CELEBRATING CHRIST IN THE TRUMPETS

“Make two silver TRUMPETS for yourself; you shall make them of hammered work; you shall use them for calling the assembly and for directing the movement of the camps” – Numbers 10:2

CELEBRATING CHRIST in the TRUMPETS signifies our prophetic appreciation of the Lord’s Return: “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of TRUMPETS, a holy convocation” (Lev.23:24). The feasts that God initiated in the life of Israel were to remind the people of the great salvation that He provided, and to point ahead to the Messiah’s coming to provide the way for His people to be saved. The earlier four feasts addressed matters relevant to the Lord’s first coming. Back then, He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey as the ‘Suffering Servant.’ But when He manifests the next time He will come as the Conquering King!

While each of the feasts pointed forward to significant events in the life of Jesus, they were specifically instituted for the people of Israel and have great significance for them as a people as well as unique meanings for Christians also. Let’s recall: Passover was fulfilled by Jesus’ sacrificial death; Unleavened Bread was fulfilled by His burial; Firstfruits was fulfilled by His resurrection; and the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost was fulfilled by the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Trumpets played a significant role in the life of the Israelites. The first mention of the trumpet is in Exodus 19 in connection with the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai. There the trumpet was used to summon the people to the mountain. In Numbers 10, God gave Moses instructions to make two silver trumpets, to be used to summon the people to break camp or as alarm. They were also to be blown at the beginning of each month and during the appointed feasts as a reminder that the Lord was their God. Throughout the Old Testament, God used blasts of the trumpet to gather His people, reveal Himself, and remind them of being their God. Trumpets were blown during special times of crisis to summon His covenant people in a solemn assembly before the God of Israel. They were also sounded in times of warfare, and to announce the arrival of a king.

Specifically, the Feast of Trumpets was instituted by Moses at Sinai when he declared and prophesied that it would become a “memorial of blowing of trumpets” (Lev.23:24-25). It is the first of the three feasts yet to be fulfilled. It was to be held on the first day of the seventh month on the religious calendar, but the first day of the Hebrew New Year. ‘Rosh Hashanah” means ‘head of the year’! The feast itself was quite simple. The people were to gather together for a day of solemn rest, in which they took a break from all vocations. They were to remember God with a blast of the trumpets. While trumpets were blown on other occasions, it seems that at the Feast of Trumpets the instruments were sounded continuously from morning until evening. They were also to present a food offering to God in addition to the normal daily sacrifices.

In the New Testament, trumpets are mentioned in relation to the Lord’s return: “and they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.  And He will send His angels with a great sound of a TRUMPET, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Mt.24:30a-31). The Lord’s return will be accompanied by a loud trumpet blast – “the last trumpet” – for God to gather His people to Himself (1 Corinthians 15:51-52 and 1Thessalonians 4:16). Soon, the ultimate epic future Feast of Trumpets will burst into the world stage and into holy history. This will be an awesome day of mixed celebration and alarm. Meanwhile, every believer is meant to be sensitive to God’s sounds in order to be an effective ‘Trumpet’ of the Gospel, to sound the alarm and rescue a drowning world!