Listen for the Trumpets

In this week’s Torah Portion, we step away from the regular weekly cycle to celebrate Rosh Hashanah רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה, the Jewish New Year. The traditional Torah reading for the first day is Genesis 21:1–34, beginning with the miraculous birth of Isaac—the promised son born to Abraham and Sarah after years of waiting.

There is something fitting about beginning a new year with the fulfillment of a promise.

Sarah had waited. Abraham had waited. Years passed. Circumstances seemed increasingly impossible. Yet God had not forgotten what He promised.

“The Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as He had promised.” (Genesis 21:1)

I love the simplicity of that statement. God did what He said He would do. Not necessarily when Abraham expected it. Not necessarily when Sarah expected it. But at the appointed time. That idea of waiting for the fulfillment of a promise becomes even more interesting when we consider the biblical festival being celebrated.

Although today it is commonly known as Rosh Hashanah, or the Jewish New Year, Leviticus 23 describes this appointed time differently:

“On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of sabbath rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts.” (Leviticus 23:24)

This day is commonly called Yom Teruah יוֹם תְּרוּעָה—the Day of Blowing, Shouting, or Trumpet Blasts. Notice something interesting. Biblically, this is actually the first day of the seventh month, not the first month. The biblical religious calendar begins with Nisan around Passover. Yet through Jewish tradition, the first of Tishrei eventually became associated with the civil New Year and became known as Rosh Hashanah—literally, “Head of the Year.”

But I want to focus on something deeper than the calendar. I want to focus on the trumpet. Because when I read about Yom Teruah, I cannot help but think about another event Scripture tells us will be announced with the sound of a trumpet:

The return of the Messiah.

Paul writes:

“For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God...” (1 Thessalonians 4:16)

Once we make that connection, several other biblical images begin to come together. One of the most beautiful is the image of a wedding. Jesus repeatedly uses wedding imagery when teaching about His Kingdom and His return. In the ancient Jewish wedding imagery often used to illuminate these passages, the bridegroom and bride were betrothed, and the bridegroom would depart to his father's house before the final wedding celebration. During that period, preparations were made for their future life together.

The bride knew her groom was coming. What she did not know was exactly when he would appear. So she had to remain ready. Does that sound familiar?

Jesus tells His disciples:

“In my Father's house there are many dwellings... And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me...” (John 14:3)

The Bridegroom leaves. He prepares a place. And He promises to return. The question is not whether He is coming. The question is whether His bride, His people will be ready when He does.

Jesus illustrates this beautifully in the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25. Ten virgins are waiting for the bridegroom. All ten know he is coming. All ten have lamps. All ten are waiting. And interestingly, all ten fall asleep.

That detail matters to me. The difference between the wise and foolish virgins is not that five remained awake all night while the others slept. Scripture specifically says:

“The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.” (Matthew 25:5)

All of them fell asleep. So what separated the wise from the foolish? Preparation. Five brought additional oil. Five did not. Then suddenly, in the middle of the night, the announcement came:

“At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’” (Matthew 25:6)

Suddenly everyone wakes up. Everyone hears the announcement. Everyone realizes the bridegroom has arrived. But now it is too late to prepare. The five wise virgins trim their lamps and are ready. The five foolish virgins discover that their lamps are going out. They ask the others for oil, but preparation cannot be borrowed. Faith cannot be borrowed. Character cannot be borrowed. A relationship with God cannot be borrowed. Righteousness cannot be borrowed.

You cannot spend your entire life spiritually unprepared and assume that someone else's faith will carry you when the Bridegroom arrives. The five wise virgins enter the wedding feast. The door closes. When the others return, it is too late.

Jesus concludes the parable with these words:

“Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’ Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.” (Matthew 25:11-13)

That statement has an interesting symbolic connection with Yom Teruah. Yom Teruah occurs at the beginning of the Hebrew month of Tishrei, around the appearance of the new moon. In later Jewish calendrical practice, Rosh Hashanah came to be observed over two days. Some modern teachers draw a prophetic parallel between this festival and Jesus' statement that no one knows “the day or the hour.” They connect the imagery of watching for the new moon, the sounding of the shofar, and the uncertainty of the Bridegroom's arrival.

We should be careful not to claim more than Scripture itself says. However, we have other evidence that all of the Messiah's acts on earth is connected to the feasts. His first coming fulfilled all of the spring feasts on precisely the extact days. Therefore we can assume that the appointed times known as the fall feasts will also be fulfilled accurately. The feast of trumpts is directly connected to the Messiah's return. This is what Jesus meant that “no one knows the day or hour, but we know the season” (paraphrased from Matthew 24.)

You may not know the exact moment, but you know what you are waiting for and at which feast. And this brings us to something Jesus said about His return that I believe is often misunderstood.

Jesus told His disciples that no one knows the day or the hour. But He did not tell them to remain ignorant of everything happening around them. Quite the opposite. In Matthew 24, He gives them signs. He speaks about wars and rumors of wars. Famines. Earthquakes. Persecution. False prophets. Lawlessness increasing. Love growing cold. And the Gospel of the Kingdom being proclaimed throughout the world. Then He gives the illustration of a fig tree:

“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near.” (Matthew 24:32)

Think about that. You may not know the exact day summer begins simply by looking at a tree. But you can recognize the season. You can look at what is happening around you and say:

It is getting close.

That is the balance I believe Scripture gives us. We are not supposed to calculate a date and announce exactly when Christ will return. Jesus explicitly warns us that we do not know the day or hour. But neither are we supposed to live as though He will never return. We watch. We prepare. We recognize the season. And we keep oil in our lamps.

This becomes even more fascinating when we consider another biblical passage concerning God's relationship with time. Peter writes:

“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” (2 Peter 3:8)

This passage is not giving us a mathematical formula for calculating the date of Christ's return. In context, Peter is explaining why God's apparent delay should not be confused with God forgetting His promise. But the imagery is fascinating. Approximately two thousand years have passed since the time of Christ. Two millennia. And if a thousand years are “like a day” before God, then symbolically we have been waiting for approximately two prophetic “days.”

Again, I am not setting a date. I am not saying Scripture promises that Jesus must return exactly two thousand years after His departure. Jesus told us not to do that. But I cannot ignore the picture. For almost two thousand years, the Bride has been waiting for the Bridegroom. Generation after generation has passed. Kingdoms have risen and fallen. Wars have been fought. Nations have disappeared. Entire civilizations have changed. And still the promise remains:

“I will come back.”

Most of the church, His bride, His virgins, have fallen asleep and no longer anticipate His return with eagerness. Still, some are prepared and others are not.

I propose we should read those words the same way Abraham and Sarah should have remembered God's promise concerning Isaac. God did not forget. The passage we read during Rosh Hashanah begins with a promise that seemed delayed but was eventually fulfilled.

“The Lord did to Sarah as He had promised.”

That should encourage us. Because sometimes waiting makes us doubt. The longer we wait, the easier it becomes to believe something will never happen. Peter actually warns that this mentality would characterize the last days:

“They will say, ‘Where is this “coming” He promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.’” (2 Peter 3:4)

In other words:

We have been waiting too long. Maybe He isn't coming. But delay does not mean cancellation. Ask Sarah. Ask Abraham. God fulfilled His promise at the appointed time. And I believe He will fulfill this one as well.

The question for us is not:

“When exactly will Jesus return?”

Perhaps the better question is:

If He returned this week, would I be ready? Do I have oil in my lamp? Am I living like someone expecting the Bridegroom? Or have I become so comfortable in this world that His arrival would interrupt the life I actually want to live?

Those are uncomfortable questions. They are uncomfortable for me too. Because being ready means more than simply saying, “I believe in Jesus.” The ten virgins were all waiting for the bridegroom. Being ready requires preparation. It requires faith. It requires repentance. It requires living with purpose. It requires understanding that this world is temporary and that our choices here have eternal consequences.

And perhaps this is why Yom Teruah should ultimately be a reason for joy rather than fear. The trumpet is not bad news for the Bride who is waiting for the Bridegroom. It is the sound she has been waiting to hear. Imagine waiting years for someone you love. Then suddenly you hear:

“He is here!”

Would you be terrified? Or would you run toward him? For those who belong to Christ, the return of Messiah is not supposed to be a story of despair. It is our hope. And that becomes increasingly important as we look at the world around us. It doesn't take much effort to see chaos. Wars and rumors of wars. Political instability. Violence. Moral confusion. Lawlessness. Hatred. Families being destroyed. People becoming increasingly divided. Technology advancing faster than our wisdom to control it. A world that often seems to become more unstable rather than more peaceful.

I am not suggesting that every headline fulfills a specific prophecy or that every war means Christ must return tomorrow. Christians throughout history have lived through terrible wars, plagues, persecution, and social upheaval and believed they were witnessing the end.

We need humility.

But Jesus did tell us to watch. And as the world increasingly resembles many of the conditions He described in Matthew 24, I don't believe our response should be panic. It should be preparation. The darker the world becomes, the more important it becomes to keep oil in our lamps. The more chaotic the world becomes, the more we should remember the promise. The Bridegroom is coming. And when He comes, He does not merely come to rescue His people from chaos. He comes as King.

Scripture points toward the establishment of His Kingdom, the restoration of creation, justice, righteousness, and the rule of Messiah. That is something worth celebrating.

So as we celebrate Rosh Hashanah and remember Yom Teruah—the Day of Trumpets—perhaps we should listen beyond the sound of the shofar. Perhaps every blast should remind us of another trumpet we are waiting to hear. A trumpet that will announce:

The Bridegroom has arrived. The King is returning. The waiting is over.

Until then, our responsibility is simple. Watch. Prepare. Keep oil in your lamp. Live righteously. Love God. Love others. Share the Gospel. Do the work He has given you to do. And don't allow the apparent delay of His return to convince you that He has forgotten His promise.

Sarah waited. Abraham waited. Israel waited. And the promise came. We are waiting too. We do not know the day. We do not know the hour. But we know the Bridegroom promised to return. And after approximately two thousand years of waiting, we are certainly closer to that moment than any generation before us. And the season is also here. Perhaps this is the year He will return to us and fulfill His promise.

That should not fill us with fear. It should fill us with hope. As the world becomes more chaotic, remember that chaos does not have the final word. War does not have the final word. Sin does not have the final word. Death does not have the final word. The King does.

So when you hear the shofar during Yom Teruah, don't hear only the beginning of another year. Hear a reminder. Be ready. Keep your lamp burning.

Because one day, at an hour we do not expect, the cry will come:

“Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!”

And for those who are ready, that will be the greatest reason to rejoice. Shanah Tovah!

May you have a blessed new year, filled with purpose, righteousness, repentance, wisdom, and service to others. And may this be another year in which we prepare ourselves—not through fear or date-setting, but by living every day as people who genuinely believe the King is coming. Shalom!

“For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God...” (1 Thessalonians 4:16)