JavaScript

Transcript

Greetings brethren. Beautiful Trumpets Day today. It’s feeling like fall more and more these days. Very thankful for that. I enjoy this time of year, as I’m sure we all do.

Looking forward to this season. I wanted to just start off with a basic question. We’re here on a high day. This is the day that God has commanded in His word for us to keep, and it’s called the Feast of Trumpets. And I just want to ask a basic question to start this message. What is this day about? What is it about? What are we here for, and why are we keeping it?

It’s a pretty fundamental question. Hopefully, we can all answer that question. If we can’t answer that question, then why are we here? What are we doing? We have to know why we’re keeping this important day in God’s mind, in God’s eyes, or else why did He command it in His word? Let’s turn over to Leviticus Chapter 23, and let’s begin to answer that question. Leviticus Chapter 23. It’s the Holy Day chapter. God lays out, in His word, the days that we’re supposed to keep, when we’re supposed to keep them, and how we’re supposed to keep them in Leviticus Chapter 23.

We’ll just pick it up in verse 23, Leviticus 23:23, “And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the children of Israel saying in the seventh month,” here we are, the seventh month in the Hebrew calendar, the sacred calendar is Tishrei, “The seventh month in the first day of the month,” Tishrei one, “Shall you have a Sabbath,” a day of rest. No work is involved just like the weekly Sabbath. “And it’s called a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation, and you shall do no servile work therein, but you shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord.”

So we come before God, and we bring offerings on this day. We don’t sacrifice like they did in ancient Israel, but we do bring an offering in place of that. And then, verse 26 goes on. And it says, “And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, in the tenth day of this month,” you keep the next Holy Day. Brethren, that’s all that’s said about this day, this Feast of Trumpets. It’s called a memorial of blowing of trumpets. That’s what this day is called.

God gave us three verses on this important day. And there’s not a lot said about it other than what we read here in Leviticus 23. In terms of the command for keeping the day, there’s not a lot said about it, but it is in a sense as though God wants... speaking maybe to those who are teaching, those who are preaching on this day, God wants us to stay in a very narrow focus on this day. He doesn’t want us to get off into big, broad different topics.

God says very little about this day, maybe because it is that He wants us to stay focused on the very narrow topics outlined in His word. And here, it says that there’s the memorial of the blowing of trumpets. Now, memorial means, and it’s often translated, a remembrance, so you could say it’s the remembrance of blowing of trumpets. What is a remembrance? What is a memorial? You think of a memorial in today’s society, memorials are big statues that are put up to memorialize big key figures in society.

You see the 9/11 Memorial, for example. After the towers fell, when the planes hit and those buildings crashed down and it was a defining moment in American history, there’s now a memorial in place of those two towers, the twin towers, that people can now go to those towers where they once stood, and rather than looking at the towers themselves, they can look at the memorial that memorializes and helps you to remember those towers and remember the people that died in them at that time. So this is a day of... In a certain regard, it’s a day of remembrance. That’s what this day is, but it’s not just a day to remember anything generally.

God says we’re supposed to remember the blowing of trumpets. That’s the focus. That’s the pointed focus that God has given us on this day. It’s not very broad. We’re not supposed to get into all kinds of different subjects on this Day of Trumpets. We’re supposed to stay focused. It’s like He’s telling the ministry, you could say, all of us who are up here teaching, but all of those who are listening, “Don’t get too fancy now with their messages. Don’t get too fancy. Just stay nice and tight. Stay nice and focused on this subject today.” And so we will.

That’s our point today, is we’re going to stay focused on simply remembering the various points in time through history and in prophecy where God used trumpets. That’s the point of this day. We’re supposed to remember the blowing of trumpets. That’s what we’re going to do today. We’re going to go through various accounts where the trumpets were blown, and God doesn’t want us to just say, “That’s a nice account. That’s wonderful that trumpets were blown in that account.” He does want us to draw lessons from it.

He wants us to look at where specifically trumpets are used throughout His word, study those accounts, and draw basic conclusions from them that we can then use in our lives. That’s the focus of today. He wants us to remember these things like we’re going up to the 9/11 Memorial or like we’re going up to a statue of somebody who died in war. God could have used or chosen different instruments, but He chose trumpets first. Let’s just briefly touch on what are trumpets.

There’s the shofar, which is a ram’s horn. That horn is unique. It’s different from different cow horns and things like this, bovine horns, because they’re hollow. They can be hollowed out. And when you use that horn and blow through it, it creates a powerful noise just like a trumpet today. Trumpets are a unique instrument in many regards. It’s not the day of the violin. It’s not the day of the piano or the harp or the xylophone or the didgeridoo or anything else. It’s the Day of Trumpets.

I’ve got a quick story if I could tell about violins because I played the violin recently. There was a wedding on Sunday, and then we’ve got the Feast of Trumpets offertory music that I played at. And with respect to something... just truly a miracle. This is a side note. This is kind of related in some regards, but a miracle happened recently where when I was playing at this wedding, it was a wonderful wedding just a few days ago, last Sunday, and I got my violin out, played fine, everything went well. I get my violin out Friday morning to practice for the offertory music, and I begin to play like normal. I’ve been playing since I was in third grade. I’ve been playing for decades.

And what I’m about to tell you, I’ve never seen myself or any other violinist I’ve ever seen in the history of violin playing has this happened. Maybe it’s happened before, but I’ve never seen it, is, I get my violin out, and the next time I get my violin out after playing at the wedding, mind you this could have happened at the wedding, this is the very next time I got my violin out, I get it out, and I start practicing and the fingerboard, which is the piece that you put your fingers on going up and down the violin, it’s crucial to playing the violin, that fingerboard just fell off.

I’ve never seen anything like that in my life. So I’m thankful that that happened right between the wedding and Trumpets offertory. But that’s kind of a side point. It was just a miracle that God allowed that to happen then as opposed to either at the Trumpets offertory of piece or during the wedding, thankfully. Would have been devastating either way, but let’s move back to trumpets. Why did God pick trumpets? Because the violin is a beautiful instrument, piano is a beautiful instrument, the harp is a beautiful instrument, but why did God pick trumpets?

Well, the trumpet has a particular sound to it. It’s very unique. It’s a very bright sound. It’s a very loud sound. Can be very, very loud. It creates a piercing noise, almost just cuts through you the noise. No matter how hard I play the violin, or no matter how hard somebody bangs on the piano, they can’t create the same piercing sound that a trumpet produces. It can get very high-pitched. And it’s a small instrument. It’s something that you can transport around.

In the Bible, the Bible talks about trumpets as being an instrument in wartime. You’re not going to carry a tuba, or you’re not going to haul out a piano in the middle of wartime and bang on the piano and hope that it intimidates your foes across the battlefield. It just doesn’t work that way, but the trumpet, the trumpet is piercing, it’s directional. When you blow that trumpet, it’s aimed... The sound is very acute in the direction that it goes, and it will hit the people that it’s pointed toward very strongly, and it could cause them to step back, say, “What’s going on?” Cause alert, and so forth.

So God used the trumpet. He says, all throughout His word, He used trumpets. Now, God has used all kinds of other instruments. You see, riddled throughout the Bible are discussions of all kinds of instruments, but He doesn’t say He wants us to look at all the instruments in the Bible today. He says He wants us to focus on where the trumpets were blasted.

It’s like He’s saying go ahead and throughout your Bible flag all the different places where trumpets are used, remember them, and then learn lessons from them. So that’s what we’re going to do. It’s just that simple. It’s just that simple today. The Feast of Trumpets is a day to remember all the times God used this powerful instrument to teach us great lessons. So as we read through these accounts, let’s deeply think about and draw lessons from them. God wants us to remember them for a reason. Remember, we’re entering into the fall Holy Days.

This is the first fall Holy Day. Let’s gather, let’s together have a big Bible study in a sense, and let’s really meditate and think about and remember these fundamental passages that involve trumpets. And we’ll draw some conclusions from them, and we’ll tie them together at the end of the message, hopefully, in a powerful way that you will never forget. So let’s turn over to Exodus chapter nineteen for the first account trumpets are blown. Exodus chapter nineteen. We read this account most times in the spring Holy Days, including Pentecost, because this is the account when Moses was given the law by God.

And we’re just going to read through. We’re going to talk off of it, we’re going to draw conclusions, we’re going to really dig in and figure out why was it that God used trumpets in this account. He used them, so why did He use them? And brethren, don’t think that just because I’m drawing certain conclusions doesn’t mean that’s the end-all be-all of conclusions you can draw from these accounts. God wants us to all learn, and maybe you can come up with other powerful conclusions that you can draw from these trumpets accounts too, as we’re going through them.

But the key is to stay focused and meditate. Think as we read through these words, the words of God, think about why it is that God used these trumpets. Let’s begin in verse one of Exodus nineteen, “In the third month,” that’s month Sivan in the sacred calendar, “when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness. And there Israel camped before the mount.” So, you have to understand, put yourself in the setting.

Israel is all there, however many millions of them there were that had left Egypt, and they came out and were before this mount, Mount Sinai. “And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountains, saying, Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel, you’ve seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you unto myself.”

These powerful miracles, coming out of Egypt, escaping Pharaoh and his armies and coming through the Red Sea, all culminated at this powerful moment where God has brought Israel before Him at this mountain and speaking to Moses now, “I brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me, above all people, for all the earth is mine.” God wanted to sanctify Israel. He wanted to set them apart and different from the nations because of the things that they did in their lives. They obeyed God as opposed to the world that didn’t know God, didn’t have God’s law.

God wanted to separate them by using this powerful moment where He gave them His law. He’s sanctifying Israel from the rest of the world in this way. I want you to become a peculiar treasure, a peculiar people. Verse six, “And you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. And so Moses came and called for the elders of the people and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. And all the people answered together and said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord.”

So Moses, he’s a figure that’s going back and forth between God and Israel. He’s communicating, he’s the messenger between God and Israel at this point. And Israel agreed to the terms. In verse eight, it says, “Whatever He has spoken, we will do.” Well, we know that they ended up not doing it. Even very soon after the law was given, they had built this calf at the bottom. Stunning, but nevertheless, let’s just keep reading here. We haven’t gotten to the point where trumpets are blown yet.

But let’s read in verse nine, “And the Lord said to Moses, Lo, I come unto you in a thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with you and believe you forever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the Lord. And the Lord said to Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes and be ready against the third day. For the third day, the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai. And you shall set bounds unto the people round about saying, Take heed to yourselves that you go not up under the mount or touch the border of it. Whosoever touches the mount shall surely be put to death.”

God is so serious here. He wanted to set these bounds. Put yourself in Israel’s position. You’ve got these two days where you’re washing yourself, you’re cleansing yourself, you’re preparing yourself for this big moment. It’s not like God just all of a sudden come down. You’ve had experiences where something shocking will happen to you out of the blue. That’s one kind of an experience. It’s a whole different kind of an experience when you’re anticipating. When the anticipation is built up for two days, and in the third day, finally, that’s when God is going to come down.

The anticipation was built up in Israel’s mind for two full days, thinking about and wondering what is going to happen when God comes down to this mountain. It’s a very different experience than if God just decided to come down. The buildup of anticipation creates a certain excitement in a wholly different way than if it were to just happen. It’s like when I go to tickle my daughter, I don’t just tickle her. You know, that’s one thing. She’ll laugh at the tickles if I just go in right away, but it’s the anticipation.

If I wait and I wait and I wait, that’s what’s almost unbearable. She can’t handle it, so she just starts running around and laughing and giggling. So think about that from a fearful perspective with God. Israel had this anticipation built up for two full days before the third day when God came. In verse twelve, “And you’ll set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed yourselves that you go not up to the mount or touch the border of it. Whosoever touches the mount shall be surely put to death. There shall not a hand touch it, and you shall surely be stoned or shot through with an arrow,” if you will, “whether it be beast or man it shall not live. When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come up to the mount,” but don’t touch the mount. Come up to the boundary, basically. You can’t go any further beyond the boundary. But the trumpet was the signal that Israel could then approach that boundary.

Now, what are we going to learn here from this account? And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes. And he said to the people, Be ready against the third day, come not at your wives. 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 the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God.”

They’re meeting God. Think about this. Brethren, you and I converse with God every day, but they’re physically seeing God coming down on this mountain. It’s something that none of us have ever experienced. We’ve never seen God land on a mountain before. With thick darkness and clouds and the sound of a massive trumpet blowing at the same time, lightnings.

The closest thing I could... just trying to picture this scene, the closest thing I could imagine is it’s almost like a volcano went off. You’ve seen pictures of volcanoes where the ash, just... this thick plume of ash blows out of the top of a volcano, covering the top of the mountain with massive sound. Lightning even can be seen in the clouds of ash. That’s the closest thing. If you could picture a volcano like Krakatoa going off. When Krakatoa went off in the eighteen hundreds, late eighteen hundreds, you could hear the noise from sixteen hundred miles away.

Do you not think that God who is blowing a trumpet here or His voice was like a trumpet, trumpets were blown as well, do you not think that that could be heard from vast distances away? Of course, it could. Sixteen hundred miles when Krakatoa went off, that’s almost the distance between LA and Chicago if you know the distance in the United States. LA to Chicago. People in Chicago could have heard Krakatoa going off in LA if that were the case. It’s stunning to think about, but put that picture in your mind of a volcano. It’s similar to that in a certain regard with the smoke, the noise, the lightning, but you add into a volcano blowing up, trumpets being blown, and all Israel standing there unharmed, the volcano is going to harm everybody below it.

I’ve been to Pompeii. Back in Italy, when you walk the city of Pompeii and you see these people who... these mummified, petrified, basically people who are stone laying there, they’re just... they got hit by that massive volcano. All the plume of ash just landed right on them and burnt them all up, destroyed the city at that point in time. And we can go there and see that today, but Israel wasn’t harmed by this. This was a volcano that didn’t produce any kind of damage to Israel or the surrounding areas. It didn’t blow off the mountain, but it was God landing on the mountain in this massive smoke and lightning.

“And the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud,” at the end of verse sixteen, “So that all the people that was in the camp trembled.” Trembled. That word trembled means they shuddered with terror and fear, shuddered with terror and fear. “And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire, and smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.

And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and then waxed louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice. And the Lord came down unto mount Sinai, at the top of the mount, and the Lord called Moses at the top of the mount; and Moses went up. And the Lord said to Moses, Go down and charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish.

And let the priests also, which come near to the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break forth upon them. And Moses said unto the Lord, The people cannot come up unto mount Sinai, for you chargedst us, saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it. And the Lord said unto him, Away, get you down, and you shalt come up, you, and Aaron with you, but let not the priests and the people break through to come up unto the Lord, lest He break forth upon them. So Moses went down to the people, and spoke unto them.”

Then verse chapter twenty, “God spoke all these words, saying, I’m the Lord, your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt,” and he laid out the Ten Commandments. That is the first account of trumpets that we see in the Bible. Now, how loud were the trumpets and noises coming from Sinai when God brought the law? Loud enough to thoroughly and fully and completely terrify all of Israel who knew, by the way, that God was on their side. They were terrified of God, knowing that God was with them. They were still terrified to the bone. They had the fear of God.

Let’s turn over to Hebrews chapter twelve to expound this just a little bit further. Hebrews chapter twelve. Hebrews twelve and verse eighteen. Verse eighteen, Hebrews twelve, “For you are not come unto the mount that might be touched and that burned with fire.” Speaking to the Hebrews here, speaking generally to the Hebrews saying, we’re calling the account back in Exodus nineteen that we just read. “You’re not come to this mount that shouldn’t be touched,” or that could be touched, but shouldn’t be touched, “And that burned with fire, nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest.” Those are all the things that were occurring at that day.

“And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they that heard intreated that they should not be spoken to them anymore. For they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it should be stoned or thrust through with a dart. And so terrible was the sight that Moses,” not just Israel, but Moses, “Said, I exceedingly fear and quake.” That word terrible there means frightful or formidable. It was so frightful, the sight, that even Moses feared and quaked.

But we’re coming unto Mount Zion when we pray, unto the city of the Living God, Heavenly Jerusalem and so on and so forth. So that account here was saying, we’re not coming before Mount... we’re coming before Mount Zion and Heaven now. We’re not coming before this terrifying site on earth when God descended on Mount Sinai. Moses was terrified and exceedingly feared and quaked. The Greek word means out of one’s wits. He was so terrified, he was terrified out of his wits.

Have you ever been so scared of something? You think about this. You’ve been so scared of something that you almost just freeze. You don’t know what to do, or you’re so nervous about something that you just freeze. You don’t know how to react, how to handle it. Maybe you’ve had stage fright before, but this is like stage fright a thousand times worse. God used trumpets at this critical moment back in Sinai. And again, I’ll ask the question, why? Well, we’ve sort of seen the answer why.

If you’ve thought about it, if we’re thinking about it, the reason God used trumpets here and the trumpets signified in this account is the lesson that God wants us to fear Him. He wants us to fear Him. God doesn’t want us on this Day of Trumpets to just sit back and enjoy a meal and just keep moving on. He wants us to read through these accounts so that we can learn the lessons from them. And the lesson from this account, the biggest lesson you could say, or one of the lessons you could say, is that God used trumpets to instill a certain fear and terror in those that saw it and heard it.

Even though... it was a kind of fear that even though Israel knew that God was on their side. Imagine the fear that you would have if you know that that’s the God who’s coming at you and against you because He’s punishing you. There’s fear there, too. But this is a powerful lesson that we need to draw from this account. And that’s the first one we’ll discuss today. Let’s turn over to Joshua chapter five for the next one. This next account adds to and expounds upon this idea of fear. Jericho, when the walls fell in Joshua chapter five. Let’s just go back there.

So let’s just read through this next account. What lessons can we draw from the account at Jericho when the walls fell? Let’s just pick it up in verse thirteen. Joshua five and verse thirteen, “And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went unto him,” We know that this is Christ. Christ was that man with a sword drawn. “And Joshua went onto him, and said unto him, are you for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord, am I now come.”

And immediately Joshua knew who he was speaking with. He was speaking with Christ. “And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What says my Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord’s host said unto Joshua,” again, called by that name. “The captain of the Lord’s host said unto Joshua, Loose your shoe from off your foot, for the place whereon you standest is holy. And Joshua did so.” Now, chapter six, verse one. “Now, when Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel, none went out, and none came in. And the Lord said unto Joshua,”

They were besieging this great city called Jericho. “And the Lord said to Joshua, See, I have given into your hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour. And you shall compass the city, all you men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shall you do six days.” Take yourself and all these Israelites and circle the city one time per day for six days straight.

“And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns, and the seventh day you shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him. And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said to them, Take up the Ark of the Covenant...” because in the Ark of the Covenant that’s what they were still hauling around at that time.

This was before Solomon’s temple was built. The Ark of the Covenant was where we just saw the Ten Commandments were given at Sinai. Those Ten Commandments were hauled around. They were basically the only thing that was kept inside this Ark of the Covenant. And the Ark of the Covenant was where they kept the Ten Commandments, and then the Book of the Law also on the side in a pouch. So they’re hauling around the Ark of the Covenant with them at this point. Joshua, leading them.

“Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord. And he said unto the people, Pass on, and compass the city, and let him that is armed pass on before the ark of the Lord. And it came to pass, when Joshua had spoken unto the people, that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns passed on before the Lord, and blew with the trumpets, and the ark of the covenant of the Lord followed them. And the armed men went before the priests that blew with the trumpets, and the rereward came after the ark, and the priests going on, and blowing with the trumpets.

And Joshua had commanded the people, saying, You shall not shout, nor make any noise with your voice, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I bid of your mouth...” Excuse me, “Until the day I bid you shout, then shall you shout.” What a powerful statement. All Israel is encompassing, circling this city. You can imagine the people of Jericho going up to the top of their walls wondering, What on earth is going on here? And they’re just dead silent, walking around the city, circling it six, one day. And then the next day.

Talk about anticipation. God is building up an anticipation here like you can’t believe for these people in Jericho. Could you imagine what they’re thinking? What are they doing? What are they going to do? What’s happening here? And for six days straight, they see the same thing over and over, just dead silence, walking around Jerusalem. Verse eleven, “So the ark of the Lord compassed the city, going about it once, and they came into the camp, and lodged in the camp.

And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. And seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord went on continually, and blew with the trumpets, and the armed men went before them, but the rereward came after the ark of the Lord, the priests going on, and blowing with the trumpets. And the second day they compassed the city,” and did the same thing. So the only thing that people of Jericho are hearing are trumpets and dead silence, everything else, except for maybe just the stomping of mass numbers of people around the city.

Verse fourteen, “The second day they compassed the city once, and returned into the camp, and so they did six days. And it came to pass on the seventh day,” after all this anticipation was built up, after all the fear. Could you imagine the fear that’s being built up inside of Jericho now? Same thing. God is using trumpets to help instill fear into the hearts of those that are now not on His side but against Him. Jericho is the opposite.

When you heard the trumpet blow in Sinai, God said, You can approach me. It was still a terrifying event, but at least Israel knew that they were on God’s side. Here, when they heard the trumpets blow in Jericho, they didn’t think that God was on their side, or Israel, I guess, for that matter. Verse fifteen, “And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they rose early and compassed the city in the same manner seven times, only on that day they compassed the city seven times.”

So, by this seventh day, the people of Jericho are looking around and saying something’s different. And it even, in a greater way, builds the anticipation for what’s going on. “And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout, for the Lord has given you the city. And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the Lord.

Only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. And you, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest you make yourselves accursed, when you take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the Lord, they shall come into the treasury of the Lord.

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, 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.” and they utterly destroyed the city. And the account continues from then on. Jericho was completely sacked. And then the next chapter, of course, Israel disobeyed. Achan took things that were accursed that God said, Don’t take anything because everything’s accursed, except for Rahab and her family. And you know the rest of the story, just Achan was stoned with his family and so on.

Well, this again is a powerful example of how God wants us to fear Him. The fear of God is deeply associated to trumpets. Just hearing that word, I mean, when we hear the sirens go off here in America, different states, I’m sure there’s sirens that go off in different ways. When a tornado is approaching or severe weather, those sirens can instill fear in the hearts of people because they know what’s coming. They know what’s potentially going to come.

I remember back in Iowa, when I lived in Iowa, it was tornado alley, as they call it, the top end of tornado alley. Whenever we heard a siren go off, we’d hear them regularly throughout the summer, I knew there was a chance that our house could get destroyed. Now, it never did because tornadoes never came exactly through where we lived, but I know plenty of people. My grandma lived down in a city that was just decimated by a tornado. When you hear those sirens, when you hear a trumpet blast you know that something terrible is going to happen. You know that the fear of God is now built into you, and the people of Jericho experienced that.

There’s another point aside from fear that we can glean from this account, Jericho. This happened during the days of unleavened bread. You think about the walls falling down on the seventh day, this is another days of unleavened bread account, if you will. It’s on this seventh day all the walls fell flat. It also introduces the subject or the concept of humbling yourself.

Right now, the world has these big walls built up, these big walls of pride, if you will. And one day God is going to flatten all the walls of mankind. He’s actually going to physically flatten all the walls of mankind in the day of the Lord. Spiritually speaking, He’s going to flatten the minds and the hearts of people by humbling them, basing them, if you will, showing them that they are very small, that they’re very tiny in God’s eyes in certain regards.

The whole point is, aside from blowing of trumpets, building the fear of God in people in this account, this account also begins to introduce the idea of humbling yourselves. When you hear a trumpet, it humbles you because it shows the power of God. When you see the power of God you become in awe and you realize how small and minuscule you are. When Israel was before Sinai, yes, they terrified, but you could say that they were also flattened in a certain regard. They became humble.

They looked up at the giant cloud of smoke and lightning and trumpets and everything that was going on. And they probably looked at themselves and said, “Wow, I’m really not much of anything.” Then again, you could say, well, no, they, they didn’t learn that lesson because they went and built the calf right afterwards, so that’s a different story.

The idea is that God’s massive power shown by the blowing of trumpets is intended to humble us. To humble us. Let’s turn over to Judges chapter six. We’re walking through the Bible right now. First we started Exodus, then we started with Jericho and Joshua. Now we’re going to judges, and we’ll read the account of Gideon. What lessons can we learn from the account of Gideon in his army?

The account begins in certain regards back in chapter six. We don’t need to go through chapter six, but all you need to know from chapter six is that... Well, let’s just read verse one of chapter six. It sets the table for chapter seven. “And the children of Israel did evil in the side of the Lord,” okay, so they’re not on God’s good side. That’s number one. Number two, because they did evil, the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.

Now you’ve got all of chapter seven is talking about how Midian has the upper hand, the Midianites have the upper hand, and verse seven there was a turn of thought and mind and spirit in verse seven. It say, “Came to pass when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord because of the Midianites, that the Lord sent a prophet and he began to listen to Israel and turn toward their favor.”

Let’s come on to chapter seven and we’ll read about Gideon’s army and how God delivered them with the small people. Why did God use... we know the account. I’ll just set up the account with this question. Why did God use three hundred people? Why did he choose to whittle down the army to such a tiny group?

Is it because he wanted to show his power? Yes. Watch this, chapter seven in verse one, “Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon…” that was another name for Gideon, “and all the people that were with them rose up early and pitched beside the well of Herod: so that the host of the Midianites were on the north side of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley. And the Lord said to Gideon, ‘The people that are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.”

So why did God want to dwindle the army down? Because he wanted Israel to be able to say, “God did this, not me.” God wanted to flatten the minds of the Israelites. He wanted to humble them. He wanted them to be humbled at the fact that they’re not doing anything. They didn’t have any part to play in this, it was strictly that God did this.

Let’s read a little bit more about how it was that God picked these people fascinating to consider this. Now therefore, go to proclaiming the ears of the people saying, “Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return.” This is the first group of people that God is calling out. He’s saying, “Anybody who is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from the mount Gilead.” In effect, what he’s saying is, take all the weakest people, the fearful people, people who don’t have the courage to go up into war, take all the weakest people off the playing field to start. “I want only the strongest people left, the people who aren’t fearful,” which is interesting.

He doesn’t want to use the weakest people, He only wanted to use the strongest people in this small army in the first calling out. “And there returned of the people twenty-two thousand and there remained ten thousand.” So over two-thirds of this group of people in Israel were fearful, and so the weakest two-thirds were called out, leaving ten thousand left. “And the Lord said to Gideon, ‘These people are yet too many.’”

I still can’t have these stronger ten thousand people going up against the Midianites on their own or else they’ll still think that they did it themselves. They’ll still think that this is by my hand, I was able to do this. They won’t be humbled. They won’t see my power through this yet. “Bring them down,” middle of verse four, “Bring them down under the water and I will try them for you there. And it shall be that of whom I say unto you, this shall go with you, the same shall go with you. And of whomsoever I say unto you, this shall not go with you, the same shall not go. So he brought down the people under the water, and the Lord said unto Gideon, ‘Everyone that laps of the water with his tongue as a dog laps, him shall you set by himself likewise, everyone that bows down upon his knees to drink.’”

There’s going to be two different categories of people. There’s going to be people who crouch down and pick up the water like this. Then there’s going to be people who kneel down into the water and drink it directly out of the water. You’re going to note those people, note what category they’re in, and separate them. The number of them that lapped putting their hand to their mouth were three hundred men. There were three hundred men who decided to go and take the water this way. God said, “But the rest of the people bowed down upon their needs to drink water. The Lord said to Gideon, ‘By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you?’”

Now, Mr. Pack has explained this, and it makes perfect sense. The people who lapped, the people who are on their knees weren’t ready for battle. You think about that. If you’re going to be in an army, the last thing that you need is somebody who’s down on their knees, unable to quickly get up out of the water, and so forth. The people who are lapping are theoretically the most competent, the most capable, the most savvy. They’re ready for battle. They’re there and drinking like this with their eyes up, potentially.

God already weeded out the first two-thirds of people who were the most fearful and the weakest. Now he’s weeding out of the ten thousand left, He’s weeded out the vast majority of them that were the weakest bunch too. So he’s left with, theoretically, he’s left with the three hundred most powerful men. And what did God do with these three hundred powerful men? Did he decide to give them all weapons to go in with bat and fight the Midianites with their own swords and with horses and so forth? Well, let’s see. How did he use these powerful men?

Verse five. “So he bought the...” Okay, we came down, I’m sorry, verse eight. “So the people took victuals into their hand and their trumpets and sent all the rest of Israel, every man to his tent, and retained those three hundred men. And the host of Midian was beneath him in the valley. And it came to pass the same night that the Lord said unto him, ‘Arise, go get you down to the host, for I’ve delivered it into your hand. But if you fear to go down, go with Phurah, your servant, down to the host, and you shall hear what they will say, and afterward, your hands will be strengthened to go down to the host.’”

So there will be... regardless of whether you’re fearful, if you go down, Phurah will help you, and you’ll be encouraged. And then you’ll actually come fight. Verse eleven, “And you shall hear what they’ll say. And afterward, with your hands, you’ll be strengthened to go down to the host,” and so on and so forth. Verse twelve. “And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of Israel... children of the East, lay along the valley like grasshoppers for multitude.” That’s what they were up against. These three hundred powerful men, most capable men, were going up against a multitude like grasshoppers. “And their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea for multitude. And when Gideon was come to behold, there was a man with the... A man that...”

Okay, so there was a dream. We’ll just skip past that verse fifteen. “And it was so when Gideon heard the telling of the dream that the interpretation thereof, that he worshiped and returned into the host of Israel and said, ‘Arise, for the Lord has delivered into your hand the host of Midian.’” So he’s encouraging these three hundred men saying, because of this dream, I know for certain God is with us, and he will deliver us these three hundred men into battle and we will win.

“And he divided the three hundred men into three companies and put a trumpet.” What are they given? They’re given a trumpet. Because remember, there had to be trumpets involved in this account somehow, or else it’s not a flag for us to read on trumpets. “Gave every man a trumpet in one hand, and with empty pitchers and lamps within the pitchers.” But Gideon, where’s my sword? Where’s my axe? Where’s my cannon? Where’s my AR-15? Nothing. Just nothing. They’re given a trumpet and a pitcher, which is like an earthen vessel, a jar of some kind with a lamp on the inside. They’re probably wondering, “Why were we picked for this?”

Anyway, so the three hundred most capable men were not given weapons. They were given these tools to sort of rather... And just, I’ll just summarize the account from here forward. They were given these tools. They were supposed to go in and blow these trumpets, terrify Midian, and break the pots. That’s all they were supposed to do. And God did not want them going in with weapons because why? Because God’s wanted them to be humbled by this. God wanted to show his power. He wanted to show there was nothing that these people could do, even though they were the mightiest people. It was probably humbling to the mightiest of people to say, “Wow, I’m going into battle with a pot, and I got to crack the pot. I got to break the pot.” They’re wondering, “What?” Well, the reason why is because God wanted them humbled, flattened, during this amazing account.

So trumpets here were similar to Jericho and Sinai, and so far as they cause fear in the enemy. That’s true. So this concept of fear and trumpets is still in play here with this account. But the added lesson is that it signified the humility Israel rebuilt in relying on God rather than themselves to defeat these large numbers.

You know, of all, just as sort of a side point, a tangent, quick tangent about humility. You can give an entire message on this subject, but the greatest thing that you can do as a Christian, it really boils down to this one thing. The greatest thing you can do as a Christian is be teachable. If you are teachable, the sky is the limit for you. If you humble yourself, and you realize that, “I’m really nothing, I can’t do anything on my own,” and you realize that you don’t hold any ideas of yourself, and you’re willing to just be open-minded to the truths that God has for us, you’re open-minded to being corrected at times, you’re open-minded to... And you’re flat... You see yourself in your own eyes as small enough.

Brethren, the sky is the limit for you as a Christian with that kind of a mentality. All you need to be is teachable. That was kind of the lesson that God was trying to teach Israel here. Just be flat. If you can be flat, the sky’s the limit for you. If you can humble yourselves, the sky’s the limit. You can go anywhere. God can take you to soaring heights, and he’ll eventually put you into his family because of it. But that’s just sort of a side point.

Okay. So those are the first big lessons from the Old Testament. Let’s talk about prophecy now. Let’s turn over to Revelation chapter six. You know, memorials in God’s word are different than memorials for mankind.

Memorials for mankind, people set up memorials for people that people or events or places that took... that were all in history. You set up a memorial for something that’s already happened to try and remember what happened. But because the Bible is written in such a way where it’s all true, God wants us to not just remember the things that happened in history, but remember the things that will happen in prophecy because they’re as good as being history in his eyes.

Prophecy is just as certain to happen as all the things that have already happened in history. So we can memorialize events in the future the same way that we can memorialize events in the past because they’re just as certain to occur. So let’s just take a moment to think about and go through the events in prophecy that are going to happen, where trumpets are involved. We know, just summarizing some of the book of Revelation here, we’re not going to get into a lot of it. We’re just going to read through some of the trumpet plagues and glean some powerful lessons from it.

The book of Revelation highlights a lot of the terrible period with the beast and false prophet and all of these things, and the seals in chapter six. And you see all the seals that occur. One of the seals, chapter six in verse one, was the white horse and the second seal was the red horse of war. The third seal came out with a black horse of famine. The fourth seal in verse seven was the pale horse of disease.

And you get to verse nine, “And there open the fifth seal, and I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, for the testimony which they held, and they cried,” and so on and so forth. “And they should rest for a little season,” in verse eleven, “until their fellow servants and brethren that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” And so all of these seals are being unsealed in the last three and a half years of tribulation before the millennium.

And you get to verse twelve, you have the sixth seal, which takes us to the beginning of the day of the Lord. “And I beheld when he opened the sixth seal lo, there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, even as a fig tree casts her untimely figs when she’s shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll.”

We’re seeing the new heavens in new earth here. The sixth seal, “As it was rolled together, every mountain and island were removed out of their places and all the kings of the earth, and the great men and the rich men, and the chief captains and mighty men, and every bondman, every free man hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains. And said to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us, hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the lamb, for the great day of his wrath is come and who shall abide? Who shall be able to stand?’”

This is the introduction to the day of the Lord. That was the sixth seal. Now, skip over chapter seven, in a certain regard it’s kind of an inset. And let’s go right to chapter eight, where we see the seventh seal open up. What is the seventh seal all about? “And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.” Okay, so imagine what you’re picturing here. The sixth seal was all about taking the heavens, swapping them out. Everything is being changed on earth. The mountains are being moved. There’s great earthquakes. The heavens depart and rolled together as a scroll. And all these people are fearing and trying to climb under the rocks of the mountains.

Imagine that picture. Put yourself in the shoes of these people when the earth is… everything is changing around them. And then the next thing that you know is what? Silence in heaven, the space of a half an hour. It’s like everything just stopped. Everything just stopped. You know, I considered for the first half hour of this message to just sit in silence and then blow a trumpet after a half an hour. But I thought, that’s probably not a good use of my time just for impact. But could you imagine sitting for a half an hour? We’re about an hour… a little more than an hour into this message, and half an hour… Like take this message and cut it in two and that amount of time, just dead silence in heaven.

Turn back to Second Peter three for a minute. You know, you could wonder if there was half an hour of silence in heaven, that suggests that the heavens were making a lot of noise too, correct? Because right now I look up in the sky and I think, “Well, it’s not a big deal that there’s silence in heaven now, why is it such a big deal that there’s silence in heaven for a half an hour during this most crucial pivot point in prophecy?” And it’s because the heavens were making massive noise before it.

Second Peter, chapter three, we’ll read in… Let me see here just a second. Second Peter three and verse nine. “And the Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness, but as longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise.”

Okay, so now we understand why there was silence in heaven for half an hour, because the heavens were making massive noise when God rolled them together as a scroll. It’s not like they just silently were swapped out. They exploded with a crash, is what this word noise means. “And the elements melt with fervent heat and the earth and all the works that are in shall be burned up.”

So, let’s go back to Revelation chapter eight. That’s the context in which we see this half an hour of silence. So what happens immediately after this half an hour? Let’s come down to verse six. “And the seven angels, which had their seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. And the first angel sounded…” In verse seven, “And there followed hail and fire mingled with blood. They were cast on the earth and the third part of the trees was burned up and all the green grass was burned up.” So, after crashing noises of the new heavens and new earth coming, comes dead silence for half an hour.

What follows that silence? What breaks that silence? A trumpet blast. God blasts in order to break this massive silence on earth and in the heavens. And so we see trumpet plague after trumpet plague. You’ve heard of the seals and the trumpet plagues and the final seven last plagues being described as sort of like Russian nesting dolls. You know, if you’ve heard of the Russian nesting doll, there are seven seals and the seventh seal are all seven of the trumpet plagues. We’ll go through a few more of these trumpet plagues here in a minute. And the seventh trumpet plague, nested inside the seventh trumpet plague are seven final plagues, seven final vials.

All of those trumpets, by the way, are on the day of the Lord. That’s why Zephaniah calls it… I think it’s in Zephaniah one and verse sixteen. It calls it the day of the trumpet and alarm. God wants us to focus on the day of the Lord because… on this day of trumpets, because it’s called the day of trumpet. What lessons can we learn from this day of trumpet and alarm?

Let’s just keep reading through the plagues here quickly in verse eight. “And the second angel sounded…” Trumpet plague. “and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood. And the third part of the creatures, which were in the sea and had life died. And the third part of the ships were destroyed. And the third angel sounded and there fell a great star from heaven burning as it were a lamp. And it fell upon the third part of the rivers and upon the fountains of waters. And the name of the star was called wormwood. And the third part of the waters became wormwood. And many men died of the waters because they were made bitter. And the fourth angel sound and the third part of the sun was smitten. And the third part of the moon and the third part of the stars as the third part of them was darkened and the day shown not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. And I beheld, there was an angel flying through the midst of heaven saying with a loud voice, ‘Woe, woe, woe,’ to the inhabiters of earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet, of the three angels, which are yet to sound.”

In chapter nine, details in verse one, the fifth angel. And in verse thirteen, the sixth angel. Respectively the fifth angel is the first woe and the sixth angel is the second woe. And you have to jump all the way over to chapter eleven and verse fourteen to get to the point where you see the seventh angel and the third woe. So here we are, verse fourteen, “The second woe is passed. Behold the third woe comes quickly. And the seventh angel sounded…” What happens at the end of these seven plagues, seven trumpet plagues? “Seventh angels sounded. And there were great voices in heaven saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. And he shall reign forever and ever.’ And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces and worshiped God.”

Now, brethren, there’s so much destruction happening on earth at this point, but at the same time, there’s this black-and-white picture. You’ve got the black picture of all… Black is all the destruction, but the white, the opposite of all of that destruction is the great rejoicing that you see taking place on this day. “We give you thanks…” verse seventeen, “O Lord God Almighty, which art and wast and art to come because you have taken to your great power and you have reigned. And the nations were angry because your wrath has come in the time of the dead that they should be judged and that you should give reward to your servants, the prophets, and to the saints and them that fear your name, small and great and destroy them, which destroy the earth. And the temple of God was opened in heaven and there was seen in the temple of the Ark of the Testament and there were lightnings and voices and thunderings and earthquake and great hail.”

So, brethren, we could go through the last and final plagues, the vials in chapter sixteen, it lists them all. And you come to the point though, if you go to Revelation chapter nineteen, once all is said and done in this great day, the day of trumpet and alarm, is only wonderful. Once this day is over, this day of trumpet ushers in and heralds in the most wonderful time of peace, prosperity, joy, abundance that the world has ever seen. Consider that.

Consider that for those who are on the right side of God’s plan, on the day of the lord, hearing those trumpets isn’t terrifying in the same way as it is to those who are on the wrong side. For those who are on the right side of God’s plan and purpose on this day, you would hear those trumpets and rejoice in a certain regard. Now, we don’t rejoice at the fact that people are dying, but if the people have willingly chosen their fate, that’s the only thing that would be good for society and mankind into the millennium, is that they no longer exist. That’s the path by which peace comes.

So for many, hearing these trumpets on the day of the Lord is actually, and once they’re all done, it brings in a sense of great joy and rejoicing. And we’ll see that in chapter nineteen in verse one. “And after these things...” after all is said and done, “I heard a great voice of much people in heaven saying, ‘Alleluia, salvation and glory and honor and power under the Lord our God for true and righteous are his judgments. For he’s judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication and has avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.’”

And again, they said, “Alleluia. For her smoke rose up forever and ever. And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worship God that sat on the throne saying, ‘Amen, Alleluia.’ And a voice came out of the throne saying, ‘Praise our God, all you his servants and you that fear him, both small and great.’ And I heard as it were a voice of a great multitude as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of the mighty thundering saying, ‘Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent, reigns.’ Let us be glad and rejoice. Let us be glad and rejoice after these trumpets have all blown and give honor to him. For the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife has made herself ready.” We just saw a wedding recently. Weddings are so wonderful because two people are uniting together.

We know how wonderful it is to unite together physically on this earth for the rest of our lives. How much more amazing will it be that we unite with God and enter into his family, becoming the bride of Christ into eternity, knowing that we’ll have God’s spirit and be made of God’s spirit for all eternity, won’t be able to sin. All of that will be done away. Brethren, that brings about a great joy that’s unspeakable.

You think about all that’s going to happen on this day of the Lord after the trumpets are blown. At the last trumpet says in First Corinthians fifteen, “The last trump the dead are raised and they’re changed into eternal spirit given eternal life.” Brethren, those trumpets don’t just instill fear, they instill a great rejoicing and joy into our minds. We consider that Christ is going to return, that the Father is going to come, that the kingdom of God will be on earth, and that all of mankind’s kingdoms will be eradicated, done away with. The new heavens and new earth will be here and all the complete saints will be here.

These are the things that we can rejoice about and we should think about. We should think about this, that all suffering will end. That’s part of this day of trumpets. It ushers in a period when all suffering will end, that all tears will dry up. The sorrow will be turned into laughter. We should dwell on this day of trumpets. What’s going to happen in the millennium after the trumpets are blown? That there will be an end of war.

We’ve seen war in these last years, unlike we’ve seen for many years. On many different fronts. All of it will end, every vice that people struggle with. Could be drugs, it could be pornography, it could be any kind of vice that people deal with these days. They’ll all be put to an end. The end of politics, as we know them, will come at the end of the trumpets. The end of Satan’s influence. All of these and many, many, many more things produce immeasurable joy.

So brethren, as we come to a conclusion, maybe you’ve put it together by now, but there’s a great overarching point that comes from putting all these trumpets accounts together. It is that trumpets prepare us for the remaining Fall Holy Days. What do I mean? Well, we’ve already talked about that. We’ve already talked about how God at Jericho and how God using Gideon’s army wanted to use trumpets to help us learn how to humble ourselves. Just like we’re supposed to do at the day of atonement.

We learned at Sinai and at Jericho and through the trumpet plagues frankly, that God wanted us to build the fear of God by using trumpets. Well, we’re supposed to do that at the Feast of Tabernacles. This day of trumpets is preparing us to humble ourselves, to learn to fear him, and to, of course, rejoice. When we hear these last trumpets and we see all of these wonderful things coming at the millennium, we’re supposed to learn to rejoice.

So this day of trumpets isn’t just about learning the lessons, it’s about learning the lessons that prepare us. It’s about preparing us for the rest of the Fall Holy Days, alerting us to humble ourselves on the day of atonement, alerting us to learn how to fear at the Feast of Tabernacles and to rejoice at the Feast of Tabernacles. This is what God has given us this day of trumpets fall.

I’ll end as I began. Trumpets is a day to remember, and as we enter into the Fall Holy Day season, keep the trumpet accounts that we’ve read today and many more throughout the Bible at the forefront of our minds. And if we do so, we’ll be ready when the trumpet blasts.