The first four feasts came close together at the beginning of the year; this is clear from Leviticus 23. Then came the time of reaping until the last sheaf was cut (Pentecost), though there was still good grain left standing in the corners of the fields. We will now seek with God’s help to look at the last three feasts. These all come very close together in the seventh month.
The same Lord who is now glorified in heaven as the Head of the church will also reign on earth as King of Israel and Lord of all creation. He will be honored in the heavens above and in the earth below, and all will unite to own Jesus of Nazareth, “Lord of all.” For these reasons, we suggest that the remaining feasts have perhaps a double meaning. Their primary meaning is, no doubt, a telling forth of the events coming on this earth, but it would seem that the remaining feasts also have a secondary application that might foretell events connected with the church in heaven, for we must never forget that Israel’s portion is the earth, but the church’s portion is always in the heavens.
The Last Series of Feasts
The Feast of Trumpets begins the last series of “Jehovah’s set feasts.” In Numbers 10:22Make thee two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shalt thou make them: that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps. (Numbers 10:2), God commanded Moses to make two silver trumpets. This feast was a special time of blowing these trumpets. It was called, “A memorial of blowing of trumpets” (Lev. 23:2424Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. (Leviticus 23:24)). Does this not tell us of that great trumpet that is to be blown in a coming day? Then “He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matt. 24:3131And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:31)).
We read in Isaiah 18:3-73All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. 4For so the Lord said unto me, I will take my rest, and I will consider in my dwelling place like a clear heat upon herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. 5For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches. 6They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them. 7In that time shall the present be brought unto the Lord of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the mount Zion. (Isaiah 18:3‑7) JND, “All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, when a banner is lifted up on the mountains, see ye, and when a trumpet is blown, hear ye! ... In that time shall a present be brought unto Jehovah of hosts of a people scattered and ravaged .... to the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, the Mount Zion.” There are many more passages that show us that the Feast of Trumpets foretells that trumpet blast that will call Israel back to their own land.
The Feast of Trumpets
But in the Feast of Trumpets, is it not God who blows the trumpet Himself? If God in His grace speaks of remembering again His people, is it not truly God that blows the trumpet to call His people to remember Him? Israel forgot their God and forsook Him, and now it appears as though God had forgotten and forsaken and cast away His people. But it is in appearance only. Paul asks, “Hath God cast away His people?” And the reply is clear and decisive: “God hath not cast away His people which He foreknew” (Rom. 11:1-21I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, (Romans 11:1‑2)). The day is near when the trumpet will be blown that shows God again remembers Israel and His covenant with them. Poor Israel, how little do they know of rest and joy now, with all the turmoil in their land! But even though we know Israel must first pass through the most terrible judgments, yet their rest and joy is soon to come. May it not be possible that the first notes of that silver trumpet, or their echo from above, are beginning to fall on the ears of Israel?
The Trumpet Call From Heaven
But if even the echo of the notes from afar are beginning to sound, telling us that the silver trumpet is “about to sound,” let us rejoice and lift up our heads and listen the more longingly for the note of another trumpet that would seem to be one short, sharp peal: “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump” (1 Cor. 15:5252In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:52)).
No, it is not the trumpet that calls Israel back to their land that we, the church, are looking for, but for the Lord Jesus Himself, for “the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:16-1716For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16‑17)). And again, “Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor. 15:51-5251Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:51‑52)).
What a day of joy and gladness and rest will this be for the church! Then we will be forever with the Lord. We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Then, no longer through a glass darkly, but face to face! And the loved ones who have gone before will be raised first, and we shall be together again to go no more out!
The Trumpet After the Harvest
At the Feast of Trumpets the Lord specially warns against any “servile work” on that day. How different to the teaching of some that it is only by our own efforts in watching and overcoming that we can even hope to see that day or hear that trump! Such teachers little know the value of the redemption told out in those notes of the silver trumpet, nor do they know the worthlessness of their own servile work in making themselves fit for that day. No, it is not the fear of being left behind at that day that God sets before us a motive to keep clean down here, but the blessed hope of seeing Him and being like Him. “Every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure” (1 John 3:33And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. (1 John 3:3)).
The Feast of Trumpets follows the harvest described in Leviticus 23:2222And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 23:22). We believe that the harvest typifies the coming of the Lord for His church, but the silver trumpets of this feast cannot but call to our mind the trumpet that calls the church to be forever with the Lord, and they are evidently intimately connected with it. The Feast of Trumpets came on the first day of the month; that is the time the moon is blackest and smallest. The morning star appears just before dawn, when the night is the darkest. So, brethren, as we see the professing church getting worse, as we see it growing darker and colder and more and more like the world, let us look up and watch more earnestly for the Morning Star and listen more intently for the sound of the trumpet.
The Lord always makes it clear that His coming is imminent. “Yet a very little while and He that comes will come, and will not delay” (Heb. 10:3737For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. (Hebrews 10:37) JND). May we ever, daily and hourly, be expecting Him, and our hearts ever be crying, “Amen, even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
G. C. Willis (adapted)