Hebrew Roots Part Eight – God’s Prophetic Fall Feasts, Part One

I wrote in my last post Hebrew Roots Part Seven – God’s Prophetic Spring Feasts about the four spring feasts which were fulfilled at Messiah’s first coming.  There are three fall feasts, which have not yet seen their fulfillment, but will very soon when Jesus, the Messiah, returns.  They are the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles.  The interval of time between Pentecost and the fall feasts represents the Church Age, in which we are currently living.

Trumpets – Rosh Hoshana, which means the Head of the Year for its civil calendar meaning.  By the religious Jews, this is called Yom Teru‘ah, The Day of Blowing Trumpets (literally shofar, which is a ram’s horn).

The Feast of Trumpets has many other names as well.  It is called Yom HaZikaron, The Day of Remembrance.  We celebrate the Feast of Trumpets to remember of the great day of Messiah’s return—yes, even the Jews believe this.

The Feast of Trumpets prophetically foreshadows the Rapture of the Church.  The priests used to blow the trumpet to call the field workers to stop their harvesting and come into the Temple.  When the Heavenly trumpet sounds (as in 1 Corinthians 15:51-53, below), all the faithful who are working in the Lord’s harvest fields will stop their harvesting and com into the Heavenly Temple.

This feast has also been called The Day of the Awakening Trumpet Blast.  Consider these words from the Apostle Paul:

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 forever, (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, emphasis mine).

And this:

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.  For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, (1 Corinthians 15:51-53, emphasis mine).

The Feast of Trumpets is the most likely date for the Rapture of the Church.  The spring feasts were all fulfilled on the precise day they were celebrated, so there’s no reason to think that the events foreshadowed by the fall feasts wouldn’t also happen on the precise day they are celebrated.  The Rapture is always associated in Scripture with the blowing of a loud trumpet.

Let me be very clear about this: I am not date setting.  Rather, this shows an understanding of the times and seasons:

Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.  While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.  But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief, (1Thessalonians 5:1-4, emphasis mine).

The day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night only for those who are walking in darkness.  But God has given us an understanding of the times and seasons.

The Feast of Trumpets is called Yom HaKeseh, The Hidden Day.  This is because it is the only Feast that is celebrated on the first day of a month, which always occurs on a new moon.  It was impossible to be absolutely certain exactly when the new moon would appear in Bible times because they didn’t have any of our stargazing technology.  So they would have two Levites go out and watch the skies for the new moon.  Everything has to be established at the word of two witnesses (Deuteronomy 17:6, 19:15; Matthew 18:6, 26:60; John 8:17; 2 Corinthians 13:1; 1 Timothy 5:19; Hebrews 10:28; & Revelation 11:1-12).  When they saw the sliver of the new moon, they would go back to the Temple and report it.  Jesus said about the day of His coming:

No one knows the day or hour, not even the angels in Heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. . . . Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come, (Matthew 24:36, 42, emphasis mine).

See, even though we can’t know the day or the hour (or the year), we do know the season and we do know within a two day time frame.  Therefore, that is not date setting, but keeping watch, which is why Jesus told us to do.

Allow me a moment to rant: the Pre-Tribulation Rapture deniers have all sorts of criticisms for Pre-Tribbers.  The doctrine of imminence requires us to be ready and to encourage others to be ready, too.  I can’t imagine the Lord scolding us for being ready for His return—especially after He told us to keep watch.  Even if we’re wrong (and we’re not), we are living in that state of readiness and keeping ourselves holy, as He instructed us to do.

Furthermore, the Feast of Trumpets is also known as the Wedding of the Messiah.  It is the consummation of the marriage when the Bridegroom takes us to His side to be with Him forever.  When a Jewish Bride has accepted the Bridegroom’s proposal of marriage, he says to his bride “I go and prepare a place for you, and I will come back and take you to be with Me.”  And that is exactly what Jesus told His disciples (John 14:3).  Some of them were married men, and had spoken those words, themselves.  But all of them understood that this was a marriage proposal.  More than that, it was a marriage contract, legally binding.

The Bridegroom returns to his father’s house to build a room for the two of them.  This can be a year or more in which they do not see each other at all.  Only when the father approves the construction can the son go and get his bride.  Then, together with a couple of close friends, the Bridegroom goes to get the Bride, which is usually at night.

In the meantime, she has been preparing herself for her wedding night.  She has to be ready whenever he comes, day or night, together with her closest friends.  The parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25) suddenly makes sense, doesn’t it?  Especially in the context of the preceding chapter leading up to that parable.  Jesus was warning us to be ready for the day of the Rapture.

When the couple arrive at the father’s house, they go into the bridal chamber, shut the door, and consummate their marriage.  They stay in the chamber for seven days.  Then they come out and celebrate the wedding feast with all their friends.  Biblically, days equal years, and we know that the Tribulation period will be three and a half plus three and a half, or seven years total.  Now consider this:

Go, My people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until His wrath has passed by.  See, the Lord is coming out of His dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins.  The earth will disclose the blood shed on it; the earth will conceal its slain no longer, (Isaiah 26:20-21, emphasis mine).

There is so much evidence for a Pre-Tribulation Rapture that it would be foolish not to be ready.

Finally, the Feast of Trumpets is also called Yom HaDin, the Day of Judgment.  The specific judgment that occurs on this day (the day of the Rapture) will be the Bema Seat Judgment.  This is not judgment for salvation, but rather when Jesus judges our works and gives us our crowns.  This was also the day when kings were coronated.  Remember, we have been made a Kingdom of Kings and Priests (Revelation 1:6 & 5:10).  This is the day in which we will be given our crowns for those works that survive the testing of fire (1 Corinthians 3:12-14).

The ten days between Trumpets the next feast, The Day of Atonement, are called the Days of Awe.  It is a time for introspection and considering the sins of the previous year.  This interval is also a prophetic foreshadow.  Those Christians who were not watching and so were not ready when the Heavenly Trumpet sounded will know that they’ve missed the mark.  They will reflect on the sin in their lives—particularly unbelief.  Many will repent, and most of those will be beheaded for their faith in the Tribulation period.  I believe that most of these will be the super evangelists of the early days of the Tribulation.

Stay tuned for the rest of the fall feasts, coming soon!  God is good!