Jesus Didn't Come Today

The Long Day ended at sundown, and Jesus didn't come.

Maybe you're not familiar with the Long Day, but it is a forty-eight hour period celebrated by the ancient Israelites to commemorate their new year--Rosh Hashanah. It is actually known by several names or alternate designations, but called primarily in the Bible the Feast of Trumpets. It was a High Holy Day, a special Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, and a holy convocation, the first day of the seventh month on the religious calendar, but the first day of the first month on the civil calendar.

It is the only Jewish festival celebrated in connection with the New Moon, that first silver sliver of light that appears after the waning of the moon has ended. In ancient times, the appearance of the New Moon was unpredictable in terms of the exact day--it could occur on either of two days--and this gave rise to the saying, "No man knows the day or the hour." After a month long procession of trumpets, the shofars fell silent on the eve of the Long Day, and two witnesses stood together at the break of day watching for the rising of the moon. When they saw the light, a trumpet was sounded again, this time a long loud blast on the trumpet, the stuttering of the tongue against the roof of the trumpeter's mouth adding staccato notes between continuous long blasts until the trumpeter ran out of breath. It was called the great trumpet blast, and was also referred to as the Last Trump.

Jesus could come on any day, but there are many indications in Scripture that the Feast of Trumpets--the first of three fall feasts in Israel--is the next thing to be fulfilled on God's prophetic calendar. And Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:51 concerning the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the catching away of the living, "Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed--in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." And so the day of the last trump is always marked on my calendar.

It is marked on my calendar, not because I think I can live like I want to 363 days of the year and then repent on Rosh Hashanah just in case, but because Rosh Hashanah serves as a reminder that Jesus Christ is coming back, with a trump and a shout, and I want to be ready whenever that day comes!