Rosh Hashanah. Roughly translated it means, ‘head of the new year.’ When the leaves have turned and are falling, my Jewish brothers and sisters are celebrating a new year.
But I am blowing the Shofar. As a Messianic on Rosh Hashanah, I am celebrating the return of Christ.
It all begins in Leviticus 23:24-25 “Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord.
But when is the first day of the month according to the Lord? I look to the moon, as they did in Biblical times to decide the days. When I’m able to spot the first sliver of a waxing moon, I know that Trumpets has begun and will continue into the next day. When I see the moon, I blow my Shofar, as the Israelites did, while the night grows dark.
But spotting the moon isn’t easy. In the Midwest I don’t have the clear Middle Eastern skies. And though technology has made the moon easier to track, there is always a shred of a chance I’ll be off. So I take two days to watch for the moon and celebrate Yom Teruah, and what it represents.
And it represents Christ’s second coming, and our assent to Him. For Christ will return on Trumpets, during the sounding of the last trump. . .
“Behold, I shew 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 trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)