"God has ascended with a shout, The Lord, With the sound of a trumpet.(Hebrew : shofar)."

Psalm 47 :5

Some find it noisy and strange. They often would label it as a Jewish object of worship and find it alien and conspicuously obtrusive when the shofar is sounded at the worship service. Others may find the sounds of the shofar "raw", "bland" and "non-melodious" compared to the piano or pipe organs. They would not want anything to do with shofar blowing.

However, do you know that we have more scriptural support/evidence to sound the shofars at our worship services than the use of pianos or pipe organs? Still, there are others who find it tolerable when the shofars are sounded. It's just adding a layer of "flavour" to church music like the way Paul Wilbur and other Messianic worship leaders would add the sounding of shofars in their music. These people do not see any meanings attached to the sounds produced by the shofars.

It is this spectrum of mixed reactions to the sounding of the shofar that prompted me to want to address this issue to the Body of Christ at large. I hope to show scriptural references to convince us that there is a place in the sounding of the shofar in our church worship services. I want to encourage churches to release her members to sound the shofar whenever they congregate because if "God has ascended with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet (shofar)" as the Psalmist proclaimed in Ps 47:5, then we must seriously seek to understand the significance of the sounding of the shofar for us - the Gentiles who believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. However, let's not get fixated on the sounding of the shofar alone.

While we want to re-introduce the ancient wind instrument into our contemporary worship, we must be careful not to worship the shofar! In this sharing, I will introduce some sequence of shofar sounds to all of us. I hope at the end of the meeting, we will not walk away thinking that we need to sound the shofar only in a certain way for God to ascend to His Holy throne. And if we sound the shofar in the wrong sequence, God will have a problem being enthroned in our worship! Let's be balanced in this matter. The shofar was first mentioned in the Bible in Ex 19:16-19 and Ex 10:18 when the presence of God hovered over Mt Sinai. It was there that God gave the Ten Commandments to His people. In Rev 1:10, we are told by John that God' s voice sounded like the sound of the trumpet (shofar) when he was told to write what he was about to see about the 7 churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea. The last mention of the word, trumpet or shofar is found in Rev 8-9 concerning the 7 trumpet judgement of God. Rabbinic traditions say that there are 3 trumpet sounds or the shofar calls of God. The 1st trump was at Mt Sinai, the 2nd trump will be at the resurrection of the dead and the last great trump will be the return of the Messiah. We read of similar trends of thought in Matt 24:29-31, 1 Thes 4:16-17 and 1 Cor 15:52.

If the rapture is going to be preceeded by the shofar sound, you and I better accustomed our ears to what a shofar sounds like. My spirit man better respond to this sound and be lifted up into the heavens and not miss the sound and be left behind!!!!!

(It's a joke!)

There are 4 basic sounds of a shofar. Typically, 2 blessings are recited before the shofar is sounded. That is how serious the Jews take the sounding of the shofar:

Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech Ha'Olam, asher kidishanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu leshoma kol shofar.

Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has blessed us in his commandments and commanded us to hear the sound of the Shofar.

Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech Ha'Olam, shehechiyanu v'kiyimanu v'higianu la'zman ha'zeh.

Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has kept us alive,sustained us, and brought us to this season.

need to be broken before a coming King who will judge the earth.

The combinations of these 4 basic sounds of the shofar will form the patterns of sounding the shofar used widely in present day Israel. Shofars are blown to announce the beginning of festivals and weekly at Sabbath. In fact, on the wall of the ancient Temple was a sign that read:

To the House of the blowing of the Trumpet (Shofar)".

So important was the sounding of shofars that rabbinic tradition tells us that on each Sabbath in the Temple, there would be 2 men with silver trumpets and one man with a shofar doing three trumpet blasts two times a day. On Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year), 300 sounds would be produced in various combinations on the Feast of Trumpets. Here, the shofar would be the primary trumpet. Even today, Yom Teruach (Feast of the Trumpets) is still celebrated with the sounding of the 300 sounds of the shofar!

Listen to the sequence of Tekiah-Teruach-Tekiah

This sequence is usually sounded at Yom Teruach. Rabbinic tradition teaches that the preparatory Tekiah would be the summons in general to listen to God, to receive from Him the orders for the day. Then the Teruach would give His order to be breaking off and away from every attachment that estranges us from God, and from consciousness of having the power of moral freedom of will, and leaving everything worthless behind, in short giving up everything in our present mode of life which is displeasing to God. The Tekiah which then follows, calls one to the new standpoint, to the new attitude to life, to faithfully giving oneself up to following the road set out by God, which alone is the path to freedom and which is blessed by the favor of God.

You see, it is not a meaningless display of sounds when a shofar is sounded. Our Jewish brethren have been taught to recognize what each sound and sequence means. It is not a legalistic order of worship. It is meaningful. We need to be connected again to our Hebraic roots to hear the shofar with a Hebraic or Biblical mindset. Some of us may be challenged to listen for the meaning in each sequence but frankly for most of us, if we try to discover the meaning to each of the sequences produced, we may so confused that we may be distracted from worshipping God when the shofar is sounded. One good guide for Gentile Christians like us is to understand the themes associated with Rosh Hashanah where 300 sounds of the shofar are orchestrated in this celebration. You see, 30 days before Rosh Hashanah, in the month of Elul, most orthodox Jews would have gone into days of repentance. This is followed by 10 days of awe until Yom Kippur - the Day of Atonement. Hence, whenever we hear the sounding of the shofar, let's use the framework of these 40 days to pick out the meanings of what the shofar sounds mean for the Jews and for us.

The second guide for us, like David Boughram says, is to understand when shofars are blown in the Bible.

Who blew them?

What events did they herald?

What were the people of Israel supposed to do when they heard the shofar?

How did the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob respond after that?

I hope to weave these two guides into a framework so that our minds can process the sounds when we hear the sounding of the shofar.

There are 4 major themes associated with Rosh Hashanah:

1. Awake O People of God

2. Our God Reigns (Malchuyot)

3. Our God Remembers (Zichronot)

4. Our God Reveals (Shofrot)

1. Awake O People of God An ancient sage, Maimonides (Yad Hichot, Teshuva3:4) explained the sound of the shofar as follows:

Awake, ye sleepers from your slumber and rouse you from your lethargy. Scrutinize your deeds and return in repentance. Remember your Creator, ye who forget eternal truth is the trifles of the hour, who go astray all your years after vain illusions which can neither profit nor deliver. Look well into your souls and mend your ways and your actions; let each one of you forsake his evil path and his unworthy purpose and return to God so that He may have mercy upon you. This ancient Jewish saying found its way to the New Testament books. Eph 5:1-20 have a similar ring to it. The verses challenge believers to "Wake Up, Sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you".

Romans 13:11 - "…knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awake from sleep, for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed."

The Apostle John was taken up to Heaven's Throne Room by the sound of the shofar (Rev 4:1-2)

Hence, whenever we hear (shema) the shofar sound. It is a WAKE UP CALL!

2. Our God Reigns (Malchuyot)

I.Our God reigns as King of our lives. The shofar was sounded at the anointing of King

Solomon (1 Kings 1:34). Sounding it today is a declaration of our loyalty to the King of kings and Lord of lords. One who is wiser and

greater than Solomon.

II. Our God reigns as an Active & Covenant Keeping God. The people of God were commanded to sound the shofar on God's appointed times (Ps 81:3, Lev 23:24, Lev 25:9). Sounding it today is a reminder of the everlasting covenant between Yahweh and His chosen people of Israel and for us the spiritual seed of Abraham (Gal 3:29). He is a covenant keeping God. He has not left us and go to another galaxy. He is actively at work here!

 III. Our God reigns in our worship. The shofar was sounded at the dedication of the Temple (2 Chron 5:13).Sounding it today is a call to worship this King of Glory who is enthroned in the midst of our praises.

 IV. Our God reigns as a Powerful God. The shofar was sounded to trigger Yahweh's power when He demolished walls of Jericho (12 in. thick). Joshua 6 : 4, 20. Sounding it today is an act of faith in Yahweh's power to demolish the systems of this world, strongholds. Its sound is to break or pierce the powers of darkness, to confuse and to scatter the enemies (Judges 7:15-22 when we see Gideon and his army confused and scattered the enemy with the shofar). God will reign as the final victor at the Battle of Armaggaden when he will destroy all the enemies of God (Zep 1:14-16) in a day of

shofar and battle cry.

3. Our God Remembers (Zichronot)

God is a personal God. God cares about what we do with our lives and sees and remembers everything. There are divine consequences for our actions.

I. Our God remembers our commitment. The shofar was sounded when King David brought the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem (2 Sam 6:15). Sounding it today is a sign of our commitment to the Holy One of Israel. We want to usher in the glory of God.

II. Our God remembers the lost. The shofar was sounded by the watchmen on Zion's walls to warn the inhabitants of the sword of the enemy (Ezek 33:3) Sounding it today is a reminder for us to pray for the Jews to be kept safe from the satanic attack upon Israel.

III. Our God remembers our frailty. The shofar was sounded to warn people of their sins. (Isa 58 : 1, Joel 2 : 1, 12-13). Sounding it today is a call "not to yield to sins". It is a call to faith, repentance and obedience.  

IV. Our God remembers His scattered people. The shofar will be sounded at the time of the ingathering of the exiles back to Israel (Is 27:12-13). Sounding it today is a reminder for us to pray and assist the return of the Jews to their land.

4. Our God Reveals (Shofrot)

I. Our God reveals Himself through Torah. At Mt. Sinai, a divine shofar was sounded by the Creator of the mighty universe when He gave Israel His holy law (Exo 19 : 16, Exo 19 : 19, Exo 20 : 18). Sounding it today is declaring our acceptance of God's Torah and authority over us.

II. Our God Reveals the Messiah and His Return. The Lord Himself shall blow the shofar some day. (Zech 9 : 14, Isa 18 :3, Isa 27 : 13, Rev 8 & 9, Matt 24 : 31, 1 Cor 15 : 51-52) Sounding it today is a reminder of the imminent return of our Lord Yeshua.

Sounding of the shofar is an audio aid to our understanding of God's ways with men. It is also a visual aid to His ways with us.

1. It is curved

2. It is ordinary

3. It must be cleaned of its dead flesh

4. It must be blown with breath .

First of all, the shofar is curved in shape. This curved and bent shape is to remind us that we should bend our hearts in subservience to the Lord.

Secondly, the shofar is an ordinary ram horn that can become a musical instrument. Similarly, we are ordinary people whom the Lord can use mightily if we are bent in shape for Him to do so.

Thirdly, in order to blow well, the flesh has to be cleaned out from the shofar. Similarly, in order for God to use us, our flesh needs to die.

Finally, the shofar will not make a sound, it is useless, unless someone blows air into it. Similarly, in order for us to be of use to God, His spirit must blow through us.

Prayer: Lord make me an instrument of Your blessing as I seek to be like a shofar that produces pure sounds for you in this world. Lord, whenever I hear the sounding of the shofar, may I be awakened in my spirit to see my God who reigns, my God who remembers and my God who reveals Himself.

In Yeshua Name. Amen.

Post-script: When the shofar was sounded over those who came forward during ministry time to be set free from oppressive elements in their lives, the Holy Spirit came visibly upon many who simply stood in front to receive from the Lord. May all Glory be given to Jesus, our Healer who has come to set the captives free.

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