Messianic teacher Kevin Williams commented on the September 11 attacks on the United States in this post originally published on September 17, 2001.

Rosh haShanah [or Hoshanah] is the biblical festival of trumpets (shofar, as pictured), Yom Teruah (the day of blowing, Lev. 23), which marks the Jewish new year and celebration of the creation of the world. The festival concludes with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Some Bible teachers believe the festival to be a prophetic picture of the end of this age, an annual rehearsal of the last days.

It has been the Lord’s good pleasure to sustain me on this earth for 40 years now, and in all that time, no opportunity has been afforded to believers to be a light for truth as now. Confirmed reports come daily that thousands of strangers are wandering into churches in New York. In the lines of grocery stores, current events are the subject of conversation–and before last week, no one talked while waiting in line! Suppliers and customers, who have perhaps been all business, take a few moments to talk about the headlines. People realize there is a spiritual hole in their lives, they are asking questions, and many are turning to the Bride for answers.

Our nation’s leaders, as at no other time in modern history, are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Creator, acknowledging Him in all their ways (Proverbs 3:6). This unprecedented example of biblical faith is speaking, nay shouting from the rooftops, to all the earth. The Christian faith is being carefully examined by men and women of all faiths. How we–as individual believers and as Americans–respond to these events, now and in the weeks and months to come, will be a part of how the earth judges our faith, and ultimately, our Messiah.

In light of the New York and Washington DC tragedies, and as we enter this season of revering the Sovereign King, I guess this comes as a cautionary note to all my friends: that we be “shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matt 10:16).

My heart aches as I hear believers talking about retaliation, about torturing or exacting revenge. Certainly, the loss of life, the economic repercussions, the orphans, widows and widowers, and the trauma are horrible realities. But brothers and sisters, we are told to never “repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody” (Romans 12:17).

Our leaders have taken the position of stopping the evil and putting it out of our midst. This is most appropriate. This is a biblical principle from Genesis through Revelation. It will likely be difficult. It will likely come at a cost. But if we take an attitude of retaliation, then we are subject to judgement just as those who perpetrated this heinous act of war.

Time and again in the Bible, it is God who repays evil–not man. The prayers of the righteous in Scripture are for God to judge and repay. Friends, I appreciate the anger you may feel, and the passionate response for action, but let us act and speak with maturity of faith, living as examples of the Messiah. Stop the evil, certainly, and take the actions necessary to that end, but let us guard our hearts and tongues that the God of all creation may be glorified in the eyes of all mankind.

Editor’s note: Rosh haShanah will be celebrated in 2014 beginning at sunset, September 24 until nightfall on September 26.

A reader writes to Kevin Williams about his article, “The Call of the Shofar” that appeared in the Winter 2001 issue of the Pneuma Review and was later excerpted in the email newsletter.

I rarely have time to peruse the material in your electronic newsletter but now the article by Kevin Williams caught my attention. I wonder if you can pass on this note to him.

The Austrian-born Jewish philosopher, Martin Buber (1878 – 1965), died in Jerusalem on June 13, 1965.
Image: Wikimedia Commons

There is a revealing story about the meaning of the Shofar in a book by Martin Buber called Hundert Chassidische Geschichten. The book was published when the Nazis came to power in 1930 and it reflects the aspiration to write in a way too clever for the powerful to understand the resistance. The story is called The Window. It is the last one in the collection and it goes something like this:

In the time when rabbi Menachem lived in the land of the Israel it happened that a fool went and stood up on the top of the Mount of Olives to blow the Shofar. A rumor spread quickly amongst the bewildered crowd that this was the Shofar blast that announced the day of Redemption. When the rumor reached rabbi Menachem’s ears he opened the window, took a look at the world around him and said: “But nothing has been renewed there.”

I am not sure if the wording is quite correct. This is my translation from the Finnish version that came out just a few months ago. There must be an early translation into English available. Anyway, I think the point (apart from the reference to the Nazis) is that there is no point in blowing the shofar if no change happens around you.

Yours,

Arto from Helsinki, Finland

Response:

Dear Arto,

What a pleasure to hear all the way from Helsinki. The closest I’ve ever been to your country was Sweden, back in 1977. I found the Scandinavian people warm and wonderful and I should like to return there one day. If I may greet you, “Hej!”

I was not familiar with this story from Hundert Chassidische Geschichten, but certainly appreciate you passing it along to me. I also appreciate your interpretation of the midrash—the story.

I too would offer my interpretation, if you will indulge me. It was somewhat reminiscent of our own experience with the advent of the year 2000. There were many well-intentioned, and often seemingly well informed people “sounding the alarm,” that the world that we knew was going to come to a screeching halt on January 1. Like the “fool” in your story, they led many astray and multitudes into wild expenditures attempting to avert certain disaster.

Kevin Williams investigates the significance of the ram’s horn trumpet.

In this edition of Messianic Foundations, we’re going to take a look at the ram’s horn trumpet called the shofar in Hebrew. It has played an important role throughout Scripture, and will play a crucial role in the days that lie ahead as we wait for the return of the Messiah. We are going to look at some of the different ways the shofar was used, what symbolic representations it took on as Jewish theology was molded, and how all of these things might apply to us today. We’re going to cover:

• The Akedah (The Binding of Isaac)
• The Call to Repentance
• The Call to Assemble
• The Last Trumpet

Introduction

Messianic Foundations
Artwork by Steve Grier © 1997 RBC Ministries. Used by permission.

Over the last decade there has been a growing trend in churches to incorporate the shofar or ram’s horn into praise and worship. This uniquely stylized trumpet has become one of the few symbols in traditional Judaism which the church has felt comfortable adopting, and rightfully so. It has a meaningful position in our biblical heritage dating all the way back to Abraham, and plays a crucial role in prophetic events as believers in Messiah listen for the “last trump.”[1]

There are two basic types of shofars. The oldest, and still widely accepted type among much of the Orthodoxy (Chassidim), is short with one curve in it. The timbre is usually a “tenor” sound. The shofar gaining wider popularity is the more recent, long, gently curving and twisting Yemenite shofar. These produce a lush baritone sound that carries further and seems to be more desirable. The tone is produced in the same way a person blows a trumpet, by pressing the lips tightly together and making an “elephant” noise into the narrow opening. With a little practice, almost anyone can produce a sound. Some people can produce two or three notes, and one Israeli believer I know can play two at the same time!

The pictures, at least during the Temple period, are vivid. Imagine if you will, the walls of the Temple surrounding the outer most gates, lined shoulder to shoulder by levitical priests. Each has in his hand a shofar. The sun is sinking low in the western sky, casting the Holy City, Jerusalem, in a blazing golden hue against her sandstone buildings. For miles around the sacred mount, the gold topped Temple looks like fire. Your nose twitches with the fresh scent of the ketoret the holy incense now being burned on the altar of incense. “Soon,” you say to yourself, “Very soon now.”

You cannot see it, but you know that somewhere in the middle of that column of smoke rising into the heavens, is the presence of the Almighty, the God of Israel. And where the Shekinah glory rests, is the Ark of the Covenant also known as the Tree of Life. Images of Moses at the burning bush spring to mind. Just as the tree would burn yet was not consumed, so it was now in Israel. The Tree of Life was burning with God’s holy presence, yet was not consumed. Rather the truth of the God of the Hebrews was spreading throughout the pagan world as gentile “God-fearers” were joining synagogues in ever-increasing numbers.

The sun sets and a quiet expectation rests on the Promised Land. The column of smoke has now become a pillar of fire, and the Temple no longer reflects the sun’s brilliance, but has become its emanating source as the external glory has become internal a foretaste of the coming One who whose light would be seen by all, and then radiate within the living temple.[2]

The Fall Festivals of God: prophetic rehearsals with relevance for today. Part of the Messianic Foundations series.

In the epistle of Romans, our teacher Paul speaks to the non-Jewish believers reminding them that they have been grafted-in. “But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you” (Romans 11:17-18, NAS).

Messianic Foundations
Artwork by Steve Grier © 1997 RBC Ministries. Used by permission.

Much has been said about this “root,” and many theories bantered about as to Paul’s intent. It is not likely that we will achieve consensus in this article, but Paul is clear that the root supports the non-Jewish believer. Biblically, Israel is referred to as an olive tree in Jeremiah 11:15-17 and Hosea 14:6, so the Scriptural precedent indicates that Paul intends the reader to understand the tree to be the believing remnant of Israel. By personal experience and an ever-widening understanding of the Scriptures, this author agrees with Paul, that this root is our ancient Biblical heritage—an inheritance with its origins in faithful Judaism¹.

Theologians discuss “progressive revelation,” and find the pages of the Bible replete with an ongoing, ever expanding and consistent manifestation of the character of God. Such Biblical understanding is often crucial in effective evangelism and apologetics, drawing the plan of the Almighty out like a treasure map for the explorer to find.

By searching through the treasures waiting us in our own Biblical heritage, in this case the Fall Feasts of Leviticus 23, untold riches can be found. Some may have been taught that Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot, are “Jewish” festivals and therefore “dead” in a modern faith expression. If the observance of these appointed times were strictly ethnic, such teaching would certainly be true and any application empty legalism. But in a strictly Biblical context, the only context we should concern ourselves with, and the heritage that is ours to claim, this wholesale rejection of the feast days is both unfair and unscriptural. It denies believers of every denominational creed their own God-given heritage.

The LORD spoke again to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD’S appointed times which you shall proclaim …” (Lev 23:1, 2).

God calls them His appointed times. At no point does the Architect of our faith refer to them as the “Feast of Israel,” or the “Jewish High Holy days.” To do so takes them out of Scriptural context, improperly transfers them into an ethnic context, and in our innocence creates a sense of distance that makes us feel they have no place in our Christian faith. This steals the treasures that God intended for His faithful remnant to have; it robs them of their inheritance, and hinders our understanding of the Bible.