Sound the Alarm!

Tonight begins Yom Teru'ah, the Feast of Trumpets, one of the two holiest days on the Jewish, Old Testament calendar.  

"Tell the People of Israel, On the first day of the seventh month, 
set aside a day of rest, a sacred assembly - mark it with loud blasts 
on the ram's horn."  Leviticus 23:23-24 The Message

What could be so sacred about resting and listening to a priest blow a horn?  And what does it matter for the Christian believer?

The answers lie in the meaning of the Hebrew word teru'ah, or trumpet blast. 

In biblical times, blowing the ram's horn was a war cry.  The sound mobilized the army and warned civilians of impending attack.  

"When the shofar is blown in the city, don't the people tremble?"  Amos 3:6a The Complete Jewish Bible

Blowing the ram's horn created an atmosphere of panic - that feeling in a person's gut when calamity and terror becomes real, imminent.

Why on earth would God tell His people to create such a feeling of panic on a sacred feast day?

Why?  Because in ten days' time, it would be the Day of Atonement: The one day each year when the Almighty demanded payment for the sin of the nation and the sin of every human heart. 

If that doesn't strike panic in a person's heart, nothing will.

After all, the Creator of the universe commanded us to be holy.  To be as holy as He is.  But who are we kidding?  I'm a mess.  You're a mess.  Humanity is a collective mess of selfish, hurting and hurtful hearts. 

"We all went wandering like sheep; going every one of us after his desire..." Isaiah 53:6a BBE

On the Feast of Trumpets, the shofar was the ultimate war cry, a warning that divine judgment was on its way.  Panic, indeed.  At the deepest level.  

And in the midst of such panic, the people are supposed to...rest?

How can a person possibly rest when judgment is coming?  The only way I could rest in the midst of such panic is if I knew the calamity could be averted.

But what could possibly avert the punishment that we selfish, wandering sheep deserve?  The blood of a lamb. 

On the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies and sprinkle the blood of a perfect lamb on the Mercy Seat.  God promised that this would atone for "all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins." (emphasis mine; see Leviticus 16)

"For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you.  You shall be clean before the LORD from all your sins."  Leviticus 16:30 NIV

Calamity averted.

In a beautiful contradiction, teru'ah can mean something besides a cry of war and distress.  It sometimes means a shout of triumph. 

Teru'ah!  Repentance plus blood equals peace.  Triumph, indeed!

But there's something about the shofar that makes its shout of victory even more triumphant.  It's the shofar itself.

For thousands of years, every time a priest raised a ram's horn to his lips, he displayed a vivid picture of how God would ultimately rescue Israel - and all of mankind - once and for all. 

You see, the very first time in Scripture that a ram's horn is mentioned is in Genesis 22.  Do you remember?

In desperate obedience, Abraham raised his sharpened knife on Mount Moriah.  But God intervened through the shout of an angel and the gift of a ram. A ram caught in a thicket.  By its horns.

Isaac, the son, lived, because God provided and accepted another's life in his place.  Since that day, Jews have considered the ram's horn to be a symbol of God's willingness to accept a substitute in our place.  

"For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life."  Leviticus 17:11 NIV

The blast of the shofar recalls that monumental day, and it proclaims the promise that God will accept a substitute in our stead.

But a substitute wasn't just accepted by God.  It was provided by Him, too.  

And the ram in the thicket pointed to the ultimate substitution that God would both provide and accept: His Son.  The perfect Lamb who took our place.  

We all went wandering like sheep; going every one of us after his desire; and the Lord put on him the punishment of us all.  Isaiah 53:6 BBE

Yom Teru'ah, the Day of Trumpet Sounding. 

The cry of the shofar is the cry of humanity:  all of our fear and our guilt and our pain and our sin.

And the cry of the shofar is also God's response:  the provision and acceptance of the Perfect Lamb whose blood covers up our mess and brings restoration to our soul. 

All we need to do is raise our eyes to the thicket of the Cross and accept the sacrifice offered in our stead.

Teru'ah!