Numbers 10:5-105When ye blow an alarm, then the camps that lie on the east parts shall go forward. 6When ye blow an alarm the second time, then the camps that lie on the south side shall take their journey: they shall blow an alarm for their journeys. 7But when the congregation is to be gathered together, ye shall blow, but ye shall not sound an alarm. 8And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow with the trumpets; and they shall be to you for an ordinance for ever throughout your generations. 9And if ye go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies. 10Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the Lord your God. (Numbers 10:5‑10)
We’re pilgrims in the wilderness;
Our dwelling is a camp;
Created things, though pleasant,
Now bear to us death’s stamp.
But onward we are speeding,
Though often let and tried;
The Holy Ghost is leading
Home to the Lamb, His bride.
THE LORD ordered that the silver trumpets were to be blown first of all for the gathering tether of the people around Himself. Then they were to be used for the journeyings of the camps, in which case an alarm must be blown. When God called His people to move on no ordinary sound would do; it must be an alarm. It is no light thing to take down our tents and move on with God.
At the first alarm Judah’s camp went forward; at the second, Reuben’s, and so on. The various camps also seem to have blown an answering alarm, showing they were alive to the situation.
Those silver trumpets tell out afresh the blessed truth, “Ye are bought with a price,” for silver speaks of redemption, and the effect of such a testimony is to gather God’s people around Himself and to cause them to go forward. It is not an eye but an ear needed in this case; it is a question of hearing God’s call and what He has to say to us. The Lord Jesus could say, “The Lord God hath opened Mine ears, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.” May our ears, as His people, be also attentive, waiting and watching daily at His gate to hear His word.
How many there are these days, as Scripture tells us, who heap to themselves teachers “having itching ears,” those who “turn away their ears from the truth, and are turned unto fables.” They refuse the appeals of the silver trumpet from God’s Word, and so have no divine guidance. “Sounding brass or tinkling cymbal” (1 Cor. 13) will do for them. But only in the clear and certain sound of the trumpet will rest and sure guidance for the journey be found. To blow an indistinct or “uncertain sound” with the trumpet will not prepare souls for either.
Then there are always those who want to lag behind, content to settle down and stay where they are. As we pass on our way homeward, may we be warned away from the shoals of unbelief upon which so many are stranded.
The third use of the trumpets was for war when in the land. When oppressed by the enemy they were to blow an alarm, the Lord would remember them and save them from their enemies. When there is trouble or warfare God is always equal to it. He causes the alarm to be sound and then comes in to help and care for His people. He gives them the victory over their enemies for His glory. The sounding of the alarm would comfort and encourage God’s people in the thought that He was there in the midst of His own. We are told in Philippians 1:2828And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God. (Philippians 1:28) to be “in nothing terrified by your adversaries"; “so that we may boldly say, The Lord is my Helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” Heb. 13:66So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. (Hebrews 13:6).
ML-07/08/1973