August 31.2013
THE TRUMPET OF THE LORD
The Trumpet of the Lord
The trumpet represents the voice of the Lord. We have discussed how God’s voice like a trumpet will awaken the people during the time of the preaching of the everlasting gospel and will call them to assemble before him. His voice will say “come out from among them and be ye separate� when he calls his people out of the false churches and out of the world. His voice as a trumpet will also call his people home to him. His voice will awaken even the dead at the last trump. The trumpet was blown in ancient Israel whenever the people went out to war against their enemies.
God is a God of war and he is going to make war with his enemies on the earth. Today we will discuss how the trumpet of God is used as an announcement, or a pronouncement of judgment against this wicked world. In ancient Israel Joshua the predecessor to Moses had to fight the battles of the Lord to bring the children of Israel into the Promised Land. They did not walk in at ease. The forty years in the wilderness was hard, very hard. It was described
as
a
waste
and
howling
wilderness.
Deuteronomy 32:10, “He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about,�. Moses began the battles by destroying the kings on the east side of Jordan, Og the king of Bashan, and Sihon the king of the Amorites. After the death of Moses Joshua had to take up the reigns and lead the people into the Promised Land. The land was full of some of the wickedest nations on earth. They were full of idolatry, filthiness and evil. They practiced human sacrifice, killing their own children in the name of their gods, and all kinds of filth, sodomy, fornication, incest, and having to do with strange flesh was
actually part of their religious beliefs and ceremonies. They were so wicked that God was determined to destroy them. He commanded Israel not to have anything to do with them or their ways. Often time he would command them to kill everything that breathed. He knew that these wicked nations would corrupt the children of Israel. Just before Passover the children of Israel crossed over the river Jordan. The Lord caused the river to dry up before them as the priests stood with the ark until everyone had passed over. Joshua then circumcised all of the males because they had not been circumcised in the wilderness. Then they kept the Passover. Jericho had a great wall and was straitly shut up because of the fame of the children of Israel. No one could enter or leave the city. The Lord commanded Joshua to have the children of Israel to go about the city once each day for six days. The armed men were to go first, and then the seven priests with the seven trumpets and the ark of the Lord, and then the rest of the people. The people were not allowed to make any noise with their voices, only the
priests would blow with the trumpet. On the seventh day the people compassed the city seven times, and on the seventh time they shouted and the wall of Jericho fell down. In the last days God has prepared seven angels with the trumpets of God to begin to destroy the earth. Each time a trumpet is blown a different and devastating event will occur of astronomical measure in the fierceness of the wrath of God. The last trump will be at the time of the resurrection and the brightness of Christ’s coming, at which time the man of sin will be destroyed and we will all be taken up to the marriage supper in heaven. We will read about both of these events and consider how they relate as we celebrate the day of Trumpets.
Please read: 89 verses The purpose of the trumpet: Numbers 10:1-10, the battle of Jericho: Joshua 5:1-27, the seven trumpets in Revelations: Revelations 8:6-13, Revelations 9:1-21, Revelations 10:1-7, Revelations 11:1-19