Leviticus 23:24 - A Memorial of Shouting
2 Chronicles 7:8 - A Very Great Assembly
Nehemiah 8:10b - The Joy of the LORD
Joel 2:15 - Rend Your Hearts and Not Your Garments
Amos 3:7 - Secrets
John 14:27 - Prince of Peace
1 Corinthians 15:52 - Trumpets
1 John 3:2b - We Will See Him
A Memorial of Shouting
Speak unto the sons of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first of the month, ye have a sabbath, a memorial of shouting, a holy convocation; Lev. 23:24 (Young’s Literal Translation)
Have you ever been to a surprise birthday party - you know, the kind where everyone hides and then you jump out and yell surprise when the person having the birthday walks in? Sometimes they are truly surprised. Sometimes they have an idea that something is coming.
Have you ever been waiting for someone special to come to your house? You’ve thoroughly cleaned the house and picked up your room. You’ve made special things to eat. Then you wait for that person to arrive. What do you do when they get there? You maybe run out to their car to greet them, to give them a big hug, and to help them carry in whatever they may have brought with them.
In both of these situations, there’s preparation. There’s some waiting - because you don’t know exactly when the person will arrive. And there’s a lot of noise and excitement when they do come.
Even if you knew that someone was going to leave the room and come back with a surprise for you, you would be ready to make some noise when they came back in.
That’s part of the picture of this day - Trumpets. It is a sabbath when you do no work. It is a day of holy convocation - meaning we assemble to worship God. But it is set apart from every other of God’s holy days by this command: it is a memorial of shouting. We are to remember to shout.
I can’t help thinking of several Bible passages when I think of shouting:
Jericho - (Joshua 6) - The children of Israel were commanded to march around Jericho, silently, once for six days. On the seventh day, they marched seven times and then gave a great shout. The walls fell down flat and God gave the Israelites the victory.
Gideon - (Judges 7) - Gideon took 300 men to conquer the Midianites. They surrounded the camp at night, each with a trumpet and a torch in a jar. At Gideon’s signal, they all broke their jars to let the light shine, they blew their trumpets, and they yelled, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon.” God gave them a great victory that night over their enemies.
1 Thessalonians 4:16 - When Jesus Christ comes back to set up His kingdom on this earth, “the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command [a loud shout, yom teruach], with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.
In the case of Jericho and Gideon, the trumpet and the shout was directly connected to God giving them the victory. In the same way, when Jesus comes back, there will be a loud shout and the sound of the trumpet of God. We will be victorious over sin and death forever!
This is the picture in Revelation 11:15: “Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.’ ” This is the central phrase in one of the most recognizable of all classical works: “The Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah. And it truly is the time when we all will be shouting “hallelujah” because Jesus Christ has returned!
That’s why we’re all here today. It is a memorial of a day yet to come when Jesus will return and set up His kingdom, when He will set all things right! Keep your eyes open. Get ready. Be prepared. Be ready to shout!
A Very Great Assembly
At that time Solomon held the feast for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly, from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt. 2 Chronicles 7:8
I love maps. I love getting an idea of the area we’re talking about. In this particular case, the entire land of Israel was celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles. The whole land, about 270 miles from the Brook of Egypt all the way the Lebo-Hamath in the north, celebrated this seven-day festival. Can you imagine everyone, literally everyone, around you celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles?
There have been Feast sites where 12,000 people gathered to worship God. That’s almost more than our minds can comprehend - that many people all singing praises to God and worshipping Him for seven days! On the other hand, now there are little groups all over the United States (and around the world) where people are worshipping God during the Feast of Tabernacles. There might be 100 here, 35 over there, 650 up north, and 300 out west. Some people camp. Some people stay together in a resort setting. Some people book the entire hotel. Other people just find rental vacation homes and meet in a central location every day. But some day, some day, we will get to experience both a huge congregation of people meeting together and holy day services being everywhere - because everyone will be celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles. That will truly be a very great assembly!! I can hardly wait!!
But when will this very great assembly happen? Zechariah 14:16 says, “Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, The LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths.”
Did you get that? After the return of Jesus Christ, the Feast of Tabernacles will be celebrated. Only then, it won’t just be God’s people (those who are wholly devoted to Him); it will be the whole earth - because Jesus Christ will reign over the whole earth. When He is King, everyone will be celebrating His Holy Days.
So when will Jesus Christ return? The Bible seems to strongly indicate that it will be on the Feast of Trumpets. Numbers 10 talks about the uses for the silver trumpets. They were sounded to 1) gather the people together, 2) to move out, 3) during war when the people wanted to be remembered by the LORD and wanted to be saved from their enemies, and 4) at the appointed feasts and at the beginning of months.
Leviticus 23:24 says, “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation.”
I Corinthians 15:51-52 says, “Behold! I tell 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 trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”
1 Thessalonians 4:14-16 says, “For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.”
So we celebrate the Feast of Trumpets, looking forward to that day when Jesus Christ will come back with the trumpet call of God. It’s the day when God’s people are clothed in immortality, changed in the twinkling of an eye. It’s the start of the reign of Christ. The trumpet call will gather all people together, ready to march to the orders of the King. It will signal an end to anyone who is rebelling against the return of Christ, for God will win the battle. The Feast of Trumpets will be a time of great rejoicing for the people of God. And finally, it ushers in that time when all people everywhere will be celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles in a very great assembly!
The Joy of the LORD
for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Nehemiah 8:10b
This is one of those Biblical phrases which finds it way onto coffee mugs, wall hangings, and embroidered pillows. But over the years, I’ve looked at it and thought, “What does it mean? What is the joy of the LORD?”
Why were the people grieved? They had assembled to celebrate the Feast of Trumpets. Nehemiah, Ezra, and the Levites were reading the Book of the Law to them and explaining its meaning. The people were so convicted of their sin. They, as a people, had just come back from captivity because of their sin. They must have felt that there were so many things in God’s law that they were not doing; it was overwhelming. And they wept.
But Ezra, Nehemiah, and the Levites told the people not to weep, not to grieve. Why? Was their sin no big deal? Were they just to shrug it off as of no account? No. Nehemiah 9:1 completely repudiates that idea. Just as soon as the holy days were over, the people assembled in sackcloth, fasting because of their sins. So why were they not to weep and grieve at this time? The people were told, “This day is holy to the Lord your God” and “the joy of the LORD is your strength.”
What is the joy of the LORD?
Zephaniah 3:17 is a great companion scripture to Nehemiah 3:17:
The LORD your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
We are given a parable, a picture, of what this might look like in the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-21. Specifically in verse 20, we see the father having compassion on his approaching prodigal, running to greet him, embracing him, and kissing him. So with that picture in mind, read Zephaniah 3:17 again.
The LORD your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
God is mighty to save - but save from what? God will quiet you by his love - how did God show His love for us? God saved us from our sin - because He so loved us that He gave His Son for us (John 3:16).
And we look forward to that day, when our faith that God has saved us is made sight. What day is that? It is when Jesus Christ returns. What day will He return? The Feast of Trumpets.
Wait a minute! What day is it in Nehemiah 8:10 that they were no to grieve on because it was a day holy to the Lord? It was the first day of the seventh month, the Feast of Trumpets. They were no to grieve on this day because it foreshadows the Feast of Trumpets when Jesus comes back to save once and for all those who are His. On that day, according to 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, we’re changed from this carnal, perishable nature to spiritual, imperishable life, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.
And then, on that day, we will say:
The LORD your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
and we will weep and grieve no more. Our sin is gone. Our God has saved us. The joy of the LORD is our strength.
Rend Your Hearts and Not Your Garments
Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Joel 2:15
What do you think of, Biblically speaking, when you hear “blow the trumpet”? Numbers 10 talks about all of the ways the trumpet was used to signal the Israelites in their wanderings in the wilderness: call to assembly, to follow God, to acknowledge God and the need for His deliverance in time of war, and at the new moon and feast days. There is one holy day that is both a new moon and a feast day, and perhaps that’s why we associate it most with the blowing of trumpets. Or perhaps it’s because Leviticus 23:24 says that the Feast of Trumpets is to be commemorated with the blowing of trumpets. And then, because of other verses, like 1 Corinthians 15:52, 1 Thes. 4:16, and Joel 2:1, we have come to associate the Feast of Trumpets with the return of Jesus, with the Day of the Lord. Leviticus 23:24 calls it a day of solemn rest. We are not commanded to rejoice, as we are commanded to rejoice during the Feast of Tabernacles.
Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Joel 2:15
Next Joel tells the people to consecrate a fast. What is the only day that was a required day of fasting in the Old Testament? The Day of Atonement was, as Leviticus 23:27 states, a day to afflict your soul. Deuteronomy 9:9, Psalm 35:13, Ezra 8:21, and Isaiah 58:3 all speak about fasting or about afflicting your soul with fasting, as a way to humble yourself before God.
Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Joel 2:15
If the first command refers to the Feast of Trumpets, and the second refers to the Day of Atonement, what do you think the third command might refer to? I wondered where else I would find the exact Hebrew word for “solemn assembly.” Once it refers to a commanded assembly to worship Baal, when Jehu killed all of them (2 Chronicles 10:20). Once it refers to the last day of the Days of Unleavened Bread (Deuteronomy 16:8). The only other four times that it is found, this word in Hebrew refers to the Last Great Day, just after the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:36, Numbers 29: 35, 2 Chronicles 7:9, and Nehemiah 8:18).
I think that it’s fascinating that this set of three commands is repeated twice in the short book of Joel (Joel 1:14 and Joel 2:15). Just before the second, Joel 2:12-14 says, “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD your God?
Joel 2 starts with the Day of the LORD, blowing the trumpet, sounding an alarm on God’s holy mountain. It’s a day of terror for those people who are in rebellion against God. The first 11 verses detail the coming army, the fire, the earthquakes, the sun and moon darkened. Then it says, “For the day of the LORD is great and very awesome; who can endure it?”
I think Joel is reminding the people to worship God as He has commanded them to, keeping the fall holy days with all of their hearts and not just going through the outward motions (rend your hearts and not your garments). I think Joel is reminding the people how God’s fall holy days picture God’s plan for the future: the return of Jesus Christ, the acceptance of those who have a relationship with Him, and judgment. It’s interesting that Joel would exhort the people to return to God, to repent from their sins, using the same characterization of God that God Himself used on Mt. Sinai to Moses when the people had made the golden calf (Exodus 34:6). It was the Levites who came to Moses and rejected the actions of the rebellious people. Similarly, it is those of us who are called to be a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9) who should be rallying to God at this time, before the return of Jesus. We should be the ones who are rejecting the wickedness of the society around us. We should be the ones who are worshipping God as He decreed. We will all soon stand before God to give an account for even the words we’ve spoken, not to mention all of our deeds (Matt 12:36, 1 Peter 4:17, Romans 14:10)! How could we possibly stand before our God, our Savior, and make excuses about how everyone else was worshipping that way, or how it was more convenient to do it our way, or how we just knew that God would understand how hard it is to eschew evil. All of our flimsy excuses are just an indication of the degree of rebellion we harbor towards our God. That’s not where I want to be.
I plan to heed Joel’s admonition this year as I never have before. I plan to prepare my heart for the Feast of Trumpets, which is just a few days away. I plan to listen for the trumpet blast which calls me to assemble before my God, to acknowledge Him as my Savior and my Deliverer, to follow Him where He leads me, and to recognize His holy day as a day He has ordained as a day to meet with Him and to worship Him. I plan to prepare my heart for the Day of Atonement, to humble myself before Him, knowing that much too often I fail. I allow my carnal nature to have preeminence instead of God. I need to be cleansed, to have all my sins dealt with once and for all, by the sacrifice and intercession of Jesus Christ, my Lord. And I plan to prepare my heart for the Last Great Day. Even though we will be rejoicing, as commanded, during the Feast of Tabernacles, I will make a special effort to recognize the holiness of the Last Great Day. It isn’t a throw-away day. It isn’t a travel day because the Feast is over. It’s a solemn assembly. And perhaps, just perhaps, it’s a solemn assembly because it pictures the end. All of the evidence has now been gathered. Those names which will be written in the Book of Life have been written. God’s decision has been made; He knows who will be his treasured possession, who will be spared because they are righteous and they serve Him (Malachi 3:16-18).
Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Joel 2:15
There are a few days left before the fall holy days begin. Are you prepared for the coming days?
Secrets
For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. Amos 3:7
Who do you tell your secrets to? You tell secrets to those who are closest to you. Why would you even consider telling your secrets to anyone else. That’s the connotation of the word “secret” in Amos 3:7 too. The Hebrew word can mean “assembly, counsel, or secret.” God reveals His plan, what He’s doing, to those who are close to Him, to those who have a relationship with Him, to those who will listen to the secret. Let me give you a couple of examples.
Noah was told that God was going to destroy the world by water with enough warning that Noah and his family had time to construct the ark (Genesis 6:11-7:16).
Moses was told that God was going to use him to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, that Pharaoh would be unwilling to let them go unless “compelled by a mighty hand.” God told Moses that He would “strike Egypt with all the wonders” and then Pharaoh would let the people go (Exodus 3:10, 19-20).
Joshua was told how the Israelites would take the city of Jericho (Joshua 6). It’s not a battle plan that most people use! The people marched around the city once a day for six days. On the seventh day, they marched around it seven times and then the priests blew the trumpets. At the sound of the trumpets, the people gave a great shout and the wall of the city fell down flat!
These were all prophecies. These were all things that God told His servants (Noah, Moses, and Joshua) ahead of time. They knew what God was going to do because He told them!
The incredibly cool thing is that all three of these events (and there are hundreds of them in the Bible) have application to us. 1 Peter 3:20-21 tells us that the story of Noah and the ark corresponds to our baptism, that just as these eight people were saved out of a corrupt world, we, through baptism, are saved from a corrupt world. God bringing His people out of Egypt has long been understood to typify bringing us out of sin. Similarly, the taking of Jericho - a seemingly impenetrable city - was accomplished by God. It was the sound of the trumpets and the shout of the people which demonstrated the Israelites’ faith that God was going to do what He said. It’s too much of a coincidence to think that as we assemble here on the Feast of Trumpets, on the Day of Shouting, that we are not likewise confessing our faith that God will do what He says: He will return to this earth with the trumpet call of God, with a loud shout, and the seemingly impenetrable culture around us will fall flat!
There are other prophesies which I love, those which give us courage to fight the good fight and stay the course until that day when Jesus Christ does return and evil is conquered.
I love Isaiah 11:1-10: “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb . . . the lion shall eat straw like the ox. . . They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples - of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.”
I love the prophecy, the promise, that animals will no longer harm people or one another.
I love Malachi 3:16-18: Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name. They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.
I love the prophecy, the promise, that those who serve God faithfully are going to be His treasured possession - the KJV says “jewels.”
God, in His mercy and loving kindness to us, has told us what He will do. He has told us from the beginning that He would send His Son to save us from sin, to restore us to Himself. He has told us that we need to persevere, to endure to the end, and that we will receive a crown of life.
This doesn’t seem like much of a secret to us, but then, we love God, and we demonstrate that love by obeying Him - like celebrating the Feast of Trumpets. One of the natural consequences of obeying God and keeping His holy days is that we understand more of God’s plan. We gain courage and strength because we understand what God is doing, and that, in the end, He wins - no matter how much those who don’t love God ridicule Him and us and our beliefs. Rest assured, they are the ones who will be surprised! God does not lie. What He says He will do, He does. Read the Book.
For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. Amos 3:7
The Prince of Peace
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. John 14:27
Do you come when you’re called? It really depends on who is calling you, doesn’t it! You wouldn’t want to respond to just anyone.
What if, when you responded to the call, you were given a gift? Would you open it right away? What if you were given the gift, and you knew what it was, but you couldn’t enjoy the gift as completely as you would later? Would that make the gift less special to you?
The Feast of Trumpets reminds us, as Christians, that there is coming a day when Jesus Christ will return “with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God” (1Thes 4:16). It goes to say that the dead in Christ will rise first and we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them (vs.17). At that trumpet call, we, if we belong to God, will respond.
Do you believe that? Really believe? Because if you do, then you have the opportunity to respond to the call of God today - to come into a closer relationship with Him. He says to us all, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
God is calling us today, to a closer walk with Him. And there are so many blessings from walking with God. Rest is one of the gifts we find in Jesus, but rest is not the only gift that Jesus gives. Look at the memory verse: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. John 14:27
Peace. What an incredible gift!! But, maybe you don’t feel like you need that particular gift right now. Maybe your life is peaceful enough. Maybe you think you’d like to swap it for another gift.
But there’s something very special about peace. The more you live in this world, the older you get, the more you realize that people all around you are looking for peace - a lack of conflict, no tension, contentment, peace. And they are looking for it in the world. The peace that the world gives doesn’t last very long. It’s only an imitation of true peace. And many people don’t know that true peace comes only from the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.
Hopefully someday soon, on one Feast of Trumpets in the future, Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, will return to this world and bring peace once and for all. ‘Cause to tell you the truth, the peace that this world gives - it’s for the birds.
Trumpets
Scripture: For the trumpet will sound, . . 1 Corinthians 15:52
We have sounds all around us. Sometimes they mean specific things. What if you hear “honk-honk” as you’re driving down the street? Usually that means, “GET OUT OF MY WAY!!” What if you hear, “ring, ring”? That used to mean, the phone’s ringing; answer it. (With all the ringtones available today, that doesn’t necessary hold true anymore.) But you know if you hear a siren, there’s danger somewhere. The police or the firemen or the ambulance is rushing to do their jobs.
Before there were loud speakers and megaphones and telephones and computers, people were limited in how they could get information to crowds of people quickly. But God had a solution that is two millennia old: trumpets. There was a certain call to assemble. There was a certain call to break camp and set out on the march. There was a certain call to battle. There were certain calls to announce things, like the start of a new month or a holy day. And God even said that if the people were in battle and they blew the trumpet, it would be a reminder that God would hear and rescue them. (Numbers 10)
We still use trumpets today in the military. What would this call mean to a soldier? (Reveille) What would this one mean? (Charge!)
So in 1 Corinthians 15:52, Paul tells us that the trumpet will sound. Why is it sounding? We know that the trumpet was sounded at the beginning of the month. Hey! That’s today - the Feast of Trumpets!!!
But there’s another reason the trumpet would sound on this day. Many people in God’s church believe that Jesus Christ will return on the Feast of Trumpets. So the trumpet blast does two things: it calls all of God’s people together - and it announces the advent of the King, the arrival of Jesus!
Part of the reason that we believe the return of Jesus happens on this day, Trumpets, is because the actual name of the day is the Day of Shouting or the Day of Blowing. What would be blown? Likely a trumpet. So look at what 1 Thessalonians 4:16 (KJV) says: 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.
This is a day of celebration, a day of shouting and rejoicing, a day when we look forward to our King coming back! What a wonderful sound that will be!!!
We Will See Him
but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:2b
Materials: drawing paper, pencils, crayons, markers, a photo of a person
What if I described someone to you, and you had to draw them based on what you heard me say? Do you think your drawing would look like the actual person? What if you looked at the drawing the person next to you made? Would your drawing look like his drawing? Not likely. You might not even think it was a drawing of the same person.
When we talk about Trumpets, the first of the fall Holy Days of God, we talk about trumpets and judgment on this world. Because of verses like 1 Corinthians 15:52 . . .For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, . . .
we think about people being resurrected, getting to see people we haven’t seen for a long time!
Because of verses like Joel 2:1 Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near, we think of a huge battle against the returning Lord of lord and King of kings, Jesus Christ.
And maybe we think about getting to see Jesus Christ face to face because of songs like “I Can Only Imagine.” “I can only imagine what my eyes will see when Your face is before me.” And we think about our actions - falling on our face in worship before Him, dancing for joy, and shouting a great shout of victory!
But 1 John 3:2 says something very important for the people of God: but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
When Jesus Christ comes back, we’re not only going to see Him as He is, we are going to be like Him. That boggles my mind. I’m instantly going to be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. And I’m going to be like Jesus.
Truly!! There’s a great day coming!!
2 Chronicles 7:8 - A Very Great Assembly
Nehemiah 8:10b - The Joy of the LORD
Joel 2:15 - Rend Your Hearts and Not Your Garments
Amos 3:7 - Secrets
John 14:27 - Prince of Peace
1 Corinthians 15:52 - Trumpets
1 John 3:2b - We Will See Him
A Memorial of Shouting
Speak unto the sons of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first of the month, ye have a sabbath, a memorial of shouting, a holy convocation; Lev. 23:24 (Young’s Literal Translation)
Have you ever been to a surprise birthday party - you know, the kind where everyone hides and then you jump out and yell surprise when the person having the birthday walks in? Sometimes they are truly surprised. Sometimes they have an idea that something is coming.
Have you ever been waiting for someone special to come to your house? You’ve thoroughly cleaned the house and picked up your room. You’ve made special things to eat. Then you wait for that person to arrive. What do you do when they get there? You maybe run out to their car to greet them, to give them a big hug, and to help them carry in whatever they may have brought with them.
In both of these situations, there’s preparation. There’s some waiting - because you don’t know exactly when the person will arrive. And there’s a lot of noise and excitement when they do come.
Even if you knew that someone was going to leave the room and come back with a surprise for you, you would be ready to make some noise when they came back in.
That’s part of the picture of this day - Trumpets. It is a sabbath when you do no work. It is a day of holy convocation - meaning we assemble to worship God. But it is set apart from every other of God’s holy days by this command: it is a memorial of shouting. We are to remember to shout.
I can’t help thinking of several Bible passages when I think of shouting:
Jericho - (Joshua 6) - The children of Israel were commanded to march around Jericho, silently, once for six days. On the seventh day, they marched seven times and then gave a great shout. The walls fell down flat and God gave the Israelites the victory.
Gideon - (Judges 7) - Gideon took 300 men to conquer the Midianites. They surrounded the camp at night, each with a trumpet and a torch in a jar. At Gideon’s signal, they all broke their jars to let the light shine, they blew their trumpets, and they yelled, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon.” God gave them a great victory that night over their enemies.
1 Thessalonians 4:16 - When Jesus Christ comes back to set up His kingdom on this earth, “the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command [a loud shout, yom teruach], with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.
In the case of Jericho and Gideon, the trumpet and the shout was directly connected to God giving them the victory. In the same way, when Jesus comes back, there will be a loud shout and the sound of the trumpet of God. We will be victorious over sin and death forever!
This is the picture in Revelation 11:15: “Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.’ ” This is the central phrase in one of the most recognizable of all classical works: “The Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah. And it truly is the time when we all will be shouting “hallelujah” because Jesus Christ has returned!
That’s why we’re all here today. It is a memorial of a day yet to come when Jesus will return and set up His kingdom, when He will set all things right! Keep your eyes open. Get ready. Be prepared. Be ready to shout!
A Very Great Assembly
At that time Solomon held the feast for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly, from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt. 2 Chronicles 7:8
I love maps. I love getting an idea of the area we’re talking about. In this particular case, the entire land of Israel was celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles. The whole land, about 270 miles from the Brook of Egypt all the way the Lebo-Hamath in the north, celebrated this seven-day festival. Can you imagine everyone, literally everyone, around you celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles?
There have been Feast sites where 12,000 people gathered to worship God. That’s almost more than our minds can comprehend - that many people all singing praises to God and worshipping Him for seven days! On the other hand, now there are little groups all over the United States (and around the world) where people are worshipping God during the Feast of Tabernacles. There might be 100 here, 35 over there, 650 up north, and 300 out west. Some people camp. Some people stay together in a resort setting. Some people book the entire hotel. Other people just find rental vacation homes and meet in a central location every day. But some day, some day, we will get to experience both a huge congregation of people meeting together and holy day services being everywhere - because everyone will be celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles. That will truly be a very great assembly!! I can hardly wait!!
But when will this very great assembly happen? Zechariah 14:16 says, “Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, The LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths.”
Did you get that? After the return of Jesus Christ, the Feast of Tabernacles will be celebrated. Only then, it won’t just be God’s people (those who are wholly devoted to Him); it will be the whole earth - because Jesus Christ will reign over the whole earth. When He is King, everyone will be celebrating His Holy Days.
So when will Jesus Christ return? The Bible seems to strongly indicate that it will be on the Feast of Trumpets. Numbers 10 talks about the uses for the silver trumpets. They were sounded to 1) gather the people together, 2) to move out, 3) during war when the people wanted to be remembered by the LORD and wanted to be saved from their enemies, and 4) at the appointed feasts and at the beginning of months.
Leviticus 23:24 says, “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation.”
I Corinthians 15:51-52 says, “Behold! I tell 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 trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”
1 Thessalonians 4:14-16 says, “For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.”
So we celebrate the Feast of Trumpets, looking forward to that day when Jesus Christ will come back with the trumpet call of God. It’s the day when God’s people are clothed in immortality, changed in the twinkling of an eye. It’s the start of the reign of Christ. The trumpet call will gather all people together, ready to march to the orders of the King. It will signal an end to anyone who is rebelling against the return of Christ, for God will win the battle. The Feast of Trumpets will be a time of great rejoicing for the people of God. And finally, it ushers in that time when all people everywhere will be celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles in a very great assembly!
The Joy of the LORD
for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Nehemiah 8:10b
This is one of those Biblical phrases which finds it way onto coffee mugs, wall hangings, and embroidered pillows. But over the years, I’ve looked at it and thought, “What does it mean? What is the joy of the LORD?”
Why were the people grieved? They had assembled to celebrate the Feast of Trumpets. Nehemiah, Ezra, and the Levites were reading the Book of the Law to them and explaining its meaning. The people were so convicted of their sin. They, as a people, had just come back from captivity because of their sin. They must have felt that there were so many things in God’s law that they were not doing; it was overwhelming. And they wept.
But Ezra, Nehemiah, and the Levites told the people not to weep, not to grieve. Why? Was their sin no big deal? Were they just to shrug it off as of no account? No. Nehemiah 9:1 completely repudiates that idea. Just as soon as the holy days were over, the people assembled in sackcloth, fasting because of their sins. So why were they not to weep and grieve at this time? The people were told, “This day is holy to the Lord your God” and “the joy of the LORD is your strength.”
What is the joy of the LORD?
Zephaniah 3:17 is a great companion scripture to Nehemiah 3:17:
The LORD your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
We are given a parable, a picture, of what this might look like in the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-21. Specifically in verse 20, we see the father having compassion on his approaching prodigal, running to greet him, embracing him, and kissing him. So with that picture in mind, read Zephaniah 3:17 again.
The LORD your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
God is mighty to save - but save from what? God will quiet you by his love - how did God show His love for us? God saved us from our sin - because He so loved us that He gave His Son for us (John 3:16).
And we look forward to that day, when our faith that God has saved us is made sight. What day is that? It is when Jesus Christ returns. What day will He return? The Feast of Trumpets.
Wait a minute! What day is it in Nehemiah 8:10 that they were no to grieve on because it was a day holy to the Lord? It was the first day of the seventh month, the Feast of Trumpets. They were no to grieve on this day because it foreshadows the Feast of Trumpets when Jesus comes back to save once and for all those who are His. On that day, according to 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, we’re changed from this carnal, perishable nature to spiritual, imperishable life, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.
And then, on that day, we will say:
The LORD your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
and we will weep and grieve no more. Our sin is gone. Our God has saved us. The joy of the LORD is our strength.
Rend Your Hearts and Not Your Garments
Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Joel 2:15
What do you think of, Biblically speaking, when you hear “blow the trumpet”? Numbers 10 talks about all of the ways the trumpet was used to signal the Israelites in their wanderings in the wilderness: call to assembly, to follow God, to acknowledge God and the need for His deliverance in time of war, and at the new moon and feast days. There is one holy day that is both a new moon and a feast day, and perhaps that’s why we associate it most with the blowing of trumpets. Or perhaps it’s because Leviticus 23:24 says that the Feast of Trumpets is to be commemorated with the blowing of trumpets. And then, because of other verses, like 1 Corinthians 15:52, 1 Thes. 4:16, and Joel 2:1, we have come to associate the Feast of Trumpets with the return of Jesus, with the Day of the Lord. Leviticus 23:24 calls it a day of solemn rest. We are not commanded to rejoice, as we are commanded to rejoice during the Feast of Tabernacles.
Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Joel 2:15
Next Joel tells the people to consecrate a fast. What is the only day that was a required day of fasting in the Old Testament? The Day of Atonement was, as Leviticus 23:27 states, a day to afflict your soul. Deuteronomy 9:9, Psalm 35:13, Ezra 8:21, and Isaiah 58:3 all speak about fasting or about afflicting your soul with fasting, as a way to humble yourself before God.
Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Joel 2:15
If the first command refers to the Feast of Trumpets, and the second refers to the Day of Atonement, what do you think the third command might refer to? I wondered where else I would find the exact Hebrew word for “solemn assembly.” Once it refers to a commanded assembly to worship Baal, when Jehu killed all of them (2 Chronicles 10:20). Once it refers to the last day of the Days of Unleavened Bread (Deuteronomy 16:8). The only other four times that it is found, this word in Hebrew refers to the Last Great Day, just after the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:36, Numbers 29: 35, 2 Chronicles 7:9, and Nehemiah 8:18).
I think that it’s fascinating that this set of three commands is repeated twice in the short book of Joel (Joel 1:14 and Joel 2:15). Just before the second, Joel 2:12-14 says, “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD your God?
Joel 2 starts with the Day of the LORD, blowing the trumpet, sounding an alarm on God’s holy mountain. It’s a day of terror for those people who are in rebellion against God. The first 11 verses detail the coming army, the fire, the earthquakes, the sun and moon darkened. Then it says, “For the day of the LORD is great and very awesome; who can endure it?”
I think Joel is reminding the people to worship God as He has commanded them to, keeping the fall holy days with all of their hearts and not just going through the outward motions (rend your hearts and not your garments). I think Joel is reminding the people how God’s fall holy days picture God’s plan for the future: the return of Jesus Christ, the acceptance of those who have a relationship with Him, and judgment. It’s interesting that Joel would exhort the people to return to God, to repent from their sins, using the same characterization of God that God Himself used on Mt. Sinai to Moses when the people had made the golden calf (Exodus 34:6). It was the Levites who came to Moses and rejected the actions of the rebellious people. Similarly, it is those of us who are called to be a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9) who should be rallying to God at this time, before the return of Jesus. We should be the ones who are rejecting the wickedness of the society around us. We should be the ones who are worshipping God as He decreed. We will all soon stand before God to give an account for even the words we’ve spoken, not to mention all of our deeds (Matt 12:36, 1 Peter 4:17, Romans 14:10)! How could we possibly stand before our God, our Savior, and make excuses about how everyone else was worshipping that way, or how it was more convenient to do it our way, or how we just knew that God would understand how hard it is to eschew evil. All of our flimsy excuses are just an indication of the degree of rebellion we harbor towards our God. That’s not where I want to be.
I plan to heed Joel’s admonition this year as I never have before. I plan to prepare my heart for the Feast of Trumpets, which is just a few days away. I plan to listen for the trumpet blast which calls me to assemble before my God, to acknowledge Him as my Savior and my Deliverer, to follow Him where He leads me, and to recognize His holy day as a day He has ordained as a day to meet with Him and to worship Him. I plan to prepare my heart for the Day of Atonement, to humble myself before Him, knowing that much too often I fail. I allow my carnal nature to have preeminence instead of God. I need to be cleansed, to have all my sins dealt with once and for all, by the sacrifice and intercession of Jesus Christ, my Lord. And I plan to prepare my heart for the Last Great Day. Even though we will be rejoicing, as commanded, during the Feast of Tabernacles, I will make a special effort to recognize the holiness of the Last Great Day. It isn’t a throw-away day. It isn’t a travel day because the Feast is over. It’s a solemn assembly. And perhaps, just perhaps, it’s a solemn assembly because it pictures the end. All of the evidence has now been gathered. Those names which will be written in the Book of Life have been written. God’s decision has been made; He knows who will be his treasured possession, who will be spared because they are righteous and they serve Him (Malachi 3:16-18).
Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Joel 2:15
There are a few days left before the fall holy days begin. Are you prepared for the coming days?
Secrets
For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. Amos 3:7
Who do you tell your secrets to? You tell secrets to those who are closest to you. Why would you even consider telling your secrets to anyone else. That’s the connotation of the word “secret” in Amos 3:7 too. The Hebrew word can mean “assembly, counsel, or secret.” God reveals His plan, what He’s doing, to those who are close to Him, to those who have a relationship with Him, to those who will listen to the secret. Let me give you a couple of examples.
Noah was told that God was going to destroy the world by water with enough warning that Noah and his family had time to construct the ark (Genesis 6:11-7:16).
Moses was told that God was going to use him to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, that Pharaoh would be unwilling to let them go unless “compelled by a mighty hand.” God told Moses that He would “strike Egypt with all the wonders” and then Pharaoh would let the people go (Exodus 3:10, 19-20).
Joshua was told how the Israelites would take the city of Jericho (Joshua 6). It’s not a battle plan that most people use! The people marched around the city once a day for six days. On the seventh day, they marched around it seven times and then the priests blew the trumpets. At the sound of the trumpets, the people gave a great shout and the wall of the city fell down flat!
These were all prophecies. These were all things that God told His servants (Noah, Moses, and Joshua) ahead of time. They knew what God was going to do because He told them!
The incredibly cool thing is that all three of these events (and there are hundreds of them in the Bible) have application to us. 1 Peter 3:20-21 tells us that the story of Noah and the ark corresponds to our baptism, that just as these eight people were saved out of a corrupt world, we, through baptism, are saved from a corrupt world. God bringing His people out of Egypt has long been understood to typify bringing us out of sin. Similarly, the taking of Jericho - a seemingly impenetrable city - was accomplished by God. It was the sound of the trumpets and the shout of the people which demonstrated the Israelites’ faith that God was going to do what He said. It’s too much of a coincidence to think that as we assemble here on the Feast of Trumpets, on the Day of Shouting, that we are not likewise confessing our faith that God will do what He says: He will return to this earth with the trumpet call of God, with a loud shout, and the seemingly impenetrable culture around us will fall flat!
There are other prophesies which I love, those which give us courage to fight the good fight and stay the course until that day when Jesus Christ does return and evil is conquered.
I love Isaiah 11:1-10: “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb . . . the lion shall eat straw like the ox. . . They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples - of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.”
I love the prophecy, the promise, that animals will no longer harm people or one another.
I love Malachi 3:16-18: Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name. They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.
I love the prophecy, the promise, that those who serve God faithfully are going to be His treasured possession - the KJV says “jewels.”
God, in His mercy and loving kindness to us, has told us what He will do. He has told us from the beginning that He would send His Son to save us from sin, to restore us to Himself. He has told us that we need to persevere, to endure to the end, and that we will receive a crown of life.
This doesn’t seem like much of a secret to us, but then, we love God, and we demonstrate that love by obeying Him - like celebrating the Feast of Trumpets. One of the natural consequences of obeying God and keeping His holy days is that we understand more of God’s plan. We gain courage and strength because we understand what God is doing, and that, in the end, He wins - no matter how much those who don’t love God ridicule Him and us and our beliefs. Rest assured, they are the ones who will be surprised! God does not lie. What He says He will do, He does. Read the Book.
For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. Amos 3:7
The Prince of Peace
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. John 14:27
Do you come when you’re called? It really depends on who is calling you, doesn’t it! You wouldn’t want to respond to just anyone.
What if, when you responded to the call, you were given a gift? Would you open it right away? What if you were given the gift, and you knew what it was, but you couldn’t enjoy the gift as completely as you would later? Would that make the gift less special to you?
The Feast of Trumpets reminds us, as Christians, that there is coming a day when Jesus Christ will return “with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God” (1Thes 4:16). It goes to say that the dead in Christ will rise first and we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them (vs.17). At that trumpet call, we, if we belong to God, will respond.
Do you believe that? Really believe? Because if you do, then you have the opportunity to respond to the call of God today - to come into a closer relationship with Him. He says to us all, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
God is calling us today, to a closer walk with Him. And there are so many blessings from walking with God. Rest is one of the gifts we find in Jesus, but rest is not the only gift that Jesus gives. Look at the memory verse: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. John 14:27
Peace. What an incredible gift!! But, maybe you don’t feel like you need that particular gift right now. Maybe your life is peaceful enough. Maybe you think you’d like to swap it for another gift.
But there’s something very special about peace. The more you live in this world, the older you get, the more you realize that people all around you are looking for peace - a lack of conflict, no tension, contentment, peace. And they are looking for it in the world. The peace that the world gives doesn’t last very long. It’s only an imitation of true peace. And many people don’t know that true peace comes only from the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.
Hopefully someday soon, on one Feast of Trumpets in the future, Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, will return to this world and bring peace once and for all. ‘Cause to tell you the truth, the peace that this world gives - it’s for the birds.
Trumpets
Scripture: For the trumpet will sound, . . 1 Corinthians 15:52
We have sounds all around us. Sometimes they mean specific things. What if you hear “honk-honk” as you’re driving down the street? Usually that means, “GET OUT OF MY WAY!!” What if you hear, “ring, ring”? That used to mean, the phone’s ringing; answer it. (With all the ringtones available today, that doesn’t necessary hold true anymore.) But you know if you hear a siren, there’s danger somewhere. The police or the firemen or the ambulance is rushing to do their jobs.
Before there were loud speakers and megaphones and telephones and computers, people were limited in how they could get information to crowds of people quickly. But God had a solution that is two millennia old: trumpets. There was a certain call to assemble. There was a certain call to break camp and set out on the march. There was a certain call to battle. There were certain calls to announce things, like the start of a new month or a holy day. And God even said that if the people were in battle and they blew the trumpet, it would be a reminder that God would hear and rescue them. (Numbers 10)
We still use trumpets today in the military. What would this call mean to a soldier? (Reveille) What would this one mean? (Charge!)
So in 1 Corinthians 15:52, Paul tells us that the trumpet will sound. Why is it sounding? We know that the trumpet was sounded at the beginning of the month. Hey! That’s today - the Feast of Trumpets!!!
But there’s another reason the trumpet would sound on this day. Many people in God’s church believe that Jesus Christ will return on the Feast of Trumpets. So the trumpet blast does two things: it calls all of God’s people together - and it announces the advent of the King, the arrival of Jesus!
Part of the reason that we believe the return of Jesus happens on this day, Trumpets, is because the actual name of the day is the Day of Shouting or the Day of Blowing. What would be blown? Likely a trumpet. So look at what 1 Thessalonians 4:16 (KJV) says: 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.
This is a day of celebration, a day of shouting and rejoicing, a day when we look forward to our King coming back! What a wonderful sound that will be!!!
We Will See Him
but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:2b
Materials: drawing paper, pencils, crayons, markers, a photo of a person
What if I described someone to you, and you had to draw them based on what you heard me say? Do you think your drawing would look like the actual person? What if you looked at the drawing the person next to you made? Would your drawing look like his drawing? Not likely. You might not even think it was a drawing of the same person.
When we talk about Trumpets, the first of the fall Holy Days of God, we talk about trumpets and judgment on this world. Because of verses like 1 Corinthians 15:52 . . .For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, . . .
we think about people being resurrected, getting to see people we haven’t seen for a long time!
Because of verses like Joel 2:1 Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near, we think of a huge battle against the returning Lord of lord and King of kings, Jesus Christ.
And maybe we think about getting to see Jesus Christ face to face because of songs like “I Can Only Imagine.” “I can only imagine what my eyes will see when Your face is before me.” And we think about our actions - falling on our face in worship before Him, dancing for joy, and shouting a great shout of victory!
But 1 John 3:2 says something very important for the people of God: but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
When Jesus Christ comes back, we’re not only going to see Him as He is, we are going to be like Him. That boggles my mind. I’m instantly going to be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. And I’m going to be like Jesus.
Truly!! There’s a great day coming!!