During the building of the wall around Jerusalem in Nehemiah’s day, there was the trumpeter. “He,” says Nehemiah, “that sounded the trumpet was by me” (Neh. 4:1818For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded. And he that sounded the trumpet was by me. (Nehemiah 4:18)).
The use of the holy trumpets may be gathered from Numbers 10. It was for “the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps.” Moreover, in times of war, “an alarm” was to be blown — an alarm which not only assembled the people, but also came up before God, called Him in — so that they might be saved from their enemies. And it was a command that only the priests should blow with the trumpets — only those who, from their nearness, had intelligence of and were in communion with the Lord’s mind. So here, he who sounded the trumpet was to be with Nehemiah, and, therefore, only to sound it at his master’s bidding. It was for Nehemiah to discern the moment to sound and for the trumpeter to catch the first intimation of Nehemiah’s mind and will. In like manner now, only those who are living in the enjoyment of their priestly privileges, in nearness to and in communion with the mind of Christ, know how to sound an alarm. To blow at their own will or on their own apprehensions of danger would only be to produce confusion, to call the builders away from their labors, and thus to do the work of the enemy. To be able to sound at the right moment, they must be with and having their eye upon their Lord.
E. Dennett