We
have here directions concerning the public notices that were to be given to the
people upon several occasions by sounding the trumpet. Upon these occasions the
trumpets were to be sounded.
(1)
For the calling of assemblies (verse 3).
(2)
For gathering the heads of the tribes (verse 4).
(3)
For the journeying of the camps, to give notice when each squadron must move
(verse 5-6).
(4)
When they went out in battle (verse 9).
(5)
On any joyous days, their festive days and beginning of the month (verse 10).
We
do not use trumpets in the church. But we do have “trumpets”.
There
is a first trumpet which we must sound; it’s the trumpet of a watchman
to warn. Like the trumpets which were meant to call out to the camp and sound
the alarm, we are watchmen of God. And, watchmen watch because they are
watchmen. Their job is to safeguard property and people.
We
are watchmen of the souls of others. Our job is to warn the world of their sins
and the judgment that would follow them: “But if the watchman see the sword
come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword
come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity;
but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand,” (Ezekiel 33:6).
There
is a second trumpet which we must NOT sound; it’s the trumpet of pride
and vainglory. Our Lord Jesus warns about blowing this trumpet: “Therefore
when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the
hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of
men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward,” (Matthew 6:2).
When we give to the poor, or do any good deed,
do not make a show of it.
Solomon wrote: “Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a
stranger, and not thine own lips” (Proverbs 27:2). Let God reward us
and not our own selves. Our Lord says: “Thy Father which seeth in secret
himself shall reward thee openly” (Matthew 6:4a).
There
is a third trumpet which we will hear; it’s the trumpet ushering in the
Second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: “For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump
of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16).
Paul
had preached to the Thessalonians the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ.
He had been preaching everywhere about the day of the Lord that is coming. They
had apparently taken up the impression that the Lord would come very soon. But,
when they saw their brethren died one after another and Christ had not come,
they became perplexed and anxious about their condition and prospects. They
began to doubt their own resurrection. Paul wrote to remove their doubt. He
wrote the same to the church at Corinth: “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,” (1 Corinthians 15:52).
The
trumpet of God will be the last trumpet sound the world will be hearing. To the
faithful in Christ, it is a trumpet of victory and reward (Revelations 2:10).
It is a trumpet that calls us into eternity in a glorious body. But, to the
unbelievers and those who are unfaithful, it is a trumpet of eternal doom: “And
whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of
fire” (Revelations 22:15).
Brethren,
let us sound the trumpet to warn the world of the judgment day. And, let us
wait patiently to hear the trumpet of God that will usher us into eternity: “Then
we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the
clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord”
(1 Thessalonoans 4:17). Amen!
Jimmy Lau
Psa 119:97 Oh how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.
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