September 27, 2025

Life in the Land: The Feast of Trumpets

This morning and tomorrow morning a ram’s horn will sound in synagogues, public parks, hospitals and nursing homes throughout Jewish communities worldwide. It will be blown on street corners and even in the homes of the homebound in observance of a biblical command found in Leviticus 23:23-25 and Numbers 29:1-6.

The Hebrew in these two passages technically calls this event a “memorial of shouting” (Lev. 23:24) or “a day of blowing” (Num. 1:1), the latter suggesting the use of a ram’s horn to announce its commencement in much the same way that trumpets were blown in the Sinai wilderness so long ago to signal the breaking of the Israelites’ camp or the urgent assembly of troops for battle.

The Bible instructs the Israelites to treat the first day of the seventh month as a Sabbath day (now celebrated as a two-day event) and further describes it as “a holy assembly.” On our modern calendars the Feast of Trumpets falls annually in September or early October, and the Israelites are commanded to offer burnt, grain and drink offerings as a pleasing aroma to the Lord each Fall.

The Bible gives no specific purpose for this holiday, but the inferred use of a ram’s horn (“day of blowing,” v. 1) has prompted a natural connection to the sacrifice of Isaac. For Christians there is also an interesting connection to the return of the Lord who comes “with the trumpet of God” (1 Thes. 4:16).

In time the biblical Feast of Trumpets took on a dual role as the Jewish New Year, known in Hebrew as Rosh Hashanah (“Head of the Year”), a likely development during the Israelites’ sojourn in Babylon, which for a certain period in its history followed a civil calendar that began in the Fall. Today Rosh Hashanah is followed by a ten-day period, “Days of Awe,” a time of introspection and repentance for misdeeds in preparation for the Day of Atonement which comes ten days later.

During the modern two-day observance of Rosh Hashanah, the Jews attend synagogue, blow the ram’s horn, read Genesis 22 and recite special prayers. It’s also a family-oriented holiday, marked by special foods, such as honey cakes and apples dipped in honey that symbolize hope for a sweet year; round challah bread that symbolizes the cycle of the year; pomegranates (thought to contain 613 seeds) that picture God’s 613 commandments; and fish heads that express the wish to be “like the head and not the tail” (cf. Deut. 28:13). Some may also visit a lake, a river or even the Mediterranean Sea in order to throw pebbles or pieces of bread into the water that symbolize a ready heart to cast off their sins (cf. Micah 7:19).

Trivia

When the Lord revealed himself to Elijah in a “still small voice” (not in the wind, earthquake or fire) where was Elijah?

Answer to Trivia question at bottom of page

Scripture Study: Genesis 4:26, (Part 1)

Of course we all know the names of Adam and Eve and their two sons, Cain and Abel, but the first couple had at least seven children in all (cf. Gen. 5:4), including five sons, the third named Seth. We meet Seth for the very first time in vs. 25-26 where he and his wife celebrate a baby boy of their own, named Enosh, presumably their first baby, a son. This happy occasion is punctuated by a short note in v. 26b, “Then men began to call on the name of the LORD.” Short and sweet, and yet there’s nothing more said! So what can it mean?

Using the time markers from Genesis, we can determine that 235 years have passed between the creation of Adam and the birth of baby Enosh. That’s quite a long time! After all, America is only 249 years old, and a lot has happened since the world first heard the famous shot at Lexington and the peal of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. So what actually occurred during the first 235 days of world history that would prompt the writer of Genesis to announce that with the birth of Enosh “men began to call on the name of the LORD”?

Does it mean that for the past two centuries Cain had been busy raising a gaggle of kids who turned into hoodlums with little or no regard for the Lord and that only now was there a new family that wanted to live for the Lord? Had Adam and Eve been worshipping alone all those years while grieving over the general rebellion of their only surviving son, Cain, who never taught his kids and grandkids to pray, to bring an offering to the Lord or to worship the Lord in any way?

Does this verse imply that following the birth of his firstborn son, Seth quickly realized that little Enosh would soon be watching him, thus prompting Seth to say to Paw Paw Adam, “Why don’t we begin to worship together—you, mom, my wife and I, and we’ll teach little Enosh that God has a wonderful plan for this world even though Cain feels differently and has raised the cousins to live for themselves!”

What do you think? Is that how it happened? Is that what this verse means? I’d sure love to hear from you.

Scripture Study: Genesis 4:26, (Part 2)

“Then men began to call on the name of the LORD.” Many Bible teachers and most modern translations take this verse to mean that it’s at this point, following the birth of Enosh, that men began to pray together or worship publicly. After all, both Genesis 12:8 and 26:15 use a similar expression to describe Abraham’s move to Bethel and Isaac’s move to Beersheba where each built an altar and “called on the name of the LORD.” This view does seem preferable to me; however, there are a couple of alternative views that might intrigue you—as they did me.

First, some assert that the Hebrew doesn’t read, “Then men began to call on the name of the LORD” in order to express some new gathering for public worship, but rather, “Then men defiled the name of the LORD in worship.” Both “began” and “defiled” are justified, depending on the context. But if we translate the word as “defiled,” then the author implies that false religion or idolatry had been newly introduced.

Second, others think that we should read this verse, “Then men began to call themselves by the name of the LORD.” Herbert Lockyer offers this take, “With the coming of [Enosh], men were conscious of their weakness, and, seeking refuge in God, wished to do His will. A sacredness, previously unknown, was now attached to the name Jehovah. One writer suggests that this may have given rise to the practice common to the Jews for centuries of giving names to children in which the name of God is interwoven” (author’s emphasis). My own name includes the name of God, “God is My Vindicator.” What does your name mean?

On Location: Pater Noster

September 9, 2022

I’ve never recited the Lord’s Prayer in any other language besides English, but if I ever decided to try it in Latin, it’d start with the words, “Pater Noster” (“Our Father”). There is a church on the brow of the Mount of Olives just east of Jerusalem called the Pater Noster Church, and it displays the Lord’s Prayer on colorful ceramic plaques in at least 140 languages. A dubious, late tradition states that Jesus first taught this prayer to his disciples there inside a cave that’s now been incorporated into the church complex.

The modern discovery of this cave in 1910 was, nevertheless, quite notable. You may recall that, after converting to Christianity in the early fourth century A.D., Emperor Constantine and his mother, Helena, sought to locate the key biblical sites associated with Jesus’ birth, death and ascension. Written less than one hundred years after the death of the Apostle John, the Acts of John, a collection of stories about the apostle, mentions a cave atop the Mount of Olives where Jesus taught his disciples. Helena looked for this cave and found one that the locals identified as that mentioned in the Acts of John and, in particular, as the location where Jesus taught what’s commonly called the Olivet discourse (Matthew 24-25). But even more importantly the locals identified the entrance to the cave as the location for Jesus’ ascension into heaven (Acts 1:9-12).

Constantine built his Eleona (“of olives”) Church on this site to commemorate the ascension, and since for me there is strong evidence that Constantine’s Church of the Holy Sepulcher inside the Old City of Jerusalem correctly marks the site of Golgotha and that his Church of the Holy Nativity in Bethlehem correctly marks the location of the place of Jesus’ birth, I am comfortable with Constantine’s identification for the ascension of Jesus as well. But even if we are not entirely confident that we’ve found the right site, we can be sure of one thing. He is coming again! Are you ready?

Answer to the Trivia

D. Mount Sinai (1 Kings 19:8)