Pastor David B. Curtis
Pastor David B. Curtis
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We are studying the "Feasts of Yahweh" found in Leviticus 23. The study of these feasts is a study in typology. Typological hermeneutics involves explicating signs in the Tanakh as foreshadowing events and people in the New Covenant. These seven feasts represent and typify the sequence, timing, and significance of the major events of the Lord's redemptive history. They commence at Calvary, where Yeshua voluntarily gave Himself for the sins of the world (Passover), and climax at the consummation of the Messianic Kingdom at the Lord's Second Coming (Tabernacles). These seven feasts depict the entire redemptive career of the Messiah.
The LORD spoke again to Moses, saying, "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'The LORD'S appointed times which you shall proclaim as holy convocations--My appointed times are these: Leviticus 23:1-2 NASB
The words "appointed times" are from the Hebrew mow'ed, which means: "fixed times, to meet at a stated time." This word first appears in Bere'shiyt 1:14:
Then God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; Genesis 1:14 NASB
The word "sign" is from the Hebrew word oth, which means "the sign" or "the seal." Examining the Hebrew letters of the word oth we get alef, meaning: "leader," vav meaning "nail," and tav meaning: "cross." The sun, moon, and stars were first and for- most a "sign" of "the Leader nail[ed] [to the] cross." How do the heavenly lights point to Messiah? Hang on. The word "season" is the Hebrew mow'ed, which means: "appointed times." The Feasts point to Messiah, and they are dependant upon the moon and sun. So the sun, moon, and stars are placed where they are for the scriptural determination of the Feasts of Yahweh, which point to Messiah, the Leader nailed to the cross. This shows us just how important these feasts are.
We have studied the four Spring Feasts to this point--Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits and Pentecost. These four feasts were a prophetic foreshadowing of the first coming of the Lord Yeshua. They spoke of His death, deliverance, resurrection, and the advent of the New Covenant.
The remaining three feasts we will study will be the Fall Feasts, which were a prophetic foreshadowing of the Second Coming of Christ. The Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles started about 4 months after the end of the Spring Festivals. All three of these feasts took place in the month of Tishri on the Hebrew calendar, which would be September or October on our calendar. These three feasts speak of the consummation of redemption after the outpouring of God's wrath, and the New Heaven and Earth, which is typified by the Feast of Tabernacles.
Between Pentecost and Trumpets there was an interval of time of about 4 months. These months in between were historically the driest months of the year for Israel. There were no holy convocations--when the nation gathered before Yahweh and His sanctuary.
This gap can be seen as being as prophetic in a negative way, just as the rest of the feasts are positively prophetic. The newly redeemed nation of Israel experienced Passover through Pentecost--from leaving Egypt, their place of bondage, up to receiving the covenant from God at Sinai. However, through unbelief and stubbornness (except for Joshua and Caleb), they wandered in the wilderness for forty years, and it was a different generation that entered the Promised Land and celebrated Tabernacles. Thus this four month gap can be seen to be a reminder of this forty year exodus.
Typology and Forty
Of all the types and shadows of the Tanakh, none is as pervasive, and therefore important, as the shadows revealed in the relationship between "forty" and the fulfillment of promises.
Throughout the Tanakh we find this usage of the number forty. Examples of this usage are the forty days and nights that God caused it to rain upon the face of the earth; also, in the length of the reigns of Saul, David, and Solomon (Acts 13:21; 2 Sam. 5:4). Besides these, we see forty used as a temporal shadow in the duration of Jonah's preaching of judgment to the Ninevites (Jon. 3:4) and the number of days that the spies of Canaan searched out the land (Num. 13:25). There were forty day fasts by Elijah, Moses, and Christ.
The New Covenant underscores the importance of this typological number. Christ fasted for forty days and forty nights and continually preached that the generation (forty years) then living would see the judgment of God. In fact, Christ preached the very same judgment upon the city that Jonah did.
It may also be significant that the period from the time of Yeshua's death to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem was almost exactly forty years simply because, in the Bible, the number "forty" is often used to denote a time period in which a change comes about.
Therefore, in Genesis 7:4 we read of the rains of the flood coming down for forty days until the surface of the earth was radically changed, and in Num 13:25, that forty days was the period in which the nation of Israel changed from being a people who were willing to enter into and take possession of the promised land to a people who failed to believe God at His word.
The three periods of forty years in Moses' life (Acts 7:23,30,42) also marked three distinct changes (the period of the Egyptian court, as a Bedouin/Midianite shepherd and as the leader of the nation in the wilderness) while to the city of Nineveh it was the period of time at the end of which they were to be judged (Jonah 3:4).
We find the most significant type of all in the forty years of wilderness wandering leading up to the possession of the temporal land of promise. In fact, Paul himself wrote that the surrounding events of the wilderness wandering "were our examples" (1 Cor. 10:6), and that "they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world [aion-age] have come" (v.11).
One of the first lessons a student of types and shadows will learn is the lofty place given to the Exodus out of Egypt. It is this event which presents the clearest correspondences to the redemptive work of Christ and the time-frame of its fulfillment.
To be more specific, the exodus out of Egypt and into the promised land by the children of Israel under Moses is a direct shadow of the exodus of the New Testament generation from the cross to the entrance into the eternal land of rest.
Let's look at some comparisons between the two forty year exodus periods. The first was preceded by physical slavery---the bondage of the Hebrews in Egypt. The second was preceded by spiritual slavery, man's bondage to sin and death. One introduced the first Passover with the blood of lambs. The other fulfilled the type with the sacrifice of the final Passover Lamb (Yeshua):
Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. 1 Corinthians 5:7 NASB
One brought God's people physical deliverance by crossing through the Red Sea. The other brought God's people spiritual deliverance by the working of the cross of Christ.
The first established a temporary contract of God with the people He chose--the Old Covenant. The second established a permanent contract--the New Covenant.
Fifty four days after the first Passover in Egypt, the Law was given to the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai, written upon tables of stone. Fifty four days after the final Passover was sacrificed, the Law was given to the "Israel of God," written upon their hearts by the Spirit of God (2 Cor. 3:3; Heb. 8:10).
Very few would disagree that the above points are fulfillment of the shadows given at the time of the Exodus. But the correlation doesn't stop with the initial workings of the exodus, but continues with the entrance into the land of temporal rest, forty years later. Just as the children of faith were allowed to enter into the temporal land of rest the first time, the children of faith in the generation directly following the cross of Christ were given entrance into the eternal land of rest. With each covenant, a 40 year transition period followed the initial act of deliverance unto the entrance into the land of promise.
The city Abraham was looking for was the heavenly Jerusalem. The writer relates:
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, Hebrews 12:22-23 NASB
From these verses we can see the different description of the same entity; the city, the kingdom, the heavenly Jerusalem, the church, and Mount Zion. These all have their fulfillment in the New Covenant as established in the first century. This was in contrast to the old, physical, earthly city of Jerusalem.
The believers among the people of Israel did not receive the promises of the promised land when they entered into Palestine (Heb 4:6-9). This promise was in regards to the fulfillment of redemption and eternal life in the Kingdom of God, which entrance was corporately given to all believers at the end of the forty years from the cross to A.D. 70 and the destruction of Jerusalem.
During both periods, the people saw God's works forty years (Heb 3:9; Acts 2:17-21); God manifested Himself to His people by signs and wonders; in the desert under Moses' leadership, daily manna, miraculous supplies of water or meat, and the appearance of the cloud and the fiery pillar revealed God's presence. In the transition period to the New Covenant, the apostles had special gifts of healing, prophecy, and miracles, and testified to the coming of the kingdom of God and the destruction of the wicked (I Cor 14:22).
And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. Ephesians 4:11-13 NASB
If the church is not matured, then these gifts should all still be operating. Are they? No! Then the church reached maturity in A.D. 70 when all the gifts ceased.
During both periods, the wicked were severed from among the just and not allowed to enter into the land of promise (Heb 3:11,17; Matt. 12:30, 13:49).
Beginning with the fulfillment of Passover in the death of Christ, calamity would fall upon fleshly Israel as a result. The death of Christ contained a blessing of salvation for spiritual Israel, but for fleshly national Israel it would bring calamity. This is evident from Matthew 21:33-41 in which the parable of the husbandmen teaches that the fulfillment of Passover, being the killing of the Son, would not bring a postponement of kingdom promises, as the Dispensationalist argues, but utter destruction upon fleshly Israel. In verses 42-44, it is stated that at this point the kingdom would be given to those other than national Israel, it would go to a fruitful spiritual nation of God's; the Church.
At the end of the first forty year period, the Israelites of faith entered the temporal land of promise in which God enabled them to defeat their physical foes. At the end of the second forty year period, salvation was complete, and God's people entered their eternal promised land in which God enabled them to defeat their spiritual enemies (I Cor. 15:26,54-57).
If Christ has not returned, then all believers are still waiting for the inheritance of redemption. But we believe that He has returned, and has fulfilled all aspects of the "exodus shadow," using the very same chronology in the first century, as He did in the initial shadow.
The physical illustrations in the Old Covenant are fulfilled in each case by the spiritual realities of the New. The second is an eternal covenant, with victory over spiritual slavery and spiritual death, bringing eternal deliverance through a spiritual Passover resulting in our new eternal life and eternal salvation. Christ has allowed His people entrance into the holiest of all through His very presence (parousia)!
All of these types and shadows, displayed in the Exodus, found their fulfillment in the exodus of God's people from the bondage of sin to the eternal rest in Christ. Any expectation of another coming, or future fulfillment of these promises of rest, reflects a lack of appreciation for what we now have in Christ--eternal life in His kingdom.
Let me say something about dates. The first four feasts were fulfilled on the exact day of the shadows. So, I would assume that the last three would be also. Because the Cannon was closed before the completion of the last three feasts, we have no record of their fulfillment. What we know for sure was that they were to be fulfilled with the forty year period, which began at Pentecost.
The Jewish calendar is a lunar-solar calendar, though it is primarily lunar, with each month beginning on the New Moon. The problem with strictly lunar calendars is that there are approximately 12.4 lunar months in every solar year, so a 12-month lunar calendar loses about 11 days every year and a 13-month lunar calendar gains about 19 days every year. The months on such a calendar "drift" relative to the solar year. On a 12 month calendar, the month of Nisan, which is supposed to occur in the spring, occurs 11 days earlier each year, eventually occurring in the winter, the fall, the summer, and then the spring again. To compensate for this drift, an extra month was occasionally added; a second month of Adar. The month of Nisan would occur 11 days earlier for two or three years and then would jump forward 29 or 30 days, balancing out the drift.
According to http://www.hebcal.com, in A.D. 70 the 1st of Tishrei was on September 22. But they add this warning: "WARNING: Results for year 1752 C.E. and before may not be accurate. Hebcal does not take into account a correction of ten days that was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII known as the Gregorian Reformation."
So, what I am trying to say here is that to try to put exact solar calendar days with these last three feasts is just about impossible. So be leery of those who attempt to give exact solar calendar days to these events.
These feasts, as we have taught, are both literal feasts celebrated in Israel every year and TYPES of God's prophetic calendar of events for the Church. At the end of the dry season came the Fall Feasts.
The first of the Fall Feasts is the Feast of Trumpets:
Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. 'You shall not do any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD.'" Leviticus 23:23-25 NASB
'Now in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall also have a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work. It will be to you a day for blowing trumpets. Numbers 29:1 NASB
"Day for blowing" is the Hebrew "yom teruah", which is a Hebrew name for this feast.
Of the seven feasts, all are described in some detail, with the exception of the Feast of Trumpets. The biblical record for the Feast of Trumpets observance is neither lengthy nor complicated. Israel was simply commanded to memorialize the day by blowing trumpets and to keep the day as a sabbath day of rest
This feast is known in Judaism as Rosh Hashanah, but it is never known by that name in Scripture. Rosh Hashanah literally means: "Head of the Year." However, this designation was not applied to this feast until at least the second century A.D., more than 1,500 years after the institution of the holiday. The timing of this feast coincided with the beginning of Israel's civil New Year.
In the Bible, it is referred to as Zikhron Teruah, or the Memorial of Blowing of Trumpets (Lev. 23:24), and Yom Teruah, the Day of Blowing Of Trumpets (Num. 29:1). The "Feast of Trumpets" is a day of sounding trumpets in the Temple and throughout the land of Israel.
Following the A.D. 70 destruction of the Temple, the observance of this feast, as all the feasts, was radically altered. Without a Temple and sacrificial system these feasts could no longer be observed, which makes it clear that these feasts ALL ended with Jerusalem's destruction and the return of Christ in A.D. 70.
The actual observance of the Feast of Trumpets is recorded only once in Scripture. Ezra, the scribe, related that it was during the Feast of Trumpets that the Temple altar was rebuilt, and sacrifices were reinstituted by those who returned from Babylonian exile (Ezra 3:1-6). Nehemiah recorded that sweeping revival also took place in Israel that same day as Ezra rehearsed God's Law in the ears of the people (Neh. 7:73-8:13).
There are several things about this feast which should pique our interest. First, this feast was to be celebrated on the first day of the month. Second, this feast was to be celebrated on the first day of the seventh month. Third, the feast was marked by a blowing of trumpets. The Hebrew word here is teruah, which means: "an alarm, a signal, a sound of tempest, a shout, a shout or blast of war or alarm or joy." Why is this significant that this feast was on the first day of the month? The Feast of Trumpets is the only one of the seven feasts which began on the first day of the month.
The Hebrew months each began on the New Moon. The other feasts occurred toward the middle of the respective months, when the moon was at, or near, full. The nights would be filled with moonlight. At the New Moon the moon is DARK and only a thin crescent.
The beginning of each month was originally dependent upon the sighting of the New Moon when the moon was but a crescent; the nights would be dark, with little moonlight. The precise timing of the New Moon was not always easily determined due to weather conditions and a lack of witnesses.
Two concurring witnesses sighting the first sliver of the New Moon determined each new month. The two witnesses see the New Moon and attest to it before the Sanhedrin in the Temple. This could happen during either of two days, depending on when the witnesses come. Since no one knew when the witnesses would come, no one knew when the Feast of Trumpets would start. After the appearance of the New Moon was confirmed, then the Feast of Trumpets could begin, and the rest of the Fall Feasts could be accurately calculated from that date. The Feast of Trumpets is also considered a High Sabbath, and no work is to be done. Therefore, all preparations for the Feast of Trumpets had to be made in advance. Since no one knew the exact day of the New Moon's appearance, it kept people in a continual state of alertness. They knew approximately when the New Moon would reveal itself, but they did not know the exact hour of its appearance.
Watchfulness was a critical ingredient of this feast. The rabbis later added a second day to this feast to make sure they didn't miss it. This need for watchfulness and preparedness in connection with the Feast of Trumpets is echoed and reechoed throughout the New Testament in connection with the Lord's coming:
"Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. Matthew 24:42 NASB
The Seventh Month--we should see immediately the significance of the seventh month. As the seventh month this month was set aside as a Sabbath month. Yahweh had ordained the seventh day as the Sabbath day, the day of rest (Exodus 20:8-11). The Sabbath Day was to be a day of rest and remembrance of what God had done. Not only was there to be a Sabbath Day, but also a Sabbath Year (Lev 25:1-7), and a year of Jubilee (Lev 25:8-17), the year following seven sevens of years.
The Sabbath Year and the Year of Jubilee were times of rest, redemption, and freedom. During both times, everyone rested. During the sixth year, God promised a triple portion, enough to carry the people over for the seventh and eighth years.
The seventh month was special in the same way. During the seventh month, the very special Fall Feasts occurred: the Feasts of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles. Nearly the entire month was set aside for these three feasts.
What is special about the blowing of trumpets? There are basically two kinds of trumpets in Israel: Trumpets made of ram's horns, or the shofar (show-far), and silver trumpets.
The shofar was a curved trumpet fashioned from a ram's horn. In the Hebrew language, the shofar (ram's horn trumpet) was clearly distinguished from a keren, the "horn of an animal," when not used as a musical instrument. The ram's horn came from some type of sacrifice from the bullock or the ram. The ram's horns were especially used to blast out the note of shouting at the fall of the walls of Jericho. It was the trumpet of Jubliee. Trumpets constructed from cows' horns were rejected due to the reminder of Israel's idolatrous worship of the golden calf in the wilderness. The ram's horn was seen as a much more pleasant reminder of God's deliverance of Isaac through the ram caught by its horns in the thicket.
When the Lord designated the first of Tishri as a "day of blowing" and a "memorial of blowing," the type of trumpet for the Feast of Trumpets was not specifically identified. Almost without exception, historical observance and rabbinic tradition specified the shofar (ram's horn), not the silver trumpets of the priests, as the primary instrument intended by Scripture.
Perhaps the original reason for specifying the ram's horn is to be found in the announcement of the Jubilee Year. Scripture designated the shofar (ram's horn), not the trumpet fashioned from precious metal, as the trumpet to be blown on Yom Kippur.
Every 50th year, this shofar announced the arrival of the Jubilee Year in which the slaves were freed and the fields were given rest from the farming cycle.
Apart from the sacrificial ceremony, the trumpet had several uses for the nation of Israel. The two main uses were to gather an assembly before the Lord, and it sounded an alarm to warn the people of that which was coming (Numbers 10:2-4,9).
The Feast of Trumpets is Israel's dark day. It occured at the New Moon when the primary night light of the heavens is darkened. Israel's prophets repeatedly warned of a coming day of judgment for the nation. It was called "the Day of Yahweh." It was to occur at the end of the Jewish age. The Day of Yahweh was a time when Yahweh poured out His wrath upon Israel.
The prophet Amos spoke of this dark day of judgment:
Alas, you who are longing for the day of the LORD, For what purpose will the day of the LORD be to you? It will be darkness and not light; As when a man flees from a lion And a bear meets him, Or goes home, leans his hand against the wall And a snake bites him. Will not the day of the LORD be darkness instead of light, Even gloom with no brightness in it? Amos 5:18-20 NASB
We see in Joel that the Trumpet was used to usher in the Day of Yahweh:
Blow a trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, For the day of the LORD is coming; Surely it is near, Joel 2:1 NASB
We mentioned earlier that the Feast of Trumpets is the only feast day to begin when the moon is dark. Notice what Zephaniah says:
Near is the great day of the LORD, Near and coming very quickly; Listen, the day of the LORD! In it the warrior cries out bitterly. A day of wrath is that day, A day of trouble and distress, A day of destruction and desolation, A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness, A day of trumpet and battle cry Against the fortified cities And the high corner towers. Zephaniah 1:14-16 NASB
This passage from Zephaniah is only one of many which speaks of the Day of Yahweh as a day of darkness, and a day when the shofar sounds.
As the darkening of the moon in the night heavens announced the Feast of Trumpets, so too, the heavens were to be divinely darkened as the Day of Yahweh commenced:
"The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. Joel 2:31 NASB
In the New Testament, the trumpet was to be blown at the resurrection:
"And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other. Matthew 24:31 NASB
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 1 Corinthians 15:52 NASB
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. 1 Thessalonians 4:16 NASB
Paul equates the resurrection with the sound of God's shofar. What are the similarities between the resurrection and the Feast of Trumpets? First, they both were to occur on an unknown and undetermined day and hour. Second, they both were to be announced by the sounding of the shofar.
If we put all of these together, can we begin to see the significance of the shofar on this very special feast day? We know that the Spring Feasts were fulfilled with the death, and resurrection of Yeshua and the birth of the Church.
Yeshua, the Lamb of God, fulfilled the Passover when He was offered as a sacrifice for our sins on the Feast of Passover. He fulfilled the Feast of Unleavened Bread when He delivered His people from their sins. He fulfilled First Fruits when He was resurrected. We know that the Feast of Weeks was fulfilled with the beginning of the New Covenant, fifty days later. The four Spring Feasts were fulfilled in Yeshua's first coming, and the three Fall Feasts were fulfilled at His Second Coming in A.D. 70.
The blast of the shofar is a type of that blast which called the faithful home to be with the Lord, but it is also a type of the shofar that was blasted to call judgment on the nation Israel who refused to come to Christ. In short, we see the Feast of Trumpets fulfilled at the resurrection of the dead, which immediately precedes the Day of Yahweh. Both are heralded by the blast of the shofar.
The Bible often speaks of men and angels blowing trumpets, yet only twice is it recorded that Yahweh blows a trumpet. In both instances it is the shofar. The first occasion was at Mt. Sinai when the Lord revealed Himself from Heaven and prepared to bring the nation under the Old Covenant. The Shekinah glory of the Yahweh descended with a fiery tempest and with the sound of the shofar (Exodus 19:18-20).
The second occasion on which Yahweh blew the SHOFAR (Ram's horn) was at the Messiah's return. The Lord descended from Heaven with the whirlwind, the clouds of His glory, fire, and the SOUND OF THE TRUMPET. The prophet Zechariah declares:
Then the LORD will appear over them, And His arrow will go forth like lightning; And the Lord GOD will blow the trumpet, And will march in the storm winds of the south. Zechariah 9:14 NASB
The ancient rabbis repeatedly quoted this verse in connection with the coming of the Messiah: "And it is the ram's horn that the Holy One, blessed be He, is destined to blow when the son of David, our righteous One, will reveal Himself, as it is said: 'And the Lord our God will blow the horn.'" (Tanna debe Eliyahu Zutta XXII)
Here is an interesting side note: ancient Jewish tradition held that the resurrection of the dead would occur on Rosh Hashanah. Reflecting this tradition, Jewish gravestones were often engraved with a SHOFAR. God's last trump and the resurrection of the righteous are intricately connected in the New Testament:
Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 NASB
Most of us recognize this event as the resurrection, but few of us identify it with the Feast of Trumpets. Paul was a highly educated man of God's Torah and understood the Messianic fulfillment's of the Feasts of Yahweh. Paul understood how Messiah was the fulfillment of Passover and First Fruits, and Paul also recognized Messiah's future fulfillment of the Fall Feasts.
I think that it is also interesting that, according to Jewish tradition, the gates of Heaven are opened on Rosh HaShanah so the righteous nation may enter. This doesn't prove anything, but it's interesting that the Jews saw that day as the day the righteous entered heaven.
These last three feasts are a little harder to nail down as to their anti-type, because they have no Scriptural reference as to their fulfillment. The Bible is silent about their New Covenant fulfillment, because no books of the Bible were written after A.D. 70. But we know that the pattern set by the Spring Feasts is continued in the Fall Feasts.
We see the type of this feast, in Joshua chapter 6, with the destruction of Jericho at the end of the forty year exodus. SEVEN priests, with the Ark of God in the midst, marched with seven trumpets around the wall of Jericho for 6 days. ON the SEVENTH DAY they marched around SEVEN TIMES. At the close of the march, the trumpets were blown, the people shouted, and God caused the walls of Jericho to collapse. The victory was COMPLETE.
The events of Jericho offered a graphic image and actual prophecy of events at the close of the Jewish age, forty years after Pentecost, when there were seven angels with seven trumpets of doom and judgment:
And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. Revelation 8:2 NASB
At that time the great and powerful city of Babylon (Jerusalem) suddenly fell:
standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, 'Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.' Revelation 18:10 NASB
Accompanied by a great shouting in heaven:
"Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her." Revelation 18:20 NASB
The name "Joshua" is from the Hebrew yehoshua. The name Joshua sometimes appears in its shortened form as "Yeshua" (Neh. 8:17). As in Joshua the destruction of the city came at the sound of the trumpets, so at the end of the Jewish age the destruction of Jerusalem came as Yeshua sounded the trumpet.
Another name for Rosh HaShanah is 'Yom HaDin', the Day of Judgment. The righteous are separated and will be with God. This is known to Bible believers as the resurrection. The wicked unbelieving Jews faced the wrath of God in Israel's fall, during the tribulation period.
We see the spiritual anti-type of the Feast of Trumpets in the fall of Jerusalem and the return of Christ in A.D. 70. Thus at the blowing of the trumpet, in Matthew 24, the scene was set, and Christ fulfilled the feast. Guess what month it was when Jerusalem fell? (Tishrei usually occurs in September-October on the Gregorian calendar). "The city was taken on September 8, A.D. 70, after the last siege had lasted about five months" (Josephus, vol. 1, p. 467).
The Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast Tabernacles take place in the SEVENTH month. Number seven is the number of perfection and fullness. In these feasts, the believer is brought to the fullness of the Godhead.
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