What does the Feast of Trumpets have to do with announcing the beginning of revival?
The biblical feasts not only provide a prophetic picture of the past, present and future, but they also provide a model for revival and the coming of the Messiah. These feasts were first given by God to Israel to keep and preserve, but Christians are allowed to participate because they are grafted into the olive tree (Israel) and are part of the Messiah Yeshua-Jesus, and because these are eternal festivals of God. When Jesus came the first time and fulfilled the first three festivals with His life, it was mainly about God’s salvation for mankind. Pentecost (Shavuot) was about God’s Spirit descending on man. The last three festivals (which He will still fulfill) are about the indwelling of God’s Glory.
The first festival is the Feast of Trumpets, in which the Shofar is blown to wake people up from their sleep. It’s been a long hot summer and this is the time to wake up. It has been many years, it is time for the Church and Israel to wake up from their sleep… because the glory of God is coming, both physically and spiritually.
All Biblical feasts start with the blowing of the Shofar, but this feast is specifically aimed at awakening God’s people. In Hebrew it is called: YOM TERUAH, literally translated, “the day of awakening from the sound of the trumpet.” Actually, God has only given one commandment on this festival: listen to the sound of the Trumpet… so you can recognize it.
“Speak to the Israelites and say, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you must keep a day of rest, a memorial day heralded by trumpet sound, a holy congregation” (Leviticus 23:24).
Do you know sound of the Shofar? LISTEN HEAR:
It sounds like it penetrates your soul and calls your deep inner being.
THE FEAST OF THE TRUMPETS IS A TIME WHEN THE SOUND OF THE SHOFAR WAKES UP YOUR SPIRIT TO GET YOU READY FOR GOD’S GLORY! It is a kind of “Wake up call”.
Of course, through Jesus, we can always experience His Glory. But God has instituted this specific time so we can celebrate it every year and know what it sounds like and can be prepared for His glory.
In ancient Israel, the Feast of Trumpets served as a kind of announcement of the entry of God’s presence and the arrival of the king. Just like in many stories about kings, a messenger comes to shake people up and say:
Sound the Alarm!
Get Up!
The King is coming!
Physically, the Feast of Trumpets is a symbol of the coming of Messiah, of the return of Jesus to the world. Spiritually, it is symbol of God’s glory entering your heart. The king of Glory is God Himself who enters through the gate with all His glory. Yeshua is part of God and HE is the King of Kings! The gate is the spiritual gate of your soul and heart, as well as the physical gate of Jerusalem in the future. Who, then, is the King of this Glory?
The Psalmist asked that too. In Psalm 24: 7-10 it says:
Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord Almighty—he is the King of glory. Psalm 24: 7-10 (ESV)
The special thing about the biblical festivals is that they have deep layers. They are history and prophetic at the same time. This is because in Hebrew, time is not linear as we know it, but cyclic and everything is repeated throughout the year and through the ages. Jesus is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. He lives and is part of this Biblical Feast. It is for all generations. The fall festivals indicate a model of revival and at the same time they are also prophetic for the future.
When Yeshua Jesus first came, He was a suffering servant who died for us and rose from the dead.
But when He returns,
He will no longer be a servant!
Then He will come as the King of Israel
(Messiah Ben David),
The King of Kings,
The King of Glory!
It says in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 that when He comes, He will be announced by the sound of the trumpet,
“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.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16 (ESV)
And in Joel 2: 1 it says: “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.” (ESV).
We all pray for revival and want more of God’s spirit. We pray for a great revival and want more of His glory, but can we synchronize with God’s time for it? Will we recognize the sound of the trumpet when the King of Glory comes?
