Repentance and forgiveness bring a new beginning into the life of an individual, and of a nation. The Jewish “New Year” begins this year on the evening of September 6.
This mo’ed/appointed time is actually the New Moon-beginning (when it is darkened) of the seventh month in God’s redemptive calendar, and is called the Day of Remembrance of [Trumpet] Blasts. Prophetically, it is a call to repentance for the people of God — whether Jews or Christians — in preparation to acknowledge their sins as His covenant people saved by grace (the Passover), and accept the Father’s provision of His one-and-only acceptable sacrifice for the sins of the individual, and of the nation/people as a collective whole (typified by the Day of Atonements/Yom haKippurim). Yeshua/Jesus, the Son of God, is that sacrifice, and the Holy Spirit is working in the lives of those in covenant relationship with the one true living God to bring us to complete dependence and trust in His grace and love through even the severe chastenings of a holy and righteous Father. There is glory and holiness on the other side, when YHVH will dwell among His sanctified people (typified by the Feast of Booths). This is surely a new Jubilee beginning with its clarion call for all the blood-bought children of God! (Lev 25:8-12)
We do not read anything in the Bible of the children of Israel commemorating either The Memorial of Trumpets, or of the Day of Atonements. Interesting, isn’t it? But we do have in the book of the Prophet Joel a call from YHVH, God of Israel, for the priests to blow the trumpets/shofarot in Zion, in Jerusalem, in the land of Israel to the people of Israel, because the Day of the LORD/YHVH is coming and is near. The Day of the LORD is the day that God separates in judgment those who are His from those who are not; those who have accepted the sacrifice for atonement which He provided in His Son from those who have not; those who have respect for and show mercy to the least of Yeshua’s brethren from those who do not. It is the day in which the one true living God will intervene with power into the affairs of man, and save those whose faith and hope and love is in the blood of the cross of the New Covenant, in the blood of Yeshua.
For those of us who are learning more about God’s plan of redemption, and of the times and the generation in which we live, God has sounded a trumpet blast to the world when He reestablished the Jewish people back in the land which He promised with an oath to give to the descendants of Jacob. The purposes of the blowing of trumpets are to gather the people for assembly, and also to call them to war. The trumpets are also sounded on days of gladness, at the appointed feasts, and at the beginning of Israel’s months on the New Moon (when it is obscured). These are all to remember God’s hand in our lives, and also to remind the LORD that we are His people called by His name. This first day of the seventh month includes all of these! (Num 10:1-10)
God is regathering His Jewish people, preparing them for salvation through repentance and forgiveness of their transgression against Him, but also warning them of great trouble to come. He has called them to war, which the tiny nation has known from its beginning. God is also sounding the trumpet to Christians to repentance and forgiveness for them thinking that the God of Israel would not keep all of His covenant promises to Israel and the Jewish people.
Yeshua/Jesus charged all believers to proclaim the gospel of salvation and the Kingdom of God as His witnesses. This “trumpet call” to come back to the sovereign God of the Universe goes out to all persons everywhere. It is a call to repentance unto salvation, for a day has been appointed for the Man Christ Jesus to judge the world in righteousness. It is a call to spiritual warfare. He is calling the Body of Christ to unity of the Holy Spirit in the bond of peace. There is joy in our salvation and in the expectation of the Lord’s return! He calls us to forgive and to be forgiven.
The Father is still working to bring even more people from every tribe tongue and people and nation into New Covenant relationship and into His redeemed family. “And of Zion it will be said, ‘This one and that one were born in her; and the Most High Himself shall establish her.’” (Ps 87) We must be born-again by the Spirit from Above. (Jn 3:3-7) The New Jerusalem above is the mother of all born in her. (Gal 4:21-26)
All of the appointed days and times of YHVH to Israel are weekly and monthly and yearly reminders of His plan of redemption. It is for us, especially those who are in sync with the importance still of Israel in God’s plan and purpose, to take a selah, a pause to meditate and consider, what these “holidays/feasts” mean. It is not only to be once-a-year, or -month, or -week, but daily in our walk in the Spirit by faith, and in our expectation of the Lord’s return.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
“Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in Heaven, saying: ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Messiah/Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!’
And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: ‘We give you thanks, O LORD/YHVH God Almighty, the One who is and who was and who is to come, because You have taken Your great power and reigned. The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come; and the time of the dead, that they should be judged; and that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, and those who fear Your Name, small and great, and should destroy those who destroy the Earth.'” (Rev 11:15-18)
“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. 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 incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” (1Cor 15:50-58)
