By Elisabeth Hinze
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As the sun sets next week Wednesday, Israel will resound with millions of voices wishing their loved ones L’shanah tovah (For a good year). Rosh Hashana, literally, the Head or the First of the Year, starts on the eve of the 1st of Tishri or 24 September on our Western calendar.
But the sound of joyous well-wishing isn’t the only sound distinctive to Rosh Hashana. We read about this festival in Numbers 29:1-6 and Leviticus 23:24, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.” Which is why this festival is actually called Yom Teruah, the Feast of Trumpets. The name Rosh Hashana came only later.
Yom Teruah is quite a unique festival. For a number of reasons. First, it’s the only Biblical festival where God doesn’t give specific reasons for having it. There are instructions to observe it as a Shabbat, to rest, to sacrifice to the Lord and to blow the shofar. We are given the what. But not really the why. Secondly, Yom Teruah is the first of the second category of Biblical feasts, known as fall festivals. Thirdly, it’s the first of the three festivals that Yeshua hasn’t fulfilled yet.
Which brings us back to the seven Biblical festivals we read about in Leviticus 23. And to the way in which God gives them as a picture of His plan for our salvation. In the first four, the spring festivals of Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits and Shavuot, we see Yeshua’s crucifixion, burial and resurrection, followed by the outpouring of Holy Spirit. And if Yeshua fulfilled the four spring festivals so precisely during His time on earth, chances are that we can expect Him to do the same for the final three fall feasts. Starting with Yom Teruah…
Leviticus 23 calls this festival Zikron Teruah, a Memorial of Blowing. Numbers 29 describes it as Yom Teruah, a Day of Blowing. Which is why, during this festival, you will hear a total of 100 blasts coming from every synagogue. So what is the significance of all the shofar blowing on this feast? Interestingly enough, God doesn’t give us a direct answer.
The shofar plays a prominent role in the Old Testament. Israel was gathered around Mt Sinai to receive the Torah and trembled in awe at the sound of a shofar coming from the think cloud covering the mountain (Exodus 19:16). We also read about the shofar announcing the start of a Jubilee year or the coronation of a new king. David used it as an instrument of worship and the armies of Israel marched to war with its sound echoing around them.
A multitude of reasons and uses. But two stand out. First, the sound of the shofar was used as a call to gather the people into the presence of God (Numbers 10:2-3 and Joel 2:15-16). Second, it was used as an alarm to alert the people to impending war or judgement (Jeremiah 4:18-20 and Joel 2:1-2).
Could it be then that the sound of the shofar on Yom Teruah is symbolic of a wake-up call? A jolt to remind us of Who we serve? And of how He promised to return? Perhaps…
Because the Feast of Trumpets isn’t just a detached two-day event. The festival is actually the beginning of something, the start of ten days of sincere prayer, repentance and soul searching. This ten-day period, entitled the Days of Awe, concludes on the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur.
See, Jewish tradition says that Yom Teruah or Rosh Hashana is the day on which God writes the names of those who are wholly righteous in the Book of Life. The names of the wholly wicked, on the other hand, are written in the Book of Death. But it’s not all as black and white as that. Because what about those who fall in a more grey area – not wholly righteous but not wholly wicked either? Does that mean inscription in neither book. Which is where the Days of Awe comes in. Kind of like a ten-day period of soul-cleaning, repentance and introspection. But there is a cut-off point. Those who were found neither wholly righteous nor wholly wicked on Yom Teruah await judgement, and inscription in either the Book of Life or the Book of Death, on Yom Kippur.
The festivals were given to us as a mirror image of the real thing, a piece of the puzzle slotting into the whole picture of salvation. The first four festivals have already been fulfilled, which gives us more than half of the complete picture. In recent years there’s been an increased focus, a heightened interest in exactly what the fulfilment of the last three would entail. And although the finer details and all the exact how’s and why’s remain to be seen, there seems to be a general consensus. Three festivals await fulfilment. And prophecy tells us that a number of things are still to come: Yeshua comes for His Bride, the Great Tribulation, Judgement Day and Yeshua returning to earth to “tabernacle” with us.
My aim is not to comment or give my opinion on what’s been written or said about the final three festivals. My goal is simply to provide an answer to a question I seem to be getting more and more: why do I as a Christian observe the “Jewish”, or more correctly, Biblical festivals? It’s not an answer I can summarise in a sentence or even a paragraph. But let me give it a try anyway: as a Christian, as a follower of Yeshua, how could I not?
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