Unfulfilled Aspects of God’s Law: Trumpets

The previous article (What Does God Want?) touched on the fact that God’s law must be fulfilled – that’s why Christ is our sacrifice, so that the laws concerning sacrifice can be satisfied. I’d like to further develop this principle that God’s Law (all of it) is in effect today because it must be fulfilled. A fundamental scripture to this concept is found in the sermon on the mount, where Christ said:

Matthew 5:17

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

Most Christian denominations teach that Christ fulfilled the entire Law, making it unnecessary for Christians today to observe God’s laws, such as the Sabbath and Holy Days. However, this interpretation is not consistent with the above verse, which clearly says that the law must be in effect today because heaven and earth have not passed away and because not everything has been accomplished. Unfortunately, many people read this verse and disregard all of that, latching on to the word “fulfill,” and say that the entire Law has been “fulfilled” once for all by Christ, making it unnecessary for us to follow it. Even with this reckless overlooking of what is actually being said, they are still wrong – Christ has not fulfilled the entire Law… yet.

That’s right: Christ lived perfectly according to the Law, but He has not fulfilled all of it yet. To give you an idea of what I mean, let’s first discuss some of the things that He has fulfilled. First of all, Christ is our sacrifice according to the law:

Hebrews 7:27

Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.

There are lots of different kinds of sacrifices listed in Leviticus, and Christ fulfills the role of every single animal sacrifice commanded under that system once and for all (a really cool sermon on just how intricate and beautiful this concept is can be found here). In particular, the New Testament writings accentuate that Christ is our Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7). Furthermore, if you read the accounts of His death in the gospels, you’ll find that He even died at the end of the day of Passover (meaning at sundown). In doing this, Christ fulfilled the Passover because now God passes over us, removing the death penalty for sin, when we accept the sacrifice of Christ.

The Holy Days are a great example of how God has a clear purpose for the Law and of how He is still in the process of fulfilling the Law. As we already mentioned, Christ died on Passover. He was resurrected 3 days and 3 nights later, which would have been during the Feast of Unleavened Bread (this feast starts the day after Passover and lasts for 7 days). Then, 50 days later, the Church of God was founded and the Holy Spirit was given on the Day of Pentecost. The fulfillment of these festivals is clearly pointed out in the New Testament. God obviously had a specific purpose in mind and knew what He was doing when He ordained the Holy Days, and, given that He made the fulfillment of the first three festivals so clear, there is absolutely no reason to think that He would just forget about the rest of them. Under this assumption, there are only two possibilities: Either God has already fulfilled these Holy Days, or their fulfillment is yet to come. Considering the magnitude of the events that took place on Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Pentecost, and coupling that with the lack of explanation of the fulfillment of the other Holy Days, I see no other explanation other than that the fulfillment of the remaining feasts will be in the end time.

The Holy Days that have been fulfilled all occur in the spring of the year, corresponding to the spring harvest. The remaining Holy Days are the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Last Great Day, and all of these coincide with the fall harvest season. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that those that have already been fulfilled are exactly those corresponding to the first harvest of the year: notice that what they represent is relevant for Christians living today (Christ’s sacrifice, resurrection, and the giving of the Holy Spirit). God is gathering the first spiritual harvest right now! If you continue then to study the meanings of the remaining feasts, it is clear that their fulfillment indicates the final spiritual harvest to come. In the remainder of this article, I’m going to discuss the next Holy Day in the sequence, the Feast of Trumpets, with discussions of the other Holy Days in future posts, and show how the meaning of these days completes God’s plan of salvation for all of mankind.

The instructions for the Feast of Trumpets are given very concisely in the Leviticus 23 list of God’s festivals:

Leviticus 23:24

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.

The only other instructions given for this day are in Numbers 29:1-6, and this passage specifies the exact offerings to be made. Numbers 29:1 says, “It is a day for you to sound the trumpets.” As I’ve already stated, the sacrifice of Christ fulfills every sacrifice required by the Law, so the only distinctive aspect of this day that remains is the blowing of trumpets. While there are no specific references to how this day will be fulfilled, there are a few capacities in which trumpet blasts are mentioned in the New Testament. Of these, only two of them are references to actual events that were not in ancient times:

1. The first 6 trumpets of the Seven Trumpets of Revelation each bring with them great destruction and plagues (Revelation 8-9).
2. The 7^th trumpet of the Seven Trumpet of Revelation marks the return of Christ (Revelation 11:15). Furthermore, there are other scriptures in the New Testament that identify trumpet blasts with Christ’s return (Matthew 24:31, 1 Corinthians 15:52, 1 Thessalonians 4:16).

Therefore, given what we know of the fulfillment of the first 3 festivals, it is clear that the Feast of Trumpets, being the next festival, represents the next landmark step in God’s plan for humanity: the return of Christ to establish the Kingdom of God and reign on Earth.

Last time I checked, this has not happened yet! So how can it be, in view of Matthew 5:17, that the law has been abrogated? The simplest answer is the correct answer: the law hasn't been abrogated. One of the verses that is often misinterpreted by people trying to get out of observing the law is found in Hebrews:

Hebrews 10:1

The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming – not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.

The vast majority of people who claim to be Christians are so apathetic to God’s law that they don’t even care why God ordained these things before. They brush these details off, saying “these are just a shadow of things that were fulfilled in Christ,” mistakenly assuming that all things in the law have been fulfilled and that there is nothing of value to be gained from studying God’s Law. People say “why observe the law, which is a shadow, when we have the real thing in Christ?” Did they not read the first part of Hebrews 10:1? “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming.” God wants us to love and cherish those aspects of His plan which have been fulfilled because they are no longer a shadow; however, until the rest is accomplished, we must diligently hold on to the shadow of the things that are coming, because upon them rests all hope – the Feast of Trumpets signifying the return of our Savior, for starters.