2. The Sound of the Trumpet

(Two Things Different Are Not the Same)

All musical instruments have voices.

Now, notice this with me in the book of Exodus, chapter nineteen, verse nineteen: “And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.” [Exodus 19:19]

In this one verse, we have three voices: “the voice of the trumpet”, the voice of a man [Moses], and the voice of God. It further can be shown that the voice of a trumpet is identified [more than any other instrument] with the voice of God.

See for this in the book of Psalms: “God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.” [Psalm 47:5]

We are now ready to read this passage in the Scripture: the book of Numbers, chapter ten, verses one through nine:

“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Make thee two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shalt thou make them: that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps. And when they shall blow with them, all the assembly shall assemble themselves to thee at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And if they blow but with one trumpet, then the princes, which are heads of the thousands of Israel, shall gather themselves unto thee. When ye blow an alarm, then the camps that lie on the east parts shall go forward. When 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. But when the congregation is to be gathered together, ye shall blow, but ye shall not sound an alarm. And 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. And 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.” [Numbers 10:1-9]

The trumpet should not be used to produce an uncertain sound. “For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” [1 Corinthians 14:8]. Now, God is not the“author of confusion” [1 Corinthians 14:33]; he intends for the trumpet to produce a certain sound in order to convey a message.

Therefore, the voice of a trumpet is designed to produce different messages.

The first trumpet message of God to man [in the book of Numbers, chapter ten] is the call to the congregation of God to come to him … to “assemble” before him. “And when they shall blow with them, all the assembly shall assemble themselves to thee at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.” The trumpet was to have a certain voice, or sound, to call for the assembly of the people.

The second trumpet message of God to man [in the book of Numbers chapter ten] is the call to “alarm”: “When ye blow an alarm, then the camps that lie on the east parts shall go forward.” The trumpet was to have a certain voice, or sound, to call for a military movement of the people to war. “And 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.” “My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.” [Jeremiah 4:19]

One voice of the trumpet was a call for God’s people to “assemble”.

While the other voice of the trumpet was to call for God’s people to “alarm”.

Further, the voice of “alarm” is to “warn” the people. “If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;” [Ezekiel 33:3].

In the first epistle written by the Apostle Paul by the Spirit of God “unto the church of God which is at Corinth” [1 Corinthians 1:2], in the fifteenth chapter, there is prophecy for a trumpet that is to sound in the very near future. “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” [1 Corinthians 15:52]

This trumpet will have a certain sound signifying a certain voice. It will be the voice of the trumpet in the similitude of the voice of God calling the church age saints to an assembly in the air. This particular last trumpet is not a call to alarm, or a call to judgment. It will be a call to come up … to come up into the air … to the clouds above this earth to meet the Lord in the air.

This is unlike the trumpets “which are yet to sound” in the seventieth week of Daniel [Daniel 9:24] in the book of the Revelation: “And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!” [Revelation 8:13] These trumpets here in the book of Revelation are different; they are sounding an alarm.

It is very important to the believer in Jesus Christ to learn that two things that are different are not the same. The “last trump” in First Corinthians, chapter fifteen, is not to be confused with the trumpet calls located in the book the Revelation.

Two things different are not the same!

One voice of the trumpet is to call for the church to “assemble”.

While the other voice of the trumpet is to call the people to “alarm”.

One voice of the trumpet is prior to the seventieth week of Daniel.

While the other voice of the trumpet is in the midst of the seventieth week of Daniel.

One voice of the trumpet is to call the pre-tribulation meeting … to meet the Lord in the air.

While the other voice of the trumpet is to call to alarm the inhabitants of this earth to the visitation of the wrath of God!

Two things different are not the same!

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