A Silver Trumpet Passed On | Sojourners

A Silver Trumpet Passed On

In Numbers 10 we read: "And the Lord said to Moses, make two silver trumpets for the calling of the assembly and for the journey of the camp. When you blow an alarm, the camps shall set out."

When the children of Israel were camping in the Sinai wilderness about a year after their deliverance from Egypt, the camps and the tribes were scattered, and there was a problem with communication between the camps. So God instructed Moses to make two silver trumpets and to use them for communicating commands from one tribe to another. The trumpet blowers used several sounds to signal different activities for the people to participate in.

When they blew only one silver trumpet, it was for the leaders to come together to work or because there was a conflict that had to be addressed. When they blew both silver trumpets, it was to summon the entire congregation to meet, worship, and praise God at the Tabernacle. Whenever Israel heard this sound they knew not to get weary because there was a camp meeting in the Promised Land.

However, there was a third sound on the silver trumpet; this was an alarm. These were urgent notes. When the people heard this sound, they knew it was time to break camp and move on to their ultimate destination of Canaan. When that alarm was blown, the camp had to move out.

I offer the analogy of Jean Sindab as the blower of a silver trumpet. Like David and Queen Esther, she was chosen by God to blow the trumpet for the calling and empowerment of leadership, and for the people to stand before God in praise, in struggle, in obedience, and in thanksgiving.

The trumpet players were never ordinary. Their presence guaranteed for them recognition and rank. They only had to enter a room for others to know how ordinary they were in comparison to them. You knew Jean was a queen before you knew her tribe or the location of her inheritance.

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Sojourners Magazine January-February 1997
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