Trumpets

The Festival of Trumpets

The Calendar

In the Jewish calendar there were no festivals between the third month and the seventh month. In the seventh month came the Tabernacles group of three festivals. The first of these, on the first day of the month, was the Festival of Trumpets.

Trumpets were sounded before each individual festival and at the beginning of every month. The Festival of Trumpets is therefore a very special blowing of trumpets additional to these two requirements. It is itself a festival, but it is also a preliminary to two greater festivals.

It is followed by the Day of Atonement on the 10th day of the 7th month, which in turn is followed by the Festival of Tabernacles from the 15th to the 22nd. These two festivals are so important that they require the Festival of Trumpets to announce them. The Festival of Trumpets calls us to advance into these two festivals that follow it.

The Jewish religious year began in the spring, but they also had a civil or agricultural year that began in the autumn. (In England, of course, our academic year begins in September and our tax year begins in April.) This civil year began on the first day of the seventh month of the religious calendar. This means that the Festival of Trumpets was at the start of the civil year. This makes it a time of fresh beginnings for us in God.

Assembly

Trumpets in ancient times served several purposes. The most important of these was to assemble the people. Church bells in many European countries served the same purpose in times past. Before the days of modern inventions, a trumpet blast was the loudest noise that could be made. It would have been audible throughout the Israelite camp in the desert, or throughout a village or town when the Israelites reached the promised land.

All through the Bible we find the use of trumpets to assemble the people. In Numbers chapter 10, God told Moses to make 2 silver trumpets. Their first purpose was for calling the people together. Gideon blew a trumpet to summon the people to fight against the Amalekites. Saul used trumpets to gather the people to fight against the Philistines (1 Sam 13: 3,4). Trumpets were blown before all the festivals to bring the people together. Jesus will send his angels with a loud trumpet call to gather his elect from the four winds (Mat 24:31).

God wants his people to come together, but where and how? Should they meet in church buildings, or public halls, or in their own houses? Should they form one super-denomination of all true believers? What sort of coming together is in his mind?

Under the old covenant there was only one acceptable place of assembly. When the Israelites were in the desert, the trumpet blast called the people to assemble before Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting. This tent of meeting was where God was. When the Israelites reached the promised land, God chose a special place to 'put his name.' 'But you are to seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name there for his dwelling. To that place you must go' (Deuteronomy 12: 5). That place was the temple in Jerusalem. Three times a year, at the three main festival seasons, all adult Israelite males were required by the law to go up to Jerusalem.

Where did Jesus instruct his disciples to gather? ' ... where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst' (Mat 18:20). He established a new gathering place in the spirit. He didn't say, 'Go to church'; he said, 'Come to me'. He said, '.. you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem .. the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth' (John 4: 21).

Paul wrote to the Thessalonians about the 'presence of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him' (2 Thes 2:1). The fundamental principle of gathering in the new covenant is that we don't gather at a place. We gather to a person. We assemble to Jesus.

This principle no doubt holds for every spiritual festival that God has given us to enjoy. However it is specially true for the festivals of the seventh month. We must come out of our own houses and tents and gather to Jesus. See Assembling Together.

A Festival for Now

I believe this festival has a special message for today. God is now working in new ways and he is drawing our attention to it. The trumpets are sounding.

Before God manifested Jesus to the world he sounded a trumpet in the land of Israel. He sent John the Baptist to call the people to repentance and prepare the way of the Lord. John the Baptist was a trumpet. The voices of prophecy and revelation had been silent for over 400 years since the time of Malachi. The trumpet sounded to arouse God's people and call them to advance. A totally new stage in God's purposes had come.

So now again the trumpets sound. God is calling his people together and he is calling them to advance. I believe we are entering a new year with God.

For people of the world, the new year is often a time of making resolutions to improve their habits or way of living. These resolutions seldom last for long as human will-power is usually too weak to sustain them.

For the people of God a new year can be a time of repentance for the past and rededication for the future. The Day of Atonement, on the 10th of the 7th month, was a time for forgiveness of sin. The trumpets therefore are a call to repentance and heart-searching in preparation.

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