6.1 Key themes⤒🔗

• On the first day of the seventh month, special trumpets called the people to the temple for a day of rest.
• The message of the Feast of Trumpets was, remember that the Lord is with you and listen to him!
• Today we have the very loud “trumpet call” of the gospel.
• Just like trumpets in the time of the Old Testament, the gospel tells us to
  - follow God’s guidance;
  - repent from our sins;
  - praise God; and
  - prepare for the future.
• When the final trumpet blows, it will be the day of final judgment for God’s enemies and salvation for his people.
  - Therefore, we should continue to listen carefully to the gospel.
  - Therefore, we should “blow the trumpet,” by sharing the gospel and by praying for the people around us.

6.2 Leviticus 23:23-25 (ESV)←⤒🔗

^23. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 

²⁴. Speak to the people of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation. 

^25. You shall not do any ordinary work, and you shall present a food offering to the Lord.

6.3 Remember, Israel!←⤒🔗

Listen, Israel! Stop what you are doing, come, and remember what the Lord has done for you!

On the first day of the seventh month, special trumpets were blown in Israel. The sound of the trumpets called the people to the temple for a day of rest. It was a special day, a day to remember the works of the Lord. It was the Feast of Trumpets.

The Israelites had to be in Jerusalem three times during the year. The first time was for the three feasts of the first month (Lessons 2-4). The second time was seven weeks later, for the Feast of Weeks (Lesson 5). The third time was in the seventh month. This time they would celebrate three more feasts. The Feast of Trumpets was the first of these.

The message of the Feast of Trumpets was, remember that the Lord is with you and listen to him!

Think of the things which the Israelites had celebrated earlier in the year: how God had saved them, changed their lives, and provided abundantly for them. It was so easy to forget about these works of God. Therefore, God gave his people something to remind them: the Feast of Trumpets.

The trumpets also reminded Israel of other times when trumpets had blown, such as at the giving of the law, during the journey through the desert, and at the fall of Jericho. At each of those events, trumpets had announced that God is with his people.

The blasting of trumpets was also a prayer to God, to remember his people and his promises (Numbers 10:1-10). Not because God can forget, but because his people can forget about their special relationship with him. Every time they sounded the trumpet in prayer, they would remember that the LORD was with them. He had promised to be their God and to listen to their prayers.

6.4 Listen, Israel!←⤒🔗

As long as Israel remembered that the Lord was with them, they would also remember to listen to him. When a trumpet blows, people listen! In the same way, God’s people must listen when he speaks.

In different parts of the Old Testament, we see how trumpets reminded God’s people to listen to him:

• In Numbers 10:3-6 we read how different trumpet sounds would tell the people to gather or to move out. The trumpets were like a voice of the Lord, guiding Israel. They had to listen and follow him.
• In Hosea 8:1 the trumpets are a call to repentance. Israel had to repent of their sin, turn back to God, and obey his commandments.
• In 2 Chronicles 5:12-13 the trumpets are a call to praise God. While hearing the trumpets and other instruments, the people sang, “Certainly he is good; certainly his loyal love endures!”
• In other Old Testament passages, trumpets are used to announce something important, such as war or the crowning of a new king. The sound of the trumpets reminded God’s people to prepare for the kingdom that God had promised (see Psalm 47:5).

Through the Feast of Trumpets, God reminded his people that he was still speaking to them. Day by day he was still guiding them, calling them to repentance, calling them to praise him, and telling them to prepare. They had to continue listening.

6.5 The very loud trumpet call←⤒🔗

Today God’s people have something greater and clearer than trumpets. We have the fully revealed gospel of Christ. Listen to what Hebrews 12:18-24 says:

For you have not come to something that can be touched, to a burning fire and darkness and gloom and a whirlwind and the blast of a trumpet and a voice uttering words… [Here the writer is speaking about the time of Moses, when God met his people at Mount Sinai.] But you have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem…and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous, who have been made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is like a very loud trumpet call! The gospel is the good news that God has come to his people, to save them from their sins. Just like the trumpets of the Old Testament, the gospel tells us to

• follow God’s guidance]. We follow God’s guidance when we trust and follow his Son, Jesus Christ;
• repent from our sins and receive God’s forgiveness through Christ;
• praise God for his grace in Christ;
• prepare for the day when Christ will return.

6.6 The final trumpet←⤒🔗

As Christians, we do not have a yearly feast of trumpets. But every time when we go to a true church, read our Bibles, or speak to each other about Christ, we hear the “trumpet” of the gospel. Let us continue to listen carefully!

Also, let us “blow the trumpet” by sharing the gospel with the people around us and by praying for them. Because there will come a day when the whole world will hear a final trumpet call. It will be the day of Christ’s return (Revelation 11:15-19).

The moment when that trumpet blows, our bodies will be raised from the dead. As Paul writes 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.”

When the final trumpet blows, the time will be over for listening to the gospel and for sharing it with others. It will be the day of final judgment for God’s enemies and full salvation for his people.

The Feast of Trumpets still has an important message for us. Like Israel, we must not forget God’s works. We must continue listening to him. He is with us now through his Spirit. And soon we will see him face to face!