"Then the LORD spoke to Moses, 'Speak to the children of Israel, saying...In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of trumpets, a holy convocation'." Leviticus 23:24 NKJV
There will be some Christian churches....in the next couple of days....that will have a special service....and during that service a ram's horn....called a shofar.....will be sounded. That same blowing of the shofar will be heard in synagogues across America....and the world....and throughout Israel. All of this signaling the beginning of a new year....reflection upon that past year....and hope for the year about to begin.
So the second cycle of high holy days....or high holidays as some prefer to call them....begins this year....2024....on October 2....tomorrow....at sundown.....which begins the first day of the seventh month of Tishri. The Jewish people actually have two....'New Years'.....one beginning the biblical year....that in the Spring....and this the second....which is also a civil celebration like our January 1. Beginning with the first day....(it is a two day celebration)....of what over time has become known as....Rosh Hashanah....and continuing ten days....(referred to as the Days of Awe)....to Yom Kippur....are considered a time of repentance and consecration. We in evangelicalism know Rosh Hashanah more as the Feast of Trumpets.
So don't be too surprised if sometime during those two days of Rosh Hashanah....maybe in your church....or maybe on television....you hear a short blast of something that sounds like the horn you might hear at a football game....and another blast of sorts....and then a few short staccato blasts.
I don't know how the people in Israel will be viewing Rosh Hashanah this year. The secular people will probably celebrate it as any old News Years celebration. Some will probably blow the shofar and take part in all the rituals....and still others will actually believe what the day is supposed to be. All of them though will have these extraordinary times and dangers in the back if not in the forefront of their minds.
We read of a number of uses of the trumpet in the Bible....along with Leviticus 23:24....for celebrations....for a call to assembly....warnings....and for a call to war.
"Blow the trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, For the day of the LORD is coming; Indeed, it is near." Joel 2:1
"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." 1 Corinthians 15:52
"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 Christ will rise first." 1 Thessalonians 4:16
Note:There will be an annular solar eclipse on Rosh Hashanah....a ring of fire eclipse where the sun is not completely covered....leaving what looks to be that ring of fire....but viewable only in a few areas of the earth....mostly over the Pacific Ocean.
