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Transcript

Here we are in trumpets, the festival of blowing trumpets of noise. You heard a lot about God’s voice this morning and what that means.

Now we are in the afternoon, we’re thinking about the day, the trumpets, the blast. You almost had trumpets up here with the corral with some of those big, big notes that they hit. Trumpets are using the Bible over and over and over again. So many different places you could go for historic, different purposes, different types. Never mind looking forward to the prophetic application of trumpets, what it means, when they’ll be used. For all of those trumpeting elements in the Bible, there’s really only two different kinds of trumpets that the Bible references. You have the Shofar, ram’s horn, and you have the silver trumpet.

Only two. It’s not a trumpet anything like what we think today. It’s not the “tooo-too-too-too-too too.” It’s my trumpet. Hey, you knew it was a trumpet. It’s that long skinny silver trumpet that they would use, or the ram’s horn. Did you know though, with those two trumpets, those are more the instruments than anything else, it was less about those instruments and more about the types of trumpeting that they did. We hear all the time about the fact that there are trumpets in the Bible and then trumpets are blasted.

Actually, before I started digging into this topic more, you probably like me think about the big blast of a trumpet. That’s what comes to mind when you think about trumpets on these days when you hear about the trumpet of God. You have that big, long, loud blast. There are actually three different kinds of sounds that the trumpet makes. Three different ways to play it, either the Shofar or the silver one. Three different ways to do it.

Each can have a very different meaning that have somewhat evolved over time, but go back very, very far to bring us and bring meaning to this day of trumpets. Let’s explore some of those trumpet sounds. We’re going to look through the Bible and then we are going to connect them with some spiritual sides of it that you may not have connected to the day of trumpets before. It all starts in Israel. It always does, doesn’t it? Everything always starts in Israel.

We’re coming up to the fall holy days coming out of Egypt, repeated in the spring, same thing. They took a wrong turn, if you will, for about forty years when they were on their way to the promised land. It’s much like our own, isn’t it? Think of Israel in your own life. You had this nation, they were slaves. Long comes God through Moses and takes this nation doing all sorts of things wrong. Obviously, paganism, they had the Egyptian gods, they were probably eating the wrong foods and took this nation and said, “We want to put you on a different path.” God through Moses.

It’s basically what happened to us, isn’t it? We had all these pagan things and ate the wrong foods and lived the wrong way of life. God at some point opened our eyes to say, “No, I’m going to have you walk a different way.” They wanted to make it to the Promised Land. In many ways so do we. It gets bumpy along the way to the Promised Land for them. You could argue it’s not smooth sailing for us either, is it?

There’s a reason why we picture this twice a year because it is the ultimate picture of what it means to live this way of life, this coming out of Egypt. You always have those questions you want to ask God. Here’s one of them that I have always been in the back of my mind. It’s a chicken and an egg scenario in a certain way. Did God who exists out of time clearly see what Israel was going to do, let that happen because he knew it would be a perfect analogy for Christians thousands of years later to look back on to be able to have that picture of what it means to come out of sin?

Or did God take lemons when Israel did what they did and made lemonade out of it for our New Testament example in the life we live today? He’s outside of space and time. You could go either way. There’s a lot of questions you want to ask God. Did you let that happen? Did you do that? That’s one of them. Let’s go to Exodus thirteen. Let’s look at this account first in the Old Testament, then in the new. You’re thinking, “What are we talking about? It’s not the days of unleavened bread.” We’ll get there. You’ll see.

Exodus chapter thirteen. Just a couple of verses here. We’ll start in verse twenty-one. Thirteen, twenty-one, “And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them the way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light to go by day and night.” Verse twenty-two, “He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night from before the people,” as they walked and walked and walked through the land and eventually doing that for forty years in the wilderness.

Let’s expand on this in the New Testament. First Corinthians chapter ten. Read a little more here. Start in verse one. First Corinthians ten one, “Moreover, brethren, I would not let you be ignorant how that all of our fathers were under the cloud and passed through the sea.” We’re looking at the New Testament version of that explaining it kind of the account. Verse two, “And they were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea as they went through it, and they all ate the same spiritual meat and they all drank from the same spiritual rock for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ.” The rock that followed them.

Just throw that as a nugget out there of the amazing knowledge we have been given of the last ten years of understanding the rock and Christ and the God of the Old Testament. The rock followed them, didn’t lead them, “But many of them, God was not well-pleased for they were overthrown in the wilderness.” Now, these things were our examples. I guess did I answer the chicken and the egg that they were supposed to be examples for us or did God allow it so they would be examples for us?

Never mind. Stay out of that rabbit hole. Those are for examples to the extent that we should not lust after evil things as they lusted. Verse seven, “Neither be you idolaters as some of them were; as it was written. The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” Rose up to play. That is the understatement of the decade as they rose up, made a golden calf and danced and worshiped idols, and rose up to play.

Takes a different feeling to play. Verse eight, “Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day, three and twenty thousand.” Twenty-three thousand died. “Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents.” We all could say in many ways, maybe not as in the face as what the Israelites did, but we’ve all made these mistakes, at least spiritual application of them.

“Neither murmur you as some of them murmured and were destroyed by the destroyer.” Verse eleven. Why is this important? Why is the Old Testament important? Why is looking back at the day of trumpets, the meanings of it, the trumpets, the sounds, the noises that were made, why is it important for you and I now in 2023 to care what happened to Israel? People don’t look back. We just heard it in the sermonette.

People forget history. They don’t think about why does God make us every single year remember what happened? In the case of coming out of Egypt twice a year so we don’t forget. Verse eleven, “Now, all these things happened unto them for in samples or types, and they’re written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world have come.” We get to see multiple ends of the world you and I. Many generations won’t be able to, but we will.

Brethren, everything that happened to Israel should be looked at as a type for you and I. It doesn’t matter if it’s how they built the tabernacle or what they wore, the laws, the items, those are types in the physical sense for us to draw spiritual lessons out today. Trumpets has a huge significance in biblical history and the ceremonies that come with it and with that type has a lot of meaning. Let’s look back first, Leviticus twenty-three. I’ve already read this today, but it doesn’t hurt to hear it again. Leviticus twenty-three. Let’s look back. Verse twenty-three reads, “And the Lord spoke unto Moses saying, ‘Speak unto the children of Israel, saying: “In the seventh month...” That’s where we are. “In the first day of the month...” That’s today. “You shall have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall do no servile work therein, but you shall make an offering made by fire unto the Lord.” We took up an offering this morning. We are keeping this day as a remembrance forever.

That’s us looking back, thinking about what they did, coming out of Israel, getting lost in the wilderness, learning to use trumpets for a greater purpose. It was hinted at a lot this morning. It’s always amazing when you... I work across the building from Mr. Houk. He talked early in the week about what he was going to preach on, and then as we were apt to do, as you’re working on a message, it changes. I told him what I was thinking about doing, and it changed. We had no idea that we both went completely different directions, so I thought, “You know what? Maybe we should touch base,” yesterday, on what it was.

What it ended up being is inspiring to me looking at the meaning of trumpets where he looking at the voice of God and how those two tied together. I think by the end of this message, you’ll see that God inspired that overlap. That’s looking back. Let’s look forward, First Thessalonians four. The hardest Book of the Bible to say, Thessalonians.

Try to say it fast and you won’t be laughing. You just have to turn there, you don’t have to stand up here and keep saying it. First Thessalonians chapter four. We’ll start in verse fifteen. Verse fifteen reads, “For this, we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that which alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which who are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trump of God.”

We looked back to the beginning of what that started as, and then ultimately, this is now the end game, that trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first. “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together in the clouds with them to meet the Lord in the air and so we shall ever be with the Lord.” That’s the trump work striving for. That’s the trump we all want to hear. We want to be able to be there in person for.

That’s why it says, “We’re for comfort one another with these words.” We heard these at a funeral recently because we are all striving to be for that trump. We look back at the previous, that is a type of a trump that’s coming in the future that we want to be part of, that we want to hear. You hear beautiful music or your instruments, you want to hear it. Never mind when all of the saints will come out of the ground to be able to be part of that one hundred forty-four thousand.

Let’s go back to the wilderness. We’re back to Israel here. They took that wrong turn. They’re now forty years wandering around the wilderness. We’ll basically go through a big chunk of Numbers ten so you can turn back to Numbers ten. In one of the areas in the Bible that described the use of trumpets more than just about anywhere else, Numbers chapter ten. Spotted throughout the rest of God’s word when it’s used, the different times, but no other spot does it get into detail.

I don’t think I turn away from here without the passage, but you may want to drop a marker here because we’re to go through about half of it. Numbers ten verse one, “And the Lord spoke unto Moses saying, ‘Make you two trumpets of silver.’” This is not the Shofar ones, but it doesn’t matter, either of the two can make the sounds that we’re talking about. “Make you two trumpets of silver, of a whole piece shall you make them, that you may use them for a calling of the assembly and for the journeying of the camps.’”

The first two areas. If you read the recent pillar article, some of these will be overlap, but you see, we’re going to go a different direction from that pillar article. Numbers covers three, four, maybe five, depending on how you count it, different uses for that trumpet. It could be done with the Shofar, it could be done with the silver trumpet. Continuing on here, verse three reads, “And when they shall blow them,” so that’s the gathering, “all the assembly shall assemble themselves to you at the door of the tabernacle, the congregation.”

If you think they’re assembling, they’re coming before the tabernacle of the congregation before Moses, but ultimately, they’re coming before God because they’re coming before the tabernacle. That trumpet blast is meant to draw people to God. The whole congregation is meant to come forward when they hear that trumpet blast to draw them to God. In verse four of Chapter ten, “If they blow, but one trumpet,” not two of them, just one, have a different sound. I’m assuming both of them had a bit of a different tone.

Although with a trumpet, you can make them sound differently depending on how you play them, “Then the princes, which are the heads of thousands of Israel, shall gather themselves unto you.” You can assume in front of the tabernacle. Again, you think God would be there inspiring Moses. Whatever counsel, discussion, decisions, whatever it was, they were either taking the entire assembly, and drawing them, and having them come before God, or the leaders of the assembly, or of Israel before God. It’s one of the two. In both cases, it’s taking a group of people and having them come before God.

Verse five, “When you blow an alarm, then the camp that lies on the east side shall go forward.” This is to have them move. “And when you blow alarm the second time, then the camp that lies on the south side shall take their journey, and they shall blow an alarm for their journey.” Again, they’re trumpeting. Draw before God, and that trumpet should be a guiding force to make Israel move. “Mr. Schleifer, I see the analogies that you’re trying to draw here.”

I’m not drawing anything yet, but it’s so rich. Remember, these are types for us. You may not guess where we end up going at all. I’m pretty sure you won’t, but you’re probably already thinking, “Oh, wow. Yes, it draws us to God.” Or whatever’s coming to mind because that’s what these Holy Days are meant for us to do. They’re meant for us to look back at what either ancient Israel went through, fathers of the gospel, ancient greats, and be able to look back and say, “How does that apply to me today?”

That’s Christianity in a nutshell. It’s how does this book that was written thousands of years ago, apply to each of us today. How do we live this book and be able to do the things that get us to that last trump? That we get to hear it, we get to be there. We do it by looking back so we can continue to help us move forward. That was verse six. “And on the south side shall take their journey, and they shall blow an alarm for their journeys.” Signaling movement. Then verse seven here, a lot of purposes. “But when the congregation is gathered together, you shall blow, you shall not sound an alarm.”

Which could cause panic, you would imagine. “And the sons of Aaron and the priests shall blow with the trumpets, and they shall be to you for an ordinance forever throughout your generation.” The priests would blow trumpets. Verse nine, “And if you go to war in your land against an enemy that oppresses you, then you shall blow an alarm with the trumpets. And you should be remembered before the Lord, your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies.”

A trumpet, another use here, it’s used to call Israel to battle, to fight, that danger is in front of them. Verse ten, “Also in the day of your gladness, and your solemn days, and the beginning of your months, you shall blow a trumpet over your burnt offerings, and over your sacrifices of peace offerings, that they may be a memorial before your God. I am the Lord your God.” Over and over, trumpets were used. Peace offerings, burnt offerings, sacrifices, memorials, new moons, alarms, war, movement, gathering. Over and over they were used to do things.

Again, I harken back to the article in the pillar. There are several other aspects that are used in the Bible that we’re not even going to get into. This was more of just a snapshot to go to Numbers and see how much can be dug through and just the analogies that can be derived by looking at just a simple passage of what? Ten verses and what trumpets can mean for you and I. That article or what we’ve covered so far, wasn’t talking about the types of blasts. The purposes of the trumpets are almost as important, but not quite, as the types of blasts that were used.

Those blasts have so much meaning to them that we can pull from today. I’m going to try to do something that I’ve never done in a sermon before. I have my phone up here. I’m not making a phone call. The sound guys are going to hate me for this. I’ll put that right there for a second. I didn’t warn them either. There are three different kinds of trumpet blasts. There are three different patterns and sounds that are made. Each of those sounds, as I said, has a different purpose to it. It’s meant to elicit a different emotional response as well.

We’re going to try to play some of these and then get into the details of what they are and where they come from. The first one here is the Tekiah or I guess it would be Tekiah emphasis on the second syllable. Let me play it first and then we’ll talk about it. Let’s see if this works. [trumpet blasts] That is the Tekiah. What is that? You can almost feel it, can’t you? That power, that blast, that attention-grabbing. That is the trumpet blast that calls to attention or to summon the assembly.

Think back to what we read in Numbers because all of these have application in these different scenarios, but Numbers doesn’t describe, and the Bible really doesn’t describe. You almost have to go back through Jewish tradition to understand what the different cymbal sounds were. They’ve kept over time that they’ve extended. That’s the blast that calls attention or summons the assembly. It’s a long sound. It’s meant to get louder before it gets softer. It’s usually signifying something very important about to happen.

This is the one you often will hear for holy days, the day of trumpets, peace offerings. Jews still doing that today would blast that sound more than any other sound. Let’s look at an example. Leviticus twenty-five. I had to sign up for YouTube Premium today because I was testing that out and played one of them and then a commercial came on.

I realized that a seven-day trial of YouTube Premium was well worth the cost. This is why you test everything. Leviticus twenty-five and verse nine. Verse nine reads of Leviticus twenty-five, “Then shall you cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, and the day of atonement shall you make the trumpet sound throughout the land.” It would be that sound, the one you just heard. Let’s play it again so you hear it. That sound. Where is it here? Start it over.

[trumpet blasts]

Got Israel’s attention. They stood up. They paid attention. They thought. They knew something was happening. Do we go forward? Do we draw together? What should we do? Why did they choose that sound? What was the reason for Israel to say, “Let long powerful blasts should get our attention”? What does that have to do with anything? You think of trumpeters today, they often don’t play that one long note and several of the others aren’t. Go back to Exodus nineteen. Let’s find the origin of this.

Exodus chapter nineteen and verse sixteen. We’ll start in verse sixteen of Exodus nineteen, “And it came to pass on the third day in the morning that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and a voice of a trumpet exceedingly loud, so that all the people in the camp trembled. Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with the Lord,” or with God, “They stood on the other part of the mount,” so all around it on either side.

“Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke,” it looked like it was on fire, “Because the Lord descended upon it in fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. Then the voice of the trumpet sounded long, waxed louder and louder. Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice.” That long, powerful voice of a trumpet. It’s a supernatural sound we have here. They didn’t have any instruments. They were just coming out of Egypt. You heard this blast, this voice of a trumpet, getting that womp, womp, loud, loud sound.

Can you imagine how attentive everyone would have been? The mount was shaking, the fire, and then suddenly this blast of a trumpet that got louder and louder until the moment Moses spoke and conversed with God. In verse twenty, “The Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on the top of the Mount, and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the Mount, and Moses went up.” This is the beginning of things starting to come apart. Moses left. They didn’t have a leader, and things started to go south very, very quickly. Just imagine that moment because there were other trumpets.

Early in the verse, you heard the voice of a trumpet exceedingly loud. It was almost deafening, but yet it wasn’t comparable to the voice of the trumpet that was so loud and long and got louder. People were afraid. Of course, they were. That’s why they said, “No. We don’t want to talk to God Moses, you talk to God.” Because what they just experienced was unlike anything they ever had. You can imagine their hands over their ears like, “What is going on?” You at that point, can imagine God had everyone’s attention. They were focused.

They were thinking. Then over time, that became the trumpet sound to get attention. Brethren, you and I sometimes need that. Don’t we? There are times when we walk in our lives and the busyness of what we have to do, school, work, family, whatever it is, starts to crowd out the things that ensure we’re at that last trump. We don’t pray, or study, or fast, meditate, exercise God’s Spirit, use the tools because we get distracted. Sometimes God needs to get our attention. Go to Isaiah fifty-one.

Imagine if when He wanted to get our attention, we heard a blast of a trumpet. That would be too easy, wouldn’t it? If you’re living your life and you’re about to do sin, whatever it is, you’re going to steal a candy bar. Like, “I really need this candy bar.”

[trumpet sound]

We wouldn’t sin. Every time we turn towards something, we just get that blast and go, “Oh, yes. Sorry, God.” That’s not how it works today, is it? It would be so much easier if it did. Isaiah fifty-one verse one. “Harken to me, you follow after righteousness.” This is what God wants. “You that seek the Lord, look under the rock where hence that you are hewn, and the hole in the pit which you’re digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and to Sarah that bore you. For I called him alone and blessed him, and increased him.

“For the Lord shall comfort Zion looking ahead. He will comfort all her waste places, and He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found therein, thanksgiving in the voice of melody. Harken unto me, listen, hear my trumpet blast my people. Give ear to me.” God says we can hear Him blasting. We can hear Him trying to get our attention even if there isn’t a trumpet. “Give ear unto me O my nation, for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make judgment to rest for the light of the people.” Over and over through the Bible, God says to listen to him. Remember when I said the message has overlapped amazingly this morning? We’re to listen to His voice. When God gives us a blast from His voice to get our attention, to help us get back on track, it’s not a trumpet blast. It’s not an actual voice. It is God’s spirit in each of us or working with us if you’re not yet baptized. It doesn’t matter, God can get our attention. He can make the whole universe.

Some people get frustrated or discouraged especially if you’re younger or not baptized, and you think, “Oh, but God’s spirit’s only working with me. It’s not yet in me.” That will stop you from being born into the family of God, fair. He made the universe. If God’s spirit’s working with you and nudging you and pushing you towards the spot where you’ll be ready for baptism, either young or old, prospective member, teenager, whatever He can push you where He wants if just like the baptized person with the spirit in them, we listen.

We listen to His voice. We listen to His trumpet blast to get our attention because you don’t blast a trumpet. You don’t honk your horn when you’re just driving down the street. If there’s someone in front of you, you shouldn’t. If you’re just driving down the street and it’s a 35-speed limit and the person in front of you is doing 30, thoughts may cross your mind, but you’re not going to go, [honking sound] because they’re going a little bit slow.

Maybe they’re going 38 and they pass you when you’re going 35 because you’re following exactly the speed and they’re flying past you at 38. You’re not [honking sound] We don’t do that, but if a truck is about to pull out in front of us, we slam on the horn. We blast to get everyone’s attention. Brethren, if God has to go that far, we’re down the trail. If He has to use that blast to get our attention, we’re already in a very dangerous spot.

We have an advantage by having God’s spirit being able to nudge and push if we listen. If we hear that still small voice, then it should be like a trumpet to us when we feel the discomfort of God’s spirit pushing us in a direction away from what we know we shouldn’t be doing. We always know. Maybe there’s a few, but rarely is there a time where you’re like, “Oh, wow, that was an accidental sin. I just didn’t mean to do that. Oops.” Of course, we didn’t mean.

We’ll use my candy bar example and just walking along and grabbed it like, “Oh, look at that. What was I thinking? I just grabbed that candy bar out of the store and walked out and stole it.” We don’t accidentally sin. That’s where God’s spirit can keep just getting our attention and focusing us and focusing us. That long blast is meant to get our attention. Thousands of years they’ve been using that, but it had another purpose too. You heard it in Numbers.

It was also a call to assemble. Let’s go to Hebrews chapter ten. Wanted to bring them before the tabernacle before Moses when they heard that. When they heard it, they would go before the tabernacle…:

[trumpet blasts]

…that would draw them in and they would assemble. Imagine if we had that today. Again, this is not how God works. God works through His spirit today in ways that are much more subtle that require us to be much more in tune with it.

Imagine if it was Sabbath and let’s say you lived like a lot of us here were just a few minutes away. It was ten minutes, you got a ten-minute blast warning that services were going to start and across Wadsworth. The morning thing that happens at noon here, where it’s... If we got that “Go to services” and a big blast, not a soul of us would miss services. Besides feeling like we were crazy because we were joining a church that has blasts throughout Wadsworth. We are probably thankful we don’t do that today and we don’t have to do blast on the campus.

Imagine that every Sabbath. Who would miss services if we were drawn or called to assembly with a blast? Of course, we wouldn’t. We wouldn’t be able to forget. That’s why you set alarms, is why we do all the other things we do so we don’t forget things. Hebrews ten, you’re probably already there in verse twenty-two. Verse twenty-two reads, “Let us draw near with a true heart in the full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of the faith without wavering for he’s faithful that promised. And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another so much more as you see the day approaching.”

People skip services today in this day and age. God’s people around the world in Restored or in the splinters, they skip because they don’t hear a blast because that’s not what we do today. To build character, you and I can’t be frightened into Christianity. That doesn’t work. When you first heard what’s going to happen to the world, that may have frightened you to pay attention, but we can’t be frightened into Christianity, into obeying God. We fear God,

He’s all-powerful and we know He sees everything we do, but He works in a different way now. That we encourage each other to make sure we assemble together. In many ways, we trumpet to each other on those calls to assembly. We encourage each other. We make the environment in such a way that we want to be together so much more as you see the day approaching. You could argue you and I have to be a little bit like trumpets for each other. Help each other come together for assembly.

Matthew eighteen. Remember when they were calling in front of the Tabernacle which brought them in front of Moses. You could say their minister. Matthew eighteen verse eighteen. “Truly I say unto you, whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever shall be loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on anything as touching anything that shall ask, it shall be done to the Father in heaven.” Because why?

Verse twenty-four. “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them.” God is here, and it’s a different way to picture now that we understand the scope and size and wings and all the amazing things we’ve learned about the nature of God. There’s two or three of us, God’s here. Just like ancient Israel when that trumpet was blast, today that trumpet is blast to draw us together again in front of God. It’s the same. Remember, they are our types, they’re examples.

We can look back and say, “Wow, that’s what they were doing. They came before Moses. Before minister.” I’m up here preaching, but I know that God’s words will be used and I can know God will inspire what I say just like any other speaker. God is in our conversation when we have lunch because that’s what happens when two or three are gathered together. Never mind a congregation. never mind in the future an entire nation. Imagine that.

That was the first one. The second one sound they make is called the shevarim. I’m glad we have no Hebrews in the audience. Let’s see if this one works just as well.

[trumpet sound]

There’s some neat versions of that. If you ever look this one up, people who are really skilled to the shofar can make the shofar sound, and it’s supposed to sound like it’s almost a crying sound. It’s a down depressed naa naaa naa naaa naa naaa, that it’s supposed to pull you down. It’s those three shorter sounds. It’s supposed to resemble sobbing or sighing. You can hear that in the sound. Play it again for you. I should stop singing.

Come on.

[trumpet blowing]

That down sound.

[trumpet blowing]

This has been, for millennia, considered the sound they use as a call to repentance or for mistakes, errors, expressions of sorrow. You’re not going to find that in the Bible directly, but remember, the nation is a type of what we can learn. They’ve been doing this for millennia. They go all the way back to time. They’ve been handing down that sound. If you’re a really skilled player, you can really make it sound depressed.

Go to Ezekiel eighteen. When you see instances throughout the Bible when it talks about the sound for offerings or other instruments where there’s an intensity, they’re playing that sound. We read the Bible and read trumpets. They blast trumpets. That’s all you think. One big trumpet blast. There’s so much more to these trumpets and what they do with them. Again, they can do them with shofars, they can do it with the brass trumpets. Ezekiel eighteen, you’re probably there. Verse thirty. This is because what does God want? Remember, the first one is drawing us to Him, assembling together to be in front of Him, getting our attention.

Here, verse thirty reads, “Therefore, I will judge you, O house of Israel. Everyone, according to his ways,...” what you did individually, “...says the Lord God. Repent and turn yourselves from all your transgression, so iniquity shall not be your ruin.” Change. Repent. Turn. Verse thirty-one, “Cast away all of your transgressions whereby you have transgressed, and make you a new heart and a new spirit, for why will you die, O house of Israel?” Why do you want to die? I want you to change. We all can help each other and say... It sounds dramatic, doesn’t it? If you turn to your brother, your sister in Christ, and say, if they’re sinning, “Why do you want to die?” That’s what’s happening. God said it to Israel.

It’s meant for us to think, when we hear that sound, to think, “No, I’ve got to change. I’ve got to repent. I’ve got to turn. I don’t want to die. I want to do the right thing.” Because we all sin. It’s something that’s just what happens when you’re human. At some point, we need to, in our minds before God, come in front of Him with a different kind of trumpet than we would if we were just being bold. “God, help me get a new job.” or “God, I want to be able to do this or do that.” No, there is a different sound when you and I come before God in repentance, a humility that we have to have, a contriteness.

An example of just expecting, “Okay, God, I’m human. You know you created us. We’re broken, we’re weak.” Because if we don’t beg God, it’ll ultimately break us. Repentance is turning away from the things that we’ve done. It would be interesting that you would probably hear that first blast before the second, because often it’s when we’re getting off track and we’re starting to lose our focus and where we’re going, that God has to blast something in our lives, either through a trial, or a test, or someone helping us, our minister helping us get back where we should be, and then we go before God with a different kind of trumpet. Before His throne and say, “God, no, I’ve made a mistake. I’ve got to get back on track. Thank you for getting my mind back, getting my attention, calling me back before you.”

Brethren, this day of trumpets is not just big, huge blasting sounds, it is our Christian walk and what it means through those trumpets and numbers and why they do what they do, why that Jews have been handing down these trumpet blasts for generation after generation after generation. It’s not just us. Go to Joel. Joel chapter two.

Joel chapter two. Everyone’s going to get a chance. Everyone’s going to get a chance of repentance. Not just us. We’re just the first group. Verse eleven, “and the Lord shall utter His voice before His army, for His camp is very great, and He is strong that executes the word, for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible. Who can abide it?” Day of the Lord.

“Therefore, and also now, says the Lord, turn you even to me with your whole heart, with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning. Repent. Rend your heart, not your garments.” That’s what they used to do in the Old Testament. No, God cares about our hearts. He wants the worlds to change their heart. Weeping, mourning, rend your heart, not your garment. ‘Turn unto the Lord, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, of great kindness, and repents Him of the evil.” God will turn back. God will repent if we will repent.

Let’s go to Acts chapter two.

Always amazes me that people separate the Old and New Testament when they’re just over and over again lifting or building upon the other. Usually the new building off the old, but yet people will throw them out thinking it’s a different God. It’s stunning. Acts chapter two and verse thirty-four. Verse thirty-four of Acts two. “For David is not ascended into the Heavens, but he says himself, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit you at my right hand, until I make your foes your footstool. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God has made that same Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

Now, when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts,...” All of those in the surrounding area. It means, stung to the quick. “...and said unto Peter and to the rest of the Apostles, ‘Men and Brethren, what should we do?’” Then Peter quoted Ezekiel and said, “Repent,...” in this case, New Testament, “...be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin and you shall receive the gift of the Holy spirit.” It’s the same thing. Repent and turn or repent and be baptized.

The whole world is going to get an opportunity. You and I got that. Are we taking advantage of it? Are we using the days of trumpets? Are we using the holy days, the Sabbaths, the time in between, to take advantage of the fact that we get to do this first? Do we go before God with the trumpet of repentance, or do we need Him to blast to get our attention, or do we need a foghorn to come to Sabbath services? We shouldn’t. We should have God’s spirit in us, pushing us to do the right thing.

Old and New Testament, it’s the same plan. God wants people to repent and turn. He wants them to come before Him with that sadder sound. The trumpet is really just the instrument of many voices. It’s not just God who’s the trump. It’s not the trumpeter who’s the trump. It’s not just me it’s the trump. We are all, in different ways, acting as trumpets in how we do, live, help, and support each other. The day of trumpets is a day about all of us being ready for the final trumpet, being able to do that, and be standing there for it.

Let’s go to New Testament. As I’ve now learned, the Dutch Book in the Bible, James. [coughs] Book of James, chapter four. I do also like James, funny enough. He tends to be just blunt and says what he says. Take it or leave it. James chapter four and verse seven. Verse seven reads, “Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil and he’ll flee from you. Draw near unto God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be afflicted,...” fast, “...and mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy, to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up.”

How do you get into the sight of the Lord unless we’re willing to come before God, be able to do the things that we do, come to Sabbath services? We come before God in prayer and then play that trumpet sound. It’s your lips. You’re talking. It’s not a trumpet. You and I are the voice of the trumpet for us to be able to say what we say. Not God’s voice, of course, but we are blasting in different ways to be able to move us forward, in this case, with repentance. Okay, here’s the third one. The third one here. Let’s see if I can say it right and play it right. It is the Teruah. Teruah. Okay.

[trumpet blowing]

That is defined as, as you heard, nine rapid staccato blasts, usually interpreted as a battle cry or alarm. That, when they said the blast of war, that’s what would have been played. Not just one long tone. That sound is the sound of alarm or the sound of war. Let’s go back to Numbers again. We’ll just look at it here as an example. Numbers chapter ten. Same spot. We’ve read it. Probably could just read it, but we have time. Numbers chapter ten, and we’ll just read the one verse there, verse nine.

Numbers ten, verse nine, “And if you go to war in your land against your enemy that oppresses you, then you shall blow an alarm with the trumpets.” So they’re blowing an alarm with their trumpets. It’s not just one big, long blast. It’s a different sound.

[trumpet blowing]

It’s an alarm, a blast of war. An alarm.

[trumpet blowing]

It’s a different sound, isn’t it? Did you ever picture so many different noises on the day of trumpets in that Numbers ten account? So many different sounds. Not just a blast. It’s not just the shofar. It’s not just the silver instrument. God used different tones to get people’s attention in different ways because it makes sense. I used to think, “How did people know what sound was what?” When they were, “Okay, that sounded a little bit like war.”

But did they just want us to come up to the Tabernacle? Should I get my sword? Do we go south?

Obviously, they had to make it easy enough to understand. By doing so, you and I have to understand in the same way. God uses different sounds to get our attention. Different sounds to have us focus on different things. The day of trumpets is not just a day of loud blasts. Those blasts, the trumpets are loud. Exceedingly loud, as it’s described. But God will use a different sound in our lives when he’s calling an alarm or we’re called to battle.

Because we are. We’re called for both. Go to Revelation eight. There’s a time coming that’s going to get very, very serious. And you may not have ever thought of it this way. And you don’t know exactly because the Jews handed this down over time, but it’s just a little bit of speculation. Revelation chapter eight, verse six. You know the passage, but you may listen to it differently or read it differently in your mind, or hear it in your mind.

Revelation eight, verse six, “And the seven angels, which had the seven trumpets, prepared themselves to sound.”

So they’re about to issue a warning about what’s going to happen. Have you ever pictured it like we just heard? Of course, I’m speculating a bit because it doesn’t exactly say in the Bible what the sounds are. But it’s been passed on for generation after generation, these sounds. But are the angels blasting like that? Not just one big, huge blast. But imagine seven of them. Will they do it at the exact same time? With all of them hitting it in the exact same way? Being able to go with it and play the sounds to get everyone’s attention.

[trumpet blowing]

Imagine the terror if people know.

[trumpet blowing]

What I have on my phone sounds pleasant. But if you have seven angels about to blast with seven trumpets to warn the world about what’s going to happen, very, very soon, it won’t sound so pleasant. It won’t sound so comforting. Let’s go back to Joel, chapter two, first part of it. Again, trumpet. This particular sound is used for alarm or calls to battle. This is kind of the easy one. This is the one, not maybe that sound, that too-tooo toorooroo toon toon. But we always think of trumpets as this, the war, the blast, the sound, the alarm.

Not the more subtle, the more detailed, the different aspects of it. You are probably in Joel two. There’s another one. Kind of picture it with that same sound. Verse one, “Blow you the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain. Let the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord comes. For it is near at hand.” Is that the blast we hear, that taaa taaa taa taa taa? Or is it just one big blast? Because imagine the fear. We’ll know by that point. We’ll be in the family of God, so we’ll know what that blast will sound like.

We’ll know how God’s going to use that instrument. God created the instrument to be able to be played. It’s interesting. It’s not any other instrument. It’s one that often notes are difficult to play on a trumpet if you don’t have the valves. It’s all mouth work. Very difficult. Someone told me that Louis Armstrong had permanent deformation of his bottom lip from playing the trumpet because it’s so intense in the body. So turning the sound on and off would be logical, you would think, to be able to separate those different noises.

But the worst time of all time is going to be introduced with trumpets. Brethren, this day doesn’t have the meaning of the fulfillment that we hoped it would be. This day has so much more to it. It’s repeated over and over through God’s word. Over and over through the timeline of the next thousands of years. And, of course, God will keep using trumpets in the aiōns and aiōns that follow it. Trumpets is important because it’s the tool God uses for a multitude of reasons.

And when we look back to ancient Israel, to how they used it then, it allows us to have a better concept of what we’re going to see when we move forward, when we look to the future of what’s going to come. Because that trumpet’s going to keep coming. It’ll come at the day of the Lord. It’ll come at the start of the kingdom. It’ll come when Elijah’s... Over and over again, God is going to use trumpets. Ultimately up to that last trump. But do you really think that’s the last trump ever?

When all the dead are raised, and suddenly it’s the last trump. Poof, all the trumpets disappear. “What do we do?” No, it’s the last trump, and that’s fulfillment. You can imagine God will continue to be able to use communication that gets pierced. You go outside, if you have someone who really knows how to use a bugle or a trumpet, it blasts for miles. You can hear it. But it’s going to be used to warn. But again, the other part of that sound is that call to battle.

As we start to wrap up here, that’s really what trumpets comes down to for you and I with whatever time we have left. This walk is not easy. It’s not always fun. We miss out on some things that people do. We don’t necessarily get to go and be involved with all the activities. If you’re in school, if you’re... Whatever the case may be. But here’s the news. If you weren’t in the church, you’d still not be involved with all the activities that you’d all want to do because everyone can only do so much. The grass is always greener.

But God plainly said the Christian walk is not easy. That’s why he compares it to war. That’s why he compares us to people who have to fight a battle. That’s why trumpets is picturing that call to war. If you’re in elite military, you don’t get to have the fun stuff that everyone else did. You’re training. You’re working. You’re being prepared for something unique. Brethren, you and I are working and training and being prepared for something absolutely unique for the history of mankind and will never happen again.

There will never be 144,000 human beings converted to God beings at the beginning of a plan that God has that will go on for eternity, ever. What you and I get to be part of is so much more than a Marine or a special ops person training to be able to go kill someone. No, we have the opposite of that. We’re training and working hard to be able to bring something that is life to people. That’s why sometimes when it feels hard or you miss out on something, don’t think, no, focus on it.

Focus on the day of trumpets and what it means that I have been called to battle. I’ve been called to war. All of us have. When you hear that sound, go play it. Go find those on your own and sometimes just think, “Okay, you know what? I’m going to go listen to those trumpets because I need to be reminded of why I’m doing this, what it means God getting my attention. Call to assembly, repentance, be able to call to war, alarms.” It will change how you look at what this day means. It’s not just the day where we sing a hymn, and someone plays on a trumpet. It’s beautiful when that happens. It’s great when we’re able to do it, but there’s so much more meaning to the day of trumpets than just the instrument.

Let’s go to Joshua chapter six.

Joshua chapter six. We’ll start in verse twenty. Just a couple of verses here. So we’re talking about the battle. Joshua six and verse twenty. “The people shouted when the priest blew with the trumpets...” What sound do you think they blew with? Not toooo long. It is the taaa taaa taa taa taa. They were ready to charge, “...and it came to pass when the people heard the sound of the trumpet and the people shouted with a great shout,” it’s the walls of Jericho here, “...the wall fell down flat.” It wasn’t a sound of repentance. It wasn’t a sound of draw together. No, it was the sound of war.

You could imagine those trumpets playing it. Here, let me do it again. Imagine this, you’re standing out there, you’re waiting for it.

[trumpet blowing]

There may be scores of it, all of them playing.

[trumpet blowing]

Then the walls fell because it was the battle. It fell down flat. “So the people went up into the city,...” it didn’t stop it. It wasn’t just that. “...went up into the city, every man straight before them, and they took the city. They utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and ass, with the edge of the sword.” We have to look at our lives the same way. We don’t carry swords but we do if you think about the Bible.

We have to be able to fight back in any situation we get into. They had armor. They worked on things. They trained. They did all the things they were told to do. They listened to God. They came before and followed the instruction they were given. They obeyed. They didn’t get off track in this case and needed that alarm or that attention-getting sound. No, they were ready for battle because they trained. Ephesians chapter six, familiar passage here. Ephesians chapter six and we’ll start in verse thirteen. You know this, this is the armor of God but fitting here. “Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God...” we’re soldiers. “...that you may be able to withstand in the evil day having done all to stand.”

We’ve trained, we’ve limited ourselves. We’ve focused on the kingdom. We’ve served and helped and obeyed and prayed and studied and did all the things that would help us stand. “Stand therefore, having your loins girt with the truth, having a breastplate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith, you’ll be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” We’ve got a sword, we’ve got armor but if you take any person who’s going to be in the military and you say, “Okay, you’ve got no training, you’ve not been working at it at all, here’s your armor.” and they put it on, they’re still going to die.

If you don’t know how to use the armor or your weapon, you’re just going, “I’m going into battle. I’m ready to go. I’ve got the armor.” Dead. If you and I aren’t working over and over and over about doing the things that allow us to carry that armor properly, being trained how to use it, we’re not going to survive either. We won’t make it through the battle. We may make it to it, but that could be battles in our lives, tests ahead of us. It doesn’t matter what it is. We have to keep training. We are called to battle. Let’s go to Proverbs chapter two. Excuse me. Proverbs chapter two. But we need to listen to the trumpets when we hear them. Remember, we don’t get the advantage of what I’m playing for you today. That’s God’s Spirit.

It’s His Spirit in us working with us, nudging us, prodding us, helping us move into the direction that we’re supposed to go. We don’t get the benefit of what this day pictures with those blasts and sounds. It doesn’t matter what the sound they make or whatever it is or instruments use a shofar or the silver, it’s loud. God’s Spirit doesn’t do that with us. So we have to tune our ears in a different way. We have to be able to listen. If you can, think of it this way, your ear on the ground. If you’ve ever gone to a railroad and you know it was coming and put your ear down to the tracks. Anyone ever tried that before? Yes, you don’t do it for very long, but you can hear that rumbling sound from a distance.

If you get your ear tuned and carefully listen to it. If you train your ear to hear, we can hear things that we wouldn’t normally hear. If we quiet everything else around us, we keep our focus. They have rooms that they’re so silent that they used to test various equipment in, but it’s so silent, if you spend any time in the room, your ears readjust and amplify their... I guess increase their gain if you will, and you hear your blood sloshing through your veins. You can hear [sound of air] because your ears get so attuned to that silence, they pick up anything.

Our ears can do the same thing with God’s Spirit prodding us if we’re tuned to God, to His voice, to His Spirit, and listen for it. We don’t need the blast of the trumpets. We don’t need those loud sounds because we’re carefully trying to hear God. It’ll change when we get stronger, live in the faith longer, we can get more sensitive to it. Are you in Proverbs there, because what will God give us? He will give us the ability to be wise, discern. Proverbs two verse one, “My son, if you will receive my words and hide my commandments with you,...” keep them close, “...so that you incline your ear unto wisdom,...” you listen. You put that ear down on the train track. “...and apply your heart to understanding. If you cry after knowledge, lift up your voice for understanding.”

Pray, “God, please help me do the thing I need to do.” “...If you seek after her wisdom as silver and search for her for as hid treasure.” We seek after it, ultimate wisdom comes from God. He gives us wisdom. That is what the trumpets you and I should be listening for. It’s neat what we can hear and picture and know historically and tee those types but when you move to the New Testament, what it is today with God’s Spirit, no, we have to listen. God’s trumpets, if you will, are so much quieter now. Go to Hebrews four. Hebrews chapter four. We’ll start in verse nine. Hebrews four, nine. There remains... Verse nine, “There remains therefore a rest to the to the people of God.” keeping it a Sabbath. “For he that is entered into His rest, he also ceased from his own works as God did from His.” The creation week. “Let us labor, therefore,...” work. It’s not easy. We’re soldiers, remember, we’re called into war. “...to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit,...” cuts right through it, “...and of the joints and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

The quiet things, no one else can see or hear. God knows. God’s word can show us when we’re off track on areas. Even if we don’t fully realize it, we can ask for him. “God, get our attention. Blast your trumpet in my life. Help me see.” But that’s where we have to keep working on our own. We have to study, and pray, and fast. Use the tools of Christian growth. Fellowship. Serve. That draws us closer because, remember, if two of us are together, three, then God’s there.

So as we get closer to him, it’s easier to hear him, to hear the things he’s trying to do with us. So we heard three sounds today. Start to wrap up here. The first one was that long, unbroken sound designed to get our attention.

[trumpet blowing]

It tells us that we need to focus back on God. We need to come before Him. He wants us to focus on Him. The second one was the shorter one, that sad sound.

[trumpet blowing]

That’s us realizing we’re going to fall short, and we have to go before God and repent because we’re human beings and we’re going to sin.

And finally.

[trumpet blowing]

There’s the sound of alarm or the sound of war. Brethren, you wonder, will that be the sound we hear on that last trump because that sure sounds exciting to hear that. It’s energized. But you and I aren’t there yet. We haven’t made it that far yet. We’ve not gotten to that point where we get to hear the last trump. So we still have to keep looking back at the days of Israel, looking at those types, those examples, to be able to glean lessons, to be able to apply in twenty twenty-three, what God recorded thousands of years ago.

As we wrap up here, let’s go to First Corinthians chapter fifteen. First Corinthians chapter fifteen. And we’ll start in verse fifty. In verse fifty of First Corinthians fifteen. “Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, neither does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep,...” may all of us be in that category, “...but we shall all be changed.” This is what we’re waiting for, brethren.

“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 day of trumpets pictures thousands of years that culminates with that moment, when human beings are made part of the family of God. So let’s remember all of the blasts, what they mean, how they sound, so you and I can be there for that last trump.