God’s appointed times – the feast of Trumpets

 An Emoji Devotional for Thu,15 Sept. 2022

Topic: God’s appointed times – the feast of Trumpets

By Pastor Hans Ulrich Wenger

Highlights: 
Listen, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:51 – 52)

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord for ever. Therefore encourage one another with these words. (1. Thessalonians 4 :16 – 18)

In Leviticus 23 God gives Moses his appointed festivals he wants him to proclaim to the people as his holy convocations. In the Christian Community I grew up, I got familiar with the spring festivals but I never heard anything about the fall festivals until I studied theology. Certainly the feast of Passover, the feast of Unleavened bread, the feast of the First Fruits and the feast of Weeks (Pentecost), which have all been fulfilled through the coming of Christ Jesus as Messiah into our world, are central for our salvation and deserve to be observed with joy and thankfulness.

With the pouring out of the Holy Spirit over the Disciples of Christ, however, the countdown for the next appointed feast began. Jesus promised to come back and to suddenly and unexpectedly snap his Disciples away from the earth to reunite with them in the heavenly realm. The sounding of the trumpets was for the Israelites always either a call for decampment or a call for gathering together. 

God orders Moses in Numeri 10 to manufacture two silver trumpets. He gives him advice, how the trumpets should be blown for gathering the leaders and the whole community, as well as for the call to break-up.

The feast of Trumpets marked in Israel the beginning of an agricultural and civil New Year and therefore remains for outsiders often hidden behind the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah). The real New Year, however, begins in spring with the Jewish month Nisan. This year the feast of Trumpets starts on the evening of September 25th and ends on the evening of September 27th.

It is the commencing of the 10 days of awe for the Jewish people, which is a time of dedication and repentance with view to the day of Atonement, the most important feast in the Jewish calendar, that takes place on the 10th day of the 7th month, which corresponds in our calendar with the evening of the forth till the evening of the 5th October.

I want to motivate myself and you to earnestly celebrate the feast of Trumpets. We do not know, when the last trumpet will be blown, but we can know for sure that our reuniting with the Lord will somehow be in connection with the feast of trumpets. The Lord is about to pick up his bride. How can we know this? In Matthew 24 Jesus talks about the end of the end time. In the verses 32 to 34 he tells us to learn from the parable of the fig tree: “Now learn this lesson from the fig-tree: as soon as its twigs become tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.” With this Jesus confirms the prophecies of the Old Testament. According to Joel 1, 6 – 7 and Hosea 9, 10 Israel is God’s fig tree. All the signs Jesus mentions in Matthew 24 are fulfilled today and Israel is a green and blossoming nation.

It is therefore certain that his coming is near, right at the door. Let us joyfully wait for the sounding of the last trumpet. We have nothing to lose here, but we have everything to gain with his coming and in the future with him.

Dear Lord Jesus, take everything away from me, which hinders me in my life with you. Please give everything to me, which foster and enhance my walk with you. Let me be yours, and yours alone and snap me away into your presence with the sound of the last trumpet. 

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