The Sound of Victory: The Feast of Trumpets Text: Leviticus 23:23-25
Introduction: Calendars that Conquer
Every calendar tells a story. Every culture marks its time by what it considers most important. The secular world has its calendar, a story that begins with the arbitrary point of January 1st and is punctuated by days celebrating military victories, civil rights leaders, and the vague concept of labor. It is a story about man, by man, and for man. It is a flat, horizontal story, and it is ultimately a story that goes nowhere.
But God has a calendar, and His calendar tells the story. It is the story of redemption, the story of how He is reclaiming His world. In Leviticus 23, God lays out His festival calendar for Israel, and it is not a random collection of holidays. It is a liturgical re-enactment of the gospel, year after year. The feasts are not quaint suggestions; they are holy convocations, commanded assemblies. They were shadows, types, and prophecies pointing to the substance, which is Christ. Passover pointed to His crucifixion. Firstfruits pointed to His resurrection. Pentecost pointed to the out-pouring of His Spirit. And here, in the seventh month, we come to the Feast of Trumpets.
We live in a time when the church is timid. We have forgotten that our faith is a public proclamation, a declaration of war against the spiritual darkness. We have traded the blast of the trumpet for the apologetic cough. We think our job is to be reasonable, respectable, and, above all, quiet. But the Feast of Trumpets is a loud feast. It is a disruptive feast. It is a declaration that a new reality has broken into the world. It is a memorial, a remembrance of what God has done, and it is a summons, a call to assemble for what He is about to do. This feast teaches us that the gospel is not something to be whispered in a corner. It is a trumpet blast, announcing the coronation of the true King and the coming downfall of every Jericho that stands against Him.
The Text
Again Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a memorial by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall not do any laborious work, but you shall bring an offering by fire near to Yahweh.’"
(Leviticus 23:23-25 LSB)
The Divine Summons (v. 23-24)
We begin with the Lord's direct command to Moses.
"Again Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a memorial by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.'" (Leviticus 23:23-24)
Notice the authority. This is not a suggestion from a committee on worship. "Yahweh spoke." This is the foundation of all true worship. It is not something we invent; it is something we receive by revelation. God tells us how He is to be approached, and our job is to obey with gladness.
The timing is significant. This feast occurs on the first day of the seventh month. The number seven in Scripture consistently represents completion, perfection, and covenant fulfillment. This feast, along with the Day of Atonement on the tenth and the Feast of Tabernacles on the fifteenth, marks the culmination of the liturgical year. Something is being brought to a head. The first cluster of feasts in the spring dealt with the foundation of redemption, the work of Christ in His death and resurrection. This fall cluster of feasts deals with the application and consummation of that redemption in the life of God's people and the world.
Three things are commanded here: a rest, a memorial by blowing of trumpets, and a holy convocation. First, it is a Sabbath rest. The word is shabbathon, a solemn rest. God's people are to cease from their ordinary labor. This is crucial. We cannot hear the trumpet of God if we are deafened by the noise of our own frantic activity. Rest is an act of faith. It is a declaration that God is the one who builds the house, not us. We cease our work to acknowledge His work.
Second, it is "a memorial by blowing of trumpets." The word for memorial is zikron, which means a reminder. But who is being reminded? It works in two directions. The people are reminded of God's mighty acts in the past, His power and His covenant faithfulness. But it is also a reminder directed toward God. Not that He forgets, but in the language of the covenant, the sound of the trumpets ascends before Him, calling upon Him to remember His promises and act on behalf of His people. It is a covenantal alarm clock.
And what is the instrument? The trumpet, the shofar. In Scripture, trumpets are used for several things. They are used to gather the assembly for worship or for travel (Num. 10:2). They are used to sound an alarm in the face of impending war or judgment (Joel 2:1). And they are used to announce the coronation of a king (1 Kings 1:39). The Feast of Trumpets rolls all of these into one. It is a summons to God's people to assemble. It is a warning to God's enemies that judgment is coming. And it is a proclamation that Yahweh is King. In the New Covenant, this is what the preaching of the gospel is. It is a trumpet blast that gathers the elect, warns the rebellious, and declares that Jesus is Lord. Every faithful sermon is a fulfillment of the Feast of Trumpets.
Rest, Worship, and Atonement (v. 25)
The final verse outlines the practical requirements of the day.
"You shall not do any laborious work, but you shall bring an offering by fire near to Yahweh." (Leviticus 23:25 LSB)
The prohibition against laborious work is repeated for emphasis. This is not a day for personal projects or worldly advancement. It is a day set apart, a holy day. The central activity, besides the trumpet blasts and the assembly, is sacrifice. They were to bring "an offering by fire near to Yahweh."
This is where the shadow meets the substance in the brightest light. We no longer bring animal sacrifices, not because God lowered His standards, but because the perfect sacrifice has been offered once for all. The "offering by fire" speaks of consumption, of judgment, of the wrath of God against sin. All those animal sacrifices were types, pointing forward to the day when Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, would become our offering by fire. On the cross, He absorbed the full, fiery wrath of God that we deserved.
Therefore, our rest is not simply a cessation from pushing a plow. Our rest is in the finished work of Christ. We cease from the laborious and futile work of trying to justify ourselves. We stop trying to build our own towers of Babel to reach heaven. We rest in His righteousness. Our "holy convocation" is the gathering of the church, the assembly of the saints on the Lord's Day. And our "offering by fire" is the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving that we bring, which is only acceptable because it comes to the Father through the merit of the Son. We are the offering, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our reasonable service (Rom. 12:1).
The Feast of Trumpets was a preparation. It loudly announced that the Day of Atonement was coming just nine days later. The trumpet blast was a call to prepare, to examine oneself, to get ready for that great day of national cleansing. In the same way, the gospel proclamation today is a call to repentance. It announces that a final Day of Atonement, a day of judgment, is coming. The trumpets are sounding now, in the preaching of the Word, calling all men everywhere to repent and believe before the great and final trumpet sounds and the King returns in judgment.
The Gospel Trumpet
So what does this ancient feast mean for us? It means everything. We are living in the age of the fulfillment of the Feast of Trumpets. The first coming of Christ was the initial, decisive trumpet blast. His life, death, and resurrection were the declaration that God's kingdom had invaded enemy-occupied territory.
Now, the church has been given the commission to keep blowing the trumpets. The Great Commission is a command to make a joyful, global noise. We are to proclaim the kingship of Jesus Christ to every nation, tribe, and tongue. This proclamation is a declaration of war on the kingdom of darkness. It is the noise that makes the walls of Jericho fall down flat. When we preach the gospel, when we sing the psalms of victory, when we baptize our children in the name of the Triune God, we are blowing the trumpets.
This is not a timid suggestion. It is a conquering sound. It is the sound that Adonijah and his cronies heard from a distance as Solomon was being anointed king, and it made them tremble (1 Kings 1:41). Our worship services should be so robust, so joyful, so confident in the victory of our King that the city rings again with the sound. The world should hear our singing and wonder what is happening. They should hear our proclamation and know that their flimsy kingdoms are on borrowed time.
The Feast of Trumpets is a memorial. We look back to the cross and resurrection, the decisive victory. It is a holy convocation. We gather together every Lord's Day as the people of the King. And it is a prophetic blast. We look forward to the final trumpet call, when the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first (1 Thess. 4:16). On that day, the memorial will be complete, the assembly will be gathered, and the King will reign, visibly and forever. Until that day, our task is simple. Take up the trumpet and blow.