Trumpets

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God's Scattered People

Lev. 23:23-25; Num.29;1-6

The first four feasts that are given in Leviticus 23 describe for us the past work that God has done. The Passover—Christ died for our sins. The Feast of Unleavened Bread—what Christ did enables us to cleanse our lives, to feast upon Him and to have the spiritual sustenance that we need for our pilgrim journey. The Feast of Firstfruits—the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Fifty days later was the Feast of Pentecost—the coming of the Holy Spirit.

These four feasts picture events in past history. We are living between the Feast of Pentecost and the Feast of Trumpets. There is a three-month gap in the Jewish calendar between the Feast of Pentecost (third month) and the Feast of Trumpets (sev­enth month).

What were the Jewish people doing during that time? They were sharing in the harvest. Pentecost was a harvest feast. The people were working in the harvest field. This is what you and I should be doing today.

After Moses described the Feast of Pentecost in Leviticus 23:15-21, he immediately talked about the harvest: "And when ye reap the harvest of your land" (v. 22). You and I today are a part of the harvest. Sad to say, many people are watching the harvest or neglecting the harvest. Our Lord tells us that "they [the fields] are white already to harvest" (John 4:35). It is not our job to be criticizing the harvesters or painting pictures of the harvest. Our job is to be out helping to bring in the sheaves. Are you a part of the harvest crew today?

The next event on God's calendar is the Feast of Trumpets on the first day of the seventh month. "Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord" (Lev. 23:24,25).

The nation of Israel was all "wrapped up" in sev­ens. On the seventh day of the week was the Sabbath. There are seven feasts of Jehovah. Seven weeks after Firstfruits is Pentecost. After the seven years was the Sabbatical year. Seven times seven 49 years—introduces the year of Jubilee. In Daniel 9 seven times 70 = 490 years describes God's pro­phetic plan for Israel. In the seventh month there were three very important feasts: Trumpets, the Day of Atonement and Tabernacles.

The four feasts we have already discussed deal with what God has already done for the salvation of lost souls. The next three feasts describe what God will do in the future. Their application is basically to the nation of Israel, but there is still a spiritual and prophetic meaning for those of us who belong to the Church.

The Feast of Trumpets speaks of the time when our Lord Jesus shall return and take us to be with Him. The Day of Atonement reminds me of that time when I am going to stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ. It shall be a time of cleansing and a time of rewarding. The Feast of Tabernacles speaks of the wonderful, joyful time we will have sharing in the blessings of the kingdom with our Saviour.

I. For Israel

For the nation of Israel these three feasts have a very definite application because Israel has a three-fold problem. Israel is a scattered people, a sinful people and a suffering people. Israel is a scattered people because Israel did not obey God. We are told in Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26 about the scattering of the people of Israel. The Feast of Trumpets speaks of a time of gathering, when God shall call His scattered people together.

Israel is a sinful people. All of us are sinners. Jews are not greater sinners than Gentiles. But Israel sinned against a flood of light and against a wealth of privileges. The Day of Atonement speaks of that time when Israel shall be cleansed and born again.

So the scattered people shall be called, and the sinful people shall be cleansed, and the suffering people shall be comforted. The Feast of Taberna­cles speaks of that time when God shall give His people the kingdom that He promised in the Old Testament prophecies.

In Numbers 10, God gives an explanation concerning the use of the trumpets. Israel used the trumpets for very important purposes. The trumpets were used for calling the assembly. "Make thee two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shalt thou make them: that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps" (v. 2). The trumpets were also used to blow an alarm (v. 5) and to announce war (v. 9). The trumpets were used to announce the special days in the calendar of Israel—the solemn feasts and the sacrifices and so forth (v. 10).

The trumpets were God's method of communica­tion. They were God's telephone, God's radio, God's newspaper. When God wanted to announce something to His people or get His people to do something, then He told the priests to blow the trumpets.

Israel is a scattered people. Israel should be dwelling in her land and enjoying all the blessings of the land. There are people who have returned to Palestine, as we know. I can remember, early in my Christian life, reading books that said there was no future for Israel, either politically or spiritually. And yet the nation of Israel is back on the map again—that great miracle took place back in 1948. Israel is at the center of the stage in the Middle East. We see some of the people returning to the land, but Israel is still a scattered people. They are scattered because they disobeyed God.

Let me make it very clear that all men have disobeyed God. "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). No one nation is purer than any other nation. But Israel had so many privileges. God gave to Israel the patriarchs, the prophets, the covenants, the temple, the priest-hood, the sacrifices and the great promise of the Messiah. And yet Israel did not live up to her privileges. She rebelled against God, and God had to punish her.

First, God punished Israel in the land. In the Book of Judges it is recorded that seven nations came into the land to punish disobedient Israel. Then when the nation continued to disobey, God took them out of the land and "spanked" them. He took them off into Babylonian Captivity, and after 70 years, He permitted them to return. When they sinned once again and rejected the Messiah, He scattered them across the world.

Israel is a scattered people, but the Feast of Trumpets speaks of a time when God will gather His people back to the land and save them.

"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, 0 ye children of Israel. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem" (Isa. 27:12,13).

Read the Book of Joel, and you will find several references to that future "day of the Lord," when the trumpet will be blown. Joel 2:1 says, "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain." We read in Joel 2:15: "Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly." Joel is talking about the time when the people of Israel shall be gathered together and God shall bring them back to the land and restore them to their kingdom.

One day there will be a great "blowing of the trumpet" for the nation of Israel. In His great pro­phetic sermon called "the Olivet Discourse" (Matt. 24,25), Jesus said, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.... And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (24:29,31).

So Israel shall be regathered. There will be a time of cleansing and restoration.

II. For the Church

As far as the Church is concerned, there will be the sounding of a trumpet for us as well. The Church is also a scattered people. Some of God's people are on earth—scattered from one place to another—and some are in heaven. Christ will assemble His people and take them to heaven (I Thess. 4:13-18). Let me make it very clear that the Feast of Trumpets in its basic interpretation belongs to Israel. But in its personal application, there is a message for us as Christians. "For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [precede] them which are asleep. 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" (vv. 15,16). "For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible" (I Cor. 15:52).

The trumpets were blown in Israel to gather the people together, to move the people forward and to give the alarm for war. When the trumpet sounds from heaven, Christ will gather His Church together, take them to glory and, at the same time, sound the alarm of war. "For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape" (I Thess. 5:3). When God calls His Church home from this world, He will then declare war on the world and send such tribulation as people have never seen before.

We are waiting for the sound of the trumpet. As we labor in the harvest, the thing that keeps us going is that Jesus is coming again. As we wait and as we witness and as we work, we know that He is going to come again and take us to heaven. "Lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh" (Luke 21:28). Jesus is coming again! Let's be faithful to serve Him today!

Be God's guest! One day the trumpet will sound!

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