I. Rosh Hashanah is Near the End of a Period Called Teshuvah – It is a 40-day period of repentance leading up to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement – Rosh Hashanah begins the last 10 days, which is a very solemn time.  This 10-day period is referred to as the “High Holy Days” or “Days of Awe.”

A. A day of shaking

1. Garments are shaken in symbol of ridding of anything that decays or corrupts.

2. Bread is cast upon waters in a ceremony called Tashlich – which means “casting off” – symbolic of casting off sin.

B. There is a shaking when God draws close – we just need to cooperate with it

1. There was a shaking at Sinai as the mountain trembled from God’s presence (Ex. 19:18).  The people repented.

2. There was a shaking at Jericho that caused the walls to fall down –

but the people of Jericho did not repent.

3. Hebrews 12:18-24, 28 describes a coming shaking of all things

II. Rosh Hashanah is Celebrated With 100 Trumpet Blasts from a Shofar – once sounded from the Temple in Jerusalem – now in Synagogues – usually in series of 30, 30 and 40 – with the last in each series being Tekiah Gedolah – a great long blast.

A. Other traditions

1. Eating honey and apples as an omen for a sweet year ahead.

2. Eating the head of a fish as an omen

3. Looking for omens.

4. Yom Teruah, the Biblical name for Rosh Hoshana – also can mean shouting

B. This day speaks of 1 Thess. 4:16-17 – “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. This event is known as the ‘Rapture of the Saints.’

2. It is the coming of Jesus (Yeshuah) for His church.

III. Rosh Hashanah or Yom Teruah is a Day of an Awakening Blast or Day of Trumpets (Lev. 23:24-27) 

A. Teruah is literally “shouting” or “raising a noise” (Num. 29:1; Lev.23:24-27). The actual passages refer to a “memorial of blowing .”

1. It is an awakening to judgment.

2. Also an awakening of the dead.

B. Exhortations

1. Is. 12:1-6 – speaks of awakening to the Joy of Salvation

a. “Shout” in this passage is also from the Hebrew ruah, from which the term teruah is derived.

2. Also see Is. 42:13 – both use the term ruah in awakening to Messiah

C. Warnings

1. The prophet Joel writes in the context of Yom Teruah and Yom Kippur and cries “Awake ye drunkards and weep” as he calls them to repentance (Joel 1:5).

2. St. Paul tells his readers: “Awake ye sleepers and rise from the dead.” (Eph. 5:14)  – calling them out of darkness in this passage 5:8-14

3. Ruah is used numerous times in describing the shouts given by Israel at Jericho

D. Resurrection

1. It is a foreshadowing of the Resurrection of Christ.  The parsha reading for the second day of Rosh Hashana is, “The Binding of Isaac,” who is a type, per the Apostle Paul, of the Resurrection.

2. Paul states that Abraham believed God could raise Isaac from the dead should he sacrifice him (Hebrews 11:19).

IV.  Rosh Hashana is Also Called Yom HaDin – The Day of Judgment  –  The ten days from Rosh Hashanah  to Yom Kippur, The Day of atonement, mark 10 days in which God weighs or judges each Jew and decides what their fate for the next year will be.

A. There is a book for the utterly righteous and a book for the utterly wicked and one for those in between, according to Jewish tradition. Daniel references these books in Daniel 7:9-10

1. Most are not inscribed in the books for righteousness or wickedness (The Book of Life and the Book of the Dead), and so their repentance at this time, or lack thereof, determines their fate.

2. According to God’s decision at this time, their fate is sealed for the coming year.

B.  We see mention of the “Book of Life” in Revelation 6 times, including Rev. 20:15 – “Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.”

Thank God for the Book of Life!

Thank God for those who are sealed with the blood of the Lamb!

V. Rosh Hashana Celebrates Opening of the Gates of Heaven – Heaven is either opened or closed for an individual at this time of the Days of Awe, according to their standing with God. (Is. 26:2 and Ps. 118:19-20).

A. However, let us not forget that God’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save (Is. 59:1-2).

B. Jesus gave us the keys to the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 16:19).

– we have the right to go to the Father in His name.

1. Jesus said, “In that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you” (John 16:23).

2. Jesus descended into hell (Acts 2:24), preached there (1 Pet. 3:19) and spoiled principalities and powers (Col. 2:15).

3. Jesus thus rescued those who died in righteousness.

4. “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen: And have the keys of hell and of death.” (Rev. 1:18)

VI. Rosh Hashana is the Day of the Last Trump

A. Noted Hebrew Scholars such as Theodore Gaster and Herman Kievel have made studies of how Jews celebrate the 7 Biblical Feasts of Israel  in regions all over the world and for thousands of years in the past.

B. There are 3 distinctive trumpets: The First Trump, the Last Trump and the Great Trump.

C. The First Trump is blown on the Feast of Shavuot – Pentecost – Ex. 19:19

1. It proclaimed that God had betrothed himself to Israel

2. When Jewish writers speak of marriage and the ceremony and the courtship – they refer to God’s betrothal to Israel at Sinai.

D. The Last Trump is synonymous with Rosh Hoshannah (per Gaster’s book , The Festivals of the Jews, and Kievel’s book, The High Holy Days)

E. The Great Trump is blown on Yom Kippur, which will Herald the return of the close of Judgment – Mentioned in Is. 27:13, Lev. 25:9, Matt. 24:31

F. All of this sheds light on The Feast of Trumpets when we will be caught up in the air to meet the Lord (1 Thess. 4:16-17 and 1 Cor. 15:51-53).

1. This means we escape tribulation, being raptured with the “Last Trump.”

2. The Tribulation period comes with the “Great Trump.”

VII. Rosh Hashanah – “Head of the Year” – Birthday of the World.  This comes from the fact that a rearranging of the letters of “In the beginning” (Gen. 1:1), yield the phrase,  “On the first of Tishri,” the calendar date of Rosh Hashanah. (In other words, the Hebrew bereshit becomes aleph b’ Tishri).  Rosh Hashana literally means, “Head of the Year.”

VIII. Rosh Hashana is the Birthday of Man and Woman – Rabbinic sources believe that we celebrate the birthday of the world and the birthday of Adam in one day, though man was created on the sixth day.  This is for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that the world was not complete until Adam opened his eyes to observe the works of God.

IX. Rosh Hashana Celebrates the Coronation of God as King – coronations usually took place at the beginning of the year in ancient kingdoms.   Royal decrees were also made, and the coronation or decree celebrated with trumpets being blown.

X. Rosh Hashana Celebrates the Arrival of God, Not Only as King, But as Husband to Israel, His Chosen People

A. The first trumpet or Shofar  is sounded in a wedding when the marriage contract is received, being publicly announced with a shofar.  (This happened at Pentecost – Shavuot).

B. The last Shofar sounds when the bridegroom has completed preparing the bridal chamber and home and is told by His father that it is acceptable and ready, and that he may return to take His bride. Only the father determined the acceptable time –oOnly he knows.

C. Echoes in the person of Jesus

1. Jesus will return with the Last Trump (1 Cor. 15:52).

2. He will catch away His bride (1 Cor. 15:52 and 1 Thess. 4:16-17).

3. Jesus foretold in a parable of himself as bridegroom coming for his bride in the night – he told his followers to have an abundance of oil (fullness of the Spirit) and to be watchful (Mt. 25:1-13).

4. He told His disciples, “No man knows the day or the hour, but only my father, which is in heaven” (Mt. 24:36).

C. We must be ready – Judas was not ready for the hour of temptation

XI.  Rosh Hashana is a Feast of Uncertain Time

A. The only major feast that was so in the 7 Feasts Biblically ordained feasts.

1. It is the only one falling on the first day of the month —  commensurate with a new moon.

2. It could fall on one of two days, and in ancient times needed careful watch to discern when the new moon would appear.

3. An idiom existed concerning it where people would say, “No man knows the day nor the hour.” (Mt. 24:36)

4.  Jesus said, “The Son of Man cometh in an hour when ye think not” (Mt. 24:44)

B.Will He come on a future Rosh Hashana?  No one knows – but God uses Rosh Hashana as a type to explain the course of His plan – first we are raptured – then a call to repentance to the world – then great judgment and tribulation “such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matt. 24:21).

XII. Rosh Hashanna is a Hidden Day

A. One of the names of this day is Yom HaKeseh

1. This Hebrew term means “The Day of Hiding or Concealment.”  It arrives secretly, to hide God’s judgment from Satan.

2. Ps. 81:3 tells us, “Sound the shofar on the New Moon, in concealment of the day of our festival.”

3. Jesus said, “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.” (1 Thess. 5:2).

B. It is a time where the bride is hidden in the bridal chambers

1. Ps. 27 is read each day of the 40-day period during Teshuvah.

2. Ps. 27:5 — “For in the time of trouble (tribulation) he shall hide me in his pavilion: In the secret of his tabernacle, he shall hide me.”

3. The bride and groom in Judaism in Jesus’ time stayed hidden in the bridal chamber for 7 days – mirroring the 7 years of tribulation

4. The Bride, the Church, is hidden from trouble during the 7-year

Tribulation.

C. When the Great Trump sounds to mark the tribulation period, the bride will leave her chamber along with the groom, as depicted in Joel 2:16.

1. This will mark the return of Christ with His saints (Zech. 14:5).

2  Every eye will see Christ in this appearing (Matt. 24:27, 30).

Conclusion: A careful Examination of Rosh Hashana and its traditions shows powerful Biblical evidence for the pre-Tribulation Rapture of the Church.