Get out your trumpet and prepare to blow! Don’t have a trumpet? How about a horn. Or whistle. It’s time for a celebration. Yet, you might ask why. As with all the Feast of our Lord, I’m excited to share the fantastic reasons we celebrate the Feast of Trumpets.
Today, you'll learn
- What the Feast of Trumpets is in Scripture
- Why Christians can benefit by celebrating this feast of our Lord.
- Then, we'll get into celebration ideas you can use with family, friends, or your congregation.
I wish I had understood this years ago. Even today, it’s hard to step into a new season of celebrating. To be honest, Christmas and Easter were so ingrained in me they were the only things we celebrated.
Yet, even as a child, I would ask, “Why don’t we…,” only to be silenced by teachers. “That’s a Jewish thing,” they would reply.
I’ve searched the Word of God, and nowhere does it state 'Jewish Feasts.'
It always refers to the “Feast of Our Lord.” Appointed times of our Lord. The Lord’s appointed time.
For this reason, I am confident Christians can and should celebrate the feast days.
Are you ready to learn more?
The Feasts Of Trumpets is a Time of Celebration
The Feast of the Trumpets is one of the God’s appointed times. We find a review of the feasts in Leviticus 23.
“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord’s appointed times which you shall proclaim as holy convocations—My appointed times are these:”
God follows this declaration with directions for the Sabbath, Passover, the Feast of Firstfruits, the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), and the Feast of Booths.
(The fall holidays are also known as the High Holy Days.)
Always remember: These are celebrations; times to remember all that God has done.
Look:
Want to learn more about these feast days and how you can celebrate them as a Christian?
In my free Biblical Feasts course, I share guides, devotions, teachings, and celebration ideas for the whole family to enjoy. You can check it out here.
Today in America we celebrate Labor Day, a holiday set up by the unions of our country. We celebrate Groundhog Day, April Fool’s Day, Halloween, and so on.
Yet, as a practice, we don’t celebrate the Feasts of our Lord - the Holy Days. Do you see any problem with this?
Let’s not wrestle over a “Jewish” holiday when we can celebrate a reminder of God’s promises, provision, and grace!
Instead of calling something a “Jewish holiday,” let us, as God’s people, join the trumpet blasts declaring His goodness.
Feast Of Trumpets In The Bible
The Feast of Trumpets is the beginning of the fall celebrations we find in Scripture.
It’s a short one - just 2 days.
The dates of the feasts are determined by Passover and by the instructions in Leviticus to hold this feast in the seventh month. In 2023, the Feast begins on Friday, September 15th, in the evening and ends at sundown on Sunday, September 17th.
Let’s look at the verses referring to the Feast of Trumpets:
Again, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall not do any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord.’” Leviticus 23:23-25.
Now, in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy assembly; you shall do no laborious work. It will be to you a day for blowing trumpets. Numbers 29:1.
God tells Moses many things, and we don’t want to miss the blessing of His Word. It’s a blessing to study His words and reap the blessings of both the promised and delivered Messiah.
Now, you may be wondering.
What does the Feast of Trumpets actually mean? Let’s see.
Feast of Trumpets Meaning
Remember the story of Joshua in the battle of Jericho?
On the seventh day, they blew the trumpets loud.
That is what the feast of trumpets is about: blow the trumpets. Something is about to happen. The enemy’s walls are about to fall.
It is also about the seventh month arriving (September in the modern calendar) in order to prepare the people for the Day of Atonement, which is ten days later.
We are no different today – we have reminders that something big is about to happen.
Reminders show up everywhere that Christmas is coming. There are racks of toys and gifts put out in the store as early as October.
Halloween is in the stores and in ads everywhere by late August.
When a couple gets married, they send out “save the date” reminders. It helps us all to plan and be ready.
The same is true of our Lord. He sent reminders.
The Feast of Trumpets is a reminder. Something big is about to happen: the Day of Atonement!
Fascinating, right?
But let’s take it a step further.
Or if you are a visual learner, you may prefer to watch this video where I break down why we can celebrate this feast:
Reasons To Celebrate The Feast Of Trumpets
Why should we celebrate the Feast Of Trumpets? Here are three reasons!
1. God declared it.
God declared it! That settles it for me.
In Leviticus, we see the Feast of Trumpets as a celebration that the season of the harvest is complete. It is a day of rest. Much earned rest indeed.
Blow the horn of salvation because it belongs to the Lord!
Shout unto God with a voice of triumph. The battle belongs to the Lord.
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain.
Holy, holy, holy is He.
We have so much to shout about.
Don’t listen to the news. Don’t watch tv.
This fall season of feasts is a time of rejoicing. God is in control and He reigns!
I’ll never forget, my husband and I were part of a 100+ choir and orchestra in St. Louis. We are celebrating our Risen Lord. It was magnificent. We felt like we stood at the gate of heaven, ready to step onto the gold street!
It was moving. It was of the Holy Spirit and glorifying to Him!
As the pageant was in its final scene, the full choir was singing at the top of their voices, “Worthy Is the Lamb who was slain. Holy, holy, holy is He.”
Worship God
We, that day and many times since, joined the voices of heaven praising the Lord and reaping the benefits of basking in His glory. The blessings of heartfelt worship of the Lord are too magnificent to even describe.
Hopefully, you’ve experienced pure, unadulterated worship. If not, now’s the time to start. And the fall festivals of the Lord are a perfect place to do so.
Today, the enemy is trying desperately to discourage and distract us. He seems to have upped his attacks. This all-consuming threat has a purpose.
We are in the last days, and Satan knows it!
There are many puppets on Satan’s stage, making life seem like one long, never-ending drama.
Yet, it ends. Time is coming soon when the Lord returns.
Yes, we have been in the last days since the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the grave. However, the intensity is rising.
It is palpable.
And now this is all escalating at the precious time our Lord has saved for himself!
Worship God In Spirit And In Truth
The fall feasts!
The Fall celebrations are for all believers - both Jew and Gentile - to celebrate together.
We see them in both the Old and New Testaments, revealing their significance. And we see in the New Testament, as written through the Apostle Paul in the book of Romans, that we are grafted into the people of God’s promise.
The fall feasts are for Christians around the world to come together in spirit and truth to celebrate our risen Lord.
There is no other religion that serves a risen Lord!
There’s no other religion that has a Savior who delivers and protects.
There is no other religion that calls its followers to serve a loving God!
Are you ready to celebrate our Lord?
He gave us clear examples of how to celebrate Him and prepare for His return.
Get oil in your lamps church. The bridegroom is coming.
This is the first reason: God declared that we, as foreigners, celebrate the feasts of our Lord.
2. The stories in the Bible are the richest source of teaching for our children and grandchildren.
God’s Word is a fulfillment of His promises, provision, and grace.
The more we share this with our children, the more they can see who God truly is: a God who loves them.
The reason so many people today are confused about the Bible is that we litter it with our lack of understanding and wrong teaching.
It is a blessed teaching moment to celebrate these feasts.
Today, more than ever, our children and grandchildren need to understand how God works and why He uses stories in scripture to teach us truths.
These stories should be the ones our kids learn first and most often.
There’s a reason God asked us to remember these feasts every year: so we don’t forget His promises, provisions, and His grace.
Too often we focus on Disney or the latest, most popular cartoon. These may be fine for fun, yet God has stories full of truth, excitement, romance, and fulfillment.
The greatest stories your children can ever learn are how God works through young and old alike. To see amazing things happen.
And today we get to celebrate one of those stories in the Feast of Trumpets.
3. To see God alive in the Scripture
Celebrating the feasts of the Lord is a chance to live out the stories we read in Scripture.
Let’s look again at the Scriptures that first mention the Feast of Trumpets, found in Leviticus 23:23-25.
Again, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall not do any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord.’”
This celebration is in the 7th month. It is a celebration to mark the end of a season and a time of rest.
This first celebration of the three fall feasts is the symbol of the old and the beginning of the new. Even the celebration year (the Jewish New Year) starts with the Feast of Trumpets.
In Leviticus 23:24, in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), it’s known as the day of blowing.
Does this celebration still exist in the Jewish community and in Jewish traditions today? Yes! It is now called Rosh Hashanah.
The Jewish people believe this is the birthday of creation.
This is a holy day. God declared it such.
The Jewish teaching declares that this is the day all people stand before their creator.
We see this exemplified by the shofar.
Shofar Meaning
Blow the shofar, the ram’s horn.
The ram’s horn became symbolic of redemption, renewal, and rejoicing.
You will be gathered up one by one, you sons of Israel. It will come about also on that day that a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were perishing in the land of Assyria and who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem. Isaiah 27:12a-13.
Some believe the New Testament pictures the Feast of Trumpets as the ushering in of the rapture.
In 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, Paul reminds believers that they will be gathered into heaven with the sound of the trumpet. That trumpet sound will be the best of them all.
I love how one author summarized it:
Rosh Hashanah is the Day of Alarm. It is a reminder that although the summer harvest season has ended, and the storehouses are full, each person must recognize his sole dependence on God, not on Himself.
See Deuteronomy 8:10-144. To recognize what is to come.
The Feast of Tabernacles is a culmination of three feasts: the Feast of Trumpets, the Feast of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles
These are the feasts that have not already been fulfilled prophetically.
This season relates to the great end-time events and final judgment recorded by the prophets and in the final book of Revelation.
Read Revelation 1:10 as a family:
I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet.
Have your family blow their horns again.
God’s voice used a trumpet many times in Scripture.
An author I love, Dr Richard Booker writes:
“As we progress further into the book of Revelation, we see the literal fulfillments of the Feast of Trumpets. John writes ‘After these things I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I head was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.”’ Revelation 4:1
“John is then given a frightening vision of the use of trumpets to sound an alarm for warfare in the restoration of the nation of Israel and the 7 year tribulation period described in Revelation chapters 6 – 18.”
The prophets in the Hebrew Bible described this period in terms of the blowing of trumpets for warfare. Joel wrote:
Blow the trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand. Joel 2:1
You can also read about this in Zephaniah 1:14-18.
How To Celebrate The Feasts Of Trumpets
Grab a trumpet and have your kids parade around the house blowing the trumpets!
The trumpet is to announce that something is about to happen.
The shofar is the ram’s horn trumpet.
As a family, if you don’t have a ram’s horn (shofar), then go to a zoo and visit the pen with the rams in it. Look at their horns. See how they can make the perfect shofar!
Look at how it curls in some animals.
The trumpet shofar is the Hebrew word for ram’s horn.
Take time with your family to read the story of Isaac and his father and the sacrifice God requested and how God intervened and had a ram stuck in the thicket.
The ram’s horn, known as the shofar, is a reminder of that redemption of the ram.
Abraham knew God would provide.
The ram became the sacrifice and sacred moment.
Today God still provides.He is our permanent redemption, our one and done sacrifice.
Read John 3:16-17 for a reminder.
The horn became known as the Horn of Salvation.
Next, read the story of Joshua in the battle of Jericho. That story is a favorite to reenact with the family.
Finally, have fun!
Have fun with your family and blow a horn.
Make horns out of paper, or pull out some New Year’s Eve horns. Or actually buy one at the store or online.
The best place to get a real shofar is in Israel. I pray we can all take the trip to visit the streets where Jesus’ ministry was.
To summarize, here’s how you can celebrate the Feast of Trumpets as a Christian:
- Get trumpets or make trumpets for you and your family. Have the kids march around the house blowing their horns!
- Read the story of Isaac and God’s provision of a ram.
- Read the story of Joshua and the battle of Jericho.
- Reenact the story of the walls coming down.
- Worship God and praise Him. That is what the feast days are really about.
Final Thoughts
The ultimate fulfillment of the Feast of Trumpets is the second coming of Jesus, which is described in Revelation 19. It, too, is announced by the use of trumpets.
John the apostle writes:
Then the seventh angel sounded; 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 will reign forever and ever. Revelation 11:15
He reports that when Jesus returns, He will be coming to make war. Rev 19:11
He will crush all His enemies and rule with a rod of iron over a Kingdom that will never end. Revelation 19:15
Yes, Jesus is the Trumpet of God and the Horn of Salvation.
He is our Great Warrior-King who has defeated the enemies of God and God’s people.
Now you tell me, is this a story you want your children and grandchildren to know?
I do! And everyone else.
Our God is a mighty warrior!
He is the source of our hope!
We all need to take a step back and see that redemption is nigh. Straighten up and lift your heads, because your redemption is drawing near!
May God bless you in your worship of Him.
Thanks for such a enlightened text of words