Two Trumpets in our Time

ADONAI said to Moshe, “Make two trumpets; make them of hammered silver. Use them for summoning the community and for sounding the call to break camp and move on.”

Num 10:1-2

Moses had the assignment from God to make two trumpets from one piece of silver without melting the metal. The silver had to be driven and hammered into shape. What a symbol.

The trumpets where used to gather the people: God had something to say. The first mention of a trumpet in the bible was at Mount Sinai. The people were gathered, and God talked in the sound of the trumpet. But not only the people were gathered, departure was organized when the cloud moved. And the leaders were gathered. As we know it today different signals were used for different situations. Leaders were called using one trumpet and a short signal. Leaders have to listen more closely than the people because they are leaders.

But the trumpet is a bidirectional means of communication – working in the other direction as well. In danger and when offering the trumpet was blown so God would hear and act. God talks through the trumpet at Mount Sinai. The sound of the trumpet therefore is the word of God. When we declare the word of God, we sound the trumpet and he listens as he sees our faith.

But there is more in this story:

At Mount Sinai, the first implementation of Pentecost, we have the first mention of the trumpet. In a similar trumpet sound the Holy Spirit comes down on Pentecost to live in us: a great wind. Towards the end of the year, the end of times we find the Feast of Trumpets – plural. Moses built two trumpets – plural. Moses built the trumpets shortly after the tabernacle was finished. The finishing of the tabernacle and the cloud indwelling remind us of the first temple being built and the presence of God filling it – so much so that the priest could not do their ministry. This happened at the Feast of Trumpets.

But what does the plurality of trumpets portray? The first feasts, Pessach and Pentecost, are of personal nature. My relationship to God is restored, and the Spirit indwells me. But in the last season of feasts the people are called, the people sanctify themselves, the people are forgiven, and God tabernacles in his people. Today it’s community instead of individuality, today it’s relationship instead of me, my, and myself. We are in that time, in the fulfillment of that season of feasts.

For me the two trumpets symbolize Jesus and the church, just like the two parts of the ephod or the two olive trees in Zechariah or the two pillars in the temple. Both Jesus and the church stand for forgiveness, just like silver: Jesus gained it for us through his death, the church receives it by grace through faith. Both have been prepared for their assignment by God: building of character, growth, maturing, symbolized by the hammering of the silver. Just remember that Jesus was all man. Both Jesus and the church are from one and only one piece. Everything has become new. We are his children and grow into his likeness.Or better: we are hammered and driven into his image, if we let it happen.

Through the restoration of the five fold ministry the one trumpet was blown -beginning in Later Rain and today afresh. The leaders have been called and equipped for their ministry. Now the time has come, that the leaders together with Jesus gather the people, to form the perfect mixture, the corporate trumpet sound. The sons of God, for which the whole creation is groaning, are being gathered.

Did you hear the call of the trumpet? What does it sound like for you? How are you going to answer, join the sound, and multiply it? Let us know in a comment.

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