Yom Teruah
In That Day ...

Yom Teruah, which in Hebrew means “the Day of the Blast” is one of God's fall festivals.  In Leviticus 23, God instructed His people to make a shout on this day.  Let’s look at it –

^KJV Leviticus 23:23-25 - And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,  ²⁴ Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.  ²⁵ Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

The phrase “a memorial of blowing of trumpets” in Hebrew is “zeekrone teruah” (זִכְרוֹן תְרוּעָה) which simply means “a memorial of blowing”  or a “memorial of shouting” (as we can see in Joshua 6:5).  The word “trumpets” is implied in the text1.  Nevertheless, the word ‘teruah’ is not just a shout, it is also a specific sound that can be made by a trumpet or a shofar.  In Numbers 10:5, we find that a “teruah” is a sound of alarm. Thus – Yom Teruah is a reminder of something alarming - something monumental.  The prophets call it “the Day of the Lord”.

The Day of the Lord speaks of the time when God will bring down His wrath on His people – not just the Jewish people, but on all the Hebrew people who have been scattered throughout the earth and still refuse to honor the covenant2 He made with them.

It includes the early days of the Kingdom of God when Messiah Yeshua will punish the various non-Hebrew nations and peoples who take advantage of that time to bring misery on God’s people as well.

When referencing the Day of the Lord, the prophets would oftentimes use the term “in that day”.  In fact, they do so at least 74 times in the Tnakh.  We also see the term used 4 times by Yeshua, and twice by Paul.  Apparently, it is a very significant time.

That’s not to say that any time we see the term “in that day” it refers to “the Day of the Lord”.  There are at least 30 times that it implies some other time or event. 

In this study, I want to discuss the "day of the Lord”, then focus more specifically on those instances where we find the term “in that day”.  In doing so, we’re going to see that there are three themes we find when we study this awesome time.  Those themes include:

• Misery, Death, and Destruction
• Separation from the Misery, Death, and Destruction
• Rebuilding The Kingdom

Day of the Lord

^NKJ Joel 2:1-2 Blow the trumpet (shofar) in Zion, And sound an alarm (teruah) 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: ² A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness, Like the morning clouds spread over the mountains. A people come, great and strong, The like of whom has never been; Nor will there ever be any such after them, Even for many successive generations

This passage implies that the Day of the Lord is a dark day for God’s people who refuse to follow Him. It speaks of a time of invading armies that come upon His people like clouds coming  in from over the mountains.  This would be the nations that YHVH uses to punish His people Israel.

The prophet Zephaniah further defines that time in his prophecy -

^NKJ Zephaniah 1:14-18 The great day of the LORD is near; It is near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the LORD is bitter; There the mighty men shall cry out. ¹⁵ That day is a day of wrath, A day of trouble and distress, A day of devastation and desolation, A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness,  ¹⁶ A day of trumpet (shofar) and alarm (teruah) against the fortified cities and against the high towers.  ¹⁷ I will bring distress upon men, And they shall walk like blind men, Because they have sinned against the LORD; Their blood shall be poured out like dust, And their flesh like refuse.  ¹⁸ Neither their silver nor their gold  shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD's wrath; But the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy, For He will make speedy riddance of all those who dwell in the land.

Besides what we saw from Joel’s prophecy, the Day of the Lord is doom and destruction that even a rich man cannot buy his way out of. 

In a nutshell – that is the day of the lord.

We’ll learn more about it when we get into the “In that Day” scriptures, but for now, I want us to see the three themes that seem to go with this phrase.  Again, they are

• Misery, Death, and Destruction
• Separation from the Misery, Death, and Destruction
• Rebuilding The Kingdom

All three of these are found in the Exodus story … probably the greatest story of protection and deliverance in the history of mankind.  Let’s identify them in the story -

Misery, Death, and Destruction

In the Exodus story after the ninth plague – the plague of darkness – had passed, Moses again went to Pharaoh to request that he send the Hebrew people out of the land. Pharoah’s response was to tell Moses -

^KJV Exodus 10:28 … Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more; for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die.

Unfortunately for Pharaoh, he had his prophecy wrong. The next time Pharaoh saw Moses, Moses was alive and well, but Pharaoh’s son was dead.  In fact the worst death and destruction of any nation had just taken place.

So the first theme of “in that day” is “Death and Destruction.

Separation from the Misery, Death, and Destruction

This second theme is actually the first time we see the phrase “in that day” in the scriptures.

In the Exodus story, God struck the land of Egypt with a number of plagues.  The first three applied to all the land of Egypt, but after the plague of lice, God directed the next six solely toward Egypt.  It says -

^NKJ Exodus 8:20-23   And the LORD said to Moses, "Rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh as he comes out to the water. Then say to him, 'Thus says the LORD: "Let My people go, that they may serve Me.  ²¹ "Or else, if you will not let My people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants, on your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand.  ²² "And in that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, in which My people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there, in order that you may know that I am the LORD in the midst of the land.  ²³ "I will make a difference between My people and your people …”

“In that Day”  YHVH will make a difference between Israel and Egypt.  We know that the difference was that from that point forward (until the tength) He did not afflict the land of Goshen with flies, nor with any of the other plagues.

What moved YHVH to make that separation?  What happened between the 3^rd and 4^th plague that would cause Israel to be spared?  I can only assume that it was Israel acknowledging that YHVH was greater than all the other gods.  We don’t know for sure, but something caused God to separate the Hebrews from the Egyptians.

The point is that YHVH does from time to time separate His people from the punishment that YHVH brings on the nation in which they dwell.

Rebuilding the Kingdom of God

The third theme involves a question that a child would ask his father. 

^NKJ Exodus 13:5-8 … And it shall be, when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, which He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month.  ⁶ "Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the LORD.  ⁷ "Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days. And no leavened bread shall be seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters.  ⁸ "And you shall tell your son in that day, saying, 'This is done because of what the LORD did for me when I came up from Egypt.'

In this case, the phrase “in that day” pertains to verse 5 – Joshua leading the Hebrews into the Promised Land.  If Israel had whole heartedly followed YHVH in that day, Israel would have been a light to the nations and the knowledge of the God of Israel and His ways would have been known – and quite possibly followed. Thus – the Kingdom of God.

But that – of course – was not to be.

So, for the next few moments, I want to show you - based on the themes we find in the Exodus story – what “in that day” – Yom Teruah - will be like.

In That Day

Deuteronomy 31:16-17  ¹⁶ And the LORD said to Moses: "Behold, you will rest with your fathers; and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them.  ¹⁷ "Then My anger shall be aroused against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured. And many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, 'Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?'

Note that YHVH’s anger is aroused because of their rampant idolatry and other infractions against the Covenant they had made with Him.  Notice also that they would come to realize that because of those infractions, they had to experience that severe punishment.

Amos prophecies that -

Amos 8:9-11 "And it shall come to pass in that day," says the Lord GOD, "That I will make the sun go down at noon, And I will darken the earth in broad daylight;  ¹⁰ I will turn your feasts into mourning, And all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist, And baldness on every head; I will make it like mourning for an only son, And its end like a bitter day.  ¹¹ " Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord GOD, "That I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the LORD.”

This appears to be a time - probably near the beginning of the Day of the Lord – when wars will break out and dust will fill the sky.  I would assume that by this time in history – Bibles and religion will be banned in most nations – being replaced by the worship of the earth and the skies.  Thus  knowledge of the  God of Israel will be lost.

Isaiah shows that end-time punishment will come upon Israel via the nations –

^NKJ Isaiah 5:25-30 … Their carcasses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this His anger is not turned away, But His hand is stretched out still.  ²⁶ He will lift up a banner to the nations from afar, And will whistle to them from the end of the earth; Surely they shall come with speed, swiftly.  ²⁷ No one will be weary or stumble among them, No one will slumber or sleep; Nor will the belt on their loins be loosed, Nor the strap of their sandals be broken;  ²⁸ Whose arrows are sharp, And all their bows bent; Their horses' hooves will seem like flint, And their wheels like a whirlwind.  ²⁹ Their roaring will be like a lion, They will roar like young lions; Yes, they will roar And lay hold of the prey; They will carry it away safely, And no one will deliver (rescue or save).  ³⁰ In that day they will roar against them Like the roaring of the sea. And if one looks to the land, Behold, darkness and sorrow; And the light is darkened by the clouds.

During this time, so many will be dying that there will not be enough people to bury them. But even massive numbers of people dying will not yet turn Israel back to God, so the carnage will continue, even to the point that YHVH turns His face from them – leaving them to the mercy of the nations.

The nations will come upon them so fast, Israel will quickly be driven into the sea (much like it was with the people fleeing the fires in Maui in 2023)

Continuing with the nations that YHVH will use to punish Israel, Isaiah says -

^NKJ Isaiah 7:18-20  And it shall come to pass in that day That the LORD will whistle for the fly That is in the farthest part of the rivers of Egypt, And for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.  ¹⁹ They will come, and all of them will rest in the desolate valleys and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all thorns and in all pastures.  ²⁰ In the same day the Lord will shave with a hired razor, with those from beyond the River, with the king of Assyria, The head and the hair of the legs, and will also remove the beard.

God will call the nations against Israel who will come in and occupy their land – wherever that might be. They will be like flies and bees from which you cannot escape.  The nations will not be careful in their destruction, but will be like a man shaving another man – being not as careful about what he cuts as would be a man shaving himself.

^NKJ Isaiah 7:23-24  It shall happen in that day, That wherever there could be a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels of silver, It will be for briers and thorns.  ²⁴ With arrows and bows men will come there, Because all the land will become briers and thorns.

The land will no longer produce food, but will become nothing but weeds.  This may be a result of the lack of rain, but also because of man’s misuse of the land.

This is just a sampling of the destruction prophesied to happen “in that day”.

But does everyone have to experience it? No way!  The prophets also prophesied how to avoid it!

A Way of Escape

^NKJ Zephaniah 2:1-3 Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together, O undesirable nation,  ² Before the decree is issued, Or the day passes like chaff, Before the LORD's fierce anger comes upon you, Before the day of the LORD's anger comes upon you!  ³ Seek the LORD, all you meek of the earth, Who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden In the day of the LORD's anger.

Though the Day of YHVH’s anger will come upon all Israel, those who seek YHVH and His ways can be protected from it.  It will probably be like the land of Goshen, where God set apart His people from the plagues of the Exodus.

Besides those who turned to YHVH before the Day of the Lord began, there will be those who turn to him because of the destruction of that day.

Isaiah speaks of the time that many will turn to YHVH -

Isaiah 25:9  ⁹ And it will be said in that day: Behold, this is our God; We have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the LORD; We have waited for Him; We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.

This appears to be people who had counted on other “gods” to take care of them and deliver them.  This would be those who worship man’s government, the earth, the climate, even their own perceived ability to change their own body from one gender to another.  Once they came to their senses and determined these “false gods” could not save them, they will then claim YHVH as their god and serve him with the zeal they served their previous 'gods'.

Once they see that, they will be like the people of Israel who follow God’s way -

^NKJ Jeremiah 30:4 … Now these are the words that the LORD spoke concerning Israel and Judah.  ⁵ "For thus says the LORD: 'We have heard a voice of trembling, Of fear, and not of peace.  ⁶ Ask now, and see, Whether a man is ever in labor with child? So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins Like a woman in labor, And all faces turned pale?  ⁷ Alas! For that day is great, So that none is like it; And it is the time of Jacob's trouble, But he shall be saved out of it.  ⁸ 'For it shall come to pass in that day,' Says the LORD of hosts, 'That I will break his yoke from your neck, And will burst your bonds;

So there is a way to avoid, or at least lessen the impact of this day on ourselves and our families.  In fact there are a number of passages that describe how YHVH intends to hide his people during that time, but that’s another teaching.

Returning to the Way of God

Let’s now focus on the last “in that day” theme, and that’s the establishment of the Kingdom of God.

Here are a few of the many prophecies about God’s love and compassion on His people as they turn from their evil ways back to the God of Israel.

^NKJ Isaiah 17:7-8   In that day a man will look to his Maker, And his eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel.  ⁸ He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands; He will not respect what his fingers have made, nor the wooden images nor the incense altars.

The purpose of the “Day of the Lord” is to convince Israel and the nations that their man-made ‘gods’ cannot protect or save you from the hand of YHVH.  Therefore, they will get rid of them and turn to the only God that can save them.

^NKJ Isaiah 27:12-13  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 trumpet4 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.

The Great Trumpet of Yom Kippor indicates that “Day of the Lord” is finished. God’s people have repented, and YHVH will begin to gather them to Himself from the four corners of the earth to which they were scattered5.  This begins the Greater Exodus of Jeremiah 16:14 and Isaiah 11.

^NKJ Isaiah 11:10-12     "And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious."  ¹¹ It shall come to pass in that day That the LORD shall set His hand again the second time To recover the remnant of His people who are left, From Assyria and Egypt, From Pathros and Cush, From Elam and Shinar, From Hamath and the islands of the sea.  ¹² He will set up a banner for the nations, And will assemble the outcasts of Israel, And gather together the dispersed of Judah From the four corners of the earth.

^NKJ Micah 4:6  " In that day," says the LORD, "I will assemble the lame, I will gather the outcast And those whom I have afflicted;  ⁷ I will make the lame a remnant, And the outcast a strong nation; So the LORD will reign over them in Mount Zion From now on, even forever.

Prophecy indicates that He will draw them to the Wilderness – just as He did after the Exodus, and teach them His ways after which He will lead them to Jerusalem – the Promised Land.

^NKJ Isaiah 12:1-3 And in that day you will say: "O LORD, I will praise You; Though You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me.  ² Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; 'For YAH, the LORD, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.' "  ³ Therefore with joy you will draw water From the wells of salvation.

God’s people will recognize their sin, and the reason for their punishment when He comforts them as they return back to Him.

^NKJ Isaiah 29:18-19   In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, And the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.  ¹⁹ The humble also shall increase their joy in the LORD, And the poor among men shall rejoice In the Holy One of Israel.

Unlike the Hebrews who came out of Egypt with a ‘high hand’, those who turn to YHVH during the Day of the Lord, will return as a humble people, willing to hear the words of YHVH who will teach them the Torah and how they should walk.

^NKJ Hosea 2:18-20 - In that day I will make a covenant for them With the beasts of the field, With the birds of the air, And with the creeping things of the ground. Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth, To make them lie down safely.  ¹⁹ "I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me In righteousness and justice, In lovingkindness and mercy;  ²⁰ I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, And you shall know the LORD

Just as He did 3500 years earlier, God will bring them back into His betrothal covenant, and for the first time, Israel will “know” YHVH their God.

^NKJ Isaiah 52:6-7 - Therefore My people shall know My name; Therefore they shall know in that day That I am He who speaks: 'Behold, it is I.' "  ⁷ How beautiful upon the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who proclaims peace, Who brings glad tidings of good things, Who proclaims salvation, Who says to Zion, "Your God reigns!"

Conclusion

God gave us a pattern by which He will draw His people back when they turn against Him. He will make them go through some pretty tough times, offer them a way to escape the worst of those times, and finally, He will rescue them from those times.

This has happened to Israel over and over in their 3500 year history, and will happen again at the end of this age.

Yom Teruah teaches us that YHVH loves His people, and will do whatever it takes to bring them back to Him so that they can experience the Joy of the Kingdom of God.

Shalom