THE SILVER TRUMPETS
THE SILVER TRUMPETS
Sunday, September 17, 2023, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Psalm 81:3: Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.
This will be the third time I have preached this message in the past four days; four if I count awakening Friday morning preaching the message half-asleep and half-awake.
The Day of Trumpets is an introduction to Israel’s third Feast, the Feast of Tabernacles or In-gathering. On the Jewish calendar, The Feast of Trumpets is on the first day of the 7th month (Sept. 15-17, 2023), and the first day of the New Year. They blew the trumpets to call the nation to prepare for the coming Day of Atonement and the Harvest of the Feast of Tabernacles. There were two kinds of trumpets:
1. Ram’s Horns---This was the trumpet of Jubilee. It came from the sacrifice. Jesus Christ is the Jubilee (Lk. 4: 19-21). Every year since his death and resurrection, is the Acceptable Year of the Lord.
2. Silver---There were two silver trumpets (witness, testimony, and covenant. The silver speaks of redemption and is blown by the redeemed. It is blown by the priest (believer).
The two silver trumpets speak of Christ in union with His people, the “one new man”(Eph. 2:15) who was “created” in Himself (a new creation-2 Co. 5:17) --- joining Jew and Gentile together in one body. Hence the significance of the blowing of the two silver trumpets on the first day of the seventh month. “Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month in the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation” (Lev. 23:24).
It is the day and hour of the fullness of redemption’s story, proclaimed in the power of the Holy Spirit by God’s people. Yes, the trumpets were blown for all the feasts as their seasons came around; but there was a day and an hour when the blowing of the Trumpets took on what you might call a seasonal significance, hence a dispensational significance. That hour is upon us. From the historical standpoint, the Church has enjoyed Passover and Pentecost. The age of Pentecost will reach her glorious climax, merging into the Feast of In-gathering/Tabernacles. We stand now in fields “white unto harvest.” The corn and wine and oil must be gathered in, and God is beginning to send forth the ministers as never before --- for this is the Day of the blowing of trumpets, as one age of dispensation draws to a close, and another follows. Thus, the shaking of everything that can be shaken. There is always an overlapping and merging of the one into the other. Thus, the Law merged into Grace through the ministry of John the Baptist and Christ. Paul is teaching the Romans and Jews that the end of the Law has now merged into Passover (Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God). Ro. 10:4: For Christ is the end of the law. Pentecost is the baptism of the Holy Spirit by a new law, the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus.
Ro. 8:2: For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
I heard a Jewish Rabbi say this week that Rosh Hashana also recognized the first day of creation. I remembered a teaching by George H. Warnock:
“Let us consider the three Feast of the Lord in the light of the creative work of Genesis. When God commanded “let there be light,” – light sprang forth out of darkness, and we had the beginning of the old creation, the first day. And so it was said concerning Israel at the time of the Passover, “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you” (Ex. 12:2). Then on the third day. God commanded the earth to bring forth her produce, “The fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself” (Gen. 1:11). Hence Pentecost occurred in the third month, the time of harvest and fruitfulness, when the precious fruit of the earth was to be gathered in. And finally, we come to the seventh day, when God “rested from all his work” (Gen. 2:2). So, it was that the Feast of Tabernacles is observed in the seventh month. Furthermore, it is not only observed in the seventh month, but is the seventh event in Israel’s series of Feasts, and their accompanying ordinances” (Warnock).
The seventh month was the end of the year, but it was also the beginning of a new Agricultural Year, when the rains could be expected.
Thus, Joel’s prophecy: 2:1: Blow the trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm in my holy mountain…for the day of the Lord cometh. To one it will be a day of darkness and judgement, but to those who turn to Him and rend our heart, perhaps he will return and leave a blessing… Be glad ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God for he has given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first moth (Joel 2:23). This is prophetic of the rain of the Holy Spirit.
Praise the Lord Jesus, we have received rain in Houston. We have been in a long season of drought and intense heat.
This is beautifully significant so far as the Church of Jesus Christ is concerned – for it is my persuasion we are now coming to the end of a season of judgment and the darkest time over our nation and even over the churches who have come into agreement with the sins of abortion, pornography, child sexual mutilation, child trafficking, same sex marriage, fornication, transgenderism, to name a few.
Just as we have been in a great shaking, we are now coming into a New Day in the Spirit. We thank God for the church’s beginning at the Cross – the fountain and source of every spiritual blessing that we have ever enjoyed in the church or shall ever enjoy in eternity. We thank God also for the great harvest which began at Pentecost. But the real harvest is just ahead. A harvest not only of souls, but of the fruit of the Spirit in the midst of the saints.
Psalm 81 is very significant on this day and hour in which we live, for it refers directly to the Day of Trumpets. As we are expecting the coming glory of the Harvest and Feast of In-gathering, we rejoice in what God is now doing in the blowing of the Trumpets. For there can be no latter rain, no vintage, no in-gathering of the oil and corn and wine – without the blowing up of “the trumpets in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.” It is the Feast of the New Moon! September 14 was our seasonal new moon. Yes, it is the same old moon that God established in the heavens from the foundation of the world, but now it doth enter a new phase! A new day is about to dawn! A new life is to be our portion! A new heritage in the Spirit looms before us! “Blow up the trumpet” ye ministers of God, sound an alarm in God’s holy mountain of Zion, show God’s people their transgression, and call them to repentance.
“The trumpet is the revelation or revealing voice of Jesus Christ” (Van Tanner, the Seven Thunders of God).
Jesus Christ is revealed in each of the seven feasts of Jehovah.
Each of the seven Feasts of Jehovah applied to the Christian reveal our progressive walk in Christ.
1. Passover: Jesus is our Passover Lamb whose sacrificial blood was shed at Calvary (Jn. 1:39; 1 Cor. 5: 6-8). We are redeemed by His Blood – Salvation.
2. Unleavened bread: Jesus is the Bread of life, the One who removed the leaven of sin from mankind (Jn. 6:48). We forsake Egypt and begin to walk with God in holiness, sincerity, and truth (1 Co. 5: 5-8). Eating the bread of life, the Word of God.
3. Firstfruits: Jesus is the resurrected Messiah, the first fruits of them that slept (1 Cor. 15:20). We arise to walk in newness of life, knowing Him in the power of His resurrection (Rom. 6: 1-14; Phil. 3: 10-11).
4. Pentecost: The Holy Spirit is the Feast of Pentecost (Acts 1:5). We are filled with the Holy Spirit and endued with power from on high (Acts 2: 1-4; Eph. 1: 13-14).
5. Trumpets: Jesus is the clear sounding, living Word who introduced the message of perfection (maturity), the One who was in the beginning (Jn. 6:63; Rev. 3:14). We hear the call to come to maturity within the rent veil (Joel 2:1; 14-18; Rev. 1:19; 4: 1-2).
6. Day of Atonement: He is the High priest who atoned for man, the Scapegoat and Lord’s goat who put away sin, sickness, poverty, and death (Is. 53; Gal. 3: 13-14) (Baptism of Fire). We experience the baptism of fire as we afflict our soul, humbling ourselves (Jas. 4: 10; 1 Pet. 5:6).
7. Tabernacles: Christ is all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, the Lord of this feast, the booth in whom the father lived and moved and had His being (Jn. 17) - the Glory of God. We receive the full adoption and the redemption of our bodies, becoming a tabernacle for all the fullness of God (Rom. 8: 14-23; 1 Cor. 13: 8-13; Eph. 3: 19; 4:13). We are the temple of the living God (2 Co. 6:16).
Col. 2:8-10: Beware less any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. You are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power…
With a trumpet voice, the Spirit calleth to His people everywhere; to patience, to love, to repentance, to endurance, to faith in Christ amid Satanic opposition to holiness of life. In this great Day of Trumpets, we should all heed and study carefully the first three chapters of Revelation and pay-heed to the sound of the trumpets’ appeal to the people of God. “Cry aloud, spare not, lift your voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins” (Isa. 58:1).
There were several purposes for the blowing of the trumpets.
Numbers 10: 1-10:
1. The calling of the Assembly—10:2: Make two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shall you make them; that you may use them for the calling of the assembly; and for the journeyings of the camps. The tribes were gathered as one nation. It is the principle of Unity that we are gathered in one all things in Christ. Both which are in heaven, and which are in earth… (Eph. 1:10; 4:13).
2. The Journeyings of the Camps--- 10:2 When the cloud moved, the trumpets sounded, and the people were to move with God. God is moving the Church from Pentecost to Tabernacles. As we hear the sound of the trumpet in the midst of the shaking in 2023, let us move with the cloud. The Church has camped around this mountain long enough said God to Joshua, “arise and go over this Jordan.”
3. The Calling of the Princes: 10:4: If they blow but with one trumpet, then the princes, which are heads of the thousands of Israel, shall gather themselves to you. This was for the leadership of the nation only one trumpet was blown. God is calling the leaders of the church together that He might speak to them. A leader only must hear God’s invitation one time. God willing that the governmental leaders of the United States would hear the sound of the trumpet. God willing that the spiritual leaders of the nations of the world will hear the sound of the trumpet.
4. The Blowing of Alarms: 10: 5-10: An alarm was sounded to warn God’s people of that which was coming. Those on the East moved first at this sound. The alarm was not sounded to gather the congregation. So, God’s prophets are speaking to warn the Church of coming events that the Church might seek God’s face. Mt. 24:31: And he shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
5. The Call to War: 10:9: And if you go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresses you, then you shall blow an alarm with the trumpets; and you shall be remembered before the Lord your God and you shall be saved from your enemies.” This was done in times of war and enemy oppression. God fought for Israel when He heard this sound.
Zeph. 9:14: And the Lord shall be seen over them, ad His arrow shall go forth as the lightning; and the Lord God shall blow the trumpet and shall go with whirlwinds of the south. The Lord of hosts shall defend them…
6. The Announcing of Days of Gladness: 10:10: Also, in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, you shall blow with the trumpets over your burned 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.
This was the times of joy on the various Festal occasions. This was especially true regarding the tabernacle of David. David pitched a new tent on Mount Zion for the Ark of God. Then the Ark was brought forth with shouting and great rejoicing. The church experiences great joy in coming together to worship the Lord. (Col. 4:12; Eph. 3:18).
7. The Announcing of Solemn Assemblies: 10:10: This was for times
of a solemn nature, such as intercession, prayer, and fasting. The
church is called aside for times of fasting and prayer.
8. The Announcing of the Beginning of Months: 10:10: When the church enters a new phase, a new day, then all ministries that hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches will be speaking the same thing.
9. The Announcing of the offerings and Sacrifices: 10:10: As the sacrifices were being offered upon the Altar, the trumpets were blown. The Lord heard the silver note of redemption and was reminded of the Blood atonement.
The trumpets will be sounded to announce the final judgments of God and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
Rev. 8: 6-11:15: And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound…(Vs. 13) 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…(11:15) And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
Each month was ushered in by the blowing of the trumpets. Israel had two calendars: Sacred and civil. The Sacred year began in the 1st month and ended in the 7th month; but the civil year began on the 1st day of the 7th month and ended a year later. The day of the blowing of the Trumpets was both a beginning of the new and an ending of the old.
1 Thess. 4:16: For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
1 Cor. 15:51-52: 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. For this corruptible must put on in-corruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
10115 West Hidden Lakes Lane, Richmond, TX.
Scripture from K.J.V.; text and quotes from Principles of Present Truth From Leviticus Pertaining to the Kingdom of God by: Kelly Varner; Understanding types, Shadows and Names by: Kelly Varner; Quote as indicated from Van Tanner, The Seven Thunders of God; Feast of Trumpets by George H. Warnock.