“These trumpets…must have been made of silver atonement-money” (Henry W. Soltau).
Let’s talk about trumpets, says the Lord to Moses in Numbers 10. My son plays one, and what you want are clear and distinct notes. As the Bible asks, “If the trumpet makes an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for battle?” (1 Cor 14:8). Here were perhaps two or three million people—with no cell phones. How did they communicate? When encamped, they were arranged so the leaders of each tribe were nearest the tabernacle. If they knew what to do, they sent the word down the chain of command, from “rulers of thousands,” to the “rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens” (Ex 18:21). Simple and effective! So the Lord told Moses, “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” (Num 10:2). Israel often used ram’s horns, called shofarim. But for this task, they were to make two chatso-tserah of redemption silver. Chatsar means “to protect, as with a stockade.” We can see what these looked like, at least in the days of Jesus, because the Romans stole them from Jerusalem and their image is carved into the Arch of Titus in Rome. Two blown together meant “all the congregation shall gather before you at the door of the tabernacle” (v 3). Just one called only the leaders (v 4). There was a special call to “advance” (vv 5-6), another, when in danger, with an “alarm” (v 9), and a third for celebrating “in the day of your gladness, in your appointed feasts, and at the beginning of your months” (v 10). Say, I’m waiting to hear one myself! “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God” (1 Thess 4:16). Come, Lord Jesus!