Leviticus 23:23-25 The Feast of Trumpets

The Feasts we’ve been looking at so far during Lent have mostly been about celebration and freedom; looking back to God’s saving work in Egypt and through Jesus. Now, with the Feast of Trumpets, the feasts start taking on a different, more solemn feel. It’s also known as Rosh Hoshanah, the festival of the Jewish New Year. It’s like a spiritual new year, a time for new beginnings with the Lord. It comes after the harvests are all in, 10 days after the Feast of Weeks, when the people are able to slow down and take time to do some reconnecting with God. During the busy harvest season, the focus is on the work of getting the crops in, now it’s time to enjoy the harvest and family and those around you. In this Feast, the trumpets, or shofars, are blown to call the people to experience God’s presence again. In a time like this, filled with worry and fear, it’s important to remember that God is present all the time and the trumpet sound reminds us of this.

The trumpet used in the feast is called a shofar, made from a ram’s horn. They’re quite common and everyone could easily make one. The first time we hear the shofar blown is when the Jews are at Mount Sinai and Moses meets with God and receives the Law. Joshua uses shofars at the fall of Jericho when the city walls collapse at the sound of the trumpets. Gideon’s unarmed army uses three hundred shofars to create confusion against a larger army who turn against each other and end up killing each other.

The Feast of Trumpets reminds us that God’s here, he’s our king. They call us to pay attention again to God. We all have times in our lives where we need someone to tell us to wake up and pay attention again to God, that he’s the one in charge. I have often wondered these past couple of weeks if this isn’t such a time. We’re so often busy with work and family and chasing our desires and now we suddenly find ourselves surrounded by feelings of anxiety and slowly getting more and more isolated from each other because of this health crisis. Some of you now have family members who’ve caught the virus and now have isolated themselves, just at the time we need to feel each other’s presence. Maybe now’s a good time to sound the trumpets and remind ourselves that God is in control and he’s here with us through it all.

Over time, blowing the trumpet becomes a call for the people to confess their sins and to repent. We’re all sinners and depend on God’s grace since there’s nothing we can do to make ourselves right with God again. God’s holiness leads him to judge our sin. Isaiah is told to, "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a shofar; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins.” This image runs through all the prophets. In Daniel 7, the heavenly court is made up of the Ancient of Days who is surrounded by ten thousand times ten thousand angels. They "sat in judgment and the books were opened." The imagery of books being opened in the heavenly court is associated in the Jewish faith with the Feast of Trumpets when the heavenly books are opened to learn the destiny of each person. The books are the Book of the Righteous, the Book of the Wicked, and the Book of Remembrance. The third book that’s opened is the book of remembrance, or the Book of Life. In Montreal, our Jewish neighbours would greet us during Rosh Hashanah, ‘May you be inscribed in the Book of Life’.

We have to careful though with connecting what’s happening right now with this virus as a result of our sin. There are preachers who are saying this virus is because we’re so sinful and it’s God’s punishment. What’s happening is the result of a fallen world where things are not the way they are supposed to be. But God’s love is revealed in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and his resurrection, to show that we have been made clean by Jesus’ sacrifice. We are called to confess our sin and commit ourselves to changing our lives to fit who God calls us to be, we remember that God is holy and when he comes close to us, his presence changes us, makes us holy through Jesus’ sacrifice!

The prophets used the shofar to call the people to repentance, not only confessing their sin, but to embrace change in their lives and hearts to reflect God’s holiness. The prophet Joel called for blasts of the shofar in Zion, "Blow the shofar in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly" Joel is referring to the Feast of the Trumpet, mentioning its three major parts: shofar, fast, and solemn assembly. During the religious reformation of King Asa, the Israelites "entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their hearts and all their souls" and they sealed their oath "with trumpets, and with shofars.” There’s this need to get together to seek out God again, needing to be reassured that he’s still around and that he cares, that he hears our cries, knows our worries and fears. It’s a call to embrace God’s will for our lives and allow his Spirit to fill us with his peace.

The blowing of the trumpets reminds God of the needs of his people. We see God then stepping in and working on behalf of his people. In the book of Numbers, God promises, “When you go into battle in your own land against an enemy, who is oppressing you, sound a blast on the trumpets. Then you will be remembered by the Lord your God and rescued from your enemies.” When I read this passage from Numbers, my first thought was, “We should all make our own trumpets and stand on our front porches and blast them. We certainly need God’s help to deal with the anxiety, stress and worry that many people are dealing with right now.” Yet I also know that God doesn’t want us to be afraid, to worry, that he does remember us because his Spirit is with us always. Sometimes we need to blow the trumpet for our own sense of peace to help us remember that God always remembers us. I love the image in Isaiah where he says that our names are written on the palms of God’s hands, meaning God can’t forget us.

Through Jesus, God remembers his people and saves us. Jesus comes as a baby, lives with us, experiencing life with all its wonder and messiness. He lives a typical life, growing up in a family and community, knowing loss and joy, experiencing loneliness and friendship, rejection and love. Jesus knows fear in the Garden of Gethsemane; knowing how hard the cross was going to be, but trusting that God’s way is the best way and so Jesus takes all our sin and sorrow to the cross, all our fear and worry and he dies with it, taking it to the grave. In three days, he rises again into new life, giving us the solid hope that no matter, not even death can separate us from God and his love. God saves us, watches over us, and equips us to be a blessing, looking ahead to Jesus’ return.

The shofar is also blown to begin the Jubilee year when God calls Israel to restore freedom and land to those who had lost either one in the past 49 years. Slaves and those who lost their properties eagerly listened for the sound of the shofar that signaled their freedom! The land itself welcomed the sound of the shofar because the land was allowed it to rest for a year. It’s about mercy and grace, pointing us to Jesus who brings new life and freedom to his people. I think that when this health crisis is over, that we should all gather outdoors and sound our horns and trumpets as a sign of new life and new beginnings! Already this crisis has changed who we are as a fellowship of Jesus and we’re entering into a new age of possibilities for ministry and sharing our faith.

In the Bible, the sound of the shofar announces the first coming of the Messiah, but also the return of Jesus. "The sound of the trumpet" will be heard when Jesus comes back to establish his forever kingdom, as Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4. Paul calls this the last trumpet in 1 Corinthians, "Lo! 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 imperishable, and we shall be changed.” It’s a sign we’re completely freed from our slavery to sin when Jesus returns. Until then, we go through our days with the peace and hope of knowing that God is with us, always remembering us, his children.