Make two silver trumpets for yourself; you shall make them of hammered work; you shall use them for calling the congregation and for directing the movement of the camps. (Numbers 10:2)
Primary Use of the Trumpets
- for calling or assembling the congregation
- Regulating the journeys of Israel or directing the movement of the camps
Further Use of the Trumpets
When they blow both of them, all the congregation shall gather before you at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. But if they blow only one, then the leaders, the heads of the divisions of Israel, shall gather to you. When you sound the advance, the camps that lie on the east side shall then begin their journey. When you sound the advance the second time, then the camps that lie on the south side shall begin their journey; they shall sound the call for them to begin their journeys. And when the assembly is to be gathered together, you shall blow, but not sound the advance. (Numbers 10:3-7)
When you go to war in your land against the enemy who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the Lord your God, and you will be saved from your enemies.
Also in the day of your gladness, in your appointed feasts, and at the beginning of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they shall be a memorial for you before your God: I am the Lord your God.” (Numbers 10:9-10)
3. Blowing over the sacrifices on special days including Jubilee - Numbers 10:10, Leviticus 25:9
4. Assembling the people to war - Judges 3:27
5. Proclaiming kings - 2 Kings 9:13
6. Giving alarm in cases of danger - Ezekiel 33:2-6
7. Sounding for a memorial when the people went into battle - Numbers 10:9
Tools to enter the Promised land
The trumpets were essential tools for the journey to the Promised Land. Without them it would be very difficult to assemble the nation and march towards the Promised Land. Israel needed tools to come into the Promised Land.
Miracles Connected with Trumpets
Falling of the walls of Jericho
So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. (Joshua 6:20)
Confusion produced in the camp of the Midianites by sound of Trumpets
And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man's hand, with empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers. (Judges 7:16)
And the three hundred blew the trumpets, and the LORD set every man's sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host: and the host fled to Bethshittah in Zererath, and to the border of Abel Meholah, unto Tabbath. (Judges 7:22)
Sounding of Trumpets are Illustrative of:
God Raising the dead
1 Corinthians 15:52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
The Rapture
God will use the sound of a trumpet to gather His people for the ultimate assembling together - the rapture of the church, to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).
The proclamation of the gospel
Psalm 89:15 Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance.
The bold and faithful preaching of ministers
Isaiah 58:1 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
The latter day judgments
Revelation 8:2 And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.
So they started out for the first time according to the command of the LORD by the hand of Moses: (Numbers 10:13)
Silver must be kept clean and polished so as not to get tarnished. We can get tarnished, like silver, by the pollution of this world's atmosphere around us - tarnishing is a fact of living in this world.
Like trumpets, we also must be kept free of blockages, which may be things about ourselves which hinder or stop God's Spirit in and through us. As we yield to the work of the Spirit of God in our lives, He clears, cleanses and polishes us; restoring and keeping us in optimal condition ready for Him to blow through.
The trumpets were merely a means or an instrument for conveying the sound caused by the Breath. The instruments, while necessary, are nothing without the Trumpeter! Without the Breath/Spirit, trumpets are silent and can make no sound.
This was the first time Israel marched as an organized, prepared nation. They were not the same group that escaped Egypt as a mob.
Now Moses said to Hobab the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, "We are setting out for the place of which the LORD said, 'I will give it to you.' Come with us, and we will treat you well; for the LORD has promised good things to Israel." And he said to him, "I will not go, but I will depart to my own land and to my relatives." So Moses said, "Please do not leave, inasmuch as you know how we are to camp in the wilderness, and you can be our eyes. And it shall be, if you go with us; indeed it shall be; that whatever good the LORD will do to us, the same we will do to you." (Numbers 10:29-31)
Although God is with you, you still need people to do the job. Moses was wise enough to understand this. The day a leader thinks he can do it alone, that person is finished.
It also revealed the humility of Moses.
Prayer of Moses the man of God
“Rise up, O Lord!
Let Your enemies be scattered,
And let those who hate You flee before You.” (Numbers 10:35)
Chapters
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 2
- Chapter 3
- Chapter 4
- Chapter 5
- Chapter 6
- Chapter 7
- Chapter 8
- Chapter 9
- Chapter 10
- Chapter 11
- Chapter 12
- Chapter 13
- Chapter 14
- Chapter 15
- Chapter 16
- Chapter 17
- Chapter 18
- Chapter 19
- Chapter 20
- Chapter 21
- Chapter 22
- Chapter 23
- Chapter 24
- Chapter 25
- Chapter 26
- Chapter 27
- Chapter 28
- Chapter 29
- Chapter 33