The Feast of Trumpets (Heb. Yom Teruah) is also known
as the “Hidden Day”…
Why this peculiar name? It’s for the simple reason that no
one knows the day on which it will be. To understand this, we have to know how
the beginning of month is determined on a biblical year…
BEGINNING THE MONTH:
New Moon
The event that marks the beginning of a month in the
biblical calendar is when a new moon appears. After “hiding” in the dark for
several days from our sight, it appears again looking like a little white
fingernail. On the moment that the moon becomes visible again, the beginning of
the biblical month is marked.
But because the moon, the sun, and the Earth have different
astronomical rhythms, there are certain months of the year when it is hard to
tell when the moon will appear. That is why there are certain days when it
isn’t obvious if it is the end of the month, or the beginning of the next
month. Therefore, what determines the beginning of the month is the actual
sighting of the moon.
ROSH HASHANAH ON A
NEW MOON
The only feast that is celebrated on a new moon is Rosh
Hashanah, that is, the Feast of Trumpets (Heb. Yom Teruah). So for this
feast, two days are set apart (1-2 Tishri, 7th month)… because it is
not certain on which day it will begin. It all depends on the day and the hour
on which the new moon appears and becomes visible.
This special phenomenon of the Feast of Trumpets has made it
receive the name “Hidden Day” (in
Hebrew, Yom HaKeseh).
And when the moon finally appears on the 7th
month, the people of God begin blowing the shofar, because Yom Teruah has begun, the
Day of Blasting the trumpets (Lev. 23:23-24), the holy convocation of the Lord…
(Num. 29:1) On the first
day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do
any ordinary work. It is a day for you to blow the trumpets,
This is the day to which the psalmist refers:
(Ps. 81:3) Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon,
on our feast day.
Prophetically, this feast speaks of the second coming of the
Lord. On that day, a trumpet will blow in the heavens…
(1 Thessalonians 4:16-17) For
the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice
of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in
Christ will rise first. (17)Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught
up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will
always be with the Lord.
The celebration of this feast, year after year, is a
prophetic review of that hidden day.
Although we won’t know the day and the hour on which the
Lord will come, Jesus calls us to be prepared…
(Mark 13:32-37) “But concerning
that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the
Son, but only the Father. (33) Be on guard, keep awake. For you do
not know when the time will come. (34) It is like a man going on a journey,
when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work,
and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. (35) Therefore stay awake—for
you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at
midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— (36) lest he
come suddenly and find you asleep. (37) And what I say to you I say to
all: Stay awake.”
You can hear the Audio of the Shofar: here.
[Note: this link will take
you to our original, Spanish blog. The title of the video reads: Sound of the
Shofar].
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