Yahweh sounded a trumpet to gain the people’s attention whenever He wanted to speak to them. The first time the Bible speaks of Yahweh’s sounding a trumpet was in offering His covenant to Israel. “And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled” (Ex. 19:16).
The trumpet continues to play an important part both in Israel’s history and in our future. The trumpet warns of danger and is a call to arms.
The trumpet was sounded as Israel broke camp and began their march. Blowing the trumpet felled the walls of Jericho, Joshua 6:4-13.
The trumpet sounded at the coronation of King Solomon (1Kings 1:39-40), pre-picturing Yahshua the Messiah.
The Messiah will return at the trumpet blast and bring in the greatest Jubilee, the ultimate and highest Jubilee of gladness, joy, plenty, healing, peace and righteousness.
The Victorious Blast
The seventh biblical month begins with the day of Trumpets, one of the annual holy days. Notice: “And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have an holy convocation; you shall do no servile work: it is a day of blowing the trumpets unto you” (Num. 29:1).
The trumpet blast heralds an important event that is to take place, the greatest of which Yahweh foretells in biblical prophecy. We must pay special attention to the trumpet’s role in the prophecies of the latter days. Perhaps the functions of the trumpet will be brought forth again in the latter days.
That Conquering Sound
Joshua and his band of 300 sounded their trumpets to bring the downfall of Jericho: “And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns: and the seventh day you shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat,” Joshua 6:4-5.
Whether there was an earthquake to flatten the walls of Jericho we are not certain. Jericho was devastated and Joshua conquered by the blowing of the trumpets as Yahweh had prescribed.
A similar circumstance will take place in the future. Notice what happens when our Savior returns: “For Yahshua himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of Yahweh: and the dead in Messiah shall rise first” (1Thess. 4:16).
The sounding of the trumpet and the shout of victory heralds the Savior’s return to this earth. Yahshua takes vengeance upon those who destroy the earth while gathering those who have died believing in Him, 1Thessalonians 4:14.
Evidence shows that our Savior may return on the day of Trumpets when the last trumpet is blown. This first day of the seventh biblical month is in the Jewish calendar the first day of the civil year, which they call “Rosh Hashana,” meaning the “head of the year.” According to the Bible, the religious year begins in the spring on the first of Abib (Nisan).
Trumpet Marks Solemnity
It is in the spring of the year, in the month of Abib (meaning “green ears of grain”) that Passover occurs. This is the start of our spiritual trek to the Kingdom when we accept the shed blood of the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world.
We then straighten out our beliefs, making sure they are in accord with the Bible as we feast upon the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Following that, we celebrate the Feast of Weeks, which commemorates the giving of the Law at Sinai and the coming of the Holy Spirit to enable us to keep the law.
Then comes the Feast of Trumpets on the first day of the seventh scriptural month when the trumpets are blown, followed by the day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles. Trumpets begins the most solemn part of the scriptural year, for the next holy day is the day of Atonement, which is followed by the joyous Tabernacles.
Sabbatical Rest Cycle
Dedicated believers rightly keep the weekly scriptural Sabbath which Yahweh blessed and set apart for mankind’s worship in Genesis 2:2-3. We know the seventh-day Sabbath will again be kept when the Kingdom of Yahweh is set up on this earth, according to Isaiah 66:23, and which has not been changed or abrogated in spite of the teachings of churchianity.
A most ignored part of the covenant made with Israel at Mount Sinai was the observance of the seventh or Sabbatical year, Exodus 23:10-11. It is a year to let the land lie fallow and not to prune the olive tree or the grapevine, Leviticus 25:4. Note that this verse says that it is a Sabbath rest unto the land and a Sabbath for Yahweh! The Sabbatical-Jubilee cycle is an extension of the weekly Sabbath and also of the annual Sabbaths.
A New Testament command to keep the Sabbath even today is found in Hebrews: “There remains therefore a rest to the people of Yahweh” (Heb. 4:9). This “rest” is not limited to the seventh day. Verses 5 and 10 speak of entering into “His” rest, and “His” rest goes beyond even the Sabbatical every seven years and the Jubilee every fifty.
Many competent Bible scholars contend that Yahweh has allotted to mankind 6,000 years in which man attempts to rule himself by his own standards. Man is to work six days, and Yahweh says to Him a thousand years are as a day: “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night” (Psalm 90:4).
Six is man’s number. He was created on the sixth day. Six days man is to labor and do all his work, but the seventh day is Yahweh’s day when we honor Him.
666 as Opposed to Seven
The ultimate fulfillment of all that represents the worst in man is bound up in the number 666, found in Revelation 13. It is the number of the beast, or the “man of sin.” Without Yahweh’s laws and precepts man will ultimately record 6,000 years of utter failure in trying to establish a man-made Utopia on this earth.
While a modicum observe the seventh-day Sabbath, even fewer keep the annual Sabbaths in today’s world. The seventh-year land Sabbath is hardly kept anywhere today. It has been ignored and forgotten and uncertainty marks its keeping. The land we have control over is to be given a rest to Yahweh, Leviticus 25:4. It was also a time of release for Israel.
The Jubilee every 50 years, however, was to be proclaimed to all inhabitants of the land. Certainly there is much here which is overlooked by churchianity today. Why Israel first and the rest of mankind later? Why the special promise to those who attain the first resurrection? (Rev. 20:6) Is Israel still singled out as the channel of blessings to all the earth?
Sabbatical Similarities
The similarity between the Sabbatical-Jubilee cycle and the anticipated return of our Savior should thrill the student of Bible prophecy. Many prophecies of the Messiah’s return and the Jubilee year could easily be mistaken for the other.
Perhaps this is the way Yahweh reveals to His obedient children a secret kept from the foundation of the world. Surely Yahweh Elohim will do nothing, but He reveals his secret unto His servants the prophets (Amos 3:7). If we are His children, His servants who obediently do what He has commanded, then the Scriptures will not be a mystery or an enigma to us.
By keeping His commandments, doing what pleases Him, we follow closely in the footsteps of His Son. We conform our minds and will to His, and continue to study to show ourselves approved, striving to have the mind of the Messiah.
Jubilee a High Point
Leviticus 25:9 reveals that the trumpet was to sound on the day of Atonement, the tenth day of the seventh month. This was to start the year of Jubilee, which came in the fall of the year just before the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast commemorated the harvest of the fruit, the oil, and the good things of the fall harvest. The Jubilee, we read in Leviticus 25:8, followed a Sabbath year. It was the seventh Sabbath year, following 49 years, and was held the fiftieth year, Leviticus 25:10-11.
The day of Atonement is a day of fasting and a very solemn occasion. No work is to be done. This was a hallowed time throughout the land. It was a time for proclaiming liberty to the captives. Every man was to return to his possession. Every man was to return to his family. No work was to be done in the fields for an entire year.
Because the Jubilee came every 50 years, the average Israelite would observe at least one Jubilee in his lifetime. If he celebrated his first one before he was 20, he would enjoy another when he lived his allotted three score and ten years (Ps. 90:10). A true blesing was to celebrate two Jubilee years. The year of Jubilee was a high point in the culture of Israel and was eagerly anticipated by Yahweh’s people.
We on this side of Golgotha should take a close look at the portent in the Jubilee year. The similarities to ancient Israel and to the Ekklesia are astounding.
Many analogies, types, and truths are found in the days that Yahweh has set apart for His worship. Keeping His Sabbaths as well as the annual holy days and becoming aware of the Sabbatical-Jubilee cycle keeps us in constant reminder of His great plan of redemption.
Keeping our hearts and minds on heavenly things helps correct our attitudes and behavior so that we forego worldly pleasures and allurements to seek the Kingdom and enter His rest.
Observing Yahweh’s Sabbaths helps us to keep His commandments as we walk in His truth. From the Saturday Sabbath we set apart a day each week to enter His rest. In fellowship with others of like faith, we joyfully study the Bible, reviewing and learning more of His way of life.
Yahshua’s Ministry a Sabbatical
Following His testing by Satan, Yahshua went into the synagogue and read a most poignant verse:
“The Spirit of Yahweh is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the evangel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of Yahweh. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him” (Luke 4:18-20).
The “acceptable year of Yahweh” is recognized by scholars as a Leviticus 25 reference to the Jubilee year. Every seventh year was a “year of release,” when a Hebrew who had become a bond servant could go free (Ex. 21:1-11). Possessions were returned to the original owner. At the Jubilee, freedom was restored to all.
In the Hebrew text of Isaiah 61, the “acceptable year” and the “day of vengeance” are combined. The first coming of Yahshua made available Yahweh’s favor and acceptance through His Son Yahshua. The second coming warns of coming judgment when the Messiah returns to judge the world and set up Yahweh’s Kingdom on earth.
That rest includes the preparation of this earth for the coming Kingdom as well as sanctifying a special people by releasing us from the cares of this mundane world. We become more attentive to things spiritual and walk on higher ground, seeking the refreshing of life to come.
Restoration of All Things
Before that happens there is to be a revival and turning back to Yahweh by a people who will seek to learn more of His ways and seek His truth in the Bible and apply it to their lives. This is our goal now, to seek His truth diligently and be guided thereby.
“Repent therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of Yahweh; And he shall send Yahshua Messiah, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which Yahweh has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:19-21).
It is our understanding that the year 2015-2016 will be the next Sabbatical year, beginning on Atonement and ending on Atonement. This is based upon the year 69-70 C.E. as the Sabbatical, the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Evidence indicates that Yahshua began His ministry in the year 27-28 C.E. when He “preached the acceptable year” (Luke 4:19).
Strangely, it works out that even using our secular calendar, the Sabbatical years are divisible by seven. The years 28, 70 and 2016 are evenly divisible by seven.
What Can We Do Today?
During a Sabbatical year we do not plant or prune, but allow the ground to yield self-seeding plants such as lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, and of course the perennials such as strawberries, rhubarb, and fruit trees. These we can pick and consume but not freeze or store, which applies to any food that grows of itself.
Not planting a garden may be a small thing in this busy, bustling country of plenty, but almost every day of the Sabbatical year we are reminded that this is a special year, the ground we rely on for our produce is to have rest, just as Yahweh’s people have weekly Sabbath rest.
During the Sabbatical we do not plow or till the soil.
Not planting a garden would take real dedication for ancient Israel when the entire nation was not growing any crops. Yet, Yahweh had made provision for this by commanding the sixth year to bring forth food for three years:
And if you shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. And you shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in you shall eat of the old store (Lev. 25:20-22).
Jubilee Year Question
Exactly when the Jubilee year falls in today’s calendar is an enigma. After the return of Ezra and Nehemiah, the people were so determined to be obedient to Yahweh that He would bless them and they would not have to sell any of their land to redeem it on the Jubilee.
They believed that Yahweh would not allow them to become impoverished, and therefore there would be no need for a Jubilee, a year of release. The exact day of the Jubilee, therefore, had been lost.
It is our goal to restore these truths, which will be the norm in the coming Kingdom. May you turn your heart in full obedience to Yahweh so that you will better understand the deeper truth of the Sabbaths and not be caught unaware when that last great Trumpet sounds and Yahshua takes control of this earth.
For more info on the feast days including Feast of Trumpets please check out our free booklet: The Amazing Biblical Feasts
