Yom Teruah, Day of the Shout of The King

Give Now!

Jesus said of Himself in relationship to the Torah, the Law of God:

““Do not presume that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter shall pass from the Law, until all is accomplished! “Therefore, whoever nullifies one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Mat 5:17-19)

Since heaven and earth have not yet passed away, we can safely assume that there are prophecies and end time events that have yet to be fulfilled. Mostly we tend to look at the Torah of God through the moral codes. We see the commandments similar to the writings of the Apostle Paul:

“What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? Far from it! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “YOU SHALL NOT COVET.”” (Rom 7:7, NASB)

Yet the scriptures known as Torah contain much more than moral codes. For example, there is whole book on worship, the Psalms. There is also a book on wisdom, Proverbs. Would we say that worship and wisdom were done away with by Jesus and His sacrifice? Or would we say that through receiving Him, we access worship with more of our heart and we receive the instructions of wisdom easier? Isn’t the case that now we want to show our love to God through aligning ourselves with Him in Spirit and in Truth?

““But a time is coming, and even now has arrived, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”” (Joh 4:23-24, NASB)

One of the areas that is central to God’s plans must be His calendar and His events. Israel has been prophetically restored as promised by the Lord and with that has come one nation that follows the calendar of the Lord. 

Jesus came as the Passover Lamb who is sacrificed for the sins of the people and to bring freedom from the bondage of the world’s system. At Pentecost or Shavuot, we also see the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Then there is a break in the calendar for the fall feasts which begin in the seventh month.

We are entering the seventh month of the biblical calendar. As we have spoken of in years gone by, this is the celebration month of the King and the establishment of His Kingdom. 

The seventh month begins with the feast known as Yom Teruah, which means the day of the shout!

“Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. ‘You shall not do any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD.’”” (Lev 23:23-25)

The phrase translated a “blowing of trumpets” is the Hebrew word Teruah, which can mean a loud blast but can also mean a shout, the shout of the king.

Let’s look at the incident where Israel was in the desert and Balak, the king of Beor enlisted Balaam to use the spiritual weapon of cursing against Israel. Turn with me to Numbers 23.

“Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from where you may see them, although you will only see the extreme end of them and will not see all of them; and put a curse on them for me from there.” So he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. Then he said to Balak, “Stand here beside your burnt offering while I myself meet the LORD over there.” Then the LORD met Balaam and put a word in his mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and this is what you shall speak.”” (Num 23:13-16, NASB)

By way of background Balak, whose name means the “devastator” which today would represent those who have aligned themselves not only against the people of God but are actively working to eradicate God and His followers from the earth, a true agent of Satan, employs a prophet who can go into the spiritual realm to curse and bring devastation to God’s elect. The Balak-Balaam equation is very active in the earth through word curses and other declarations from the reams of darkness and destruction. But God has another word for us, His word that His sheep hear and the strangers voice we do not follow.

“So he came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the leaders of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, “What has the LORD spoken?” Then he took up his discourse and said, “Arise, Balak, and hear; Listen to me, son of Zippor! “God is not a man, that He would lie, Nor a son of man, that He would change His mind; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? “Behold, I have received a command to bless; When He has blessed, I cannot revoke it. “He has not looked at misfortune in Jacob; Nor has He seen trouble in Israel; The LORD his God is with him, And the joyful shout of a king is among them.” (Num 23:17-21, NASB)

Balaam is instructed by the Lord to bless and not curse the people of God. We carry this same provision of the blessing. What I want to focus on now, is the joyful shout of the king. We carry this same shout in our spirit. The Hebrew word root of “teruah” which means shout is ra-ah. It contains 2 letters, the reysh and the ayin. The reysh is the character for the authority or the head of something and the ayin is the picture of the eye which is the perspective seen in a matter. So, the shout of the king is the victory seen in a matter. Balak wants to curse Israel, but Balaam is instructed by the Lord to see them as blessed and as carrying the shout or the perspective of the King.

 reysh: The Ancient picture for this letter is  , the head of a man. This letter has the meanings of "head" and "man" as well as "chief," "top," "beginning" and "first," each of which are the "head" of something.

 ayin: The Ancient picture for this letter is   and is a picture of an eye. This letter represents the ideas of seeing and watching as well as knowledge, as the eye is the window of knowledge. 

Look at verse 21. It says He has not looked at misfortune in Jacob, nor has He seen trouble in Israel. Israel circumstantially is still in the dessert. They could have seen their own situation as misfortunate and full of trouble. Yet God did not see it that way. Many times, we look through what we call realistic eyes at where we are today, but God doesn’t see things the same way we do. He sees the victory. He gives us the shout of the King.

We see this clearly in the case of Jericho where Israel faced the stronghold of Jericho. They could have easily despaired, but God had blessed them, and they carried His shout which we know along with shofar-trumpet blasts brought the walls of the enemy down.

“Then on the seventh day they got up early at the dawning of the day and marched around the city in the same way seven times; only on that day did they march around the city seven times. And at the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout! For the LORD has given you the city.” (Jos 6:15-16, NASB)

This shout isn’t just about volume, it’s a shout of the king. A shout precedes a victory. There is each of us the power resident in the shout. I don’t know if you remember the movie Braveheart, but it clearly shows the shout of the king. God has kept this important aspect of kingdom power alive by commanding a feast day, in the seventh month to activate this reminder.

Is this just an Old Testament idea? Well let’s look at Thessalonians and the Apostle Paul’s prophecy about the return of Jesus:

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.” (1Th 4:16)

There is no clearer sign of the Lord’s Presence than the shout of the king!

If we look at one of the 7 words for praise, by far the prolific one in scripture is the Hallal of Halleluyah. What does Hallal mean?

Here’s the strongs definition:

A primitive root; to be clear (originally of sound, but usually of color); to shine; hence to make a show; to boast; and thus to be (clamorously) foolish; to rave; causatively to celebrate; 

There is role in the shout! If we allow ourselves to release the shout of the King, we proclaim His victory.

So, when you find yourself facing a giant of a circumstance, allow yourself to be activated as a warrior-bride of the Lord and release the shout of the King!