The Significance of Yom Teruah (part 1)

Very little is said in the Tanakh about Yom Teruah. In fact, the Torah only mentions it twice. 

Leviticus 23:24, “Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall you have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.”

Numbers 29:1, “And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have an holy convocation; you shall do no servile work: it is a day of blowing the trumpets unto you.

Nehemiah shows us how the Jews kept Yom Teruah (Neh 8:1ff).

Ezra (500 BC) restored the observance of Yom Teruah following the return of the Jews from their seventy-year exile in Babylon. Ezra the cohen (priest) brought the Torah before the assembly, both men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month’ (Nehemiah 8:2)

The day is recorded as one which included, worship, joyful fellowship, instruction from the Scriptures, sharing with the needy:  ‘…all the people went their way to eat, and to drink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth, because they had understood the words, that were declared unto them (Neh 8-12)

The reading of the Torah was at the center of Nehemiah’s Yom Teruah celebration (Neh 8:1, 18).

On this day, sorrow and joy kissed each other; sorrow because the Jews realized they had  failed to keep Torah—the very thing that sent them into exile and caused the destruction of Jerusalem; joy because it was a Yom Tov or a good day and a festival of YHVH when his people are to rejoice in him and draw close to him and he to them, since it is a divine appointment or moed.

But why rejoice on this day? The Torah and the account in Nehemiah leave us guessing? What specifically were the Jews rejoicing about on Yom Teruah?

We are told so little about this day that we have to draw out every clue possible from the scantiest details Scripture affords us about this day. 

The Jews of Nehemiah’s day were obviously rejoicing at rediscovering the Torah and learning its truths that would guide them through life and keep them as a set-apart people. Knowing the Torah would bring them closer to YHVH—to his heart and mind. Therefore, we can infer that on this day, we are to rejoice over the Torah—our instructions in righteousness give to us by YHVH our Creator.

Additionally, perhaps the name of the day itself, Yom Teruah, gives us a clue as to why we the ancient Jews were joyful and we too should be joyful. On this day, why did the people shout and blow shofars?  We can answer this question by reviewing the places in the Scripture where YHVH’s people shouted and blew shofars. Perhaps this will give us a clue as to what this day is commemorating, and therefore why we should be rejoicing as Neh 8:10 tells us to do.

The Shofar Can Be Blown for the Following Reasons

  • The giving of the Tor ah (their ketubah  or marriage covenant ) at Sinai to Israel on Pentecost (Exod 19:13, 16; 20:18 Hebrews 12:19)
  • The gathering of Israel (Num 10:4)
  • The fall of Jericho (Josh 6:5)
  • The beginning of the jubilee year (Leviticus 25:9),
  • The coronation of kings (1 Kngs 1:34, 39)
  • As a battle weapon (Judg 6:34; 7:16, 18)
  • When the ark was brought into Jerusalem (2 Sam 6:15)
  • At the building of the temple (Ezra 3:10)
  • At the new moons, at the full moon appointed times and on festivals (Ps 81:3; Joel 2:15)
  • Used by watchmen on the city walls to warn of danger (Ezek 33:3–6; Amos 3:6)
  • Used to call Israel to repentance and to return to Torah (Isa 58:1; Hos 8:1)
  • Many of these occasions when the shofar was sounded point prophetically to end time events associated with the fall feasts. They give us an idea of what our demeanor at these events. Rather than fear or apprehension, we should be joyful, victorious and expectant. 

In the End Times the Shofar Blast Will Signal Major Events

  • The shofar will herald the resurrection of the saints from the dead at Yeshua’s coming/return: ‘…And He shall send his angels with a great sound of a Shofar, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other’ (Matt 24:31).
  • Paul speaks of this same event by calling it the last shofar blast (1 Cor 15:52).
  • Paul speaks about Yeshua’s descent from heaven with a shout of an archangel and the shofar of Elohim will sound followed by the resurrection of the righteous dead and the transformation of the righteous living (I Thess 4:16).
  • John relates this same event to the seventh of seven trumpet judgements (Rev 10:7; 11:15–18).
  • As part of the end time judgments to fall upon this earth, seven shofars blasts will occur with significant events to follow each one. Each trumpet introduces a phase of the culmination of end-time events (Rev 8:2).
  • A shout was made at the midnight hour of announce the coming of the bridegroom in Yeshuas Parable of the Ten Virgins (Matt 25:6). This is prophetic of Yeshua’s second coming.
  • YHVH shall blow the shofar after he has filled the  bow of Judah with the arrow of Ephraim and together they shall go like a whirlwind from the south to save his people from their adversaries (Zec 9:14). This occurs after the military weakening of Ephraim and Judah (v. 10), before the return of Yeshua (Zech 9:1).
  • To announce the coming of the Day of YHVH (Joel 2:1; Zeph 1:16); the Day of the Lord is characterized by the sound of a great voice like a trumpet/shofar (Rev 1:10)
  • The gathering of the exiles to the land of Israel (Isa 27:13)
 

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