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A Day of Remembrance. A Day of Rest. A Day of Renewal.

Friday, September 11, 2026 — Erev Rosh Hashanah / 29 Elul 5786

Genesis 22 • John 19:30 • 1 Corinthians 15:51–52 • 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 • Revelation 22:20

Something extraordinary is happening today & tonight — a triple convergence arriving all at once, two at the very same sundown. Three different observances, from two very different histories, landing on the very same day and evening — and I don't believe that's something to rush past.

First, today is A Day of Remembrance — what our nation calls Patriot Day, set aside by an act of Congress passed just months after the towers fell, to remember the nearly three thousand souls we lost on September 11, 2001.1 Each year, our country observes a national moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. Eastern — the exact time American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower. Then, seventeen minutes later, at 9:03 a.m., when United Flight 175 struck the South Tower. Then, at 10:03 a.m., when United Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, traveling at 563 mph. It was approximately 20 minutes flying time from Washington, D.C. All 44 people on board perished, but their heroic actions—especially those of Todd Beamer, who famously rallied the passengers with the words, 'Let's Roll'—prevented the plane from reaching its target in the nation's capital.".2  Twenty-five years have passed since that morning, and this year, that anniversary falls on a Friday.

Second, tonight is a Day of Rest.  Friday night is what Jews across the world call Shabbat (shah-BAHT) — the biblical Sabbath - a command God passed down to Moses: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." Six days we are to labor, but the seventh is a Sabbath of rest to the Lord — a rhythm God wove into creation itself, resting on the seventh day and blessing it as holy.3  The biblical Sabbath begins tonight at sundown Friday and continues through Saturday evening.

And third, infused within both of these, tonight is A Day of Renewal.  It is Erev Rosh Hashanah (EH-rev rosh hah-shah-NAH) — the eve of the Jewish New Year, when the Hebrew calendar turns from the old year to the new.4

A Day of Remembrance. A Day of Rest. A Day of Renewal. All three, joined as one. Now, as those who acknowledge Jesus — Yeshua (yeh-SHOO-ah) — as both Messiah and Lord, we may not observe Shabbat or Rosh Hashanah the way our Jewish brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors do, but we understand that it is God who set the sun and moon in the sky to mark seasons and appointed times (Genesis 1:14) — and beloved, I truly believe He wants us to pay attention when His calendar and our nation's calendar meet like this.

Rosh Hashanah

Allow me to focus for a moment on Rosh Hashanah itself. At the center of this holiday stands the shofar (shoh-FAR) — the horn of a ram, hollowed and shaped so that when it's blown, it produces a loud, unmistakable blast.5 For three thousand years that sound has carried one message: wake up, pay attention, something momentous is happening. Rise from your sleep. Repent. It is the oldest alarm clock God's people have ever known.

Rewind: The Echo of September 11, 2001

Now here's something remarkable: the morning of September 11, 2001, fell on the 23rd of the Hebrew month of Elul (EH-lool).6 During Elul, every weekday morning leading up to Rosh Hashanah, synagogues sound a single shofar (ram's horn) blast at the close of morning prayer — a thirty-day call to repentance, preparing hearts for the New Year.7

On September 11, 2001 — on that very morning our nation's history changed forever — that same ancient custom was being observed in synagogues across New York City, just as it was every weekday that season. Faithful men and women gathered in prayer, hours before anyone knew what the day would hold, and the shofar (ram's horn) sounded.8  Think about it, friend: God's ancient alarm and man's darkest morning shared the very same season on the very same calendar. The short blast of a ram's horn warned people of impending doom just moments before it actually happened! 

The Silence That Deepens, Twenty-Five Years Later

Now follow this sequence closely with me, because I believe it matters.

Yesterday, Thursday, September 10 — the 28th of Elul — the daily shofar custom sounds one final time. Then, on Friday morning, September 11 — the 29th of Elul, the very last day of the Jewish year, and the twenty-fifth anniversary of 9/11 itself — the horn falls silent. Why?  Why is the ancient custom nulified? It's not by accident, but by ancient rabbinic tradition: the sages long ago ruled that the shofar should not be sounded on the day immediately before Rosh Hashanah, so that the informal blasts of Elul would never be confused with the sacred blasts of the New Year itself.9. Nice, but not biblical!

Beloved: Scripture never says the shofar should fall silent on the first day of the New Year (more about that in a moment). So we have to ask — should the traditions of man nullify the Word of God? Didn't Jesus (Yeshua) rebuke the religious leaders of His day for doing exactly that? "You disregard the commandment of God and hold to human tradition."11  The consequences? "[You are] invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that. (Mark 7:13).  We say this respectfully — we honor our Jewish brothers and sisters and this sacred season. But just as Jesus placed God's Word above the traditions of men, we too hold the biblical mandate above manmade custom.

Can I get a witness?!

So think of it, friend: the ram's horn goes silent on the exact anniversary of 9/11 — and then stays silent through the following day as well. Two full days of silence, spanning the very weekend our nation remembers sirens and alarms and falling towers.

It is only on Sunday, September 13 — the second day of Rosh Hashanah — that the shofar finally sounds again.10. The Lord's Day!

The Reading

And on that day - the Lord's Day - Jewish people throughout the world, in synagogues will hear a passage of Scripture read aloud — the Torah (TOR-ah) portion appointed for this exact moment in the Jewish year.12  What passage is it? Genesis 22 — the story of Abraham, Isaac, and the ram caught in the thicket. How did it get stuck?  Its horns!!!  Think about that sequence for a moment, laid out plainly: last blast Thursday, silence by custom Friday, silence by Sabbath Saturday, and then — only then — the horn sounds again Sunday, in the very same breath that the story of God providing a ram as a Sacrfice is read aloud! When human alarms are hushed the longest, Heaven's truth arrives the loudest.

Let's Revisit The Mountain and the Ram

In that very story God tests Abraham, calling him to take his son Isaac — the child he'd waited a hundred long years for, the son every promise of his future rested on — and offer him as a sacrifice on a mountain in the land of Moriah (mo-RYE-ah).13 Can you imagine that three-day walk? Father and son, alone with their thoughts, some forty-five to fifty miles of open country between them and the mountain. As they climb, Isaac — carrying the very wood for his own altar on his back — asks his father an honest, heartbreaking question:

"Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" — Genesis 22:7

Abraham answers with words that would echo for thousands of years:

"God Himself will provide the lamb." — Genesis 22:8

God will PROVIDE!  At the altar, Abraham raises the knife — and at the very last second, God breaks the silence. An angel stops his hand, and Abraham looks up to see a ram caught by its horns in a thicket.14  A substitute, provided by God.

Ancient Jewish tradition holds that the very first shofar was fashioned from the horn of that ram.15 Ever since, every blast of that horn has carried a hidden message beneath the noise: a substitute was provided, a son was spared, deliverance has come. Isaac walked back down that mountain alive, because an innocent ram died in his place — and every year since, God's people have blown a horn shaped like that very substitute to remember it.

A Revelation

Scripture tells us that very mountain ridge became the site of Solomon's Temple, built on the threshing floor David purchased16 — and, just beyond those Temple walls, a hill called Golgotha (gol-GAH-thah). On that same ridge, two thousand years later, God gave up His own Son — not a ram this time, but Jesus, the true and final Lamb.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." — John 3:16

It wasn't an accident.

"When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman..." — Galatians 4:4

On the cross, no priest blew a shofar. Instead, Jesus lifted His voice and cried out the same message the ram's horn had announced for three thousand years, in a single word:

"It is finished." — John 19:30

In the Greek, Tetelestai (teh-TEL-es-tye) — a term stamped on a paid receipt in that day, meaning paid in full.17 The debt was settled. Completely. Forever.  Beloved, God HAS Provided!

This is why the writer of Hebrews could say there remains a Sabbath rest for God's people18 — because the One who finished the work has entered His rest, and so can we. The work is done.

Rejoice

Beloved, long before rabbinic tradition ever silenced a single shofar, God Himself commanded this day to be marked by trumpet blasts. This day carries its own biblical name: Yom Teruah (yohm teh-ROO-ah) — literally, the "Day of Trumpeting," or "Day of Blasting" — found in Leviticus 23:23–25 and Numbers 29:1–6.19

Look at what God actually commands for this day:

  • Take a total day off from work — treat it as a Sabbath rest, free from regular labor.

  • Make noise — blow the shofar, sound the trumpet, or shout. The word teruah means a loud blast, an alarm, or a shout of acclamation.

  • Gather together — hold a sacred assembly with family, friends, or your faith community.

  • Remember and awaken — let the day serve as a spiritual wake-up call to reflect on God's sovereignty, repentance, and the coming King.

This is not a suggestion. It is His command. And despite the silence that human tradition may impose, God's voice is still being declared throughout the world: the shofar is not only a wake-up call to repentance — it is also a sign that renewal is coming!  A New Year is Upon us!

The Rapture

And yet, beloved, there is one more shofar blast we are still waiting to hear — one final trumpet blast that hasn't sounded yet.

The Apostle Paul writes of a mystery — a moment when the sound of a trumpet will change everything, once and for all:

"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 trumpet (shofar)." — 1 Corinthians 15:51–52

"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet (shofar) of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." — 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17

Hallelujah! I want to be careful and responsible with you here, friend, because Scripture itself warns us not to set dates: "of that day and hour no one knows... but My Father only."22 I am not telling you this weekend marks that day. But I am telling you this: God will sound the last trumpet at precisely the hour He has appointed — not a moment early, not a moment late.

The Apostle John tells us that this hope itself does something to us even now — right here, long before that trumpet ever sounds:

"Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." — 1 John 3:2–3

Do you see what that means, beloved? Waiting for Jesus was never meant to make us anxious — it was meant to make us clean. A believer who truly expects to see the Lord's face doesn't spend the waiting on things that would shame him when he sees it. Hope isn't just something we hold onto for the future — it reaches back and shapes how we live today, this very week, in this very silence.

And so the Bible closes with a prayer that every believer, in every generation, has echoed since:

"Surely I am coming quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!" — Revelation 22:20

The Lamb Is Still Calling

So here we are, friend — twenty-five years after two towers fell, on a weekend when the ancient ram's horn goes silent not once, but twice, before it finally sounds again over the very story that explains it all. There is something almost tender about that pattern, isn't there? God doesn't rush to fill every silence. He lets it sit for a while — long enough for us to feel the weight of it — and then, right on schedule, He breaks it Himself.

Man's horn may be quiet this weekend, because of tradition. But God's voice was never silent. Long before there were towers to fall, He had already provided the Ram. He had already promised the Lamb.

And that, beloved, is where every road in this devotional finally leads — not to a calendar, not to a mystery, not even to a trumpet still to come, but back to a hill on that very mountain ridge, where the promise Abraham spoke three thousand years ago found its final answer. "God Himself will provide the lamb," Abraham told his son — and he had no way of knowing just how completely those words would come true. On Moriah, God provided a ram, caught in a thicket, and a boy walked free. On Calvary, on that same ridge, God provided His own Son, and the whole world is offered the same freedom. Every silence, every shofar, every promise in this devotional points to that one hill, that one moment, that one cry: It is finished. The Lamb already completed the work when He cried out in a loud voice — it is finished! Hallelujah!

If you're carrying something heavy tonight — grief, fear, guilt, or just the quiet exhaustion of trying to hold it all together — hear the Lamb calling to you even now: "Come. Rest. It's already paid for." You don't have to wait for a horn to sound to know you're loved. You don't have to find your own ram, your own substitute, your own way out from under what you're carrying. God has already provided. He provided on a quiet mountain, and He provided on a hill just beyond it, and the invitation He opened there has never once closed.

Are You Ready?

Now, my friend, I want to speak to you very directly, and very simply, for just a moment — the way I've watched preachers do it my whole life, because the moment is too important for anything fancy.

Wherever you are reading this tonight — in your kitchen, in your car, lying awake with the lights off — God loves you. 

The Bible says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."25 That means you. That means me. Not one of us is good enough, religious enough, or moral enough to close the gap between ourselves and a holy God. "The wages of sin is death" — that's the plain, sobering word of Scripture 26 — but hear what comes right after it in that same verse: "the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." A gift. Not something you earn. Not a mountain you have to climb. A gift, freely given.

Remember the mountain we've walked together tonight. Remember the ram, caught in the thicket, given in the place of the son. That was only a shadow of something greater still to come. On a hill called Calvary, God gave His own Son in your place. "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."27 Not after you cleaned up your life. Not after you got your act together. While you were still a sinner. That is how much He loves you.

I'm asking you tonight — right where you are — to come.

Come, not because you have it all figured out. Come, not because you feel worthy — because none of us ever will. Come just as you are. That's not just a phrase — it's the title of an old hymn that has drawn more souls to the foot of the cross than almost any other: "Just as I am, without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me." Nothing in your hands. Nothing to bring. Just you, and Him.

The way to Him is so simple a child can understand it, and so profound that the greatest minds in history have spent their lives studying it:

"If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved... for whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." — Romans 10:9, 13

That's all of it, friend. Believe. Confess. Call on His name.

Maybe you're thinking, "I'll come to Him another day. Tomorrow. Next week. When things settle down." My friend, please hear me: none of us is promised tomorrow. The men and women who went to work on the morning of September 11, 2001, had no more warning than an ordinary Tuesday gives anyone. I say to you tonight, with all the love in my heart: today is the day. Now is the hour.

So, are you ready, friend?

Wherever you are sitting right now, I'm going to ask you to do something. Bow your head. Close your eyes if you're able. And with sincerity in your own heart, in your own words, tell Him. Tell Him you know you're a sinner. Tell Him you believe He died for you and rose again. Tell Him you're turning from your sin and placing your trust in Him — not in your church attendance, not in your good deeds, not in anyone else's faith, but in Him, and Him alone.

If you will do that — not because I have any power to promise it, but because His Word promises it — you will be saved. Tonight. Right now. Just as you are.  On a night unlike any other.

If that's you, pray this after me, right where you are:

Heavenly Father, we thank You that when human alarms go silent, Your eternal promise still speaks. We thank You that You are the God who provides — who provided a ram on Moriah, and Your own Son on Calvary, so that the debt could be paid in full.  Lord Jesus, thank You that You finished would I never could.  Thank You for purchasing my salvation - for dying on that Cross for me.  

If you prayed that prayer for the first time, I want you to contact me at: ofhim@outlook.com and tell me.  We are here to help, to share a Bible if you need one, and to walk you through this new journey.  I want to encourage you: you are a new creation in Christ Jesus in this Jewish, New Year!  

Happy Birthday!

Shalom!

Endnotes
  1. Public Law 107-89 (December 18, 2001) designated September 11 as "Patriot Day"; congress.gov, S.J.Res.29 / H.J.Res.71, 107th Congress.
  2. The national moment of silence is observed at 8:46 a.m. Eastern, marking when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower; United Flight 175 struck the South Tower seventeen minutes later, at 9:03 a.m. White House, "Patriot Day 2025" proclamation; daysofobservance.com, "Patriot Day."
  3. Exodus 20:8–11, HCSB — the fourth commandment, establishing the Sabbath as a day of rest, paraphrased here with one short direct quotation.
  4. Hebcal and Chabad.org Hebrew calendar data confirm Friday, September 11, 2026 corresponds to 29 Elul, 5786 (Erev Rosh Hashanah).
  5. Leviticus 23:24; Numbers 29:1 — the ram's horn (shofar) at the Feast of Trumpets, the biblical basis for Rosh Hashanah.
  6. Hebcal Hebrew Date Converter confirms September 11, 2001 corresponds to the 23rd of Elul, 5761.
  7. Wikipedia, "Elul" — the shofar is sounded every weekday morning from the first of Elul until Rosh Hashanah, excluding Shabbat.
  8. September 11, 2001 fell on a Tuesday, a weekday within Elul, when the daily shofar custom was observed; no documented, minute-by-minute record of any specific New York congregation's timing that morning is claimed here.
  9. Chabad.org, Jewish Calendar, entry for 29 Elul: "The Shofar is not sounded on the day before Rosh Hashanah, to separate between the shofar soundings of the month of Elul... and the Biblically ordained shofar-blowing on Rosh Hashanah itself."
  10. Babylonian Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 29b; Chabad.org, "Rosh Hashanah 2026 FAQ," confirming the 1st day of Rosh Hashanah (Saturday, Sept. 12) falls on Shabbat, with the shofar sounded on the 2nd day, Sunday, September 13.
  11. Mark 7:8–9, paraphrased; see also Matthew 15:3–9, where Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for elevating human tradition above the commandment of God.
  12. My Jewish Learning, "The Akedah, or Binding of Isaac"; Encyclopædia Britannica, "Rosh Hashanah" — Genesis 22 is the traditional Torah reading for the second day of Rosh Hashanah.
  13. Genesis 22:1–2 — God's test of Abraham on Mount Moriah.
  14. Genesis 22:10–13.
  15. Traditional Jewish teaching on the shofar's origin in the Genesis 22 ram, cf. Pirkei De-Rabbi Eliezer, ch. 31.
  16. 2 Chronicles 3:1; 2 Samuel 24:18–25.
  17. The Greek term Tetelestai, translated "it is finished," was commonly used on completed financial transactions in the first century, meaning "paid in full."
  18. Hebrews 4:9–10, NASB.
  19. Leviticus 23:23–25; Numbers 29:1–6 — the Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teruah).
  20. 1 Corinthians 15:51–52, NKJV, with "(shofar)" added to note the Hebrew concept underlying the Greek word for trumpet.
  21. 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17, NKJV, with "(shofar)" added for the same reason.
  22. Matthew 24:36, NKJV.
  23. 1 John 3:2–3, NKJV.
  24. Revelation 22:20, NKJV.
  25. Romans 3:23, NKJV.
  26. Romans 6:23, NKJV.
  27. Romans 5:8, NKJV.
  28. Romans 10:9, 13, NKJV.