's Trumpet Call of Israel Back to the land in unbelief as represented in the Feast of Trumpets at the beginning of the tribulation or 70th week of Daniel in Isaiah 18 is as follows:
In that time shall the present be brought unto the LORD of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, the mount Zion. Isaiah 18:7
The " that day" could refer partly to the day God reestablish Israel in their land in 1948 but more especially the day of the beginning of the 70th week of Daniel when God will more zealously and extensively start to restore all the Jews' promised land to them from the river (the Euphrates) to the river of Egypt. God will gather the Jewish people one by one from all the nations of the Earth to their promised land of Israel. The trumpet blast of God's calling Israel to their land is represented in the Feast of Trumpets or Rosh Hashanah which the Jewish people still regard as a time of the year and feast of God's judgment for the year and a time of asking His forgiveness and solemn reflection before Him. The Jewish people are often persecuted in the foreign nations where they are scattered and this will probably be even more true in the tribulation or 70th Week of Daniel and encourage them to seek the relative security or comfort of living in their promised land of Israel. The people of Israel will worship the LORD in the holy mount (the Temple Mount) at Jerusalem in a relatively unhindered way in the first half of Daniel's 70th week after the covenant with the Antichrist and the False Prophet. However this will be interrupted by the Antichrist imposing himself in the Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount (Holy Mount) and forcing the Jews and people of all the other nations to worship Him and His image or be killed. The Jewish Messiah the Lord Jesus and the LORD (God the Father) and His saints of different ages and holy angels will come at the end of the 70th week of Daniel or triubulation to set up the LORD's Messianic Kingdom. Then Israel will be the chief nation and their sacrificial temple worship on the holy mount (Temple Mount) in Jerusalem with the Messianic Kingdom Temple of God in Ezekiel 40-48 will be the focus of worship of God by not only Israel but also all the other nations for the 1000 year Millenial Kingdom of the Messiah Jesus. The scripture reference in Isaiah 27 of the fulfillment of the picture of the Feast of Trumpets in the trumpet blast to call the Jews back to their land at the beginning of the 70th week of Daniel which will result in their worshipping the LORD in the holy mount (Temple Mount) in Jerusalem is as follows:
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall by gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem. Isaiah 27:12-13
For more information, comments, advice or questions contact Doug at dougforheavens33@gmail.com Contact Spirit and Truth Ministries
Feast of Trumpets Picturing the Rapture of the Church