A Lesson about Rosh Hashanah
Feast of Trumpets is celebrated each year at the sighting of the new moon on the first and second day of the month of Tishrei. Tishrei is the first month of the Biblical civil calendar. God starts a new calendar in Exodus chapter twelve. We refer to this new Biblical calendar as the Religious Calendar as it is the calendar that GOD appoints his feasts by. God changes the first month of the biblical calendar to the seventh month on the religious calendar. Now the religious calendar begins with the seventh month of the civil calendar calling it the first month. (see our chart the biblical calendar for clarification)
The ancient Biblical year was comprised of twelve 30 day months, with each month starting on the new moon. Tishrei is understood to be the month that time began in the six days of Biblical creation , with the formation of Adam, the first man who was a living soul being on Tishrei six.
Rosh Hashanah in Hebrew literally means “the head of the year” or “new years, first of the year”. This Holy Day is instituted in the book of Leviticus.
Leviticus 23:24-25
Speak 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. Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.
Having an understanding of the above allows you to comprehend that in the time pattern GOD gives to man, Rosh HaShanah is seen as the first day of creation, and Tishrei the first month of life on earth. With the biblical Time pattern of six one–thousand year long days for man to labor, (2 Peter 3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.)followed by the seventh day of rest called the millennium or one –thousand years of Christ’s reign on earth. It is understood that after 6000 years from the day GOD had earth time begin ( Tishrei 1st, or Rosh Hashanah on year one, or 4000 years B.C.) that the last trump will sound ushering in the seventh day, being the final 1000 years of time as man understands time. Another one of the many names for the Feast of Trumpets is “Day of the Awaking Blast” for it is on this day that those who have prepared themselves shall arise from the dead to go into heaven and crown their Messiah who later returns to earth to set up his rule or government. After this coronation ceremony of the “King of Kings” in heaven, he will marry his bride.The bride are the believers that will leave earth at the last trump, (Feast of Trumpets) those who sleep in the earth as well as those who are alive. The length of the coronation service, the wedding and the groom giving gifts to his bride are to last seven years in heaven. During this seven year period those left on earth will find themselves left in the Days of Awe, or Jacobs’s time of trouble, Christians call this seven year period the tribulation.
Before we go any further we need to gain understanding of the new moon. GOD gave his people the sun, stars and moon as a sign. In Hebrew this word sign means: a signal, a flare, a beacon. Thru these signs and the seasons he could communicate a message that man would not have the power to eradicate. Man could change calendars, Holy days, and GOD’S teaching, but man could not change the signs in heaven.
As we study the moon, which are the bases for the calendar GOD gave to man we shall comprehend three more of the titles for the Feast of Trumpets. These three titles are; Day of Concealment, the Hidden Feast, and the Day and the Hour No Man Knows. In ancient times the day of the new moon, called Rosh khodesh, was established by the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. Two reliable witnesses must come to give witness of their sighting of the new moon. After being questioned by the Sanhedrin, if the evidence was accepted the Sanhedrin would announce the new month and thus the days of the month for each feast could be calculated. The new moon was the time people would approach the prophets. The feast of each new moon will be reestablished in the World to Come. Since the Feast of Passover began on Nisan 14th, once the first day of the month was established, the day Passover fell on could be calculated. This was the same for all the Feasts of the Lord but one. The Feast of Trumpets fell on the very first day of the month, at the sighting of the new moon,because of this it was called the day and the hour that no man knows, as at least two witnesses had to appear before the Sanhedrin, and then the Sanhedrin would announce “the new month is upon us”.
Signal fires were lit from one mountain top to another that all in Israel would know the time had come they had been watching for. GOD has always trained his people to watch the signs, or signals. May your name be inscribed in the Book of Life!!!!
LIST OF TODAYS LESSON SCRIPTURES
Colossians 2:16-17
16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
Genesis 1:14
14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
Exodus 12:1-3
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,
2 This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:
Genesis 8:22
22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Psalm 89:37
37 It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.
Psalm 104:19
19 He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down.
Numbers 10:10
10 Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the LORD your God.
Psalm 81:3
3 Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.
Isaiah 66:22-24
22 For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.
23 And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.
24 And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.
1 Chronicles 23:31
31 And to offer all burnt sacrifices unto the LORD in the sabbaths, in the new moons, and on the set feasts, by number, according to the order commanded unto them, continually before the LORD:
2 Chronicles 31:3
He appointed also the king’s portion of his substance for the burnt offerings, to wit, for the morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for the sabbaths, and for the new moons, and for the set feasts, as it is written in the law of the LORD.
Ezra 3:5
5 And afterward offered the continual burnt offering, both of the new moons, and of all the set feasts of the LORD that were consecrated, and of every one that willingly offered a freewill offering unto the LORD.
2 Kings 4:23
23 And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go to him to day? it is neither new moon, nor sabbath. And she said, It shall be well.
Ezekiel 26:1
1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Ezekiel 29:17
17 And it came to pass in the seven and twentieth year, in the first month, in the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Ezekiel 31:1
1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Joel 2:10
10 The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:
Acts 2:20
20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord comes.
Matthew 24:3
3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
Matthew 24:29-39
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 And 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.
1 Thessalonians 4:15-18
15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
16 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:
17 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.
18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-4
1 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.