“Blow the trumpet at the time of the New Moon
… I heard a language I did not understand …”
(Ps. 81:3 & 5, NKJV)
If we link this teaching to the preceding one, the shofar or ram’s horn is an important point of reference. Remember that we spoke about that teaching being written on Rosh Hashanah (Lev. 23:24), the Jewish new year, also known as the feast of Yom Teruah (the Day of the Blowing of the Shofar). In Num. 29:1 this day is characterised as “a day of blowing the trumpets”. In the teaching of Day 386-389 we extensively discussed this. This day is the first/highest (“head”) of the Yamim Noraim “the days of awe”, the most holy days of the Jewish calendar. Neh. 8:9 calls this day “holy to the Lord”. What follows it is ten days of introspection and repentance (known as the Asseret Yemei Teshuva, “the ten days of repentance”), which is concluded with Yom Kippur, the great day of Great Reconciliation (by the way: the day on which I’m writing this specific teaching.) Quite a few very important events have taken place on this day, Yom Teruah, that all point to the spiritual meaning that can be attached to it.
- The Talmud notes that it is on this day that Adam was created, thus it is this day that is the anniversary of the day of creation, or birthday, of man.
- It is commonly accepted that Abraham sacrificed Isaac on this feast day. Isaac’s life is spared by God because God commands Abraham not to sacrifice his son, and providing a ram who had gotten his horns stuck in a bush (Gen. 22:13). The horns also point to the ram’s horns that are used as shofars on this day.
- Various historical sources link this date to the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.
From this thus also follows that this day, also in typological terms, carries specific emphasis around the relationship between man and God. If it is the day of man, made in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:26), and it is the day on which God simulated the covenant relationship between Father and Son through Abraham and Isaac, and provided the sacrificial lamb (which symbolises Jesus – 1 Cor. 5:7), where the ram’s horns were used “as testimony” (Ps. 81:3-5) across the earth and in the heavens, to proclaim God’s plan of salvation, and it also points to the time at which Jesus started preaching the gospel of the Kingdom, we can clearly understand why this day is also called “the day of remembrance”.
On this day we remember God’s eternal plan; that which is made clear in Eph. 3:11 (CEV): “God did this according to his eternal plan. And he was able to do what he had planned because of all that Christ Jesus our Lord had done.” On this day the triumph of God’s “purposes” (Acts 13:36) is drawn together, and individual identities dramatically proclaimed with the blowing of shofars. “Blow the trumpet at the time of the New Moon … I heard a language I did not understand …”
- Selah: Ponder the last sentence.
- Read: 22-24
- Memorise: 23:24 – you should be deeply touched by this synchronicity! Praise God!
