The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Blowing of Trumpets, #3

So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. (Nehemiah 8:2—NIV)

The memorial of blowing of Trumpets is the feast that follows Pentecost. God has brought His Church as far as Pentecost. Now it is time for us to move forward into the spiritual fulfillment of the final three feasts of the Lord: Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles.

The blowing of Trumpets announces the coming of King Jesus to make war against His enemies. The spiritual fulfillment of the Blowing of Trumpets is the alerting of God's Zion to the coming of the Lord to remove from the holy remnant, then from all Israel, and finally from the nations of saved peoples of the earth, all that is not acceptable to God. We are in that time now.

As we study the eighth chapter of Nehemiah we notice the emphasis on reading the Law of God. Reading the Law began on the first day of the seventh month, on the day of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah as it is termed today) and continued throughout the observance of Tabernacles (Nehemiah 8:18).

Reading the Law (the five books of Moses) brought to the minds of the worshipers the holy demands of the God of Israel. They realized they were obliged to adhere to the numerous statutes and principles given to Moses. The people had not been keeping the Law while they were in Babylon and there was much weeping because of their newly awakened awareness that they had been breaking the commandments of the Lord (Nehemiah 8:9).

How does the eighth chapter of Nehemiah apply to us today? In what way are the events of this chapter typical and prophetic? What is the spiritual substance of these types and shadows?

The spiritual fulfillment of Trumpets is the coming of the Lawgiver Himself, not only to bring to our minds the numerous statutes and principles found in the writings of the Apostles of the New Testament but also to remove the presence of sin from the elect and to fill us with Divine Life and Nature so we can walk in righteousness, holiness, and obedience to God.

A study of the Day of Atonement (Leviticus, Chapter 16) reveals that the atonement has two primary emphases: (1) forgiving the guilt of the Israelites; and (2) removing sin from the camp.

The doctrine of the propitiation [appeasement] of God's wrath by the blood atonement has been taught thoroughly in the Christian churches. What is not understood by many Christian believers is that the Divine atonement made through the death of Christ includes not only the forgiveness of the sins of the elect, and of the whole world, but also (and primarily) the actual removal of the presence of sin from the elect and eventually from every saved person of the nations of the earth.

The atonement made by Christ makes possible the forgiveness of our sins. However, the primary emphasis of the new covenant is not on the forgiveness of our sin but on putting the laws of God in our minds and writing them in our hearts (Hebrews 8:10).

To be continued.