Print

By Tyson Thorne

September 21, 2017
 
 

Happy Rosh Hashanah! For those new to the site, a couple, maybe three years ago, we did a series on the seven feasts God told the Israelites (in Deuteronomy) to celebrate. There are four feasts in the Spring and three in the Fall. All the feasts have two characteristics, they look back at a time God rescued the people of Israel and look forward toward a prophecy about the Messiah. The prophecies found in the four Spring feasts were all fulfilled during Jesus’ first coming and were accomplished on the actual feast days, the last three will be realized in the same way.

The first of the three Fall feasts is Rosh Hashanah, and it started yesterday at sunset and ends at sunset tomorrow. On the Jewish calendar Rosh Hashanah, the Feast of Trumpets in English, falls on the first of Tishri. On the Jewish calendar, this date is the first day of the civil New Year. Furthermore, it is the only feast to fall on the first of a month and is the only one to fall on a new moon. What may be most important of all, however, is that it is believed this day is the first day of creation – the birthday of the world!

The holiday ushers in the High Holy Days of Judaism and extends a little over 48 hours. Immediately at the close of the Feast of Trumpets begins the Ten Days of Awe, a time of self-examination, repentance and forgiveness. At the end of the 10 days is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which you can read about elsewhere on this site. During Rosh Hashanah several animal sacrifices were made, including morning and evening sacrifices, a new moon sacrifice, and also some associated with the festival and other normal sacrifices. Hatzotzerah trumpets (made of hammered metal) and shofar trumpets (made from a ram’s horn) are blown during the sacrifices, hence the name of the feast. This is its historic significance.

The prophetic meaning of the Feast of Trumpets is the day of the rapture. Paul understood this to be true and makes reference to this in 1 Corinthians 15.51-52:

Listen, I will tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. (Emphasis mine)

It is believed that all of God’s people will be evacuated from the earth before the devil and antichrist begin their time of reigning over the earth. We know from 1 Thessalonians 2.5-8 that the Holy Spirit will end his role of holding back evil on earth and return to heaven. Since Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would indwell believers and never leave them (John 14.15-17), when the Spirit goes we go with him. Again, since the first four Feasts were fulfilled on the actual feast days there is no reason to think the Fall feasts would be any different. So while no man knows the day or the hour of Messiah’s return, it will be some year during the Feast of Trumpets.

It may be too late now to plan an entire Rosh Hashanah feast, but you might be able to squeeze in on of the staples of this holiday, the honey cake. In the Torah, honey is a metaphor for sweetness of the spiritual kind. Psalm 119.103 says “Your words are sweeter in my mouth than honey.” It was used to dip the very first fruit mentioned in the Torah, the apple, for a “good and sweet year”. Here’s a good recipe: http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/4816/rosh-hashanah-honey-cake.aspx

Shalom!