THE SOUND OF THE SHOFAR: A CALL TO REPENTANCE, ATONEMENT, AND LIFE Leviticus 23:24
Rosh Hashanah is commonly known as the Jewish New Year. Yet in Scripture, this appointed time is not called Rosh Hashanah. It is Yom Teruah, the Day of Blowing, or the Day of the Trumpet Blast.
Leviticus 23:24 says: “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month on the first of the month, you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.’”
The central sound of this day is the shofar, the ram’s horn. Traditionally, several distinctive sounds are blown: the tekiah, a long, clear blast; the shevarim, three broken sounds; the teruah, a series of short, urgent blasts; and finally the tekiah gedolah, the great prolonged blast.
Jewish tradition has often associated these broken sounds with spiritual awakening and repentance. They sound almost like the cries of a broken heart recognizing its need to return to God.
For us as Messianic Jewish believers, those sounds bring to mind another voice – the voice of John the Immerser, whom Yeshua described as the greatest among those born of women. John came as a voice crying in the wilderness:
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 3:2
The shofar, then, calls us to wake up, to repent, and to return to the Lord.
THE SHOFAR CALLS US TO FOLLOW GOD
During the period leading to Rosh Hashanah, Jewish tradition emphasizes selichot which are prayers for forgiveness. There is also an emphasis upon making things right with those whom we have offended.
Rosh Hashanah also begins the period traditionally called the Yamim Nora’im—the Days of Awe, culminating ten days later in Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. These are days of serious self-examination because God is the righteous Judge of all the earth.
But Leviticus 23 calls the blowing of the trumpet a memorial or reminder. What are we to remember? Numbers 10 gives us an important part of the answer. The Lord commanded Moses to make two silver trumpets.
They were used to summon the congregation and to signal Israel when it was time to break camp and continue its journey through the wilderness. When the trumpet sounded, Israel was to move forward following the Lord.
There is a wonderful spiritual picture here. When we hear the shofar, we remember that the God who led our fathers through the wilderness is still the God who leads His people today. He goes before us. He cares for us. He shows us the way we should walk.
The sound of the shofar therefore becomes a call: Return to the Lord and follow Him.
THE SHOFAR REMINDS US THAT GOD SAVES – Numbers 10:9 says:
“When you go to war in your land against the adversary who attacks you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, that you may be remembered before the LORD your God, and be saved from your enemies.”
Here the trumpet becomes a cry to God for deliverance. It reminds us that God is our Savior. He is our defender. He is our protection. Ultimately, our victory does not come from our own strength but from Him.
Then in Numbers 10:10 another dimension is added. Israel was to sound the trumpet during times of rejoicing, at the appointed feasts, and over their sacrifices: “They shall be as a reminder of you before your God. I am the LORD your God.”
Whether in the day of battle or the day of rejoicing, the trumpet reminded Israel of the same great truth: The Lord remembers His people.
That is why we can rejoice even in difficult circumstances. As God promises: “I will never desert you, nor will I ever abandon you.” Hebrews 13:5
THE SHOFAR REMINDS US OF THE BOOK OF LIFE
The Days of Awe also bring before us another important Jewish tradition – the Book of Life.
Rabbinic tradition developed the picture of heavenly books being opened on Rosh Hashanah. The righteous are inscribed for life, the wicked for judgment, while those in between have until Yom Kippur to repent.
This is why Jewish people traditionally greet one another during this season with words expressing the hope LaShana Tova Tikutaneu: “May you be inscribed in the Book of Life for a new year.”
We dip apples in honey to remember the sweetness of one written unto life.
Traditional Judaism emphasizes three things during this season: teshuvah, tefillah, and tzedakah.
Teshuvah means repentance or, more literally, “return.” It is a call to turn away from sin and return to God.
Tefillah means prayer – drawing near to God and seeking His mercy.
Tzedakah means righteousness or justice and is often expressed through charitable giving and acts of mercy.
Repentance, prayer, and generosity are all good things. Scripture certainly calls us to repent, pray, and care for others.
But there is a deeper question: Can these things atone for our sin? Can my repentance, prayers, and good works erase my guilt before a holy God? That question takes us back to the Torah.
The Question remains WHOSE NAME IS IN THE BOOK?
After Israel sinned by worshiping the golden calf, Moses went before the Lord and pleaded for the people:
“Alas, this people has committed a great sin, and they have made a god of gold for themselves. But now, if You will forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!” Exodus 32:31–32
Moses understood something important. God is the keeper of the Book.
God responded: “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book.”
Exodus 32:33 But that presents us with a terrible problem. Who has sinned against God? All of us have.
Because God is holy, He cannot simply ignore sin. Yet because God is merciful, He has provided a way of atonement. As Moses told Israel:
“I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live.” Deuteronomy 30:19
And this helps us understand why the biblical calendar moves from the trumpet blast of Rosh Hashanah to the solemnity of Yom Kippur- the Day of Atonement.
GOD PROVIDED ATONEMENT
When the Temple stood, Yom Kippur was the most solemn day of the year. On that day the High Priest served as Israel’s representative before God. Leviticus 16 describes two goats. One was sacrificed as a sin offering, and its blood was brought into the Holy of Holies.
Over the other—the scapegoat—the High Priest confessed the sins of Israel, symbolically placing the sins of the people upon it before it was sent away into the wilderness.
What a picture! One goat dies for sin. The other carries sin away.
But after the destruction of the Temple in AD 70, the priesthood could no longer perform this service and the sacrificial system ceased. Rabbinic Judaism increasingly emphasized repentance, prayer, and righteous deeds in seeking God’s mercy and forgiveness.
Yet Scripture had already established a fundamental principle concerning atonement: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls.”
—Leviticus 17:11
Throughout Scripture we find the same pattern: God provides the mediator and God provides the sacrifice.
Moses interceded for Israel after the golden calf. The High Priest interceded for Israel at the Tabernacle and later the Temple. But all of these pointed forward to something greater.
GOD WILL PROVIDE THE LAMB
In Genesis 22, Abraham and Isaac journeyed to Mount Moriah. Isaac asked his father: “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Genesis 22:7
Abraham answered: “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Genesis 22:8
God provided a substitute for Isaac. Centuries later, John the Immerser saw Yeshua approaching and proclaimed: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29 God has provided a substitute for us as well.
Isaiah had spoken prophetically of this Servant some seven centuries earlier:
“But He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings;
The punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, And by His wounds we are healed. All of us, like sheep, have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the wrongdoing of us all To fall on Him.” Isaiah 53:5–6
Isaiah continues: “Like a lamb that is led to slaughter…
He did not open His mouth.” Isaiah 53:7 And then: “My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their wrongdoings.” Isaiah 53:11
Here is God’s answer to our deepest problem. We do not climb our way up to God through enough good deeds. God came down to provide the sacrifice we could never provide for ourselves.
Yeshua is the Lamb who bears our sin, and He is also our great High Priest who represents us before God. His sacrifice does not need to be offered year after year. It is sufficient and complete.
The Temple sacrifices pointed forward to something greater—the perfect atonement God would provide through Messiah.
THE SHOFAR ALSO ANNOUNCES THE KING
On Rosh Hashanah we traditional bake our Challah round to remember the crown of a King. For the sound of the shofar announces the coming of the King.
When Solomon was anointed king, David commanded: “Blow the trumpet, and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’” 1 Kings 1:34 The trumpet proclaimed that God’s chosen king had been enthroned.
And the New Covenant uses the same imagery when speaking about the return of Messiah.
Paul writes:
“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 15:52
The shofar therefore points us in two directions.
It calls us backward to remember God’s faithfulness, His provision, His deliverance, and His atonement.
But it also calls us forward to the day when Messiah returns and God’s redemptive purposes are brought to completion.
Revelation gives us this promise: “The one who overcomes will be clothed the same way, in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life.” Revelation 3:5
And when John sees the New Jerusalem, he writes: “Nothing unclean… shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
Revelation 21:27
CHOOSE LIFE
So during this season of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the question is not merely:Have I done enough good things? The deeper question is:
How can a sinful person stand before a holy God?
Will we depend upon our own righteousness, our prayers, our charitable giving, or our religious observance?
Or will we receive the atonement God Himself has provided?
Abraham said: “God will provide for Himself the lamb.”
And He has.
Yeshua is our sacrifice.
Yeshua is our High Priest.
Yeshua is our atonement.
Yeshua is our coming King.
So when we hear the sound of the shofar, let it remind us:
To Repent—the King is coming.
To Return—the Lord is calling.
To Rejoice—God has provided the Lamb.
And To choose life.
“I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live.”
—Deuteronomy 30:19
One significant improvement is the progression: the shofar calls us to repentance, reminds us God saves, raises the question of the Book of Life. exposes our need for atonement, points to Yeshua as Lamb and High Priest, anticipates the final trumpet and the coming King.
