The Two Trumpets

I'm going to put in a picture completely without attribution. Those of you who know what it is, well, good for you:

Whenever a trumpet blows in the Bible, something HUGE is about to happen. We've already seen trumpets calling Moses to climb Mt. Sinai to receive the law, had the Festival of Trumpets (modern-day Rosh Hashanah) described, and in total, the word "trumpet" appears in the Bible 114 times, and the second-to-last time is a pretty important one we'll come across on December 29th.

So what was so important here? In Numbers 10:11-12, the people leave Mt. Sinai, after spending around 14 months there. This is a big deal--they left Egypt with the promise of a Promised Land, and after God prepares them to inhabit the land by giving them the law, as well as common sense instruction on how to live, they're prepared to make the final move. They know all they need to know, they've promised to listen to God and follow his instructions, and the time has come for them to re-inhabit the land of their ancestors.

I've always loved this image because it speaks directly to me that something important is about to happen, and nothing can be more important than a message from the Lord. I also love the description of how they moved in Numbers 10:33-34, with the Ark of the Covenant going before them and the cloud of the Lord with them. I won't belabor the point, but I'm sure many of us wish we had similar visible and tangible evidence of the Lord being among us like the Israelites had, but then we wouldn't need faith. As Paul will tell us on December 6th, hope that is seen is no hope at all. Our job is to be ready when that trumpet blows, like the people of Israel were.