What Alarms Get You Moving? {Numbers 10}
12:30 AM
The
Book of Numbers can be a difficult book to digest. It takes readers down a long and winding path
through a desert of excruciating detail.
The book records two censuses. It
documents priestly instructions for the handling of the Ark of the Covenant and
the Tabernacle. It even spells out the
placement of the tribes when they camped.
Numbers
10 spells out the use of the silver trumpets.
I
was a band member and if you don’t know this, a trumpet is loud. Trumpets have been used as a signaling device
for years and years because they are loud and their rich tone can be heard over
long distances.
God
instructs Moses to make two trumpets of hammered silver (10:2), like these in
this picture.
They
were of solid silver – so they were pure – nothing man-made. And there were only two made, because they
could only be played by the Son’s of Aaron (10:8).
What
amazes me most is that at this particular time, there were 603,500 people
camped here. I live in an area with
roughly 1 million people in the metropolitan area. The area is approximately 45 square miles.
In
2017 Baltimore, Maryland’s population was roughly 611,000 people.
Louisville,
Kentucky 621,000,
Milwaukee,
Wisconsin 595,000 and
Las
Vegas, Nevada 641,000.
Hopefully
you now have a visual of how large this camp was. The trumpets were blown from the Tabernacle –
so right in the center. If you’ve ever
been in a place where just 10,000 people are gathered, there’s a lot of noise
simply from their voices. So it simply
amazes me by what our Lord can do. He
can use two instruments to sound the alarm to get over 600,000 people to
move!!!
The
word alarm made me think of my alarm – what wakes me up each day. Unfortunately, some days I need up to 3 alarms
to get me out of bed because I don’t wake up naturally at 4:50 a.m.
The
first song I wake up to is “Nothing is Wasted”, by Jason Gray. The chorus plays and I am reminded that
whatever comes today – nothing is wasted.
The
second alarm I hear is “Hello my name is”, by Matthew West. I usually get up during this song because I
just love hearing these lyrics; “Hello, my name is child of the One true King.”
Now,
if I don’t roll out of bed during that alarm, the final alarm sounded is “Oceans
– (Where my feet may fall)”, by Hillsong UNITED. And the lyrics I hear are, “For I am Yours,
and You are mine”
These
trumpet blasts were meant to remind Israel of God’s protection and unfailing
direction over them. And now that I’ve
studied these verses, I think the alarms I hear each day reminds me of God’s
protection and direction over me.
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