No One Knows the Day or Hour

Dearest friends, my brothers and sisters in Yeshua, this may look long, but please read to the end. It will be worth it!

We have arrived at the Feast Days of the LORD once again and I feel like He just used the Feasts of Trumpets to teach me some valuable lessons. What is this feast day all about, anyway?  The only thing we are told about it in Scripture is in Leviticus 23:23: The LORD said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites: On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts. Do no regular work, but present an offering made to the LORD by fire." 

That's it? But why? Why just randomly get together and blow the trumpets (shofars) on this day? Since we know that all the spring feast days have already been fulfilled by Yeshua/Jesus, our Messiah, then we know that He will also fulfill the fall feasts someday at His return. So, our second clue about this mysterious day of blowing trumpets can be found in 1 Corinthians 15:51:
51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed-- 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed...
and in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17:
15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

Through these New Testament passages we get to see and understand the fulfillment of this glorious feast day. Why else would we keep this feast today if not to sight the new moon in the sky on the first day of the seventh month (the month of Tishrei on the Hebrew calendar) and sound a shofar in anticipation of the return of our Messiah?  I have joyfully done this in the company of many beloved believers over the past twenty years; but this year I was by  myself, slipping out after putting John down for the night, and walking behind my house, my eyes fixed on the western sky as the sun was disappearing. I watched and I waited. I walked in different directions to get a clear line of sight. I prayed. But no sliver of the new moon appeared. So I want out at sundown on the  next night, my ram's horn in hand, filled with anticipation and certain that I would see it. On this night as I walked, my soul was filled with the deeper meaning of what I was doing. I was not just looking for a sliver of new moon. I was eagerly YEARNING, HOPING, EXPECTING TO HEAR THE TRUMPET CALL OF GOD AND BE CAUGHT UP TOGETHER IN THE CLOUDS WITH THE GREAT BRIDEGROOM-KING OF ISRAEL! 

Please allow me to note here that I truly do know there are still many things that must take place, according to Scripture, before the Messiah will return.  But it was the overwhelming joy, and the eternal hope filling my spirit like a great fountain that overwhelmed me. And it was also the mystery of it all! I really came to understand why Yeshua told us, “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." (Matt. 24:36) And then in Matthew 25:13 the Lord says, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour."

He says only the DAY AND THE HOUR will be unknown. He does not say we will not know the year or the month or the season. It is the day and the hour that the new moon of the first day of the seventh month appears that remains a mystery! So, I am walking down the streets and alleyways of my neighborhood for two evenings, October 2 and October 3, my shofar in hand, searching for the new moon to appear in the western sky and I do not find it. Even though the Hebrew calendar says that the Feast of Yom Teruah (Blowing of Trumpets) falls on October 2 this year, the new moon did not appear in the sky until last evening, October 4th! Here is a report from Israel:
Israel-Based
Observation 
Confirmed: Friday evening, October 4, 2024
6:46 p.m. UTC+3
Poria Illit, Israel : 30 Day
CONFIRMED n
No one knew the day or the hour to sound the blast of the shofar until that new moon appeared! And so the Master Creator teaches us to wait and to watch. "KEEP WATCH BECAUSE YOU DO NOT KNOW THE DAY OR THE HOUR!"  Continually He demonstrates for me his total sovereignty and teaches me to learn to wait upon Him, to lean upon Him for answers, to depend upon Him for just enough light to take the next step! And perhaps the greatest blessing of all as I walked and gazed into the sky was REMEMBERING so many gatherings on Fall Feasts of the past 20 years. Memories came flooding back into my mind of a gathering of "Hebrew friends" in the wilderness of Nevada in the Autumn of 2012.  We had erected a beautiful tabernacle of poles and linen and made an area toward the back where one could enter the Presence of the Holy One of Israel and pray. John and I, married only one year, went into this precious Presence and sat together in silence. I waited before the Lord for about thirty  minutes and finally heard the still, small voice say five little words to me: "Take care of your husband." Little did I know, those 12 years ago, that this would be my calling throughout our marriage. But I chose to accept it on that Feast of Tabernacles afternoon and I am blessed with joy in my heart that I am continuing to keep that promise until the end. 

Like Mary, I treasured these things in my heart as I walked along the road looking for the new moon, and I literally rejoiced in tears that I WILL be gathered with other passionate, precious believers to celebrate the FEASTS OF THE LORD in future years. After all, we are REHEARSING as we keep these feasts, just as John and I did at our beautiful wedding on Feb. 20, 2011. John blew the silver trumpet, his call to his bride to come and be joined to him in marriage. One day, after all these REHEARSALS here on earth, the great Trumpet Call of God will sound, and I'll be celebrating in the Kingdom with my BRIDEGROOM-KING YESHUA, at the Wedding Supper of the Lamb! Hallelujah! 

John blowing the trumpet for his bride, Kelly, at their wedding Feb. 20, 2011