Feast of Trumpets

Origin

On the first day of the seventh month, God commanded a day of rest marked by 'a blast of trumpets' (Leviticus 23:24). The instrument was the shofar, a ram's horn, whose piercing call summoned Israel to assemble and to wake spiritually. It opened the holiest stretch of the year, leading into the Day of Atonement ten days later. The trumpet blast was a summons — to remember, to gather, and to prepare to meet God.

Historical Background

Over time this day became Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish civil New Year, beginning a ten-day season of repentance ('the Days of Awe') that climaxes at the Day of Atonement. The shofar's blast came to signal many things in Israel's life: the call to worship, the alarm of war, the crowning of a king, and, in the prophets, the coming Day of the Lord. It is a sound meant to stir the soul awake.

How It's Observed

The shofar is sounded in a series of long and short blasts — traditionally a hundred — calling the community to reflection. It begins the Days of Awe, a season of honest self-examination, repentance, and reconciliation before the Day of Atonement. Sweet foods such as apples dipped in honey express hope for a good year, and special prayers ask God to remember his people with mercy.

In Christ

Of all the feasts, Trumpets looks most clearly to the future. The New Testament repeatedly ties a trumpet blast to the return of Christ: he will descend 'with the sound of the trumpet of God' (1 Thessalonians 4:16), and 'at the last trumpet' the dead will be raised imperishable (1 Corinthians 15:52). The shofar that once gathered Israel to meet God becomes a picture of the day when his people will be gathered to meet the risen Christ. Trumpets keeps the church awake and watching.

Why It Matters Today

Trumpets is a call to wake up — from spiritual drowsiness, from drifting, from living as if this life were all there is. It pairs sober self-examination with hope, summoning believers to live ready, with accounts settled and hearts attentive. The sound says: stop, listen — the King is coming.

Scriptural Basis

Did You Know

• The shofar is one of the oldest instruments still used in worship — a simple ram's horn, deliberately unrefined, producing a raw, arresting cry.
• Jewish tradition links the ram's horn to the ram God provided in place of Isaac (Genesis 22), so its blast recalls God's provision of a substitute.
• Trumpets is the only major feast that falls on the first day of a month — at the new moon — making it the one appointed time hidden in darkness until the sliver of moon appears.