Silver Trumpets

"Make thee two trumpets of silver" (Numbers 10:2)

I was reading this chapter the other day and the mentioning of the silver trumpets suddenly stood out to me. I was inclined to put the trumpets into a New Testament perspective and immediately saw certain parallels with the tongue of a converted believer in Christ, as well as with the spiritual aspect of prayer.

"The tongue of the just is as choice silver" (Proverbs 10:20), and as these silver trumpets were to be fashioned each out of a solid piece of silver, so our tongues are to be whole and undivided and hammered as one unit, fully consecrated and unwavering in upright devotion and godliness. Only the purified priests could lawfully sound the trumpet in the camp of Israel, and only the bloodwashed priest in the body of Christ can effectively sound the silver trumpet with efficacy and anointing in both public ministry and in private prayer. All other trumpet-players will only accomplish confusion, and make uncertain sounds (1 Cor. 14:8).

Each sounding of a trumpet had a purpose: God instructed Moses to sound the trumpets on the occasions of calling assemblies (10:2); on the signaling of new journeys in the camp (10:3); on going to war (10:9); in days of gladness and solemnity (10:10); and over the sacrifices and peace offerings (10:10).

In the same way, the priest in the New Testament is to sound his silver trumpet when calling an assembly of believers in ministry, and exhortation, and in the prophetic utterances, as to the spiritual steering and direction of a church or fellowship as dictated by the Holy Spirit. In private ministry, such alarms are also sounded, as in spiritual warfare with the giants of Anak. When burdened, as in the days of solemnity we are encouraged to sound the trumpet and cast our cares upon the Lord, and in gladness to sound a spiritual jubilee and rejoice in all things with praise and thanksgiving. Finally, as royal priests offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Christ, we should always remember to sound the silver trumpet of our righteous tongues in hidden worship and obedience to the Father who Himself is a flame of fire, the Refiner of gold and silver. It is He Who refines the trumpets to sound clear and crisp and clean. It is He Who refines the silver.

Brother Paul

Only the purified priests could lawfully sound the trumpet in the camp of Israel, and only the bloodwashed priest in the body of Christ can effectively sound the silver trumpet with efficacy and anointing in both public ministry and in private prayer.

Hello brother, I read this yesterday but postponed my reply for today.

Your post somehow reminded me of one paragraph from E.M Bounds Power Through Prayer,

The character as well as the fortunes of the gospel is committed to the preacher. He makes or mars the message from God to man. The preacher is the golden pipe through which the divine oil flows. The pipe must not only be golden, but open and flawless, that the oil may have a full, unhindered, unwasted flow.

The man makes the preacher. God must make the man. The messenger is, if possible, more than the message. The preacher is more than the sermon. The preacher makes the sermon. As the life-giving milk from the mother's bosom is but the mother's life, so all the preacher says is tinctured, impregnated by what the preacher is. The treasure is in earthen vessels, and the taste of the vessel impregnates and may discolor. The man, the whole man, lies behind the sermon. Preaching is not the performance of an hour. It is the outflow of a life. It takes twenty years to make a sermon, because it takes twenty years to make the man. The true sermon is a thing of life. The sermon grows because the man grows. The sermon is forceful because the man is forceful. The sermon is holy because the man is holy. The sermon is full of the divine unction because the man is full of the divine unction.

Maybe this will lead into other direction, but the other day, I read this verse:

[b]Jeremiah 51:12[/b] Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon, [b]make the watch strong,[/b] set up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes: for the LORD hath both devised and done that which he spake against the inhabitants of Babylon.

I didn't read it on English, and the version that I read was something like, "make the watch stronger".

The thoughts were flowing in me were that we live in such time that we need [b]more[/b] watchmen and [b]stronger[/b] watchmen to keep the flock, because these are "perilous" times, days of spiritual war as never before, the enemy is attacking the flock more then ever. And probably the greatest attacks are from inside (false watchmen who prophesy false peace and security), as well as from outside, and maybe to say "from everyside".

We need watchmen, holy and pure, with [i]silver trumpets[/i] as you said, to blow the trumpet of God.

[i]make[/i] the watch strong,

[i]set up[/i] the watchmen,

[i]prepare[/i] the ambushes:

There is a war.

Edit: "(false watchmen who prophesy false peace and security)"

I just heard this yesterday from Ravenhill:

You see, people are terribly worried about eternal security, I am far more worried about false security.

We've got more people laboring on the false security right now in the church of living God than any period we've every known.

We need watchmen, holy and pure, with silver trumpets as you said, to blow the trumpet of God.

"Set the trumpet to thy mouth" (Hosea 8:1). The trumpet itself must be of pure silver, refined in the fire and crafted as a single, undivided unit, and the breath which is the gospel flowing through it must also be pure and clean and strong. If the trumpet is bad but the breath is good, you'll have a loud, albeit uncertain and ugly sound. If the trumpet is good but the breath weak, then you'll have another uncertain and lame sound. Both trumpet and gospel must be pure and holy and according to God's prescribed standards.

"Set the trumpet to thy mouth" (Hosea 8:1). The trumpet itself must be of pure silver, refined in the fire and crafted as a single, [b]undivided unit,[/b] and the breath which is the gospel flowing through it must also be pure and clean and strong. If the trumpet is bad but the breath is good, you'll have a loud, albeit uncertain and ugly sound. If the trumpet is good but the breath weak, then you'll have another uncertain and lame sound. Both trumpet and gospel must be pure and holy and according to God's prescribed standards.

"undivided unit", surely this will bring [i]life[/i].

"undivided unit", surely this will bring life.

Yes, dear brother, and, paradoxically, to become an "undivided unit" all the separate parts must first be broken. God first breaks us, then rejoins the pieces. Think of the virgins. I posted a devotional here not too long ago pertaining to the High Priest's wife, and how she must be taken in her virginity and in her wholeleness (Lev. 21). To consumate the marriage, though, she is broken, but this brokeness brings about a precious husband/wife unity which is able to bring forth life. This goes for any marriage. You'll recall that on the marriage night, if the bride has already been broken, the tokens of wholeness will not be not there (Deut. 22). This, to me, is a deep picture of how blood relates to brokeness, and how if one is broken in union with God, one is then made whole unto God through the blood. But without blood there can be no wholeness to break -- only an ungodly brokeness which leads to death.

Brother Paul

More food for thought about these silver trumpets...

The Silver Trumpets of Redemption
by T. Austin-Sparks

Reading: Numbers 10:1-10

There is a great deal about trumpets in the Bible: indeed the word occurs about a hundred times. This suggests that God has something to say to us on this subject, especially to His servants. This is our privilege as ministers of Christ, to sound forth the clear message of salvation like silver trumpets.

We notice that the material used for these trumpets was silver which, in Old Testament symbolism, denotes redemption. This suggests that God's message to man is about redemption, but it also means that no one can be God's trumpet unless he himself is redeemed. The trumpets were made of solid silver, which means that they were the embodiment of the spiritual reality of redemption. So it is that before we can proclaim the message of God we must know redemption in the very constitution of our being. What is more, they are described as being "of beaten work". They have to be hammered out in such a way that redemption is wrought into their very experience. It is not just that God gives us words to say, but that our message must have a background of some real and thorough-going experience in the matter of which we speak.

These things, then, should characterise every one who would be a messenger of God to others. It is better to have a small experience but a very real one, and to witness of that, than to speak empty words which have no solid background in the life and cannot therefore serve God in the trumpet call of His grace. The process will go on if we allow God to pursue it and He will work our redemption into us, making us like those silver trumpets which were "of beaten work". Redemption does not begin and end just with our being saved from judgment and hell and being assured of heaven. This is an important part of our Christian experience, but it is only a part, for redemption begins to apply to and touch every part of our lives until we are wholly on that ground.

When the Israelites were redeemed by God from their bondage in Egypt, the result was that not one ox was left in the land. God applied this matter of redemption to the last hoof of the last animal to leave Egypt. His idea was a very thorough-going redemption which left nothing outside. Now that illustrates our point. It was true in history, but it shows us that in our spiritual life everything has to be wrought and beaten into us, so that our lives can be silver trumpets for God.

The trumpets were two in number. This surely stresses their devotion to witnessing. In the Bible the legal position was that the evidence of one person alone was never accepted. It had to be confirmed and corroborated by a second reliable witness before it could be valid. "At the mouth of two witnesses... shall every word be established" (2 Corinthians 13:1). Two is the irreducible minimum of God. As many more as you like, but no less than two. It was equally the case with the silver sockets of the tabernacle boards - there had to be two sockets for each board. God wishes to have everything ratified and confirmed in an unmistakable way where His testimony is concerned.

This matter is taken up by the apostle Paul in the passage about trumpets where he writes: "If the trumpet give an uncertain voice, who shall prepare himself for war?" (1 Corinthians 14:8). Unhappily there is far too much indefiniteness and uncertainty about some Christian witness today. It is essential that there should be nothing of the kind where redemption is concerned. The witness must be positive.

It is helpful to consider the purpose of these silver trumpets:

1. To Call Together (v.3)

In the first place they were to be used to call an assembly together. Here were instruments to establish the relatedness, the oneness, of the fellowship together of God's people. We should have a unifying effect on our fellow believers, avoiding anything which could tend to scatter or divide the people of God. It is a great ministry to bring the Lord's people together. The ministry of the silver trumpets is never to disintegrate God's people but rather to strengthen relationships and consolidate fellowship.

2. To Order Movement (v.5)

We find that the trumpets were used for the ordering of the life and movement of Israel. It is interesting to notice that the two silver trumpets come next to the cloud of Shekinah glory which rested upon the Tabernacle. They worked together. The pillar of cloud and fire provided guidance for God's people, and when Israel was in right relationship with Him, then the guidance was always towards the land of promise. So when it was time for the people to move forward, the trumpets were sounded to give direction to the march, bringing them ever nearer and nearer to the spiritual wealth and fullness of God's objective for them.

In this way we see that the trumpets proclaimed God's great purpose for His redeemed people. The trumpet note cannot be sounded too strongly in this connection nor too clearly, for we are called with a great divine purpose which God formulated before the world was. The Lord's people need to have it made known to them, for there is a tremendous purpose governing their being called together into the fellowship of His Son, and they need not only to know the purpose, but also God's way of realising it. They need to be kept from wandering round in circles, straying about indefinitely without any clear assurance of what redemption really involves and where it should be leading them. There is a great need for an enlightening and inspiring ministry of the Word which will summon God's redeemed people to move on to His eternal purpose for them in Christ. The silver trumpets were to govern God's people in relation to the ultimate fullness which He has for them in Christ.

3. To Call to War (v.9)

They were also to sound the summons to war. Perhaps this note is as much needed as any, for every Christian is intended to be involved in spiritual warfare. It is so easy to be surprised or worried when we become involved in conflict, as though this were very strange and unfair for peace-loving persons. The fact is, though, that conflict is far from being strange or unusual but is the calling of every true Christian. The silver trumpets call us to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ. We must realise that we have a part in the Lord's battles and that these will go on to the very end. We must learn to respond to the rallying voice of redemption's trumpet. It calls us to victory, for the words seem to suggest that the Lord Himself would listen for the trumpet alarm and when He heard it, would remember His beloved people and send them salvation from their enemies.

4. To Express Praise (v.10)

The fourth purpose was simply the trumpeting of praise to God on feast days and special occasions of rejoicing. Salvation is a feast, and is often so described in the Gospels. Our testimony to the world around us should always be bright and clear. In this way the trumpet call can be a call of salvation to those who are outside of God's grace in Christ. Paul writes about their sound going into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world (Romans 10:18). God's people are set in so many places that they may be a witness to Him, like the silver trumpets celebrating the perfect offering of Christ and the gospel truth of God's provision for sinners by that offering. For us, then, every day should be a feast day, a day of gladness. There is no time when we should not be sounding the silver trumpets of redemption as we remember Christ and rejoice in His saving grace. As we make much of the Lord Jesus and concentrate on Him, then from us goes out a message of hope and salvation to those around us. We blow our trumpets over the one great Burnt Offering and Peace Offering and we are assured that God will always remember us and work for us as we do this. The last word of this passage is: "I am the Lord your God". What a joy if others should enter into such a relationship because we have served as silver trumpets of redemption.