We have a shofar in our home that we use regularly. I use it to call the kids in from playing or working outside, we blow it on Shabbat and the other feast days, and… sometimes to wake up the household if everyone is sleepy and I’m feeling a bit cheeky!
Unlike a shofar however, I am still unable to make any useful noise out of a trumpet. When I have tried in the past, it sounds like a spluttering, wheezing, unenjoyable noise.
Shofars and trumpets are just tools to communicate, and apart from the sometimes musical use of a trumpet (no one ever said: “I play the shofar in a band”), that’s what they are used for in scripture. Tools used to communicate a messages.
So here’s a question to think about: if Yeshua were to hand you a tool of communication, would you be able to use it?
Would I be able to get more than a splutter out of it?
1 Thessalonians 4:16 says “The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God…”
Yeshua is pictured in here holding the trumpet of God, which symbolizes a tool used to communicate Yah’s message, and I’m sure He intends to use! He is coming back to this earth to declare a message, a message of redemption, a message of destruction, and a message of restoration.
I think it’s very fitting for this scripture to show Yeshua using a tool, the trumpet, to communicate through. Yah has always used tools to spread His messages throughout the world: The bible. The apostles. Missionaries. And of course, let us not forget, us!
Yes, WE are called to be God’s tools! WE are called to be the trumpet in Yeshua’s hand! We can mimic Messiah by blowing our own trumpets (more than a splutter), by being the tool that He communicates through.
Undoubtedly you will listen to teachings and bible studies this Yom Teruah season, and already have, that focus on us and where we need to be during this time, but if you take a different look at what the end times represent, you will also see a need to focus on everyone else.
As we anticipate Yom Teruah, we should be reminded of God’s commission to His followers on earth, such as in Acts 1:8, which states “you shall receive power when the set apart spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Of course, this and Matthew 28:19-20 show that we still have much work to do in this world, and countless people to reach.
Our wish should be for many to be standing with us at the return of Yeshua. That’s the whole future picture associated with Yom Teruah. And, as we know, this is also the desire of the Creator “who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4).
Is that your desire too, my friends? And if it is our desire, what are we doing about it?
The trumpet is a symbol of great communication. Throughout the Bible, it is used to tell people of many things, to convince, instruct, and exhort.
Take for example Numbers 10:
“And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying: “Make two silver trumpets for yourself; you shall make them of hammered work; you shall use them for calling the congregation and for directing the movement of the camps. When they blow both of them, all the congregation shall gather before you at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. But if they blow only one, then the leaders, the heads of the divisions of Israel, shall gather to you. When you sound the advance, the camps that lie on the east side shall then begin their journey. When you sound the advance the second time, then the camps that lie on the south side shall begin their journey; they shall sound the call for them to begin their journeys. And when the assembly is to be gathered together, you shall blow, but not sound the advance. The sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow the trumpets; and these shall be to you as an ordinance forever throughout your generations. “When you go to war in your land against the enemy who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, and you will be remembered before Yahweh your God, and you will be saved from your enemies. Also in the day of your gladness, in your appointed feasts, and at the beginning of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they shall be a memorial for you before your God: I am Yahweh your God.” – Numbers 10:1-10
From this we can see that trumpets and shofars communicate messages of: unity, worship, gathering before Yah when He has commanded, beginning a journey, beginning of war and destruction, and also the beginning of a time of feasting, joy, and rejuvenation.
It’s interesting that these things also point towards the future coming Kingdom. All of those things, describe the return of Messiah!
Yeshua spent his whole earthly life bringing a message to the people of the world, and He will return to finalize His message with a trumpet in His hand.
But in between those two events, who will raise the trumpet to their lips to continue this message?
“Cry aloud, spare not; Lift up your voice like a trumpet; Tell My people their transgression, And the house of Jacob their sins.” – Isaiah 58:1
“So you, son of man: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me. When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you shall surely die!’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand.” – Ezekiel 33:7-8
God has appointed us as watchmen, handed us all trumpets, and we can spend our earthly lives ignoring that and spluttering, or actually blowing it.
It’s our choice how effective we are, how much we allow Yah to use us as a tool. It’s our choice if we want to play a part in communicating His message to the world.
“Also, I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not listen.’ Therefore hear, you nations, And know, O congregation, what is among them. Hear, O earth!” – Jeremiah 6:17-19
God has set watchmen over the world “saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!'” My friends. That is us!
Are we playing our part?
The trumpet is a symbol of Yom Teruah, or as some English translations call it, the Feast of Trumpets (yes, I know the word actually means blowing or shouting – take it up with the translators).
“Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” – 1 Corinthians 15:51-52
The message that we have been commanded to communicate to the world is one about holy righteous living. It’s one about developing a character that God would be pleased with.
The Gospel is a message of hope and of terror. For the good news is that we have an opportunity for life, for saving, for God’s love. But on the flip side, we also have an opportunity for failure, for destruction, and for removal.
This is the message that we are to bring to the world.
You can blow the trumpet of this message in many different ways. It can be by example, but it can also be done by raising your voice! It can be done by quiet service, but it can also be done by taking a clear stand for God.
“Lift up a banner on the high mountain, Raise your voice to them; Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles. I have commanded My sanctified ones; I have also called My mighty ones for My anger— Those who rejoice in My exaltation.” – Isaiah 13:2-3
We are all to be fishers of men like Peter and the other apostles, for we are called to follow in their footsteps and to not just let other people do this for us.
We say, “God does the calling”. But if God is calling someone and there is no standard for them to see, no standard for them to hear, have we just neglected our duty?
If the fish are swimming near our boat and we are not letting down the net, are we being an effective tool of God’s message?
“Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” – Matthew 24:30-31
What is our desire for these verses? Is our desire to have many people be a part of that gathering of the elect?
Before this final trumpet call, will we have up to this moment been a tool in God’s hand by blowing the trumpet ourselves?
Yom Teruah is called a ‘memorial of trumpets’ in Leviticus because a memorial reminds us of the past, it reminds s of what is to come in the future, and it reminds us of what we should be doing right now.
Are we actively involved in the proclamation of the Gospel to mankind? Are we letting God use us as a tool in His plan for mankind? Our behavior and words should all point to Him. Our lifestyles should reflect the true Light!
The service we perform to our families, our church, our community, our nation, and the world at large will all culminate to the final moment of Yeshua Messiah’s return.
Will we have been faithful stewards while waiting for the master to return like the parable of the talents in Matthew 25? Will we have been diligently working in the Lord’s vineyard for the harvest like the parable in Matthew 20?
While we wait for the call of the trumpet in the future, we should ask ourselves what we are doing to be that trumpet call of Yah’s message right now.
We have been called for a great purpose, to be firstfruits, or “leading examples” of Yah’s way of life. It’s our great calling not only to set a standard for others to see, but also one that they can HEAR. To proclaim the Way and to help the world follow it.
Let us reflect the call of the trumpet in our own lives for the day of Yeshua’s return quickly approaches!
As Zephaniah 1:14 says “The great day of Yahweh is near. It is near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of Yahweh is bitter, there the mighty men shall cry out.”
Check your trumpets, watchmen. Does yours sound like a splutter, or like a clear message?
