The second part of the chapter describes Israel setting out after camping at Mount Sinai for nearly two years. The first part describes the silver trumpets and their signals.
“The Lord said to Moses: ‘Make two trumpets of hammered silver… When both are sounded, the whole community is to assemble before you at the entrance to the tent of meeting. If only one is sounded… the heads of the clans of Israel are to assemble before you. When a trumpet blast is sounded, the tribes camping on the east are to set out. At the sounding of a second blast, the camps on the south are to set out. When you go into battle in your own land against an enemy who is oppressing you, sound a blast on the trumpets. Then you will be remembered by the Lord your God and rescued from your enemies. Also at your times of rejoicing… you are to sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, and they will be a memorial for you before your God. I am the Lord your God.’ ” (v1-10 abr)
Interesting – these two trumpets, using various combinations and alternating patterns of tones, were used to relay commands to the entire nation of Israel – approximately 2.4 million people. Now that’s an effective signaling system. It sure beats email (which is unreliable or easy for people to completely ignore…). I wonder if this is where the military first got the idea of using bugles to signal troops…
Trumpets are used many times in scripture, and possibly the two most famous examples are the seven trumpets used by Joshua at Jericho and the seven trumpets in Revelation. Joshua’s seven trumpets signaled the destruction of the fortress-like city, and the seven trumpets of Revelation each signal different stages of judgement/destruction on the old earth.
Traditionally trumpets are used for signaling something important – setting out on a journey, war, celebration, someone’s arrival (eg. Jesus’ second coming [1 Ths 4:16]), or coming destruction. They are used to herald important information.
My question for us today is what trumpets does God use in our lives to convey important information to us? Now, these are not likely literal trumpets, but figurative. How does He convey important attention-grabbing messages, and most importantly, am I paying attention to those messages and acting on them?
God is the greatest communicator – in fact He invented communication, and He spoke the universe into existence – there is absolute power in what He conveys. The thing is, we don’t always hear what He says, probably because we aren’t listening (not because He isn’t communicating).
What would have happened to the nation of Israel if they didn’t listen to and obey the signals from the trumpets? Probably total chaos and/or destruction, because they wouldn’t have any idea of what was happening around them. What would happen to us if we spent our lives ignoring God’s words? The same thing – a life of turmoil, and ultimately eternal destruction.
My challenge today is to learn how to listen for God’s communication to us (because He talks to us every single day), and then obey. Those signals won’t be as obvious as a trumpet blast, but they can be as audible (perhaps a trusted individual speaking into our life) or as visual as reading His Word. Please listen for God’s voice today, and see where it leads. He will never mislead us or lead us into harm, so what can we lose by listening?
Father God, praise be to You, O Lord of Israel, creator of this universe. Holy is Your name, all honor and glory be unto You. Thank You for your steadfast patience with us – we are slow to learn, and slow to listen, but our hearts are in the right place. Please give us ears to hear You, and persevere through our learning and growing. Please teach us the sound of Your voice, no matter what form it takes, and guard our attention from the countless distractions of this world. We ask for You to speak into our ears and hearts, for we long to obey You, we just need Your help to do it for we are weak and deaf without Your help. In the power of Jesus’ name we ask this, amen.
~ Conqueror in Training