Rabbi Schneider - If He Came Back Today, Would You Be Ready?
In the Book of Leviticus 23, the Lord, Yahweh, the God of Israel, and the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ gave us special days that commemorate who He is and His redemptive acts in the world. One of the holiest days in God's calendar, which He's given us, is called Yom Teruah, which is Hebrew for the Feast of Trumpets. It's oftentimes referred to in Jewish tradition as Rosh Hashanah, which means head of the year, because Jewish people believe that this day is the anniversary of the day that God created mankind in the world. We're looking today, however, at the Feast of Trumpets or Yom Teruah as a biblical reminder that wakes us up to the reality that Jesus' return is near.
When we go back to the original historical context in the Book of Leviticus 23, the Lord told us on the first day of the seventh month, which is the month of Tishrei in Hebrew, we're to blow trumpets as a reminder. It's very mysterious because we don't have a lot of information there. Only what month and day it's supposed to take place on that were to blow trumpets as a reminder. So when we study it and we begin to ask ourselves, "Well, what would the blowing of a trumpet remind us of"? it takes us back to the time that the Lord revealed Himself to the entire community of Israel on top of Mount Sinai. And He announced Himself with a blowing of a divine shofar from heaven. The blowing of the shofar from heaven announced the kingdom and went before the voice of God before God spoke, and it sounded like thunder. And the people at the base of Mount Sinai were so terrified at the power of His voice that they shook and trembled.
In fact, they were so terrified that they told Moses, "Tell Him to stop speaking to us. You go up to the top of the mountain and speak to Him yourself, and then come back down, Moses, and tell us what He said". And so when we consider all these things and we realize that the blowing of the trumpet at Mount Sinai was the wake-up call or the announcement of God's Kingdom revealed in mass to His people, it reminds us that God once again is going to reveal Himself to the entire world, and once again, it will be precluded by the blowing of the shofar. That's why the Bible says in the book of Thessalonians: that the shofar will sound, the trumpet will sound, and then the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven. We find the same thing in the book of Revelation at the last trumpet, the seventh trumpet. The kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of God and of His Christ.
So as we celebrate Yom Teruah each year, the Feast of Trumpets, the purpose is that God wants to wake us up and remind us that Jesus is coming back for you, and He wants you to live your life prepared. Now is the time to take inventory, beloved one, and to ask yourself before the Lord, is there anything in my life that is out of alignment with you. Is there an area in my life that I need to bring into alignment? Is there any place where I need a soul correction? It's a season of repentance. It's a call to live our life unreservedly dedicated to Yeshua, because His last words to us are, "Behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me to give to each one according to what he has done". So the question that Jesus is asking you and I right now is this: "Are you ready? I am coming soon for you".