Wayyiqra/Leviticus 23:23-25 “And יהוה spoke to Mosheh, saying, 24 “Speak to the children of Yisra’ĕl, saying, ‘In the seventh new moon, on the first day of the new moon, you have a rest, a remembrance of Teru‘ah, a set-apart gathering. 25 ‘You do no servile work, and you shall bring an offering made by fire to יהוה.’ ”
On this 1st day of the 7th month we gather to have a Sabbath-like rest and a remembrance of Teru‘ah!
Firstly I just want to highlight that this is one of the Feasts of יהוה that is commanded for us to keep, and on this day we do no ‘servile’ work (i.e. no normal work as this is a Sabbath-like day). The word used for ‘rest’ is the Hebrew the term שַׁבָּתוֹן ‘shabbathon’ – Strong’s H7677 meaning a ‘Sabbath-like’ rest or Sabbath observance’. So although it may not fall on a Sabbath, the day is treated like one – you do no work and you have a set-apart gathering.
The word for ‘set-apart’ in Hebrew is: קֹדֶש– qodesh/ko-desh – Strong’s H6944 – and it means ‘apartness/ consecrated/ dedicated/ that which is dedicated and separated unto יהוה’. The word is really self-explanatory and carries with it great weight in its identification of truly setting something or someone apart from another with a clear distinction of being marked as separate and apart from the rest.
The word used for ‘gathering’ is : מִקְרָא – ‘miqra’ – Strong’s H4744, meaning: assembly/ group/ convocation/ a collective of people gathered for a purpose/a calling together, which comes from the root word קָרָא qara – Strong’s H7121 meaning, ‘proclaim, call, read, summons, invite, to be called out’.
And on top of that – you have a remembrance of Teru‘ah, and it is this that I want us to look at a little more closely today.
The word for remembrance in Hebrew is זִכָּרוֹן ‘zikkaron’- Strong’s H2146 meaning ‘memorial, commemoration or remembrance’ and comes from the root word זָכַר ‘zakar’ – Strong’s H2142 which means ‘to remember, or be mindful, or bring to remembrance’. It is therefore a day for us as a call to remember Teru‘ah.
The Hebrew word for ‘Teru‘ah’ is תְּרוּעָה – Strong’s H8643 – means ‘a shout or blast of war, alarm or joy’ which comes from the primitive root word רוּעַ rua – Strong’s H7321 meaning, ‘to raise a shout, give a blast, sound the alarm, shout for joy’, and it is on this day that we certainly raise a shout and blow the shofar/trumpets.
This Day is also known as the Day of The Awakening Blast, which is truly a day to hear the ‘wake-up’ call and get ready for the coming Bridegroom, who will be coming in the Day of Yom Kippur when He comes out of the Most Set-Apart Place, just 10 days after Yom Teru’ah; and therefore we recognise our need to be awake and alert and hold fast to the Truth, guarding His commands diligently, so that when He comes He will find us having great working faith!
While we do raise a shout of praise and blow the shofars, we are called to have a remembrance of Teru’ah, and this is what I want to focus on; and in order to do that we need to ask the question, “What are we to remember?”.
The first thing that we are to most certainly remember is what took place at Mount Sinai when Yisra’ĕl ‘heard the sounding of the Yoḇel and the voice of the shofar’ on the third day. they were given two days to get ready and on the third day יהוה came down and spoke the 10 Words of the Marriage Covenant. The Bride was given ‘two days’ to get ready and on the third ‘meet’ with יהוה! This is a foreshadow of when He is coming down to be with us, His Bride – To understand this we must remember that which Kěpha told us not to let be hidden from us:
Kěpha Bet/2 Peter 3:8 “But, beloved ones, let not this one matter be hidden from you: that with יהוה one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
Why is this matter critical to not be hidden from us or forgotten? Because it takes us all the way back to creation and there we can understand the plan and Appointed Times of יהוה as we see that the 7 day Creation week foreshadows in a type the 7 millennia or 7000 years span of this age. On the 4th Day lights came to be in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, as well as for the Appointed Times and seasons. We know that יהושע came in the flesh on the ‘4th day’ – in the 4th Millennium, as He is the ‘Light of the world’ that came to separate the day from the night or the light from the darkness as He called us out of darkness into His marvellous light! Having said that we can further understand that we were now given ‘two days’ to get ready (that is the 5th and 6th Millennium) and on the ‘third day’ (that is the 7th Millennium, being the 3rd day from the 4th) He shall come down and meet His ready Bride!
So on this Yom Teru‘ah/Feast of Trumpets we remember that we are betrothed and recognise our need to be a ready and spotless Bride. We then go back and remember what took place in Yerushalayim in Ma’asei/Acts 2 on the Feast of Shaḇu’ot/Feast of Weeks/Pentecost, when the 120 believers who were gathered for this Feast were filled with the Set-Apart Spirit and the Torah was written upon their hearts, as the Marriage Covenant that was given as Mount Sinai, was no renewed in the Blood of Messiah and written on the hearts of the believers!
This day there was the sound and fire similar to what was ‘heard’ at Mount Sinai, and so we remember how the Marriage Covenant has been renewed/repaired/restored in the Blood of Messiah by which we who were once far off are now able to be grafted back in to. In understanding that we are to remember that we are ‘betrothed’ to יהושע we must recognise the need to keep our garments of righteousness clean as we wait for our soon coming Bridegroom.
In the parable of the 10 virgins we find that all ten fell asleep and only 5 have oil in the lamps when the wake-up call came! When the wakeup call came they were to ‘trim their wicks’ and light their lamps which is a picture of making final preparations that will take place during the 10 days of awe between Yom Teru‘ah and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)! Those who have been grafted in by the Blood of Messiah and ‘remember’ to keep the Sabbath as well as all the Feasts and guard the Torah of Elohim are the ones who have oil in their lamps and will be able to keep shining during the intense 10 days of distress and persecution that will come before יהושע comes out of the Most Set-Apart Place!
This day of Yom Teru‘ah we remember that we are married and that the day of the return of our Husband draws near and so we raise a shout of joy, but also of alarm as a call to be armed in the Torah and stand steadfast!
What we can also see from Scripture in this call to have a remembrance of Teru‘ah is that we can learn a great deal from the events that took place in Scripture where we see the term תְּרוּעָה -‘Teru‘ah’ being used and so let us look at a few of these examples. In fact this word is used 36 times in the Tanak (O.T.), however I simply want to highlight a few key examples for us in helping us to ‘remember’ what we ought to!
Before we look at these examples we must also recognise that תְּרוּעָה -‘Teru‘ah’, while associated with the blowing of the shofar and trumpets, is also expressed as the shout that comes from our lips/mouths together with the blowing of trumpets and shofars – therefore our great and loud shout of praise is connected to this!!!
The first I want to show you is at the time of Yeriḥo walls falling down:
Yehoshua/Joshua 6:5 “And it shall be, when they make a long blast with horn of the yoḇel, and when you hear the voice of the shofar, that all the people shout with a great sound. And the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall go up every man straight before him.”
Here we clearly see the connection between the sounding of the shofar and trumpets with the great and loud shouting of the people! In the term ‘shout with a great sound’ we have the following words:
For the word ‘shout’ the Hebrew word used is רוּעַ rua – Strong’s H7321 meaning, ‘to raise a shout, give a blast, sound the alarm, shout for joy’.
The word for ‘great’ is גָּדוֹל gadol – Strong’s H1419 and means, ‘great, highest, mighty, marvellous’.
The Hebrew word translated as ‘sound’ is the word we are talking about today – תְּרוּעָה –‘Teru‘ah’!!!
This was the instruction and in verse 20 we see that this was carried out:
Yehoshua/Joshua 6:20 “And the people shouted when the priests blew the shopharot. And it came to be when the people heard the voice of the shofar, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat. And the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city.”
What we can learn from this is that we remember what happened at Yeriḥo and this helps us to remember that we are to be strong and courageous and be a praising people as we shout a shout of victory, for then the ‘walls’ that we may be facing will come crashing down – walls do not just fall down by themselves, however when we are obedient to the Instructions/Torah of Elohim remembering daily to hear, guard and do His commands and keep His Appointed Times then we will see how He fights for us and will cause the strongest walls that lie ahead of us to fall!
When you are facing some of the toughest challenges in your life – it is time to shout with a great shout as you walk faithfully according to His Word. It is here at Yom Teru‘ah that we not only remember that we are betrothed and must keep our garments clean, but also we remember the great victory that יהושע has brought us by destroying the wall of hostility and breaking down the man-made dogmas that held us captive for so long!
Let us now look at another example of where this word תְּרוּעָה -‘Teru‘ah’ is used.
Shemuʼěl Aleph/1 Samuel 4:5-7 “And when the ark of the covenant of יהוה came into the camp, all Yisra’ĕl shouted so loudly that the earth shook. 6 And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, “What is the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews?” And when they knew that the ark of יהוה had come into the camp, 7 the Philistines were afraid, for they said, “Elohim has come into the camp!” And they said, “Woe to us! For it has never been like this before.”
This event has both a positive and negative lesson for us. Yisra’ĕl had gone out to battle against the Philistines and were struck heavily as they lost about four thousand men, and when they camp into the camp the elders called for the Ark of The Covenant of יהוה from Shiloh; and when the ark entered the camp all Yisra’ĕl lifted their voices and shouted so loudly that the Philistines feared at the sound of Teru‘ah!!! While we can certainly learn that the enemy will tremble at the sound of our ‘shouting’ of praise, we can see that from the events that followed that Yisra’ĕl were struck down and thirty thousand foot soldiers were killed and the ark of Elohim was captured, and the two sons of Ěli, Ḥophni and Pineḥas also died! That same day Ěli, the high priest died at the news of the capture of the ark of Elohim; and his daughter in law, the wife of Pineḥas, who was pregnant died upon giving birth after hearing the news that her husband and her father-in-law had died and that the ark had been captured! Before she died she named the child she bore Iḵaḇoḏ – אִי־כָבוֹד – Strong’s H350 which means, ‘no esteem’ as the esteem of יהוה had departed from Yisra’ĕl!!!
The great lesson we can learn and remember is that we cannot ‘manufacture’ the presence of יהוה in order to get our way! The sons of Ěli were wicked priests and therefore did not bear the ark of Elohim or serve Him in the correct manner, and this cost the nation greatly! We must remember that while the enemy will most certainly tremble at the sound of our praise and rejoicing of Elohim, the enemy will still come at us and attack and if we have not been serving in faithful obedience to His commands the enemy will strike us down. This is a picture of the church who claim with their lips praise unto Elohim, yet their hearts are far from Him as they disregard the Torah and the remembrance of keeping His Shabbat and Feasts and as a result will face a great destruction and be caught speechless due to their lawlessness that assumed a rightful standing based on an empty confession of a dead faith!
We can learn from this that while there may be a sound of truth, if the Truth is not in the heart and no love expressed through obedience then that sound has become simply as a sounding brass or clanging cymbal!!!
Therefore as we ‘remember Teru‘ah’ we must ask ourselves if there is a true sound of obedience where our mouth and heart match up as the Torah is in them to do it or is the sound of my faith just a big noise that does not adhere to the score sheet of the music of the Torah of Elohim that I am to be ‘playing’ to???
In Shemuʼěl Bet we read of the account of the return of the ark of Elohim and learn great lessons in the correct manner of carrying His presence and serving Him with every step!
Shemuʼěl Bet/2 Samuel 6:15 “Thus Dawiḏ and all the house of Yisra’ĕl brought up the ark of יהוה with shouting and with a voice of a shofar.”
The ark of Elohim was returned to Yisra’ĕl after it had been with the Philistines for 7 months, as they had been struck with deadly tumors and destruction from יהוה. The ark of יהוה was sent to Bĕyth Shemesh and was then sent to Qiryath Yeʽarim and remained there for twenty years in the house of Aḇinaḏab. Dawiḏ went and brought the Ark of Elohim from the house of Aḇinaḏab and they set it on a new wagon! As they were dancing along the way the oxen stumbled and Uzzah took hold of the ark of Elohim and was struck dead. The ark then remained in the house of Oḇĕḏ-Eḏom and remained there for 3 months and all his household was blessed! Dawiḏ then came to fetch the Ark of Elohim and this time they carried it correctly!!! They went six steps and stopped and slaughtered bulls and sheep – and this is a picture of us carrying the presence of יהוה with joy each and every day, working and walking in accordance to His Torah each and every day and then coming to Shabbat on the 7th day and offer up a set-apart gathering of praise!
In the above verse we see that Yisra’ĕl brought up the ark of יהוה with ‘shouting’ – תְּרוּעָה -‘Teru‘ah’ and with the voice of a shofar!
What we remember for these accounts is that we are to carry the presence of יהוה correctly and not in a man-made formula! He has given us His clear instructions/Torah and when we walk in the straight path of His Torah we can do so with great joy and raise a true shout or תְּרוּעָה -‘Teru‘ah’. What is interesting to me here is that we see again the connecting between ‘shouting’ – תְּרוּעָה -‘Teru‘ah’ – being done alongside the voice of a shofar. In the previous example in Shemuʼěl Aleph you will notice no voice of a shofar! The voice of a shofar points us back to Mount Sinai and the giving of the commands:
Shemoth/Exodus 19:16 “And it came to be, on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain. And a voice of a shofar was very strong, and all the people who were in the camp trembled.”
The link is very clear – True shouting of Teru’ah is in regards to being lined up with and in obedience to the Torah of Elohim. The way we ‘carry’ His presence and are able to ‘shout’ is by guarding to do all His commands and remembering to keep His Sabbath and His feasts, for without this remembrance to obey the shouting is incomplete!
The next example of the word תְּרוּעָה -‘Teru‘ah’ being used is in:
Diḇre haYamim Bet/2 Chronicles 15:14 “And they swore to יהוה with a loud voice, with shouting and with trumpets and with shopharot.”
Here Yisra’ĕl was gathered in the third new moon!!! What happens in the third new moon? SHAḆU’OT – FEAST OF WEEKS – PENTECOST!!! This is the Feast where the renewed Marriage Covenant with Yisra’ĕl was written on hearts of believers and what is a great shadow picture of this event is by the accounts we see being spoken of here where in the 15th year of the reign of Asa they entered into a covenant to ‘seek’ יהוה Elohim of their fathers (Aḇraham, Yitsḥaq, Ya’aqoḇ) with all their heart and with all their being! In verse 13 it says that whoever would not seek יהוה would be put to death, no matter you status in society – big or small if you did not seek יהוה you died!!!
And here as we see form verse 14 they swore an oath with a loud voice, with shouting – תְּרוּעָה -‘Teru‘ah’, with trumpets and with the shofar!!! Verse 15 goes on to say that they rejoiced concerning the oath that they had sworn with all their heart and being and that יהוה gave them rest all around!!!
This is a very powerful illustration that helps us remember what יהושע has given us access back into by His Blood – the Covenants of Promise! And we too must shout and rejoice with all our hearts as we swear and oath to walk faithfully in Him – to guard to do His commands is a joy and must cause us to rejoice – it is not hard or impossible as many false doctrines teach!
The next example comes from Ezra in:
Ezra 3:11-13 “And they responded by praising and giving thanks to יהוה, “For He is good, for His loving-commitment towards Yisra’ĕl is forever.” And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised יהוה, because the foundation of the House of יהוה was laid. 12 And many of the priests and Lěwites and heads of the fathers’ houses, the old men who had seen the first House, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this House was laid before their eyes, and many shouted aloud for joy, 13 and the people could not distinguish the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard far away.”
Here again we see the use of the words גָּדוֹל gadol, רוּעַ rua, and of course – תְּרוּעָה –‘Teru‘ah’!!!
This chapter begins with telling us that in the 7th new moon they kept Sukkot and from the first day of the 7th new moon they began to offer up ascending offerings, while the foundation of the Hěḵal had not yet been laid, so money and provision was given to the builders and they completed laying the foundation in the second new moon of the following year and at the foundation of the House they all raised a shout and praised Elohim!
We are reminded that יהושע is the Chief Cornerstone and the foundation has been laid for the House of Elohim and we are the living stones being built together in Him and as we remember this we too can have a remembrance of shouting as we praise our King and shout a great shout! The shout here was heard far away!!! We are not to be silent in our walk of faith but must proclaim with a loud voice and so the remembrance of Teru‘ah can also cause us to realise that we are not to hide our light but rather shine it through faithful obedience and tell others of His great Besorah!
The next example of the word תְּרוּעָה -‘Teru‘ah’ being used is in:
Iyoḇ/Job 8:21 “While He fills your mouth with laughter, and your lips with rejoicing”
The word translated as ‘rejoicing’ is תְּרוּעָה -‘Teru‘ah’ and we are reminded that it is יהוה who fills us and fills our mouth with laughter and our lips with true ability to praise, through His life-giving Word that is our daily and lawful bread!
What we are to remember in terms of this is that we are to be a people who ‘rejoice always’, and so at the ‘remembrance of Teru‘ah’ we find that it is a good time to reflect on our attitudes! Are we truly rejoicing always and do we rejoice when we face all kinds of trials or do we find ourselves moaning and groaning at some pressures and hardships we face along the way??? Let us be reminded to be a rejoicing people – for we have truly nothing to moan about as we walk in Messiah who give us abundant life!
The next example of the word תְּרוּעָה -‘Teru‘ah’ being used is in:
Tehillim/Psalm 27:6 “And now my head is lifted up above my enemies all around me; and I slaughter in His Tent with slaughters of sounding; I sing, yea, I sing praises to יהוה.”
To ‘slaughter in His Tent’ we certainly understanding the picture of true obedience of worship by the design of the Tabernacle, which we learn a great deal from in how we are to draw near to Elohim; and so this ‘sounding’ or תְּרוּעָה -‘Teru‘ah’ can help us to remember His Feasts and what a joy it is to draw near on His Appointed Times!!!
While we are certainly called to be a daily living sacrifice and offer up daily to Him a slaughter offering of praise, we also recognise that we are to collectively as a body do this on His Sabbaths and His Feasts!
It is יהוה who fights for us and delivers us from our enemies all around and we are to walk in the victorious procession in Messiah as we praise and declare His praises and raise a shout to our King!
The last example I want to give you today of the word תְּרוּעָה -‘Teru‘ah’ being used is in:
Tehillim/Psalm 89:15 “Blessed are the people who know the sounding! They walk, O יהוה, in the light of Your face.”
What a powerful verse this is!!! Blessed are those who know the festal trumpet call is how this could also be translated as we certainly recognise that the Appointed Times of Elohim are critical to our understanding of Scripture and the ability to know and walk in His commands as we follow His cycles and seasons gives us the blessing of walking in His light! Hebrew root word used here for ‘know’ is יָדַע ‘yada’ – Strong’s H3045 and means ‘to acknowledge, clearly understand, to perceive, distinguish and discern’ and implies the ability to respond to and recognise the Master’s voice. This is very powerful as we have seen that it was a voice of a shofar that was heard on Mount Sinai and in Yerushalayim on Shaḇu’ot there was a sound of a rushing wind which is also a clear reference back to the voice of a shofar!
Those who know His commands and understand through walking in them are blessed as we see here that the product of knowing the sounding is the ability to walk in His light!
We are then further able to clearly understand the words of Messiah when He says in:
Yoḥanan/John 10:27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”
Blessed are those who know the Teru‘ah! Blessed are those who hear the Master’s voice and turn to Him and follow Him and walk in Him. The word used for ‘walk’ is הָלַךְ halak – Strong’s H1980 which means, ‘to go, come, walk, manner of life, cause to live’, and literally speaks of how one lives, and it is used as a verb indicating that it is an active expression of one’s life. Our ‘walk’ matters and how we walk before Elohim matters and we are given clear instructions on how to walk – and our walk cannot be complete in Him if we forget to keep His Feasts!
As we consider the ‘remembrance of Teru‘ah’ may we recognise and remember that we are a betrothed Bride who must ready Herself for His soon return, dressed in the righteousness of His Torah that He has given us and written upon our hearts and minds; and to do it with great joy. May we also remember what great works He has done in our lives as we remember the passages we read of, that can also picture for us a remembrance in our own walk of how He has delivered us, forgiven us and called us out of darkness! Yom Teru‘ah ushers in the awakening call to remember who we are, who we serve and where our hope lies and what is coming for us and therefore our ability to stand firm is greatly strengthened for what lies ahead by remember what has gone before. And those who do not ‘know’ His Appointed Times are clearly unable to walk in and remain in Him, and while they may claim to live in Him, if they do not walk in Him and remember to guard and keep His Torah and His Appointed Times then they are liars and the truth is not in them, for truly love for Elohim has not been perfected in them as they clearly reveal this through wilful ignorance and disobedience to His commands – they are the ones that may have lamps in their hands yet have no oil!!!
Yom Teru‘ah ushers in the beginning of the end so to speak and the sounding of the Trumpets which will culminate on the last trumpet being sounded on Yom Kippur – may we remember our True identity that He redeemed in His own Blood and be faithful to guard all He has commanded us to do and not be found to be among those who have forgotten and whose names are not found in the book of life, but in remembering who we are and in our Marriage Covenant renewed in the Blood of Messiah, let us rejoice and raise a shout of praise that our names are written in the heavens!
It is Yom Teru‘ah – REMEMBER THE SHOUTING!