This is a countdown to Yom Teruah, the Day of Trumpets described in Scripture.

Why the Day of Trumpets?

• Trumpets herald the arrival of the king (e.g. 2 Sam 15:10, 1 Kings 1:34,39, 2 Kings 9:13, 2 Kings 11:14, Psalm 98:6, etc)
• Trumpets mark times of rejoicing (Numbers 10:10)
• Trumpets mark the time of Israel’s return to the Land (Isaiah 27:13)
• It is one of Holy Days of the Lord (Leviticus 23:24, Numbers 29:1)

As it says in the book of Joel:

Blow the trumpet in Zion,
And sound an alarm in My holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble;
For the day of the LORD is coming,
For it is at hand…! (Joel 2:1 NKJV)

Our prayer is that this will be the year the Messiah returns.

Hold on a minute. Messiah isn’t supposed to return until the last trump!

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)

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. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)

This is true… but what is "the last trumpet"?

Yom Teruah [the day of trumpets] is also known as the Day of Judgment. On that day, the shofar [a ram’s horn] is sounded 100 times. The teruah, tekiah, shevarim pattern of sounds (1 set) is sounded 99 times. The 100th set is called the final blast or the last trump… and this only occurs on Yom Teruah.

Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk (known as the Meshech Chochmah 1843-1926, Poland) cited a Midrash (Vayikra Rabah 27:7) according to which a woman who is about ready to give birth cries out 100 times -- her first 99 cries are because she fears that she is about to die, but her final cry is due to her realization that she is going to live after all. Similarly, we blow 100 blasts on Rosh Hashanah -- the first 99 are blown out of fear of the judgment of the day, while the final blast is due to our confidence that God will judge us favorably.¹

The "last trump" sounds each year. Let us pray that this is the year of the Lord’s return.

Wait just a second. Nobody knows the day or hour of Messiah’s return!

As He [Messiah] was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?" And Yeshua answered and said to them, "See to it that no one misleads you." … But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. (Matthew 24:3-4, 36)

Yom Teruah, the Day of Trumpets is the only one of the Lord’s appointed times that begins with the new moon. All the other feasts/festivals began later in the month.  As a result, it became known as the day when nobody knew the day and hour it began.

The Feast of Trumpets is a unique celebration in that it is actually two days referred to as one day, and called Yoma Arichtah in Aramaic: "one long day". This is because (unlike all the other feasts) it is marked not by a day, date, or time - it is traditionally marked as when two witnesses reported to the Sanhedrin that the new moon had been spotted. What makes it impossible to assign a day or hour to this event (which the Jewish people were commanded to observe) is that the timing would be relative and different depending on where in the world you were.¹

The Torah commandment to observe Yom Teruah (the Day of the Sounding [of the shofar]) states that the holiday is to be observed on the first day of the seventh month.* It is the only holiday that occurs on the first day of a month. The Jewish calendar is lunar based and, until approximately 350 C.E., the declaration of the new month was dependent on two witnesses reporting the appearance of the new moon to the Sanhedrin. If the new month was declared late in the day, word still needed to reach those who did not live close to Jerusalem. Wanting to prevent any possible desecration of the holiness of the day, the rabbis declared that the New Year be celebrated as a Yoma Arichta (Aramaic for one long day), meaning that the one day was spread over two days. In other words, while Rosh Hashana is observed on the first and second of Tishrei, the two days are thought of as a single day.²

In Matthew 25, Messiah tells the parable of the wise and foolish virgins:

Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight a cry was heard: 'Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!' Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, "Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out." But the wise answered, saying, "No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves." And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, "Lord, Lord, open to us!" But he answered and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. (Matthew 25:1-13 NKJV)

In the parable, it was the foolish virgins who weren’t prepared for the day or the hour. Messiah cautions His disciples to "watch therefore". In Mark 13:32-37, He repeats this admonition to "watch".

Watch for what?

The signs of the coming day of the Lord!

In Luke 12, Messiah tells the parable of the good slaves:

Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them. Whether he comes in the second watch [i.e. 9PM to midnight], or even in the third [i.e. midnight to 3AM], and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into. You too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect." (Luke 12:37-40)

Peter, uncertain for whom this message was meant asks the Lord, "Are You addressing this parable to us, or to everyone else as well?" (Luke 12:41) The Lord replies:

Who then is the faithful and sensible steward, whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But if that slave says in his heart, 'My master will be a long time in coming,' and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and assign him a place with the unbelievers. (Luke 12:42-46)

The faithful and sensible steward is prepared while the drunk and unfaithful slave did not know the day or the hour of his master’s return.

In Luke 19, the Master condemns the leaders of His day that they didn’t recognize "the time of your visitation" (Luke 19:44) and Messiah’s first coming. They should have been watching and preparing.

Let us keep watch for the Lord’s return and not be caught unaware like the foolish virgins and the unfaithful slave.

Hold up there, buddy. Messiah's return is supposed to come like a thief in the night!

For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. (1 Thessalonians 5:2)

Let's look at a bit more of that passage.

But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, "Peace and safety!" then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. (1 Thessalonians 1-4)

Paul tells the believers in Thessalonica that they are not in the darkness and the Day of the Lord should not overtake them as a thief.

Consider also Messiah's words from Revelation chapter 3:

To the angel of the church in Sardis write: He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars, says this: ‘I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God. So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you. But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. (Revelation 3:1-5)

Messiah comes like a thief in the night to the dead church, Sardis, and those who are asleep. He also admonishes the "lukewarm" church in Laodicea that they are "wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked" (Revelation 3:17) and later declares:

"Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame." (Revelation 16:15)

It is the spiritually blind, naked, dead, and lukewarm believers who find Messiah coming unexpectedly... like a thief.

The Temple Institute relates the nightly routine during the 2nd Temple period. If a Levite were to be found asleep on duty, the supervisors of the guard would "rap the sleeping Levite with his stick; the supervisor was even empowered to set his covering [clothing] on fire as a punishment for not carrying out his duty properly."¹

Some have called that supervisor of the guard a "thief [someone unexpected] in the night".

May we not be spiritually blind, naked, dead, or lukewarm like those to whom the Lord's coming will be like a thief in the night.

ReturnOfTheMessiah.com is a service of the Psalm 119 Foundation, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to sharing the Word of G-d and encouraging others to follow the Messiah of Israel.

We offer free online services ranging from the teachings of the Rabbi Yeshua on TheRabbi.org, topical Bible studies, commentary, timelines of Biblical history, and other resources on Psalm11918.org, to our fellowship finder on FellowshipFinder.com that connects believers with one another all over the world.  Learn about all of our services at ThePsalm119Foundation.org.

The Foundation was created to serve those who believe in the risen Messiah of Israel.

If you desire a life holy and set apart to G-d, let us serve you.

FAQs

Are you predicting the date of the Rapture?

No.

Are you predicting when Christ/Messiah/Jesus will return?

No.

When Messiah came in the first century, it was in fulfillment of the spring moedim [festivals] to the day and to the hour. We believe that He will come again in fulfillment of the fall moedim to the day and the hour… beginning with Yom Teruah, the Day of Trumpets.

Is that this year?

Perhaps. Only the Father knows.

Generally speaking, believers have forgotten G-d’s holy days and how they reveal the Messiah. This site exists to remind us all of those days and of Messiah’s pending return… whatever year that may be.

Let us all be prepared for His return!

<><