There is something otherworldly about sitting in the sanctuary on Rosh Hashanah. You know it's coming, and when it does, it doesn't disappoint.The ram's horn. The shofar. It is a sound from ancient days, and it fills your ears and your mind and the depths of your soul. It carries you to another time and place.
Rosh Hashanah literally means "Head of the Year." But that's not what God called it. He called it Yom Teru'ah - Day of Blowing the Horn. The Feast of Trumpets.
So what's it for? The Sabbath honors God's day of rest. Passover commemorates the Exodus. Pentecost celebrates the harvest. And the Feast of Trumpets? Just blow the horn, people!
This is one of the most sacred days on the Jewish calendar, but there is absolutely no purpose given for it except to blow the shofar.
And yet, blowing that ram's horn says absolutely everything.
You see, a shofar was blown to sound the alarm. And looming ten days past the Feast of Trumpets is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. A reminder that everyone - even the High Priest - is repulsively unclean in the eyes of God.
Sound the alarm, indeed. "Repent!" is what the shofar cries. "Repent, for judgment is coming!"
On that Day of Atonement, Judaism teaches, the Books of Life and Death are sealed for the year. In which Book do you want your name to be written? The shofar pleads in favor of life. "Repent!" it rings out.
And yet blowing the biblical ram's horn is also a call to rejoice. So how do you rejoice when you're being warned to repent at the very same time?
How? By looking square at that Day of Atonement and seeing that the Lord knew from the very beginning we can't possibly be holy. And seeing that, instead of kicking us to the curb, He provides a way to cover up our sinfulness. All we have to do is accept the cover He provides.
And what is that Day of Atonement cover? Why, blowing the shofar tells us that, too!
You see, the ram's horn is supposed to turn our eyes back to Abraham's test. To remind us of that gut-wrenching moment when he obediently offered up his only son to God. And to remind us of the ram caught in the thicket, which God accepted in Isaac's place.
The shofar calls us to remember and rejoice that the Most Holy Lord accepts a substitute in our place as well. On the Day of Atonement, that God-ordained substitute is perfect sacrificial blood, brought into His very Presence, within the Most Holy Place.
And so, when the Lord "simply" commanded the Israelites to observe a sacred day of blowing the ram's horn, He was saying so much more.
Through the ram's horn, He was calling His children to REPENT, for we are sinners in His Holy Presence.
Through the ram's horn, He was calling His children to REJOICE, because He loves us so much that He would rather accept a substitute for the punishment we deserve.But that's not all.
Through the ram's horn, God was calling His children to look to the coming Messiah, Yeshua: the only Son, the perfect Lamb of God, who would become the sacrificial substitute in our place.
Today is the Feast of Trumpets. Listen for the shofar's call: repent and rejoice!
(c) Tammy L. Priest
