Feast of Trumpets

Welcome to God First with Brian C. Thomas, a program committed to encouraging you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Now, in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, let's join Brian C. Thomas for today's message. And I am so honored that you are joining me today on the God First Podcast. As I have a good friend of mine in the ministry that I have asked to join me today to talk about the topic of the Feast of Trumpets, which is coming up here shortly.

And a lot of things are going on in the world and a lot of people are sensing things happening and things that may be happening. And so we're going to talk about the Feast of Trumpets and what it means and what it possibly foretells as far as the future goes. So we'll get to that in a moment. But I want to introduce my guest, Les Lawrence, who is the founder of Elijah Vision. And again, he's here to talk about the Feast of Trumpets. So Les, it again is an honor to have you. I had you on a few years ago to speak about the seven feasts of the Lord. And so today we're going to speak about this particular feast. But before we get to the feast, can you talk to our listeners a little bit about your ministry and your background and how you came to where you are?

Sure. I appreciate the opportunity to be with you, Brian. And we've been friends over the years.

I'm thankful for that. God is good. My wife and I pastor the church in Florida for over 24 years, one particular church in Clearwater, Florida. And then God launched us into our ministry called the Elijah Vision ministry based on the prophet Elisha, who prayed for his servant's eyes to be opened and to see that more and more they that are with us than they that are with them.

It was a time of victory when Elisha was surrounded by the Syrian army. And so our vision, our calling is to pray that people's eyes would be open to see what God is doing. And that especially focuses on what he's doing with Israel today, the restoration of Israel.

And so that's my main theme. I've written about eight books now, mostly on that subject of Israel. And God's blessed our ministry. We travel and speak now around where God opens doors.

I've been to Israel a number of times, ministered in other countries as well. And I'm just thankful to be able to be used how the Lord wants to use us. Thanks again for having me on the show today. Well, you're certainly welcome. And it is definitely an honor to have you.

I thank you for joining us. And as you mentioned, you and I, we met years ago and we hit it off right away. We both have that heart for Israel.

We found that right off the bat. We have a heart for Israel. And so you're doing great things. And I'm just excited about what God has done, how he has used you and how he's continuing to use you for the kingdom. So we're here to talk about the Feast of Trumpets. So I want to begin by asking you the question, where do we find the Feast of Trumpets in the Bible?

Well, it's first mentioned in Leviticus 23, verse 24, actually. And it's one of seven different feasts. The Feast of Jehovah, the Feast of God. And they're actually called the Feast of Israel, but the term in the Bible is the Feast of Jehovah, which is, they're his feasts first. And he calls his people to observe these feasts. And they're in three seasons, spring, summer and fall. There's three in the spring, one in the summer and three in the fall. And the Feast of Trumpets is the first one of the fall feasts.

And so, as I mentioned, it's in Leviticus 23. All the feasts are listed there. And the unique thing about the Feast of Trumpets is that it's the only feast of the seven that doesn't have a defined starting time in terms of a particular day. And that's pretty significant.

We can talk about that if you want in a minute. But this year, the Feast of Tabernacles begins on sundown Friday, September 18th. And the most significant observance of the feast is the sounding of the shofar, the blowing of the trumpet. And there's a lot of meaning in that too, so you can touch on that if you want.

Yes, yes. And this feast, it definitely has a lot of intrigue behind it because, as you said, it's not a set thing. And we're going to talk about that again as far as there's not a definitive starting point as far as when the feast will start.

And so we're going to talk about that as well. Now, here in the Western world, we refer to it as the Feast of Trumpets. But if you're in Israel, you will hear Rosh Hashanah. So explain to us Rosh Hashanah, that term, and why it is referred to as Rosh Hashanah versus the Feast of Trumpets.

Right. Shoshana means year. And Rosh means head in Hebrew. So it's called the head of the year. And so it's the beginning of the year. And in Israel, it's the beginning of their civil year. But in the Bible, the beginning of the year is actually in the spring, associated actually with Passover, the first one of the feasts. And so the Jews actually celebrate two different New Years. One is the religious New Year and the other is the civil New Year. And so it's the civil New Year that begins on the Feast of Tabernacles or on the Day of Trumpets with the sounding of the shofar.

And so it's a little confusing, but if you just break it down kind of religious, civil, then you can understand. But it means the beginning of the year. And that's when their calendar starts in terms of the government and the present modern day Israel. So for us, you know, in our nation and in so many parts of the world, we're celebrating the New Year when the calendar rolls over from December 31st to January 1st.

But on the flip side with the nation of Israel, when it comes to this feast, for them, their celebration time of the New Year is at this Rosh Hashanah. Is that correct? Yes, exactly. That's right.

All right. So so that puts it in context for us. Now, you touched on it earlier about the blowing of the shofar, the blowing of the trumpets, and also as far as like what the feast, what starts the feast. So can you explain to us as far as you mentioned the dates when it's scheduled for this year, but how do the people who know in Israel or for that matter, for all who are participating in this feast, how do they know when the feast is actually supposed to begin? That's an interesting question, because as I mentioned at the beginning, this is the only one of the seven feasts that doesn't have a defined date to start. Like Passover, which is the first of the seven feasts, is actually the Bible says it's supposed to be on the, where it begins on the 14th day of Nisan, a biblical month named the Nisan. And so that's when that feast starts, the 14th of Nisan, a specific date. And then after the Passover spring feast, the next feast in the summer, Pentecost, we call it, or Feast of Weeks, or Shavuot in Hebrew, and that summer feast starts 50 days after Passover. So you can actually, in fact, count the days, literally count 50 days, and then it's time for Pentecost. But then when you come to the fall feast, the blowing of the trumpets in Rosh Hashanah does not have a specific date, but then after that, they then count again 10 days to the next feast, and then five more days to the Feast of Tabernacles, so those are all very defined.

So why isn't the one trumpet, why isn't that defined? And that's a very interesting concept, because what the Bible said, it is defined, actually, not as a particular date, but it's defined as when the high priest on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is able to see the new moon, so he looks up in the sky in the evening, like, for example, in this case, in September 18th, if you were doing it in the biblical way, you would be on the Temple Mount, you'd look up in the sky, and if you could see the new moon, you would give the signal, and they would blow the trumpets, the shofar. And if you couldn't see the moon, you wouldn't give the signal, you wouldn't sound the shofar. And it might be dark for several hours, maybe four, maybe nine o'clock, ten o'clock, eleven o'clock, and then you can see it, then you blow the shofar. If you don't see it that night at all, you wait until the next night. And if it was cloudy or something, the reason you couldn't see it. And on the next night, when you finally see it, then you'd get a signal, and you'd start sounding the trumpets.

So it was dependent on actually physically spotting the new moon rising. And so the obvious question is, why? What's that all about? But I believe in the application spiritually, it has a great meaning, which we can find in the Olivet Discourse, which is Matthew 24 and Luke 21 and Mark 13, where Jesus is giving His sermon on the Mount of Olives. And He talks about, they're asking Him, what will be the time of Your return? The disciples have finally started thinking in that Jesus is really going to be leaving. And they don't fully understand it yet, but they got the idea that He'd leave them.

So they say, well when are you coming back? And of course He gives a very lengthy definition of all the different things that will happen, earthquakes and estillences and a lot of different things that happen. All of those things actually happen in every generation, so it's not really very distinct.

But just all these kind of general things will happen. But then the one thing that He says, when He's answering that question, He says, no man knows the day or the hour. And some scholars, and I'm one of them, believe that that was actually not obscuring the answer to the question of when are you coming back, that He was actually answering it, because that expression, no man knows the day or the hour, was associated with the Peace of Trumpets, which they've been observing for hundreds and hundreds of years. The Peace of Trumpets starts, but no man knows the day or the hour.

You have to actually see the New Moon. So when He said that, I believe He was answering the question that He was coming back after the Peace of Trumpets. So every year when we get to this time of the year, I get a little excited. You know, I could be wrong, He could come any time of the year and we've got to be ready any time, but especially when we come into this fall season, it's time to be tuning in and saying, Lord are you coming this year? This is the time, you know, and kind of a neat way to look at it. And Jesus actually talking about, there's another thing I don't want to go on too long here, but if you want to, I can go into another part of that same sermon on the Mount of Olives about specific timing. Would you like to do that? Oh, feel free to continue, sure.

Okay. One of the things I've been teaching for a while is that in all the things Jesus describes there in Matthew 24 that are coming, most of them or all of them can be in any generation, but there's one particular part of it that He says, He actually prophesied the downfall of Jerusalem and the restoration of Jerusalem. He said Jerusalem will be trodden down to the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles is fulfilled. And then historically, He would have said that in about 30 AD or 35, somewhere in that range, and the temple was destroyed in 70 AD, so He actually said it was going to happen before it happened, and so the downfall was just shortly after Jesus ascended into heaven. In 70 AD, but then it was trampled down to the Gentiles like He said it would be. Jerusalem would be trampled down by the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles ruling Jerusalem was over.

We've also seen that now in history in our rear mirror. That occurred in 1967 when Jerusalem came back into the hands of the Jews in Israel for the first time since it was overtaken by the Romans in 70 AD and the temple was destroyed. So in that passage of the Olivet Discourse, that message from the Mount of Olives, the only time-specific thing we can find in there is the prophecy about the destruction of Jerusalem and then the restoration of Jerusalem. So that puts us in a timing of this generation that we're now living in. And later on in the same message, and you can find it in Luke 21, He says, this generation will not pass away until the coming of the Son of Man.

So that's pretty exciting. And it's in that same context in Matthew 24-36 where He says, no man knows the day or the hour. So I believe that was a clue the people on there stood that praise connected to the Feast of Trumpets that He would be coming to action. So I think He answered their question, when are you coming back? It would be in the generation that sees Jerusalem restored and it would be at the time of the sounding of the trumpet. It's pretty exciting if you get there.

It is. You have to be paying attention, as the Bible says, and Jesus said, you know, know the season, know the season, know the signs of His return. And so, yeah, it is definitely a fascinating, fascinating teaching. We're going to take a short break, but on the other side, we're going to come back and we will talk a bit more about the significance, why the Feast is important, and again, why we as Christians should be excited about this time of year. Don't go away. You are tuned into the God First podcast.

You can also sign up for our monthly newsletter and visit our web store. So please visit us at Godfirst.org. Now, let's return to the conclusion of today's message.

Welcome back to the God First podcast. My name is Brian Thomas, and I am joined today by guest Les Lawrence of Elijah Vision, a man who I consider to be an expert on this topic of the Feast of the Lord. And he is here today to teach us about the Feast of Trumpets.

And so we've just talked about the importance of it, Les, that our Lord in answering the question, what would be the sign of your coming in the end of the age? And He stated, no one knows the day of the hour. And as you mentioned, the Feast of Trumpets because of the fact that, well, you have to go out and see the moon, and if it's cloudy, you don't see it.

So around that area, it is known as the Feast of no one knows the day or the hour because you don't know exactly when it's going to start. So there are a lot of people out there that believe that Jesus again was given a clue as to when His second coming would be, when He would return to rapture the church. And I've heard people out there that will say this teaching can be dangerous because you're telling people to let their guard down at different times of year because, you know, we feel like, well, this is an indication that His rapture would occur at the Feast of Trumpets because when you look at the previous feast, our Lord at His first coming, He had fulfillments that took place on those exact feasts. And you correct me if I'm wrong, but there are people out there who will say, well, this is kind of a dangerous teaching.

So what do you say to those people? Yeah, that's a good question, and you are correct about that. And each of the feasts, the first four feasts have already been fulfilled by Jesus Himself. And the last three are the fall feasts, beginning with the Feast of Trumpets, which would be fulfilled when Jesus comes back. So He fulfills them all Himself.

But the danger of – I have two things to say about that, about is that a dangerous thing. First of all, you mentioned earlier before the break the times and seasons, and there's a scripture that says you are not ignorant of the times and seasons, and yet you don't know the day or the hour. Jesus said no man knows the day or the hour, not even He doesn't know, only the Father knows. So it's true that we don't know the day or the hour, but we can know the times and the seasons. So I think it's – so in the sense of, is that wrong to say it's in the season of the fall?

I don't think so. I think we can know the season. Now, to your second point, is that a dangerous thing to know, though, to say, oh, well, if you come in the fall, then I can live for the devil the other nine months, or the other 11 months. Well, if you're thinking that way, you're probably living for the devil anyway.

So I think that particular argument, it doesn't really hold water. The point is, as a believer, and as I said earlier, even though we might believe we've got it figured out, we could be wrong. He could come in April or whatever. So we need to be ready to go. In fact, as you look at the events around it, you've got one eye watching heaven anyway. Is it time, Lord? Which would be a good time, you know, sometimes, if you will.

Right, yeah. And I love the way you answered that question, because as true believers in Jesus Christ, when you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, you are not going to abuse God's grace. You're not going to wait until the fall and the Feast of Trumpets, if it comes and goes, and you say, okay, he didn't return, and like you say, live for the devil the rest of the next nine months. If you're a true believer in Christ, you're not going to do that.

That is not going to be your heart, because you're not going to grieve the Spirit. And then the other side of that also is that, well, we could die at any time. The Lord could call us from this earth at any point in time, and you don't want to be living for the devil if you just simply say, well, you know, he didn't return here at the Feast of Trumpets. So in February, I'll be living for the devil.

You could die in February. And so I like the way you responded to those critics. But if we look at the pattern, the pattern shows from the way our Lord had fulfillments at his first coming of the first four. If the pattern continues, though, his second coming, the rapture, and let's make a distinction about that as well, because we believe in the pre-tribulation rapture. We believe the rapture takes place before the tribulation. So when we're talking about a second coming, we do need to make that distinction that we're referring to the rapture coming at the Feast of Trumpets.

But then our Lord returning to the earth to establish his kingdom that happening at the end of the tribulation. So we're on the same page with that, right? Right. OK. All right. Because some people get get confused about that.

So let's want to make sure we have that clear. So, again, if we see that pattern continue, though, that then that would indicate that our Lord would rapture of his people at the Feast of Trumpets. And that is what gets me so excited, because as we look around, there are no signs that the Bible speaks of concerning the rapture. But there are signs concerning his second coming at the end of the tribulation, unless we're already seeing those signs take place. The beginning of those signs have already happened. So if we are seeing the signs for his second coming at the end of the tribulation, then we know, therefore, his rapture is that much nearer, right?

Amen. One of the best verses is First Corinthians 15 52 says, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. And the last trumpet actually is another reference to the Feast of Trumpets. When the trumpets blow, when they actually found the trumpets in Jerusalem on the Feast of Trumpets, we'll be doing that on September 18th at sundown. When they found the trumpet, they actually did a series of blasts, and there's a certain order to them, long blast, short blast, spicatto blast, but then the last one in the whole series is one long blast of the trumpet, the shofar. And so when the Apostle Paul was writing to the Corinthians, he was referring, he was making a reference to that, again, to the blowing of the trumpets, and suggesting that Jesus comes back at the sound of the last trumpet.

The last trumpet is the one when he actually appears. And you know, I was thinking everything pretty literally, but I've always believed that if you can take scripture literally, you should. And then of course there's another verse in 1 Thessalonians 4 16 that also refers to the trumpet being blown. So it is associated with the return of the Lord. In fact, one other thing I should mention is that one of the meanings of the blowing of the trumpet in the Bible is as a warning. And part of the meaning of the piece of trumpets in Rosh Hashanah, in the way the Jews observe it, is it's a day of repentance.

It's a day of humbling ourselves before God, which as Christians we understand, what you just described, of repenting and being before the Lord, being ready to meet him. And so the trumpet is as a warning. In the Bible, throughout the Bible, the trumpet was used to call the people to Mount Sinai for the thin commandments. It was used in Jericho to blow the trumpet from Jericho's wall spell.

Gideon used it in the defeating of the Midianite. David had the trumpet sounded when they brought the Ark of the Covenant back into Jerusalem. Joel too says, blow the trumpet in Zion. So trumpets are very important and they're used for warning, they're used for call to worship, they're used to go into battle.

So there's a lot of different aspects of it and it's no surprise that it's a key sound in the Second Coming, in the rapture and the catching up, and of course at every great event you'll see these trumpets sounding. So it really is exciting and we realize that there's another verse I want to mention in Isaiah 27, 13 that talks about God will gather his people together. There's a regathering of his people, which we've seen again historically.

They were scattered to the whole earth. I like to say that from the time of Jesus until 1948 the Jews never won a war, but from 1948 to the present they've never lost a war. What changed is God turned the page from the judgment of the Jews to now a time of restoration where he's regathered them. And this regathering, which is part of the meaning of the false deed, this regathering is also for Christians the picture of us being caught up to meet the Lord in the air and being with him forever and gathered unto him.

So this gathering works both ways. There's also one who believes that in the last days the Jews are going to turn to Jesus and recognize he is the Messiah. We're actually seeing that with a lot of Jewish people that are now recognizing that Jesus, Yeshua, is the Messiah of Israel. What an exciting time for Christians. These are the glorious days just preceding that great trumpet sound when Jesus calls us to gather with him. He calls us up to meet him in the rapture. Like you say, the word rapture doesn't occur in the Bible, but this catching up, this gathering is in the Bible, and that's what's the next big thing coming on the calendar.

Yes, it is exciting times. And that is why there are so many out there who are, as Christians, anticipating something major happening. And somebody may say, well, major things are already happening because we're seeing this pestilence in the land with with coronavirus COVID-19. We see this spirit of lawlessness that the Bible foretold that would come upon the earth.

And we see this wicked Black Lives Matter organization that is just anti-Christian. And it is just there are people who are being just falling for the delusion of it. And we see these things happening and people are saying something must be about to take place. And a lot of people are anticipating the rapture and we should be looking for his coming. And before we close, I just want to make it clear to our listeners that we are not making predictions here.

We're not date setters. We're not saying that the rapture is going to happen this year. We're not saying next year. We don't know exactly when. But again, as you stated, Les, the Lord says we will know the seasons. We should know the season. We should be able to pinpoint around the season as to when it would return.

But we do not know the exact day or the hour. So, Les, this is always a fascinating teaching. I could sit and listen to you for hours and hours on end. I want to thank you for coming on and for our listeners that want to find out more about your ministry, get more of your teachings, your books.

How can they get in contact with you? Well, thank you. It's been an honor to be with you, Brian. I do write a blog post once or twice a week, and I do a YouTube video every once a week. And my information can be found at ElishaVision.com. That's the second prophet, not Elijah, but Elisha.

The one with the S. ElishaVision.com. And that would be the way to get in touch with anything, all of what I'm doing. All right. All right. Well, again, Les, thank you so much for joining us today, sharing this great teaching. It is exciting times, people, that we are living in. To our listeners, don't be troubled by what is happening in the earth. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, we have so many great things to look forward to. Our Lord is coming again for us soon. And for those out there, if you've never trusted him as your Lord and Savior, I encourage you to do so today so that you, too, can have eternal life. So as we eagerly await our Lord's return, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel. And to the only wise God, be glory through Jesus Christ forever.

Amen. You've been listening to the Bible teacher, Brian C. Thomas, founder and president of God First. Brian and God first reserve all copyright protection under applicable law. Our copyright policy is available at our Web site, God first dot org. Until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the kingdom of God.