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The Silver Trumpets of Redemption
by
T. Austin-Sparks
Reading: Numbers 10:1-10
There is a great deal about trumpets in the Bible: indeed
the word occurs about a hundred times. This suggests that
God has something to say to us on this subject,
especially to His servants. This is our privilege as
ministers of Christ, to sound forth the clear message of
salvation like silver trumpets.
We notice that the material used for these trumpets was
silver which, in Old Testament symbolism, denotes
redemption. This suggests that God's message to man is
about redemption, but it also means that no one can be
God's trumpet unless he himself is redeemed. The trumpets
were made of solid silver, which means that they were the
embodiment of the spiritual reality of redemption. So it
is that before we can proclaim the message of God we must
know redemption in the very constitution of our being.
What is more, they are described as being "of beaten
work". They have to be hammered out in such a way
that redemption is wrought into their very experience. It
is not just that God gives us words to say, but that our
message must have a background of some real and
thorough-going experience in the matter of which we
speak.
These things, then, should characterise every one who
would be a messenger of God to others. It is better to
have a small experience but a very real one, and to
witness of that, than to speak empty words which have no
solid background in the life and cannot therefore serve
God in the trumpet call of His grace. The process will go
on if we allow God to pursue it and He will work our
redemption into us, making us like those silver trumpets
which were "of beaten work". Redemption does
not begin and end just with our being saved from judgment
and hell and being assured of heaven. This is an
important part of our Christian experience, but it is
only a part, for redemption begins to apply to and touch
every part of our lives until we are wholly on that
ground.
When the Israelites were redeemed by God from their
bondage in Egypt, the result was that not one ox was left
in the land. God applied this matter of redemption to the
last hoof of the last animal to leave Egypt. His idea was
a very thorough-going redemption which left nothing
outside. Now that illustrates our point. It was true in
history, but it shows us that in our spiritual life
everything has to be wrought and beaten into us, so that
our lives can be silver trumpets for God.
The trumpets were two in number. This surely stresses
their devotion to witnessing. In the Bible the legal
position was that the evidence of one person alone was
never accepted. It had to be confirmed and corroborated
by a second reliable witness before it could be valid.
"At the mouth of two witnesses... shall every word
be established" (2 Corinthians 13:1). Two is the
irreducible minimum of God. As many more as you like, but
no less than two. It was equally the case with the silver
sockets of the tabernacle boards - there had to be two
sockets for each board. God wishes to have everything
ratified and confirmed in an unmistakable way where His
testimony is concerned.
This matter is taken up by the apostle Paul in the
passage about trumpets where he writes: "If the
trumpet give an uncertain voice, who shall prepare
himself for war?" (1 Corinthians 14:8). Unhappily
there is far too much indefiniteness and uncertainty
about some Christian witness today. It is essential that
there should be nothing of the kind where redemption is
concerned. The witness must be positive.
It is helpful to consider the purpose of these silver
trumpets:
1. To Call Together (v.3)
In the first place they were to be used to call an
assembly together. Here were instruments to establish the
relatedness, the oneness, of the fellowship together of
God's people. We should have a unifying effect on our
fellow believers, avoiding anything which could tend to
scatter or divide the people of God. It is a great
ministry to bring the Lord's people together. The
ministry of the silver trumpets is never to disintegrate
God's people but rather to strengthen relationships and
consolidate fellowship.
2. To Order Movement (v.5)
We find that the trumpets were used for the ordering of
the life and movement of Israel. It is interesting to
notice that the two silver trumpets come next to the
cloud of Shekinah glory which rested upon the Tabernacle.
They worked together. The pillar of cloud and fire
provided guidance for God's people, and when Israel was
in right relationship with Him, then the guidance was
always towards the land of promise. So when it was time
for the people to move forward, the trumpets were sounded
to give direction to the march, bringing them ever nearer
and nearer to the spiritual wealth and fullness of God's
objective for them.
In this way we see that the trumpets proclaimed God's
great purpose for His redeemed people. The trumpet note
cannot be sounded too strongly in this connection nor too
clearly, for we are called with a great divine purpose
which God formulated before the world was. The Lord's
people need to have it made known to them, for there is a
tremendous purpose governing their being called together
into the fellowship of His Son, and they need not only to
know the purpose, but also God's way of realising it.
They need to be kept from wandering round in circles,
straying about indefinitely without any clear assurance
of what redemption really involves and where it should be
leading them. There is a great need for an enlightening
and inspiring ministry of the Word which will summon
God's redeemed people to move on to His eternal purpose
for them in Christ. The silver trumpets were to govern
God's people in relation to the ultimate fullness which
He has for them in Christ.
3. To Call to War (v.9)
They were also to sound the summons to war. Perhaps this
note is as much needed as any, for every Christian is
intended to be involved in spiritual warfare. It is so
easy to be surprised or worried when we become involved
in conflict, as though this were very strange and unfair
for peace-loving persons. The fact is, though, that
conflict is far from being strange or unusual but is the
calling of every true Christian. The silver trumpets call
us to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ. We must realise
that we have a part in the Lord's battles and that these
will go on to the very end. We must learn to respond to
the rallying voice of redemption's trumpet. It calls us
to victory, for the words seem to suggest that the Lord
Himself would listen for the trumpet alarm and when He
heard it, would remember His beloved people and send them
salvation from their enemies.
4. To Express Praise (v.10)
The fourth purpose was simply the trumpeting of praise to
God on feast days and special occasions of rejoicing.
Salvation is a feast, and is often so described in the
Gospels. Our testimony to the world around us should
always be bright and clear. In this way the trumpet call
can be a call of salvation to those who are outside of
God's grace in Christ. Paul writes about their sound
going into all the earth, and their words to the ends of
the world (Romans 10:18). God's people are set in so many
places that they may be a witness to Him, like the silver
trumpets celebrating the perfect offering of Christ and
the gospel truth of God's provision for sinners by that
offering. For us, then, every day should be a feast day,
a day of gladness. There is no time when we should not be
sounding the silver trumpets of redemption as we remember
Christ and rejoice in His saving grace. As we make much
of the Lord Jesus and concentrate on Him, then from us
goes out a message of hope and salvation to those around
us. We blow our trumpets over the one great Burnt
Offering and Peace Offering and we are assured that God
will always remember us and work for us as we do this.
The last word of this passage is: "I am the Lord
your God". What a joy if others should enter into
such a relationship because we have served as silver
trumpets of redemption.
From "Toward
the Mark" Nov-Dec 1978, Vol. 7-6.
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