Appart from the spring festivals that he first commanded; God also moved onto another and final group of festivals on his calendar for Israel to celebrate for the rest of the year:
He commanded several fall festivals in the 7th month
The very first festival to begin these series of fall festivals was the first day of the 7th month, Which is a new moon day (which is already a special day):
Leviticus 23:23-25
"On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of sabbath rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts. Do no regular work, but present a food offering to the Lord."
This day was a special new moon day and a sabbath strongly connected to blowing trumpets at a special assembly.
As God confirms again to Moses later:
Numbers 29:1-6
"On the first day of the seventh month hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. It is a day for you to sound the trumpets."
This holiday was different because all the other Biblical festivals are explained in somewhat more detail in what they are celebrating/honoring.
However, the festival of trumpets is the least explained of all the festivals: no known explanation or even slight hint is given to what it's honoring.
So, what could be the meaning of this mysterious Festival of trumpets that begins the fall festivals?
The meaning of blowing the trumpet itself
In order, to understand what the festival of trumpets could be about, we should understand first what exacly The blowing of the trumpets actually means.
Throughout the Bible we can see the blowing of the trumpets can mean a lot of things:
Trumpets blows were often signalls/calls to gather together, move and, warnings of coming disasters:
However, out of all of these, the trumpet sound is most reminiscent of the day when Israel meet with their God and he blew a loud trumpet (specifically a shofar) to get their respect/fear of him so they would always obey his covenant and laws he was about to make with them:
Exodus 20:18
"When the people...heard the trumpet...they trembled with fear...[and]...stayed at a distance..."
Moses told them God was blowing the trumpet (among the other things happening) because he wanted them to fear/respect him so they would obey his covanent and not sin:
Exodus 20:20
"...so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning."
By blowing the shofar He was trying to put the fear of God in them so they would obey him in this new covanent!
Why this event didn’t happen anywhere near the festival of trumpets (it happened in the 3rd month) Could this special new moon day then have been a reminder for Isreal to once again be warned to get ready to meet their God/put the fear of God in them (as trumpets did) to stop sinning and obey his covenant with them as well as gather them together for this special time?
This seems
to be
the main reason for the festival of trumpets: even though
its never directly stated by God:
This was a warning call for Israel to
get the fear of God and obey his covenant with them.
This especially seems to be the case since this was the begging of the
fall festivals of God: And especially since the soon upcoming
Day of Atonement, considered the most sacred day of all of God's
festivals, was only 9 days away from this one.
In this way, The Festival of Trumpets could very well be a day of
warning to get prepared for The
great day of Atonement 9 days later and
a call to gather together to this sacred time of year in this sacred
month.