13.09 The Blowing of the Trumpets

13 - Jubilee; Section 9 THE BLOWING OF TRUMPETS The glorious Year of Jubilee, with its attending blessings and benefits, was introduced by the blowing of trumpets. The sound of the trumpet was the welcome and soul-stirring signal for the captive to escape, for the slave to cast aside the chains of his bondage, for the man-slayer to return to his home, for the ruined and poverty stricken to rise to the possession of his forfeited inheritance. No sooner had the trumpet’s thrice-welcome sound fallen upon the ear than the mighty tide of blessing rose majestically and sent its refreshing billows into the most remote corners of Jehovah’s highly favored land. To understand the spiritual meaning of trumpets we need to establish something of its typical significance - what is a trumpet the symbol of in scripture? What do they typify? We want to make this very clear. A key is found in Isaiah 58:1 wherein we read, "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Israel their sin." When the trumpet sounds, symbolically it is speaking of a MESSAGE from God coming forth through one of His anointed servants. In this case the message was to show the Lord’s people their transgression and their sin. Another passage that clarifies this is Ezekiel 33:4-7, "Then whosoever hears the sound of the trumpet, and takes not warning; if the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand. So you, O son of man, I have set you as a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear the word at My mouth, and warn them from Me." Ezekiel was made a watchman to receive God’s Word from His mouth and convey that Word to the people. And God said that it is the same as a trumpet sounding to warn the people. The watchman, the Lord said to Ezekiel, blows the trumpet to warn the people; so when I give you a message to warn the people, that is the fulfillment of the symbol - a message from God through His servant sounded out to the people to warn, to encourage, or otherwise instruct them. The beloved Seer of Patmos, while in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, heard behind him a great voice, as of a trumpet, whereupon he said, "And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And being turned, I saw ... one like unto the Son of man ... saying unto me ..." (Revelation 1:10-18). Is it not plain to be seen that the VOICE was in fact a Person sounding out a message - thus, the Voice was a trumpet. Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 14:8-9 apply the symbolism of a trumpet: "For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to battle? So like wise you, except you utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken?" The trumpet sounding out clearly, symbolizes a message spoken forth clearly, in words easy to be understood. Paul is exhorting the saints to minister to the body of Christ in such a way that the saints will be edified. Such a ministry is the only trumpet-call that will work a real preparedness in the hearts of the Lord’s people. The trumpet must give a CERTAIN SOUND. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Make two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shall you make them ..." (Numbers 10:2). In the verses which follow it is clear that the blowing of the trumpets signified four specific things to Israel:

1. Calling the assembly (Numbers 10:2).

2. Journeying of the Camp (Numbers 10:3-6).

3. Preparation for war (Numbers 10:9).

4. Celebration of the Feasts (Numbers 10:10). The types and symbols here are tremendous. The trumpets were of silver. It is evident that "silver" in the scriptures speaks of redemption. Whenever Israel was numbered, every man was required to give by way of ransom a half-shekel of silver, and the money thus collected was used in the service of the sanctuary (Exodus 30:12-16; Leviticus 25:48). Furthermore, when they committed a trespass, and sinned through ignorance, in the holy things of the Lord, shekels of silver were paid along with the offering of their sacrifice. So also when Christ, the Lamb, was offered, there was likewise involved the thirty pieces of silver which the priests gave to Judas for the betrayal of Christ.

There was one Feast in Israel specifically known as the Feast of Trumpets. This Feast was the preparation for the great Day of Atonement. Psalm 81 is thought by some to have been composed especially for the Feast of Trumpets. "Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery. Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day. For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob. This He ordained ... for a testimony" (Psalms 81:1-4). The Day of Atonement bespeaks the fullness of deliverance from sin. That full and complete atonement was made for the Church by Jesus Christ on the cross, there is no doubt whatsoever. But it is only too evident, as we consider our own individual lives, as well as that of the Church historically, that we have never really appropriated any real measure of the redemptive work of our Lord. And it is this experiential appropriation of the fullness of deliverance from sin that the Day of Atonement points to. As there is a historical Passover and Pentecost, as well as a personal and individual Passover and Pentecostal experience for all who will believe it, so it is with Atonement. All through the ages men have by faith reached out and appropriated some measure of deliverance from sin and death; but neither individually nor corporately have we possessed the fullness of it. The sad sequence is: We continue to sin and continue to die! But our deliverance from the power of sin and death is secured, and lies directly before us in the dispensational fulfillment of the great Day of Atonement by way of experience. The Feast of the Day of Atonement was observed on the tenth day of the seventh month, nine days after the Feast of Trumpets. It was really more a Fast than a Feast, as a distinctive character and purpose of the day was to bring the sin of the whole year to remembrance, so that it might earnestly be dealt with and atoned for. On this day the High Priest made confession of the sins of the people, and entered on their behalf into the Most Holy Place with the blood of reconciliation. It was a solemn occasion, when God’s people through godly sorrow and atonement for sin put away sin. The sin and carnality of the Church’s long career must be taken away from her midst before she can enter into the full blessing and power of the Feast of Tabernacles, that wonderful Feast of fullness that immediately follows Atonement. Thank God for the Passover, in the first month, in virtue of which God has "passed over" the saints, not imputing their trespasses unto them. But none can deny that God’s people have been groaning with the apostle Paul for two thousand years: "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24). God has certainly heard our cries, and soon He shall bring His people into a glorious liberty in the Spirit, wherein they shall be completely delivered from their sins and their sin and from the death they bring.

Let us stop trying to justify ourselves, insisting on our holiness of conduct, when it is apparent to everyone around us that we do not possess it. "Living epistles" of Christ do not have to tell the world how holy they are. Sons of God, conformed to the image of God, do not need to inform people of who they are. The world will see it and will be amazed to discover something real and genuine in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation. This victory of which we speak is the very victory of Christ Himself. When we attain to this victory there will be no need to formulate weak excuses why the overcoming saint of God can again fall into carnality and sin and suffer defeat - for this place in Christ knows no defeat. He that overcomes according to the Bible enters into the very victory and triumph of Christ - a victory which can never be conquered, lost or forfeited. It is the eternal victory of the risen and ascended Lord Himself, and the overcomer is therefore "more than conqueror" through Christ that loved him.

Redemption is a FULL restoring of that which was sold under bondage to sin, corruption and death. It is the reclaiming of our original inheritance in God before ever sin or death stalked through our land. Consequently, a fully REDEEMED MAN must be just exactly of the same status physically and spiritually as Adam before he disobeyed God’s commandment not to eat of the tree. One of my points on finding the status of Adam physically and spiritually is that the value of the redemption-price paid is equal to that which was sold under bondage and redeemed. Now, if we can find the VALUE of the Redeemer’s PAYMENT, we have the VALUE of the property that has been redeemed, and it also gives a perfect picture of the physical and spiritual status of what the "redemption of our body" really means, the exact value. Now the value, or physical and spiritual status of the Redeemer, or price of redemption, is clearly given in the life and ministry of Jesus from the Jordan experience to the crucifixion on the cross. First, Jesus must be a perfect lamb without spot or blemish to fulfill the Levitical type, and to be the perfect redemption-price. Second, He had to be sinless, incorruptible and deathless (no man takes my life from Me; I lay it down). Third, He had to be holy, pure and undefiled, separate from sinners. Fourth, to be this, He had to be conceived of the Holy Spirit. If He had been born, as some claim, with a sin nature in Him, He could not have redeemed humanity, for one under the dominion of a sin nature is inherently impure and could not redeem that which was tainted by sin, corruption and death, restoring it to its original status. There were no sin germs in His precious blood, nothing of sin, corruption or death in His genes, therefore He could be spoken of as "that holy thing" (Luke 1:35). Jesus demanded of the religious leaders who opposed Him, "Which of you convinces Me of sin?" (John 8:46). And try as they might, they could not take Him or kill Him until He voluntarily laid down His life (John 10:18). His sinlessness and incorruptibleness was proved finally by His death and resurrection - the whole man, spirit, soul and body emerged triumphant from the tomb clad in the shimmering garments of immortality!

It is not the message of redemption that has been at fault, but it lies in the one sounding the trumpet, that has caused so much confusion and loss. The Word would be read, a clear blast of the silver trumpets, sounding forth the message, "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. If the Spirit of Him that raised Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwells in you" (Romans 6:6-7; Romans 6:22; Romans 8:2; Romans 8:11). Ah, no sooner has the trumpet blown its message of a FULL AND COMPLETE REDEMPTION FROM SIN AND DEATH here and now, than the trumpeters follow with several little qualifying blasts of their own concepts and ideas and unbelief, until our old man is not dead, we are not free from sin, we must all sin a little every day, there is no such thing as perfection in this life, the fullness of God can only be known in heaven or during the millennium, we were born to die and pass by way of the grave, and finally we are right back where mankind started - before Jesus ever came! All we have is forgiveness, NOT REDEMPTION! That, precious friend of mine, is not a message of redemption from a silver trumpet of a whole piece it is, rather, the hiss of the serpent’s voice! And so the Lord Almighty commands: "Blow a trumpet in Zion, and shout in My holy hill" (Joel 2:1, Young’s Literal Translation). Ray Prinzing wrote: "God is first causing the trumpet to blow in Zion, until the message is PURE IN ZION, so that when, in turn, the law goes forth from Zion, it will be a pure word of the Lord - as He proceeds to reconcile all things to Himself. Truly, ’The Word of the Lord endures for ever.’ But the ’blowers’ have come and gone. They have tooted all kinds of notes in their message. But as the Spirit purifies His people they will blow the certain sound of His truth - a message of life, hope, and victory. Praise God. Then, ’The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of His people ... so shall you know that I am the Lord Your God dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain’ (Joel 3:16-17). Observe: first the shaking has been our heavens and earth, to be made ALL NEW IN HIM. Then, when the Lord appears in His Zion, and ROARS OUT - sounds forth His message to all men, it will bring a shaking to their heavens and earth also, until there has been a complete re-making, and ALL THINGS have become new. And one thing shall be clear to all - that the Lord IS DWELLING IN ZION, thus they become the FORTRESS OF HOPE for groaning creation" - end quote. A trumpet voice, a ministry, a message has been raised up in these last days and it is my deep conviction that this ministry constitutes the spiritual Feast of Trumpets. In this hour it indicates anointed ministries in the midst of the Church with a message of entering into the Holy of Holies to experientially appropriate the fullness of God. Trumpets was a day of awakening. Most of the Church-world is waiting for Gabriel to toot his horn so they can leave the planet. The Bible says there is to be a blowing of trumpets which will raise a people up into the clouds of His glory and incorruptible life, but I rejoice that the trumpet is a VOICE - words, anointed words, powerful words, awakening words - a message from the Throne that announces a new direction and purpose and reality for the people of God. This great message of full salvation in this end of the age is to be proclaimed in the power of the Spirit by a redeemed people who give forth the trumpet sound. This message will come, and is coming, through that body of anointed messengers who have gone through the fire and been "refined as silver is refined" (Zechariah 13:9; Malachi 3:3). So, beloved, draw not back from the fire, but leap joyfully into it, for the Lord has ordained it for your profit. It is time for God’s people’s hearing to change. Its time for the people to hear something new. They have heard a lot of messages through the years and the centuries, but they are still not redeemed! They have not yet come fully into possession of their inheritance! So God has assembled a people and called them to the Feast of Trumpets. From there they will enter into the great Day of Atonement and on to the Feast of tabernacles.