“Awake, awake … O Zion!”
(Isa 52:1)
In the previous teachings we pointed out that the Old Testament feasts occurred exactly according to the calendar times of God, within the New Testament fulfillment thereof, each in its appointed time. The sacrificial lamb was chosen on the tenth day of Nisan, the day on which Jesus had triumphantly entered Jerusalem. The crucifixion of the Lamb of God took place on the 14th day of Nisan, the exact Old Testament date. On the day after the weekly Sabbath, during the Feast of the Unleavened bread, the Offering of First Fruits was made. Jesus rose from the dead on exactly this day. Exactly fifty days later, with the festival of Pentecost (Shavuot), the Holy Spirit was poured out on the believers. These spring feasts are thus already prophetically fulfilled in historical time, and thus the feasts that take place now function as clear prophetic markers for the fulfillment of God’s plan of redemption.
The feasts that are still to come all point to the highlight of the history of all ages – that Jesus will physically tabernacle with us on earth, that which the Feast of Tabernacles celebrates. The feast of Trumpets and of the Great day of Reconciliation are the birth pangs that precede this glorious event. Yet they are birth pangs of special significance; without it the birth could not take place.
On Yom Teruah the shofars are blown to announce the second coming of Jesus. All those still sleeping soundly, thus those who had not been awoken to their redemptive purpose and who had not started functioning within their calling, they who still rest in the dust of their Adamic nature (Dan 12:22), even though they were born again, would have to be awoken – “Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light” (Eph 5:14).
Joel 2:1 (GW) is the prophetic call which each year on this day is sounded to the church – “Blow the ram’s horn in Zion. Sound the alarm on my holy mountain. Everyone who lives in the land should tremble, because the day of the LORD is coming. Certainly, it is near.” In preparation for the Great day of Reconciliation a call is made for personal cleansing, and again the ram’s horn becomes the sound of despair when we realise that we are busy missing the agenda of God – “Cry aloud, do not spare, lift up your voice like a ram’s horn, and show My people their rebellion, and the house of Jacob their sins.” (Isa 58:1). The Bride of Christ is still sleeping in the lull of tradition (Song of Songs 5:2). The five wise AND foolish virgins had all been sleeping before the arrival of the Bridegroom (Matt 25:1-10)! The wise virgins were the group who had awoken in time! “Awake, awake … O Zion!” (Isa 52:1). “Therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober.” (1 Thess 5:6). We are about to experience the third day! As with the fall of Jericho the blowing of the shofars will bring about a rupture (and not a rapture!) in the spiritual realm – “And it came to pass on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud; and all the people that were in the camp trembled.” (Ex 19:16, ASV). And all that had not been built by God in his temple (1 Cor 3:12-16), will fall like the walls of Jericho! In the section which speaks about the falling of the walls of Jericho, Joshua 6:1-20, the word shofar is repeated fourteen times, the Biblical number of redemption and freedom. The word blow is, in the original language, used eight times in the pericope, which symbolically points to a new beginning!
- Sela: Have you awoken?
- Read: Deut 22; Ezek 48; Nah 3
- Memorize: Nah 3:4
- For a deeper understanding: Read Kelly Varner’s Sound the alarm.
