Day of Trumpets
Act 3, Scene 1
Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 24 "Speak to the children of Israel, saying: 'In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. 25 You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD.'" (Lev 23:23-25 NKJV)
After Pentecost there is a long, dry, hot summer in the Middle East. Not until the seventh month of the year, typically straddling September and October, is there another Holy Day, and that Holy Day ushers in a scene of jubilation and victory.
This day is a day of “blowing of trumpets”, but a quick search of a Hebrew lexicon reveals that this phrase is translated from the Hebrew word teruwah, which can mean “an alarm, a signal, a sound of tempest, a shout, a shout or blast of war or alarm or joy”
(from The Online Bible Thayer's Greek Lexicon and Brown Driver & Briggs Hebrew Lexicon, Copyright (c)1993, Woodside Bible Fellowship, Ontario, Canada. Licensed from the Institute for Creation Research.) Note that the word shophar is not used in this verse.
So it isn’t just a Day of Trumpets. It is also a day of shouting, a day of an alarm, a sound of tempest, and a blast of war, alarm, and joy.
As we’ll see, the symbols of this day point directly to the next step in God’s great plan. Consider the following scriptures:
Joel 2:1-2: Blow the trumpet (Hebrew: shophar) in Zion, and sound an alarm (Hebrew: ruwa) in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the LORD is coming, for it is at hand: A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like the morning clouds spread over the mountains. A people come, great and strong, the like of whom has never been; nor will there ever be any such after them, even for many successive generations.
Zephaniah 1:14-16: The great day of the LORD is near; it is near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the LORD is bitter; there the mighty men shall cry out. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of devastation and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet (shophar) and alarm (teruwah) against the fortified cities and against the high towers.
Psalm 47:5-7: God has gone up with a shout (teruwah), the LORD with the sound of a trumpet (shophar). Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with understanding.
Psalm 98:4-9: Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth; break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises. Sing to the LORD with the harp, with the harp and the sound of a psalm, with trumpets and the sound of a horn (shophar); shout joyfully (ruwa) before the LORD, the King. Let the sea roar, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell in it; let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills be joyful together before the LORD, for He is coming to judge the earth. With righteousness He shall judge the world, and the peoples with equity.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17: 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.
Revelation 10:7: But in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.
Matt 24:29-31: Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
1 Cor 15:50-54: Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, 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 incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory."
Rev 19:1: After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, "Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God!”
These are a sampling of the scriptures that bear some reference to the Holy Day commonly known as the Day of Trumpets. It would anti-climactic to try to add to the clear direction that scripture points us regarding the meaning of this day from an eschatological (end time) point of view. And it makes sense. It has been a long time since the Pentecost of Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit made a dramatic appearance in the upper room, and Jesus Christ has still not returned. In the same way it is a long, hot summer between Pentecost and the Day of Trumpets.
The day will mark a judgement upon this world’s system of government, but of salvation for the people of God. The dead in Christ will rise, who will live and reign with Christ for a thousand years (Revelation 20:4). The Kingdom of God will be on the earth, with Jesus Christ himself ruling as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.