The Final Day

Today is the twenty-ninth day of Elul. When the sun sets, Elul will be ushered out and come to an end. At that time, the seventh month of Tishri will begin. It will be “Yom Teruah”, or the Day of the Great Shout”. It is also known as “Rosh Hoshana” to those who adhere to the Jewish Civil Calendar, and it is celebrated as the beginning of a new year.

As well, the Feast of Trumpets will begin. Leviticus 23:24, Leviticus 25:29, Numbers 29:1, II Chronicles 5:3, Ezra 3:6, Nehemiah 7:73, and Nehemiah 8:12 mention the first day of the seventh month or allude to it if you read what is being said.

It is a time of sounding trumpets. Orthodox Judaism maintains that this is a remembrance of when God called Moses and the nation of Israel to Mt. Sanai with a voice like a ram’s horn shofar. I suggest to you that it is a time of remembrance of a promise in the future.

Revelation, Chapters 8 through 11, depicts the seventh seal being broken and seven angels were given seven trumpets. Those angels sounded the trumpets and judgments fell upon the earth. When the seventh angel sounded the seventh trumpet there were loud voices (shouts) in heaven saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.”

I Thessalonians 4:16 (NASB95):  “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.”

Whether anyone likes it or not, it’s all coming down to the sound of a trumpet!

Here’s what I find interesting. In our English Bibles the Old Testament is arranged in the order of: (1) The Pentetuch, The Law, The five Books of Moses, or the Torah. (2) The Historical Books. (3) The Books of Poetry. (4) The Major Prophets. And (5) The Minor Prophets. In Jewish Bibles the Old Testament or Tanach is divided into and arrangement of three categories. (1) The Torah. (2) The Prophets. And (3) The Writings. Imagine my amazement when I discovered that the Book of Joshua was included in the “Prophets” and the Book of Daniel was included in the “Writings”. The Tanach was firmly established long before the New Testament. So, why in the English Bibles have the Books been re-arranged? Because it made more sense to the gentile Greek mindset? Because it was considered to be a “Jewish” practice or tradition? Was it for anti-semitic reasons? I don’t know. I wish I had an answer.

 

When I began to look at the sixth chapter of Joshua and chapters eight through eleven in Revelation, I began to see similarities. In fact, I began to see similarities that were striking in nature. Comparing Joshua to Revelation I found the following:

1. In Joshua and Revelation I saw the recurring number of seven. That was easy enough. Seven days of marching in Joshua and seven seals in Revelation.
2. The seventh seal in Revelation reveals seven angels with seven trumpets. In Joshua there are seven priests with seven trumpets.
3. In Revelation the seven angels sound their trumpets independently while in Joshua the priests sounded their trumpets all together.
4. In Joshua the priests sounded the trumpets consecutively for seven days, marching around Jericho one time for six days and seven times on the seventh day. The angels presented seven individual soundings, culminating with the angel sounding the seventh trumpet.
5. In Joshua, on the seventh day on the seventh march around Jericho, seven priests sounded seven trumpets and there was a great earthly shout. In Revelation, when the seventh angel sounded, there were great heavenly shouts.
6. In Joshua, the city state kingdom of Jericho felt the judgment of God when the seven trumpets sounded with the shout. The kingdom changed hands. In Revelation, when the seventh angel sounded the seventh trumpet, the kingdom of the earth became the kingdom of the LORD and His anointed to be ruled forever.
7. In Joshua, the nation of Israel went from hearing about the promised land, from walking in the promise of the promised land to actually seeing and inhabiting the promised land. In Revelation, we will go from wandering this earth knowing that there is an inheritance in a kingdom to actually inhabiting THE kingdom!

There are many more similarities and I simply do not have time to go into them all within the confines of a short article or post. Could Jericho be a prophetic picture of the end of time? Perhaps.

But the Feast of Trumpets will be fulfilled within the contexts of Revelations Chapters 8 through 11 and I Thessalonians 4:16. That’s the season that we are in now. The Day of the Great shout? Yom Teruah? I’m thinking that it will be when Christ returns with the voice of the archangel, a shout, and the trumpet of God. Am I saying that’s going to happen in the next 24 hours? No. I believe that it will happen in this season, during this time of the year at some time.

Some say the Feast of Trumpets is for the Jews. I pray diligently that it is not so! There are too many promises that will manifest when that final trumpet sounds! Am I sounding the trumpets today! You’d better believe that I am. Do I need to remind God of anything? No, I don’t think so. However, I don’t mind letting God know that I love Him enough to know what His word says.

I am The Old Watchman, Ezekiel. Blessed be your Yom Teruah. Happy Rosh Hoshana! I must go now. I have duties to attend to.

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