Scripture readings for Yom Teruah, the Day of Trumpets:
Torah:B’resheet (Gen) 21:1-34;
B’midbar (Num) 29:1-6;
Haftorah:I Samuel 1:1 – 2:10;
Brit Hadashah: I Thess 4:13-18
Scripture readings for this Shabbat start with all the children of Israel standing and gathering together in the Torah portion Nitzavim ‘Standing’
Devarim (Deut) 29:10 – 30:20; YeshaYahu (Isaiah) 61:10 – 63:9; Romans 9:30 – 10:13
The King is coming! Are you ready for the shout, the voice of the archangel, and the blast of the shofar of God? We better be preparing for the awesome, soon return of Yeshua, the Messiah, the King of kings and LORD of lords!
Pray that whenever we gather to stand before Him, we would purpose in our hearts to hear, believe and obey His Word. For on that day, the day when the Messiah returns, we will all stand to account for what we’ve said and what we’ve done in this life.
Blessed be our merciful Lord and Savior, for it is only by His blood and by His righteousness that faultless we will stand before Him – on that day. Don’t let anyone condemn us, for there is only One Who is our Judge; and He today is our Intercessor and Savior, not our accuser and destroyer. Our God is a God of mercy and grace!
Our Torah portion’s common threads with Yom Teruah, the Feast of Trumpets, teach each one of us how we are to prepare for Nitzavim – standing before our King and Covenant-Maker, upright in Messiah as Benai Yeshurun (Children of the Upright One).
1. The Bride Standing before Her Bridegroom:
In His second coming, Yeshua is coming back again for a Bride that He’ll find faithful and true to His marriage covenant. In the Messiah and full of His Spirit, she will be found true to the vows that she had made to Him on Mount Sinai. Standing (Nitzavim) before YHWH in a large gathering to enter into the covenant is like a man and his bride standing before witnesses exchanging vows before Elohim in a large gathering on a wedding day.
Moses made it clear that the covenant was not cut just for those standing there that day, but for us today as well: and also with him, that is not here with us today. (Deut 29:15) This Torah portion prophesies of this generation standing in marriage covenant relationship with the Messiah of Israel, whom He’ll find faithful to Him when He returns.
2. Judgment Day
But alas, Moses prophesied that Israel would break His covenant, would commit spiritual adultery, and would enter into the judgment and jealous wrath of Elohim. Yom Teruah, the Feast of Trumpets, is the day that the King returns to begin judgment and wrath against all those who rebel against Him. But on the other hand, He will give out rewards to those who have been His good and faithful servants in the Kingdom.
Yom Teruah, the Day of Trumpets, begins with what is called “The Ten Days of Awe” until the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. Known as the holiest of days, Yom Kippur, is when final judgments and rewards are rendered according to the Word of Elohim.
3. Turning Back in Exile:
Moshe prophesied of a future day when Israel would be banished and exiled among the nations, and so here we are today. Here in exile, Israel does teshuvah (repents) and returns to Him heart and soul and to the commandments that Moshe gave to Israel in the Torah. (Deut 30:1,2) Blowing the shofar is a symbol of doing teshuvah, turning our breath, our spirit, our cry, to our Father in Heaven. The shofar is turned and curved upwards to the Heavens, blowing them with teshuvah-like cries to Heaven for the Salvation of YHWH.
Blowing the shofar awakens the soul to listen to His voice. Here we are today in exile, returning with circumcised hearts back to hearing, believing, and obeying our Elohim and His Torah, His marriage covenant, with our forefathers. Shema Yisra’el!
4. The Regathering:
Out of great compassion for His people, YHWH will regather the exiles of Israel back to Himself and back to the Promised Land (Deut 30:3-5). We will be gathered as one people as they were on Mount Sinai. Paul prophesied of the day of the sounding of the shout of an archangel and the trumpet of Elohim when we would be caught up together with the resurrected saints in the clouds to meet with Adonai (the Lord) in the air.
Paul’s prophecy in I Thessalonians 4:15-17 has clear connections to the Day of Trumpets. These are words to encourage one another, especially at the upcoming appointed time of Yom Teruah. On the day that He returns, all who have fallen asleep in Messiah, and those who remain alive until that day, will forever be together with Him for eternity in the Promised Land, never to be apart from our Bridegroom again!
Choose Life, Choose Blessing, Choose Yeshua:
How do we prepare for His coming in these awesome days of teshuvah? How do we prepare for the second coming of the King of kings when He fulfills Yom Teruah, the Ten Days of Awe, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement?
This Torah portion instructs us on what to choose – life and blessing. We choose to do His will by choosing to speak His Word and by choosing to do His commandments:
D’varim Deut. 30:14-16: For the Word is very near to you, in your mouth and your heart, that you may do it. Behold, I have set before you today life and good and death and evil, in that I am commanding you today to love YHWH your Elohim, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes, and His judgments, and you shall live and multiply, and YHWH your Elohim shall bless you in the land where you are going in, to possess it.
But if we choose not to listen and obey, but stray away after other mighty ones, other strong authorities (Elohim), we choose death and destruction in life.
D’varim Deut 30:17-18:
But if you turn away your heart, and you do not listen, and are impelled to, even bow down to other gods, and serve them; I have declared to you today that you shall certainly perish. You shall not prolong your days in the land to which you are crossing the Jordan, to go in there to possess it.
Life is the greatest blessing, so choose life for you and your children:
I call Heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life, that you and your seed may live…Deut. 30:19
How do we choose life and keep it?
Deut. 30:20a: to love YHWH your Elohim, to listen to His voice, and to cleave to Him.
By having a close and intimate relationship with YHWH, clinging to our God.
Choosing life is choosing YHWH, Who is Yeshua – the Way, the Truth, and the Life:
Deut. 30:20b: For He is your life, and the length of your days so that you may live in the land which YHWH has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give it to them.
How do we experience the life of God in everything we do?
Who of all these (living creatures) does not know that the hand of YHWH has done this, in Whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all flesh, even of man? Job 12:9-10
.. And you have not glorified Elohim in Whose hand your life, breath, and all your ways is. Dani’el 5:23c
“For ‘we live in Him and in Him, we move and have our being,’ as also some of your poets have said, ‘For we are all His offspring.’ Acts 17:28
For to me, to live is Messiah, and to die is gain. Philippians 1:21
I am crucified with the Messiah: nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but the Messiah lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of Elohim, Who loved me and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20
In living and abiding, in breathing and moving, in loving and giving, in all our ways in our Messiah, let us prepare to be a part of His Bride rehearsing for His second coming – on that day…
Yeshua Melekh Chai! King Yeshua lives!
David Klug
This is one of the best teachings I have seen on Yom Teruah! Well laid out, precise and easy to read!!
Your teachings inspire us every week to come closer, give Him everything that all belongs to Him anyway and walk as Yeshua walked!
Shalom and blessings!
Thank you for your feedback! Glad it was a blessing to you!