Revelations on THE JEWISH TRUMPETS (SHOFARS)

           A Scriptural Review of Their Biblical Uses for Worship and Warfare

                                                   by Richard Aaron Honorof
 
     How is it possible for you, men and women, Jewish and Gentile New Testament believers, to do today what only the Priests, the sons of Aaron of the tribe of Levi were allowed to do in the Old Testament, and to have Gods full blessing on your behavior?  For only the Priests were allowed to blow the Jewish trumpets, the shofars. None of the other men of the tribe of Levi, nor of any of the other eleven tribes were allowed into the Priesthood, except only Aaron and his sons.  For they were Gods covenant Priests of Israel.  Also this Priesthood was only open to men. How then did you, as New Covenant believers come into full Priesthood authority under the God of Israel? How did this happen, where did this happen, and when?

 Lets take a look at the Word of God and find out... Num 10:1-10
1 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
2 "Make two silver trumpets for yourself; you shall make them of hammered work; you shall use them for calling the assembly and for directing the movement of the camps.
3 "When they blow both of them, all the assembly shall gather before you at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.
4 "But if they blow only one, then the leaders, the heads of the divisions of Israel, shall gather to you.
5 "When you sound the advance, the camps that lie on the east side shall then begin their journey.
6 "When you sound the advance the second time, then the camps that lie on the south side shall begin their journey; they shall sound the call for them to begin their journeys.
7 "And when the congregation is to be gathered together, you shall blow, but not sound the advance.
8 "The sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow the trumpets; and these shall be to you as an ordinance forever throughout your generations.
9 "When you go to war in your land against the enemy who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the LORD your God, and you will be saved from your enemies.
10 "Also in the day of your gladness, in your appointed feasts, and at the beginning of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they shall be a memorial for you before your God: I am the LORD your God."  (NKJ)

    Now, before you read any further, having just read that only the priests, the sons of Aaron of the tribe of Levi, were the only ones allowed to blow the Jewish trumpets, how is it that you also, male and female, Jew and Gentile, New Covenant believers, have been given this special privilege and responsibility by God to be His Priests and to be allowed to perform the many duties of the Priesthood, including the sounding of the trumpets, in the many applications in which the Jewish trumpets are biblically used?
 
     It all began when Melchi-Zedek blessed Abram with bread and wine. (Genesis 14:18)  It says that He (Melchi-Zedek) is Priest of God Most High, and that He is King of Salem (Peace).   MelchiZedek is two Hebrew words; melchi means king and zedek means righteousness.
    After that God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, and Abraham passed this priestly blessing on to Isaac, and Isaac passed this priestly blessing on to Jacob, who became Israel.   Israel had twelve sons, and one of them, Joseph, who was sold into slavery and went down into Egypt. Then Israel with his other eleven sons, a family of about seventy, went down into Egypt because of the famine in Israel, where his family remained for 430 years. There God enlarged Israel’s family to perhaps three million members, belonging to twelve tribes of Israel.  When God brought them all out of Egypt, God expressed His Heart in Exodus 19:5,6, and said the following to Israel:
‘if you will obey My voice indeed, and keep My Covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure to Me above all people: for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ 

But it never happened!
     Instead the priesthood went only to one small group, to Aaron and the sons of Aaron of the tribe of  Levi.  >From this group God developed the Aaronic Priesthood, with all its functions and duties.  It is important to again point out the fact that it was Gods heart and desire that the whole kingdom of Israel would be His priests.  It is also very important that the Covenant that God made with Israel also included the strangers who were in their camp, who had come out of Egypt with Israel. (Deuteronomy 29:9-12)
     Now we follow this Priesthood along until we come to the days of King David, and in the days of King David, God made a change in the Priesthood.  Because of the obedience of the High Priest Zadok, God now said that only the sons of Zadok of the sons of Aaron would be able to come into Gods presence. So God put a restriction on the Priesthood, and on who would be allowed to come into His presence. We follow this Priesthood until we come to Ezra the High Priest, and it says that Ezra’s grandfather was Zadok.  After this we don't see any changes in the Priesthood the rest of the Old Covenant days with Israel.
 
    The Priesthood was so important to God, that God opened the whole New Covenant with a major Priesthood scene.  Do you remember the first scene, the opening scene of the whole New Covenant?
     It says that Zacharias was standing by the Altar of Incense (in the Holy Place, before the curtain to the (Holy of Holies) and that his wife Elizabeth is of the daughters of Aaron. (Luke 1:5)  For Zacharias to be ministering as a priest in the Holy Place before the Altar of Incense means that he had to be a descendant of the sons of Aaron.
     However, in the days of King Herod, Herod had corrupted the Aaronic priesthood and the position of High Priest had become political and was purchased by bribery and deceit (i.e.  Caiaphas).  The assignment of which priests of the sons of Aaron would serve in what position and duties in the Temple was done by drawing lots.  It happened that on a certain day that the priest Zacharias drew the lot to serve by the Altar of Incense.
    It says in the Talmud (Jewish sacred writings) that a priest might get to serve in this special position by the Altar of Incense perhaps only once in his whole life, for there were so many clans and orders and families of Priests of the sons of Aaron.  We also read in Exodus 28 - 30, that to minister before God at the Altar of Incense was the special position reserved for only the High Priest Aaron, and for his sons who would follow him in that position of High Priest.  God had arranged something special for His divine purposes, as you will now see...
 
    This revelation is the work of an excellent Messianic Jewish teacher of Old and New Testament Priesthood, Dick Reuben, who ministers throughout the United States.  God used Dick’s teachings to help open my eyes, to understand the Truths that have always been hidden in the Word.  This revelation is so important today for every believer in Yeshua to know and understand, in order to move into our correct positions and full potential as Priests of God, under our Great High Priest Yeshua.  Let us now proceed....

      John (Yochanan) was standing in the Jordan River, baptizing sons and daughters of Israel.  When he looked up and saw his cousin Jesus (Yeshua) approaching him.  Yochanan said to his cousin Yeshua: ‘I need to be baptized by you, and are you coming to me?’  Yeshua answered and said to him:

‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ [Matthew 3:13-15]
     Yochanan was from what tribe?  Levi.  Yeshua was from what tribe? Judah.  When Yochanan went to baptize Yeshua, he was really baptizing God! Correct? Correct!  Do you remember that the angel Gabriel had said to Yochanan’s father Zacharias that this child would be filled with Gods Spirit even from his mother’s womb?  Do you remember the scene when Miriam first entered the room where Elizabeth was, it says "that the babe leaped in Elizabeth’s womb and that Elizabeth was also filled with the Holy Spirit of God, and prophesized"? (Luke 1:11-15 and 39-45)   God had divinely set aside Yochanan even from his mother's womb for what was now about to happen.
     You see, the only one who would ever have been qualified to do what happened the next moment to Yeshua, to God, would have been only the one who was truly carrying the highest position of authority of Priesthood in all of Israel. You see, Yochanan, set apart by God, even in his mother's womb, carried this highest position of authority of Priesthood in all of Israel.
    Yochanan was really the true High Priest of Israel (as was his father).  When the true High Priest of Israel, of the sons of Aaron of the tribe of Levi, baptized God, there was, at that moment, a transference of Priesthood anointing from the High Priest of Israel back to the Great High Priest of Israel,  to God Himself,  the King of Righteousness, Melchizedek, Yeshua’s rightful title as God, the Son.
      The baton of Priesthood authority, so to speak, was now passed to God in the flesh.  Now God Yeshua could fulfill His Heart’s desire of Exodus 19:6   He would now make sure that Israel would become a Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation   Now He would bring in His Priesthood from the other sons of Levi, and also from the other eleven tribes of Israel, and now, what had been on Gods heart from the beginning of Creation was that He would also draw in His Priests from the obedient men and women from all the nations of His Creation!
[This can be seen in Exodus 12:38,49;19:6; Leviticus 19:34;24:22;25:23; Numbers 15:15,16; Deuteronomy 29:9-13; Isaiah 42:6;49:6;56:6,7; Ezekiel 47:13,22]
     God was not only making a Priesthood from His Creation, but the greatest mystery of all was that the Creator of all Creation desired a Bride.
     This special Bride would be made up of the most obedient men and women, the lovers of God, both from Israel and from all the Nations of the World.  These would become Eternally One with their beloved Bridegroom and Creator, who would come to earth to die for them, paying the Bridal Price of His own life and blood for redeeming mankind back to their God, and then restoring a personal relationship with each one of them to Himself.  Their Creator was always their real and loving Father.   The true identity of man is that he has always been Gods own sons and daughters, but lost from this truth possibly forever, because of his sins, which separated him from his real Father, until the price could be paid only by God Himself shedding His own blood, to redeem His lost sons and daughters back to Himself.
     There is only One God, who expresses Himself with many different Faces, and the eternal God birthed Himself into His Creation and became the man Yeshua, in order to accomplish this impossible task.
      We can see this mystery mentioned in Revelation 10... 'but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel,
when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as He has declared to his servants the prophets. [Revelation 10:7]
     This is how you and I, Jews and Gentiles, male and female, believers in the New Covenant of God, not only became Priests of God.  Not only do we have the potential to come into our full authority and true position in God's Priesthood, but many are also destined to become God's own Bride - united with the One who always loved us the most, the Great Lover of our souls, the Great High Priest of God - Yeshua.
    What He did for us at the Jordan River, on that victorious Passover Day in the city of Jerusalem.  Where He died for us ( in our place, almost two thousand years ago) giving His own blood for us and His life freely in exchange for our lives.  That we (who would be obedient and endure to the end) could become His friends and a part of God's own body.  The inner circle of best friends and lovers, the great mystery of even becoming God's own Bride.

     What I have written will be a new insight and new information for most of you, as it was also for me only
a short time ago, so rejoice in it!  We are rapidly heading into the days when each of us needs to be as whole
as possible, and in our proper Priesthood positions, to do those things that God will be calling us to, that only
the priests of the Old Testament were allowed to do, in order for each of us to have the power and authority we will need for what lies ahead, confronting the works of evil that will soon take over humanity, with a one world dictatorial government.
1 Cor. 15:50-58
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.
51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed--
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory."
55 "O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?"
56 The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. (NKJ)
 
    In order for Paul to have talked and written about the last trumpet, there had to be a first trumpet.  The first trumpet sounded is the first time that the Trumpet (shofar) is blown in the Bible.

Exodus 19:1-20
1 In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day, they came to the Wilderness of Sinai.
2 For they had departed from Rephidim, had come to the Wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness. So Israel camped there before the mountain.
3 And Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel:
4 'You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself.
5 'Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.
6 'And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel."
7 So Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before them all these words which the LORD commanded him.
8 Then all the people answered together and said, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do." So Moses brought back the words of the people to the LORD.
9 And the LORD said to Moses, "Behold, I come to you in the thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you forever." So Moses told the words of the people to the LORD.
10 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes.
11 "And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the LORD will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
12 "You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, 'Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death.
13 'Not a hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with an arrow; whether man or beast, he shall not live.' When the trumpet sounds long (when the yowbel or jubilee sounds), they shall come near the mountain."
14 So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes.
15 And he said to the people, "Be ready for the third day; do not come near your wives."
16 Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.
17 And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.
18 Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.
19 And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice.
20 Then the LORD came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain. And the LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. (NKJ)  (feast of Shavuot [Pentecost])

Exodus 20:18-19
18 Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off.
19 Then they said to Moses, "You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die."
(NKJ)

    Who blew that first shofar blast from heaven at Mount Sinai, on Shavuot, and what did it signify?  Was that shofar call from heaven Gods own voice?  It was God Himself who blew that first Shofar, the first trumpet, to announce something special to Israel, and to the Gentiles gathered in Israel’s camp.
    Was that first shofar that made the people tremble also the voice of God? We see in Revelation 1:10 and 4:5, that Gods voice is like a trumpet, and in Zechariah 9:14, that God sounds the shofar at His soon return!
     With the sounding of this first shofar at Mount Sinai, God began a marriage betrothal covenant with IsraelIsrael became God's Wife!
      In Jeremiah 3:8, God divorced Israel for idolatry, but it was not a total divorce, for as you read Jeremiah 3:14, God says: turn O backsliding children, for I am married to you. And in Hosea 2:19, God promises to betroth Israel to Himself ... Forever!
     A little less than 1500 years later, again on the feast of Shavuot, in an upper room in Jerusalem, God re-botrothed Himself to Israel.  This time He wrote His New Covenant on the inside of the hearts of a group of 120 born-again Jewish believers in the Messiah Yeshua, the Living Son of God.
    There is only One God, and God Himself had come to earth as a man, to die for the sins of the whole world, to purchase with His own life and blood His own special Body and Bride, the Ecclesia, the Called-Out-Ones, from both Israel and nations, those who would choose to return to God.

     There are many trumpet calls blown in the bible, but there are only two trumpet calls blown by God, Himself. God first revealed this mystery to us when Abraham was obedient to God to offer up his son Isaac, and God spared Isaac with a ram caught in the thicket by two horns, which God used to spare the first son of promise from being sacrificed. That ram given in place of Isaac was the beginning of the nation of Israel; the first horn represented the beginning of Gods plan for Israel, and the second or last horn represented the conclusion of Gods plan for Israel and for the nations of the world. This would be a plan that would take six days of Creation
to complete; God would rest on the seventh day with His Wife Israel, His Eternal Bride, His great mystery.

Genesis 22:7-18
7 But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." Then he said, "Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"
8 And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering." So the two of them went together.
9 Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood.
10 And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
11 But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am."
12 And He said, "Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me."
13 Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.
14 And Abraham called the name of the place, THE-LORD-WILL-PROVIDE; as it is said to this day, "In the Mount of The LORD it shall be provided."
15 Then the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time out of heaven,
16 and said: "By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son--
17 "blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.
18 "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice." (NKJ)
 
    We see many things in this passage of scripture; I choose to point out a few of them:
1) This ram represented Gods provision.
2) This ram was caught by both (two) horns, representing the fulfillment or complete picture of Gods redemption
    plan for both Israel and the nation.
3) The ram's horn represents the voice of God who spoke aloud from heaven to Abraham, providing this ram.
    God revealed His presence through His spoken voice, through His identity as the Angel of the LORD, who
    is the spoken Word of God, who would later become flesh, and dwell among us as the Son of man, to bring
    mankind back into true relationship with their Creator God and real Father.

     One of God's eternal Names is 'Father', only because the One and Only God is a Father.  His Name, Father, is an Eternal Name, for it was His title even before He created His Creation.  The One God has always been Father, only because He is a Father, and only because He has a Son,  all part of the One God.

Rev 1:10-18
10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet,
11 saying, "I am the Alpha and the Omega (the Aleph and the Tav), the First and the Last," and, "What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea."
12 Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands,
13 and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.
14 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire;
15 His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters;
16 He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.
17 And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, "Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last.
18 "I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death. (NKJ)

Rev 4:1-2
1 After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And

the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet
speaking with me, saying, "Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this."
2 Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. (NKJ)

Rev 10:7
7 but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.
(NKJ)

Rev 19:6-9
6 And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, "Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!
7 "Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready."
8 And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
9 Then he said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those (the Guests, Yeshua's friends) who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!'" And he said to me, "These are the true sayings of God." (NKJ)

    There is a great difference between the Marriage of Yeshua to His Wife, His Bride, and the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.  These are two different Feasts of the LORD; the Marriage will be held in heaven on the Feast of Yom Teruah, better known as Rosh HaShanah, and the Marriage Supper of the Lamb will be held back down on earth, in Jerusalem, on the greatest Feast of all, the Feast of Succoth or Tabernacles.  Their are also two different groups of saved believers. They are both a part of God's own Body, and they are both Priests of God.  The difference is that His Wife is the Heart of the Body, and She will be His High Priests.  The Guests are not just guests, but to qualify to be a Guest at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, you will qualify only if you have been found to be a Friend of God.  (see Matthew 22:11-14 and John 15:12-15)
 
Isaiah 25:6-9
6 And in this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of well-refined wines on the lees.
7 And He will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations.
8 He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces; the rebuke of His people he will take away from all the earth; for the LORD has spoken.
9 And it will be said in that day: "Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us (Yeshua means Salvation). This is the LORD; we have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation." (NKJ)

    What is the answer to the mystery of Yeshua’s Bride, who is She?  When is She taken out of here?  When and where is the Wedding held? Who are the Guests at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb?  Where and when is this Great Feast held?

    The answers to these and many other mysteries about the Lord's return can all be found in the new book
called: THE RETURN OF THE MESSIAH : THE KING OF GLORY  by Richard Aaron Honorof.
    This book was  released just before New Years, 1998, on the 2th of Kislev.  It can be ordered for $15.00 pre paid, which includes all freight charges, if shipped within the domestic U.S.A..

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