Numbers 10
And if you do go with us, whatever good the Lord will do to us, the same will we do to you. – Numbers 10:32
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According to the census taken after the Israelites left Egypt, there were 603,550 men aged 20 years and older (Numbers 1:46). It is thus estimated that the total population of Israel then would have been more than 1.5 million. How then does Moses ensure that God’s instruction is correctly and promptly transmitted to the people? One way was to get the people properly organized so that messages can be systematically passed on through the heads of tribes; clans and families. But that doesn’t seem adequate, especially when time is of the essence.
In today’s text, God instructed Moses to make two silver trumpets. They are to be used for summoning the people or their leaders to assemble. They are also to be used for breaking camp in an orderly way.
But God did not intend for the trumpets to be His one-way communication tool. He also wanted it to be a means for His people to reach out to Him. Verse 9 reads: “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”. In other words, the trumpets are the people’s SOS call to God.
In addition, God also ordains the trumpet as an instrument of praise. In Verse 10, He instructed the people to sound the trumpet at times of rejoicing. No wonder the psalmist exhorts us to “Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp!” (Ps 150:3). Today, while the trumpet remains as an instrument to praise God, God summons and speaks to us through other means.
First, God speaks to us through His Word, which He uses to teach us, reprove and correct us. He also uses it to train us in righteousness so that with the help of the Holy Spirit, we may be “complete and equipped for every good work”. (2 Timothy 3:16 – 17; John 16:13).
Second, God ordains prayers as a means for us to praise Him and bring our requests to Him. Revelation 5:8 describes the prayers of the saints as “golden bowls full of incense” which bring God delight. And as we pray, God is patiently listening. In John 16:24, the Lord said, “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full”.
But God not only wants His trumpets to be heard by His people. Through the prophet Isaiah, God declares, “All you inhabitants of the world, you who dwell on the earth, when a signal is raised on the mountains, look! When a trumpet is blown, hear!” (Isaiah 18:3).
In the book of Revelation, we are given a glimpse of what that means. With each sound of the trumpet God executes judgment and destruction on the earth. And at the sound of the seventh trumpet, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15).
Reflection:
Living in a noisy world, it is not difficult for anyone to miss out God’s trumpet call. Being very busy people, sometimes we may not even find time to use the trumpet He has availed us. The sober question before us is this: when God blows the final trumpet, where will our loved ones and we be?
Prayer:
Lord, even as you ordain the silver trumpets to summon your people to actions, we pray that we will always be attentive and obedient to your call. And as you instruct the sons of Aaron to blow the trumpets, may we too, as a royal priesthood of believers, be ever alert to blow your trumpet to the world that will otherwise perish without Christ. In Jesus’s Name, we pray, Amen
Click to read passage
According to the census taken after the Israelites left Egypt, there were 603,550 men aged 20 years and older (Numbers 1:46). It is thus estimated that the total population of Israel then would have been more than 1.5 million. How then does Moses ensure that God’s instruction is correctly and promptly transmitted to the people? One way was to get the people properly organized so that messages can be systematically passed on through the heads of tribes; clans and families. But that doesn’t seem adequate, especially when time is of the essence.
In today’s text, God instructed Moses to make two silver trumpets. They are to be used for summoning the people or their leaders to assemble. They are also to be used for breaking camp in an orderly way.
But God did not intend for the trumpets to be His one-way communication tool. He also wanted it to be a means for His people to reach out to Him. Verse 9 reads: “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”. In other words, the trumpets are the people’s SOS call to God.
In addition, God also ordains the trumpet as an instrument of praise. In Verse 10, He instructed the people to sound the trumpet at times of rejoicing. No wonder the psalmist exhorts us to “Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp!” (Ps 150:3). Today, while the trumpet remains as an instrument to praise God, God summons and speaks to us through other means.
First, God speaks to us through His Word, which He uses to teach us, reprove and correct us. He also uses it to train us in righteousness so that with the help of the Holy Spirit, we may be “complete and equipped for every good work”. (2 Timothy 3:16 – 17; John 16:13).
Second, God ordains prayers as a means for us to praise Him and bring our requests to Him. Revelation 5:8 describes the prayers of the saints as “golden bowls full of incense” which bring God delight. And as we pray, God is patiently listening. In John 16:24, the Lord said, “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full”.
But God not only wants His trumpets to be heard by His people. Through the prophet Isaiah, God declares, “All you inhabitants of the world, you who dwell on the earth, when a signal is raised on the mountains, look! When a trumpet is blown, hear!” (Isaiah 18:3).
In the book of Revelation, we are given a glimpse of what that means. With each sound of the trumpet God executes judgment and destruction on the earth. And at the sound of the seventh trumpet, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15).
Reflection:
Living in a noisy world, it is not difficult for anyone to miss out God’s trumpet call. Being very busy people, sometimes we may not even find time to use the trumpet He has availed us. The sober question before us is this: when God blows the final trumpet, where will our loved ones and we be?
Prayer:
Lord, even as you ordain the silver trumpets to summon your people to actions, we pray that we will always be attentive and obedient to your call. And as you instruct the sons of Aaron to blow the trumpets, may we too, as a royal priesthood of believers, be ever alert to blow your trumpet to the world that will otherwise perish without Christ. In Jesus’s Name, we pray, Amen