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Ten Reasons for Blowing Trumpets

The Fall Feasts are not like the Spring Feasts, because the Spring Feasts have to do with Yeshua’s (Jesus’) first coming and have been fulfilled, but the Fall Feasts have to do with His second coming, and so far we are still waiting and preparing for His coming. Today we are going to look at the ten days between the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement. These ten days are considered the holiest time of the year, the time when God and man are closest together, and for this reason they are called the Days of Awe. During these ten days, you blow the shofar (a trumpet made of a ram’s horn) and give a reason for blowing it. We are going to look at why these ten reasons are important in the life of a believer and how important it is to be prepared.

The yearly reminder of the Fall Feasts causes us to examine ourselves and allows God to open our eyes and our hearts to those areas in our lives that we need to change and even those sins that need to be repented of. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Messiah Yeshua is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” And Peter tells us in 2 Peter 1:10-11, speaking of godliness, “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Messiah Yeshua.”

The First Reason

The first reason is taken from Psalm 98:6, “With trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—shout for joy before the Lord, the King.” The trumpet is blown to signal the beginning reign of a king. We know that our King Yeshua will sit on the throne of King David for one-thousand years, and on that day that He is crowned King the trumpet will blow.

“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” (1 Timothy 1:17).

“Which He will bring about at the proper time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords” (1 Timothy 6:15).

“And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, ‘Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations!'” (Revelation 15:3).

“And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, ‘KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS'” (Revelation 19:16).

“Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Messiah and will reign with Him for a thousand years” (Revelation 20:6).

The Second Reason

The second reason is a call to repentance, as it is said: “Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins” (Isaiah 58:1). Whoever wants to repent—let him repent and turn to the Lord, the Creator.

Every king has a kingdom, and we know that Yeshua went about teaching repentance, for Matthew 4:17 tells us, “From that time on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.'”

“Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).

“Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent” (Revelation 2:5).

“Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent” (Revelation 3:19).

The Third Reason

The third reason is a reminder of Mt. Sinai when they all entered into the covenant with God by saying, “We will do and we will be obedient” (Exodus 24:7).

Yeshua tells us in John 14:15, “If you love Me keep My commandments.”

Philippians 3:10-11 says, “That I may know Him (as in a covenant relationship) and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

Philippians 3:12b-16 continues, “I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Messiah Yeshua. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Messiah Yeshua. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.”

“For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance” (Hebrews 9:15). We have been called to obedience and that obedience calls us to walk in the footsteps of our Messiah.

To enter into covenant with Messiah, we must not only be obedient, but we must know Him, for we are His Bride. Like a bride-groom enters into a covenant with his bride, this is how deep and wide we need to know our Messiah.

The Fourth Reason

The fourth reason is to remind us of the words of the prophets that were compared to the sound of the shofar, as it is said: “Then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away . . . But had he taken warning, he would have delivered his life” (Ezekiel 33:4-5).

We are in a spiritual battle that we fight while we wait for the coming of our King. Yeshua tells us to be ready and to keep watch in Matthew 24:42-44, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

As we wait for our King, we must not only be ready but we must proclaim all that we hear Him speak to us. Yes, we are the trumpet that must sound. Yeshua tells us in Matthew 10:27, “What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.”

As we wait and as we proclaim, we fight, as Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 6:12, “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”

And to fight that fight, we must put on the armor, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, as Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:10-20: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”

We fight a spiritual battle every moment of every day. The shofar gives us our battle cry. Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:8, “But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.”

The Fifth Reason

The fifth reason is to remind us of the destruction of the temple and the sound of the battle cries of the enemies, as it is said, “Because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war” (Jeremiah 4:19).

When we hear the sound of the shofar, we are reminded of His temple. Today, we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?”

The enemy can destroy our temple, and so we must heed the sound of the trumpet, as 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 tells us, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Messiah and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’ Therefore, ‘Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.’ And, ‘I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.'”

The Sixth Reason

The sixth reason is to remind us of the binding of Isaac, as it is said, “Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns.” (Genesis 22:13). We should offer our lives to be sacrificed through Messiah, and thus we will be remembered by God.

Romans 12:1-2 tells us, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.”

We are told again by Paul in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Messiah and I no longer live, but Messiah lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Yeshua tells us in Matthew 16:25, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

The Seventh Reason

When we will hear the blowing of the shofar, we will be fearful, and will tremble, and we will humble ourselves before the Creator, for that is the nature of the shofar: it causes fear and trembling, as it is written, “If a trumpet is blown in the city, will not the people tremble?” (Amos 3:6).

In the book of Joel, which is a harbinger of things to come, we read exactly this in Joel 2:1-2: “Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming. It is close at hand—a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness.” Peter tells us this in Acts 2:20-21 on the day of Pentecost: “The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Joel 2:15-17 continues, “Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber. Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep between the portico and the altar. Let them say, ‘Spare Your people, Lord. Do not make Your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, “Where is their God?”‘”

The Eighth Reason

The eighth reason is to recall the day of the great judgment and to be fearful of it, as it is said:, “Near is the great day of the Lord, near and coming very quickly . . . A day of trumpet and battle cry” (Zephaniah 1:14-16).

In John 5:28-29 Yeshua tells us this: “Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.”

As Romans 14:10-12 says, “Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, ‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.’ So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.”

Likewise, 2 Corinthians 5:10 tells us, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Messiah, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”

Revelation 17:14 says, “These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.”

The Ninth Reason

The ninth reason is to remind us of the ingathering of the scattered ones of Israel that we ardently desire, as it is said: “It will come about also in that day that a great trumpet will be blown; and those who are perishing in the land of Assyria… will come and worship the Lord in the holy mountain at Jerusalem” (Isaiah 27:13).

Yeshua tells us in Matthew 24:31, “And He will send His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. And He will send His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”

Matthew 24:36-42 tells us about the ingathering: “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.”

In 1 Thessalonians 5:4 we are told that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night: “But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.”

Again, Revelation 16:15 tells us, “Take note: I will come as unexpectedly as a thief! Blessed are all who are awaiting Me, who keep their robes in readiness and will not need to walk naked and ashamed.”

The Tenth Reason

The tenth reason is to remind us of the resurrection of the dead, as it is said, “All you inhabitants of the world and dwellers on earth, as soon as a standard is raised on the mountain, you will see it, and as soon as the trumpet is blown, you will hear it” (Isaiah 18:3).

1 Thessalonians 4:14-17 says, “For if we believe that Yeshua died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Yeshua. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Messiah will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”

And 1 Corinthians 15:51-54 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. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.'”

Conclusion

So we have seen that the Biblical Feasts of Spring and Fall are important to keep because they are God’s Appointed Times. The Day of Atonement is the holiest day of them all because this day represents the day that the books will be opened.

Revelation 20:12 tells us, “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.”

Revelation 19:6-9 says, “Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure’—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.'”

So now that we know, let us blow our shofar not only for the New Year, but in anticipation of our coming King Yeshua.