Watch Focus - Rosh Hashanah & Fast: Blow the Trumpet in Zion

The message of teshuvah (repentance), which in Hebrew literally means to return:

“Return to Me and I will return to you, says the Lord.” (Malachi 3:7)

The Rosh Hashanah trumpet signals the culmination of the year and beginning of a new one on the Jewish calendar given by God. It is the beginning of Ten Days of Awe: national reflection and return to the ways of the Lord in preparation for judgment and the day of covering, atonement, Yom Kippur.

Hosea 6:1, “Come, and let us return to the LORD; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up.”

The shofar blast announcing the Feast of Trumpets (culminating with denial of self by fasting) sounds a call to God’s people to present themselves before Him as a unity, a corporate body made of many individual members, gathering in preparation for inspection. The Ten Days of Awe is a period judgment, righting of wrongs, culminating with blood covering—atonement provided by the sacrifice God provides. The story of the binding of Isaac, known in Hebrew as the Akedah (Genesis 22:1-9), is read on the second day of Rosh Hashanah. It relates how God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac on Mount Moriah. In place of Isaac God provides a ram for atonement. In the same way Christ has become the divine exchange for us.

These symbols are all prophetic foreshadows of the end of the age and the coming of the Lord Jesus.

The “Day of Redemption,” Yom Kippur, is the holiest day of the Hebrew year when the high priest performed the sin atonement and removal ceremonies on behalf of the nation. The high priest entered the holy of holies with the blood for a covering for the nation and its people. It is known as the “Day of Atonement” when the destiny of every person was sealed in the certainty their names were inscribed in the Book of Life. It signifies Jesus entering heaven with the gifts of His atoning work on our behalf and then coming back to receive His bride in the new heaven and earth for eternity.

We acknowledge our High Priest has offered Himself once for all. We enter into the intercession of His sacrifice and cry out on behalf of our nation and our families recognizing it will be on the ultimate Yom Kippur, at the end of the age, that the Great Shofar (Trumpet) will be blown (Leviticus 25:9; Isaiah 18:3, 27:13; Zechariah 9:14).  On this day, the world will come “face-to-face” with Jesus when He returns bodily to earth, at the blowing of the Seventh Trumpet (Revelation 11:15), at which time the fate of every person will be sealed forever. 

Deuteronomy 32:43, “Rejoice, O nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants; he will take vengeance on his enemies and make atonement for his land and people.” 

Revelation 21:23-27, “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.”


As we are in a time of corporate prayer and fasting together for these several weeks, we pray for our nation. We declare every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus is Lord, and even His enemies will see Him as He is and submit to Him. We agree with heaven and decree that every stiff neck and straight knee of pride, unrighteousness, wickedness, lying, injustice and corruption, murder and death, and perversion of law will be broken. Everything will be subject to the atonement of Jesus our High Priest. We take our stand in truth and shake off every shadow of heaviness. We speak against the darkness as salt and light. We lay hold of liberty without selfish gain, liberty that comes through the blood that speaks from Zion’s hill. The blood of Jesus speaks better things that that of Abel, better things than the violence of men that threaten our safety and security. Cleanse us, forgive us, and turn us again. We cling to the banner that was lifted high in the growth and progress of a nation founded on principles anchored in the Judeo-Christian faith and the confession that all men are created equal by their creator with a right to human life that cannot be taken away. We pray for an opening of eyes and an enlightening of the mind for all of those who have been deceived and taken in by fear or dependency upon a government system that leads men not to courage, integrity, or work and dignity. Light the fire of Your Word and anoint and send forth laborers into the harvest. We pray for a fresh harvest and a great awakening!

In Jewish families people bless one another with the words, “Kotvenu b’sefer he-ayyim““may you be Inscribed in the Book of Life” with a prayer for a sweet and blessed coming year.

Malachi 3:16-18, “Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened attentively and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and esteem His name. ‘And they will be Mine,’ says the Lord of armies, ‘on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will have compassion for them just as a man has compassion for his own son who serves him.’ So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.”

We invite you to bring your shofars to the watch to join us in celebrating Rosh Hashanah. L’shana Tova!

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