Reading
SAA Notes
The Cloud above the Tabernacle – the sign of God’s near presence. Look up cloud in a concordance and meditate on the New Testament references. The Cloud on the Mount of Transfiguration and the Cloud of Witnesses are two references worth meditating on. The cloud heralds God as the Giver of the Water of Life!
SJA Notes
* Dear Lord, how precious is Your steadfast love! Let us take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.
“The trumpets shall be to you for a perpetual statute throughout your generations.”
We read of the importance of trumpets, both as a call to gather and to battle.
In Joshua 6 we read the Lord’s commands to Israel concerning the battle of Jericho. On the last day they were to blow seven trumpets of ram’s horns continually, before all the people shouted! The trumpets shouted too, and the walls fell.
In Judges 6 we read of Gideon sounding a trumpet, calling the people to war.
In Ezekiel 33 the prophet is called to blow a trumpet as a warning to God’s people.
And we read in the new testament, in 1 Corinthians 15,
“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.”
There is a powerful ring to these words.
While today’s passage shows us a beginning of sorts for the trumpet being used, in 1 Corinthians we read of a time that will come when the LAST trumpet will sound.
No more calling to gather – We will be united with God, the marriage of the Lamb and the Church fulfilled (Revelation 21).
No more calling for war – Jesus has put all His enemies under His feet, and the last enemy is destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:25-26).
And no more trumpet cries of warning – Judgement done (Revelation 20:11-15). Mercy realised (Revelation 21:1-7). Our calling complete (Revelation 20:15, 22:14).
How good then is our hope, waiting for the sound of this last trumpet!
* Sovereign and Holy God,
Please may we hear Your voice ringing through our lives, from Your word, trumpet calls to us for gathering and warning, for war against our old selves, against the wiles of the evil one.
Please remind us of that final day when the last trumpet will sound.
Thank You for our hope in You!
Amen.