Jerusalem of Gold
Mashiach in the Feast of Trumpets
(Yom Teruah)
You can listen along to this teaching on our YouTube Channel here - for ease of listening length, note this recording leaves off the very last section called "First Trumpet, Last Mountain" which you can read at the bottom of this written page.
The Feast of Trumpets is the only one of God's appointed times given in Leviticus that begins on a new moon. There is, therefore, something about this Feast that points to a new season, cycle and time.
The Feast of Trumpets also marks the Jewish New Year (Rosh HaShanah).
On the first day of the Feast of Trumpets the Jewish people act out a ceremony called Tashlikh. It means "You will cast away". It's traditional to go a large body of water and read the following verses from Micah 7: "Who is a God like you, forgiving iniquity and passing by the transgression of the remnant of His possession? He does not make strong His anger forever, for He delights in grace. He will return to show us compassion; He will trample our iniquities; and You will cast off (tashlikh) all their sins into the depths of the sea." (Micah 7 v 18-20)
So, the Jewish tradition of tashlikh is an acting out of the LORD 'casting off' all our sins before a New Season begins. This sounds so much like Christian baptism and new life in Yeshua, particularly as it involves the LORD casting off all our sins into a body of water! It also sounds just like the miraculous work Messiah will do in saving 'all Israel' (Romans 11.26) before the time to come (olam ha-ba). After all, in Micah God was referring to Israel, not the church. In addition, even the act of baptism is Jewish. It is the Mikvah, the ceremonial cleansing bath of full water immersion, written throughout the Old Testament (Tanakh).
Then, on the second and last day of the Feast of Trumpets, the Jewish people read the binding of Isaac (Akedat Yitzhak): "And behold! A ram behind him was entangled in a thicket by its horns. And Abraham called the name of that place YHVH yireh". (Genesis 22.14)
'Yireh' is the future tense of: "To see, realise, know, become visible, appear, show oneself".
So Abraham is literally proclaiming that the substitutional ram at some point in the future will show Himself and become visible! I believe this is a prophecy and foretelling of Messiah by the father of the patriachs himself. On that day Isaac did not have to die, because the LORD provided His substitutional ram. If we repent of our sins and serve the LORD in spirit and in truth, we also will not have to die because of the LORD's substitutional gift of Yeshua as the perfect lamb.
Plus, in the verses read from Micah on the Feast of Trumpets, the Jewish people say "He will return" which shows us that the Messiah must have come before, otherwise how could He return to "show us compassion?" The verse in Genesis 22.14 therefore gives us the prophecy of exactly where this for-all-time substitutional ram will be sacrificed in the future: "As it is said to this day, in the mount of Hashem (the LORD's Name) it shall be provided". There is no other mountain that bears the Name of the LORD except Mount Zion in Jerusalem.
I believe therefore that the LORD showed Himself in the person of Yeshua the Messiah. I believe Isaac's binding is a symbol of the future binding of Yeshua. Yeshua is the substitute ram caught in the thicket (crown of thorns) because of our sins. The ram was caught by its horns. Horns symbolize strength. King David sung in the Psalms/Tehillim that "the LORD is the horn of my salvation." (18.2) Yeshua's strength is His Gift of Salvation, as the Son of David (Mashiach Ben David). It's all exquistitely beautiful and intertwined. New Testament and Old Covenant plaited together, like a beautiful challah bread of life.
Blowing the Shofar: The other commandment of the Feast of Trumpets is more well known to the church - blowing the shofar. The shofar is the Ram's Horn. Again, here is the symbol of the substitutional ram, together with "the horn of salvation" spoken of by King David (Psalm 18). If you've heard the shofar being blown by a Jewish man, you'll know it is sounded in a particular rhythm:
One long blast called "Tekiah"
Three long blasts called "Shevarim"
Nine short blasts called "Teruah"
One final blast which lifts up at the end, called the "Tekiah HaGadol"
Here's what each sound means. Prepare to be amazed at the Messianic Accuracy of these sounds!
Tekiah marks "The King's Coronation". Who will very soon be recognised as the King of the whole universe? The Word of the LORD says that there will come a moment, contrary to how multitudes have lived, "That at the name of Yeshua/Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;" (Philippians 2.10) May we be prepared for Him as a pure bride and be delighted at His return, not found disobeying Him by our lifestyles or hearts. The Day of the LORD is described in His Word as both "great" and "terrible", depending on whether we have trusted in Him as our LORD and Saviour, or not. To find out more of how to be ready for His return, please seek Him urgently in prayer, read His Word daily and let Him cleanse our hearts, souls and minds, forgiving others and repenting daily.
Shevarim means: "to break, call to repentance." The Feast of Trumpets ends a month long time of repentance throughout the Biblical month of Elul in the Jewish Biblical year.
Teruah is used to "awaken the soul, wake up, break camp, move beyond the comfort zone" and is used to signal that we are about "to go home to a place you have not been." This last statement sounds like a contradiction but its actually very prophetic and completely describes the Rapture into the Kingdom of Heaven. We've never been to the world to come but it will feel like going home. If you're not Jewish but you get goosebumps when you hear the shofar, I hope this helps you understand what is going on spiritually. The LORD is calling you upward and homeward through the shofar to His Heavenly Kingdom!
Tekiah HaGadol means "The Great Trumpet". Many in church know the Great Trump marks the rapture of the church (1 Corinthians 15.52). But through studying the Feast of Trumpets, it is clear that it is also the last sound in the Jewish blowing of the Shofar! This last note lifts up at the end, to represent hope. The Great Trumpet, at the end of one Hebraic season and the beginning of another, represents the victory of joy, redemption and the end of the cycle.
Wow! All in the way the Jewish people sound the Shofar! It is as if the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob entrusted this prophetic acting out of the end of the age to His Jewish people, to perform each year in this season through generation to generation. His Holy Spirit is waking up many in the Gentile church who will listen, to these treasures hidden within His treasured possession, the Jewish nation-faith. I have met so many Christians who woke up one day and said to themselves "I don't know why but I must learn Hebrew" or "I don't know why but I must study the Biblical Feasts". The LORD is up to something, on an international scale. He is creating His One New Man out of Jew and Gentile and it's breath-takingly beautiful. It is mind-blowingly humbling to be a tiny part of a beautiful deeply-rooted olive tree, with branches reaching up to His Light in joy and trust in His soon-return, together praising the Messiah of Israel and the world!
When Jews and Christians blow the shofar we are literally making a sound into the heavens that says: The King is being Crowned, we are being called to repentance and the breaking off of our sins, His Trumpet call is awakening our souls, waking us up, calling us to break camp, get out of our comfort zone and go home to a place we've never been before! The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is waking up the church through one of the most Jewish sounds and is calling us to cast off our sins, onto the trusting act of faith in the substitutional Lamb of Yeshua, caught in His Crown of Thorns as the King of Kings!
So, hidden in the sounds of the Shofar, the Jewish Ram's Horn, is the single most prophetic wake up call to the church, as we come to the end of one time and enter the next! The Shofar is the sound of Heaven's Wake Up Call!
The two Biblical reasons given for the blowing of the Shofar are:
Rest: see Numbers 29.1
Sacrifice of Fire: see Leviticus 23. 24-2.
Although hidden in the minute detail of the Tanakh (Old Testament) these are both clearly and prophetically referring to the end times. When the Great Trumpet sounds the righteous will finally rest and the world will be judged by fire. These are the LORD's words, not mine, but He is compelling me through His Spirit to pray for both salvations and the purifying of the church like never before. Both these events will occur at the timing of the final Shofar blast (Tekiah HaGadol).
There are only two groups of people who will know exactly what this sound means: awake Bible believers and the Jewish people. Most of the church think that Jewish people don't understand the times we are in. This is not prophetically or Biblically correct. Most of my Jewish brothers and sisters desperately await the coming of the Messiah, the Messianic age. It's just that some of them haven't yet been enabled to see that He came once before. And some of my church friends can see He came once before, but aren't awake enough to know that His Hand is on the door, about to return.
Further hidden treasures in the Feast of Trumpets: The first Trumpet through to the Last Mountain!
Often the LORD tells me to look at the first and last time He uses a word, in order to more clearly understand His coding throughout His Bible. The modern church often only sees one piece of a much larger puzzle, because she is only reading from her 'Greek' mindset, even if she is reading from the Old Testament. This is like trying to decipher a code without looking at the orginal Hebrew, in which it is written. At best it leaves the church with only a small part of the big picture. At worst it leads the church into deceptions such as; Replacement Theology, arrogance, anti-Semitism, self-indulgence, a fake unity across faiths, the mixing of new age beliefs with the Word of God and a growing or intense reaction of dislike to Biblical teachings grounded in holiness, humility and repentance.
So, let's explore in the Hebrew the code breakers that I pray will bless and strengthen us in the One New Man, in growing together in His Olive Tree:
The first time Trumpet is used is in Exodus 19.13: "At the sounding of the Ram's horn, they shall go up to the mountain"
God's sweet voice said to me: "Look closely at the Hebrew in that verse". And it turns out amazing treasure is hidden there. The Hebrew has been mis-translated into English. In the Hebrew it doesn't say "go up to" the mountain. It says "go into" the mountain. But how can Israel, and all who are grafted in as believers in the Jewish Messiah, go up into the mountain at the Trumpet call?
The answer lies in the words of Daniel the Prophet, to which the LORD led me:
"The GOD of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed...
because you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands (not created)." (Daniel 2 verses 44-45)
Who was begotten not made? Who is from the Father, yet not created? Yeshua the Messiah. He is the Mountain. He is the One not created. So Yeshua is hidden in Exodus in this incredible account, when the Shofar sounds and all Israel will go up into the Mountain. I believe this is a prophecy of the end times, embedded all the way back at the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai in the desert. But like any great puzzle, both sides need each other. The Christian New Testament tells us something that echoes what we know from the Old (Tanakh). The final piece of the code is hidden in the LORD's use of the word mountain for the last time:
"And He carried me in the Spirit onto a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, Jerusalem, coming down from Heaven from God."
(Revelation 21.10)
When we go into Messiah, when we hide in Him, we will be taken up into the Heavenly Jerusalem. All the way back in Exodus the LORD says this will happen when the shofar sounds! The rapture is hidden in the Old Testament in plain sight. It's hidden in the desert at the foot of the mountain among His Jewish People waiting to hear from God; the Messiah, the ram, the mountain made without hands, the King's coronation, the call to repentance, the casting away of our sin, the call to go home to the place we haven't yet been - all of this treasure is hidden in the Biblical Feast of Trumpets!
Shanah Tov! (Happy New Year!) I pray you and your loved ones have a good and sweet new year and new season - every day until and after He returns! My sincerest prayer is that He will purify as many as possible in the church, who will listen to Him and be ready for His return. And if you are touched by anything on this website that you will forward this web address to those you know who don't yet know Messiah, and pray for their urgent salvation.