ON the first occasion in which Scripture alludes to the “voice of the trumpet,” our thoughts turn back to Sinai’s burning mount, and we are there told that the gathered hosts of Israel “trembled,” and “when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.” Amid the thunders and lightnings of that most solemn day, the voice of God was heard in the midst of the darkness and tempest, as He descended upon that fiery mountain top, and none dared draw near lest they should perish. “And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake;” yea the very people who had promised, but a little while before, that “all that Jehovah hath spoken will we do,” entreated that the word should not “be spoken to them any more.”
The curses of a broken law who shall withstand? and full well we know that nothing but judgment and death can be the portion of those who would attempt to meet a holy God on the ground of the law’s demands. Alas! for those who broke it so willfully, even before they had received it from the bands of the law-giver, for three thousand idolaters perished that day in their sin and folly! What a mercy it is, dear reader, that “grace and truth have come to us by Jesus Christ,” and that the gospel of God’s grace makes no demands on the sinner, but freely offers him eternal life and salvation on the solid, and peace-giving, ground of the finished work of His own beloved Son!
Silver trumpets afterward had their special place in God’s ways with His ancient people, and were used for the “calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps.” When it was a question of going to war with the enemy, an alarm was to be blown with both trumpets, and. God had promised to save them; “but, when the congregation was to be gathered together,” the significant command was only to blow, but not to sound an alarm. They were also ordered to be blown on solemn days, at the beginning of months, and over burnt offerings and peace offerings. In a later day, when Israel’s enemies were “as the sand by the seaside for multitude,” Gideon’s trumpet played its important part in the destruction of the Midianites and Amalakites.
Divinely guided, the gallant band of three hundred chosen men advanced in companies with broken pitchers, and burning lamps; and blew with their trumpets, to the awe-inspiring battle-cry, “The sword of Jehovah, and of Gideon.” The trumpets, that day, gave no “uncertain sound,” and victory was secured, not by human might or strategy, but by Israel’s God. Twelve hundred and fifty years later, Christ came, was rejected and crucified by a guilty world; but God raised Him from the dead, and from the throne where He now sits, the Spirit of God has come down, and the gospel trumpet has, through nineteen centuries, been proclaiming peace and pardon in a risen Christ. Yet “a little while,” and then “the last trump” will summon from this earth every dead and living believer to meet the Lord in the air. It will be the “last trump,” for there will NOT be another, and it is a military allusion to a custom that then obtained in the Roman army. The first trumpet sounded to awaken the sleeping hosts; the second was the “call to arms”; and the third (or last) trump was the command to “set forward.” “In a moment,” saith scripture, “in the twinkling of an eye,” the trumpet shall sound, but it will not alarm those who hear it. No; that “last trump” will only arouse, and raise up from their graves, the sleeping hosts of the living God. For none but the ransomed shall rise at the sound of that trumpet, and, with glorified bodies, the dead and living saints will meet, “in the air,” the mighty Captain of their salvation. Yes, “the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
This world-dividing event, dear reader, may occur at any moment; and what will be the deepest joy to every true believer will prove the solemn death-knell of everlasting sorrow to all who are left behind in their sins. “The last trump” will remove from this guilty world all the blood-bought family: and “blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God, and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.” “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished,” and, when speaking of this second resurrection, the Lord’s words are solemnly clear and plain that it is “a resurrection unto damnation.”
Heaven and earth will then flee away before the face of Him that sits upon the great white throne; the books of judgment will be opened, and the dead judged according to their works. And death and hell are cast into the Lake of Fire.
This is the second death; for “whosoever is not found written in the Book of Life will be cast into the Lake of Fire.” Reader, is your choice yet made for eternity; or are you still bartering away your never-dying soul for the passing pleasures of a doomed world? Ere this day’s sun shall sink beneath the western horizon, “the last trump” may sound; and, if not washed in the Saviour’s blood, dark despair will fill your soul; and weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth, will be your everlasting portion. Turn then now in this day of grace, to Him who “came to seek, and to save, that which is lost.” His loving arms are open wide to receive you now, and His loving voice entreats you “Come unto Me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” There is no rest in hell; and remember that it is “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” the last trump shall sound, and Jesus will come. Are you ready?
S. T.