The Shout of God: A Yom Teruah Teaching

God commanded the children of Israel to celebrate a feast on the first day of the seventh month, the month of Tishrei.

Leviticus 23:24 NKJV 24 "Speak to the children of Israel, saying: 'In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.

The celebration was to be observed as a Sabbath, all ordinary work was to be set aside to focus on God’s instructions and purpose for the day. They were to gather together to remember. Our English translation says to remember by blowing trumpets. But the Hebrew communicates something a little bit different. Let’s start with the word blowing. The Hebrew for this word is “teruah.” Teruah, #8643, means a clamor of sound. It comes from the root word “rua,” #7321 which means to mar by splitting the ears with sound such as with a shout or blowing a trumpet. The Hebrew word for wind or spirit also comes from this same root word. So, a teruah is a splitting the ears with a loud shout or blowing of a trumpet.

Now, we come to the word trumpet in Leviticus 23:24. It actually isn’t in the Hebrew text at all. It is placed there to indicate that some instrument is blown as a memorial. On the surface, this day could be a memorial marked by making a loud noise of any kind. However, when we examine the scriptures, the word teruah is always translated as shouting, alarm, or blowing. Of course when teruah is translated as blowing, something must be blown that makes a loud sound; that instrument could be any type of trumpet like instrument. Why, then, do we blow the shofar and not other trumpets on Yom Teruah?

To answer this, we look at the reason for this feast day. It is to be a day of remembrance marked by a loud shout or blowing of a trumpet. This commandment was given to Israel as they were getting ready to leave Mt. Sinai after spending nearly a year at the foot of the mountain. As they left, they would be remembering the events from the previous year. They left slavery behind in Egypt and embarked on a new life. When they arrived at Mt. Sinai, they were met there by God! Within a few days of their arrival, God descended on the mountain amidst fire and smoke and rumbling of the earth. When He spoke, His words sounded louder and louder like a great blast or a shofar, or ram’s horn.

Exodus 19:16 NKJV 16 Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.

Notice that everything came from the mountain and was observed from the camp. Even the sound of the trumpet came from the mountain. The word translated as trumpet is shofar which is a horn made from a ram’s horn not crafted from silver or other metal. This is the specific even they were to remember. They were to remember the great trumpet sound of God voice as He spoke the words of the Covenant from Mt. Sinai. They were to remember that they responded that they would do all that the LORD commanded. They were now God’s people, no longer under slavery to Egypt, but free to serve and worship God!

Isaiah tells us that the second Exodus will be at the blowing of the shofar!

Isaiah 27:12-13 NKJV 12 And it shall come to pass in that day That the LORD will thresh, From the channel of the River to the Brook of Egypt; And you will be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel. 13 So it shall be in that day: The great trumpet will be blown; They will come, who are about to perish in the land of Assyria, And they who are outcasts in the land of Egypt, And shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

As God continued with His instructions to the children of Israel about celebrations they were to hold, God included another one that involved blowing the shofar. They were to blow the shofar every fifty years on the day of Jubilee.

Leviticus 25:9 NKJV 9 'Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land.

The literal translation is “You shall cause the shophar of teruah to cross…. You shall cause the shofar to cross throughout all your land.”

The “shofar of teruah” or shout of the shofar sounds freedom to all the slaves, debtors, and prisoners. Paul tells us that at the sound of the great trumpet, God will descend as He descended at Mt. Sinai and take His people for His own.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 NKJV 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

As the children of Israel were getting ready to leave Mt. Sinai, God instructed them to use various sounds of the trumpets to signal gathering, marching out and going to battle. With a camp of over two million, a loud signal would be needed to quickly get everyone moving with order instead of as an unorganized mob. The signals were to be given with the sounding of the silver trumpets, not the shofar. However, two of the signals were called a “teruah” or a shout. The first of these signals was the sound to move out of the camp. Young’s literal translation renders the word “teruah” as the word “shout.”

Numbers 10:5-6 YLT 5 `And ye have blown--a shout, and the camps which are encamping eastward have journeyed. 6 `And ye have blown--a second shout, and the camps which are encamping southward have journeyed; a shout they blow for their journeys.

The second of these signals is the warning of the coming of an enemy or a battle.

Numbers 10:9 YLT 9 `And when ye go into battle in your land against the adversary who is distressing you, then ye have shouted with the trumpets, and ye have been remembered before Jehovah your God, and ye have been saved from your enemies.

Joel tells us that a great shofar of God will sound at the time of the great battles that mark the day of the LORD.

Joel 2:1 NKJV 1 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:

When the children of Israel were camped on the Plains of Moab poised to go into the Promised Land, Balak the king of Moab sent to Balaam to curse the children of Israel. God took over his voice and Balaam was only able to bless Israel. As Balaam looked down at the camp of Israel, he prophesied about the coming of a king.

Numbers 23:21-22 NKJV 21 "He has not observed iniquity in Jacob, Nor has He seen wickedness in Israel. The LORD his God is with him, And the shout of a King is among them. 22 God brings them out of Egypt; He has strength like a wild ox.

Yes, the word “shout” is teruah! The shout of God will mark the coming of Yeshua and the gathering of His people.

Matthew 24:30-31 NKJV 30 "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 "And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

As the children of Israel went into the Promised Land, they were commanded to blow the shofar and to shout to bring down the walls of Jericho.

Joshua 6:3-5 MKJV 3 And you shall go around the city, all the men of war. Go around the city once. So you shall do for six days. 4 And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram's horns in front of the ark. And the seventh day you shall go around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. 5 And it shall be when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout. And the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall go up, each man straight before him.

The army of Israel did not do anything to breach the walls of Jericho. The entire victory over Jericho was due strictly to God’s intervention; God gave them the victory.

Joshua 6:16 NKJV 16 And the seventh time it happened, when the priests blew the trumpets, that Joshua said to the people: "Shout, for the LORD has given you the city!

Finally, in the establishment of Israel, there was one final event marked by blowing the shofar. When David brought the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem, it was to the sound of the shofar and the shouts of the people.

1 Chronicles 15:28 NKJV 28 Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouting and with the sound of the horn, with trumpets and with cymbals, making music with stringed instruments and harps.

The Psalmist tells us that God goes up with the shout and the sound of the shofar. He is the one who brings the victory! He is the great and only God and King!

Psalms 47:1-9 NKJV 1 <> Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph! 2 For the LORD Most High is awesome; He is a great King over all the earth. 3 He will subdue the peoples under us, And the nations under our feet. 4 He will choose our inheritance for us, The excellence of Jacob whom He loves. Selah 5 God has gone up with a shout, The LORD with the sound of a trumpet. 6 Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! 7 For God is the King of all the earth; Sing praises with understanding. 8 God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne. 9 The princes of the people have gathered together, The people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God; He is greatly exalted.

Yeshua’s reign on Earth will begin at the sound of the seventh trumpet.

Revelation 11:15-19 NKJV 15 Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!" 16 And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying: "We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, The One who is and who was and who is to come, Because You have taken Your great power and reigned. 18 The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, And the time of the dead, that they should be judged, And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, And those who fear Your name, small and great, And should destroy those who destroy the earth." 19 Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail.

In the words of the Psalmist, blessed are those who hear the teruah!

Psalms 89:15 MKJV 15 Blessed is the people that knows the joyful sound; they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of Your face.

Blessed are those who heard the shout of God at Mt. Sinai as God took the children of Israel as His people. Blessed are those who will hear the shout of God as Yeshua returns for His people and to establish God’s kingdom on Earth.

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