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Tuesday, May 7, 2019

What Alarms Get You Moving? {Numbers 10}



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.

Image result for encampment of israel around the tabernacle, numbers 10

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.

Image result for numbers 10:2 trumpets

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.