A Fanfare of Seven Trumpets
Good Morning Friends,
Jericho and Jerusalem will both be conquered. But the approaches of Joshua and Jesus to claiming the Promised Land seem very different as we experience Holy Week. One a Conquering King and the other a Sacrificial Lamb. But there is a connection here on Easter in the story of trumpets, of Halleluiahs and sevens. For the story is not done in its weaving of human history with that of divine history. A new birth awaits. Friends, in a few days we sing the Halleluiah Chorus and no it has not escaped me that there are seven notes in the musical scale and that we sing Halleluiah at least seven times seven. Friends, like the trumpets sounding around the walls of Jericho…like the trumpets sounding in Revelation, man may have named the notes but God has fixed the sounds, even as God fixed the days of the week and the time of His return. So as we combine the perfect world number of four and adding to it the perfect divine number, three, to get seven we are to experience a sense of completeness. The image is of the union of earth with heaven made one…the earth crowned with heaven…. This coming Sunday we will rejoice announcing the resurrection. But the future is more than a little frightening. Still there is the hope of the saints coming into the New Promised Land. Perhaps someday we will discover if the event comes with A Fanfare of Seven Trumpets.
Scripture: Now Jericho was shut up inside and out because of the Israelites; no one came out and no one went in. The Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have handed Jericho over to you, along with its king and soldiers. You shall march around the city, all the warriors circling the city once. Thus you shall do for six days,
with seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, the priests blowing the trumpets.
When they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and all the people shall charge straight ahead.” So Joshua son of Nun summoned the priests and said to them, “Take up the Ark of the Covenant, and have seven priests carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark of the Lord.”
To the people he said, “Go forward and march around the city; have the armed men pass on before the ark of the Lord.”
As Joshua had commanded the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the Lord went forward, blowing the trumpets, with the ark of the covenant of the Lord following them.
And the armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets; the rear guard came after the ark, while the trumpets blew continually.
To the people Joshua gave this command: “You shall not shout or let your voice be heard, nor shall you utter a word, until the day I tell you to shout. Then you shall shout.”
So the ark of the Lord went around the city, circling it once; and they came into the camp, and spent the night in the camp. Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord passed on, blowing the trumpets continually. The armed men went before them, and the rear guard came after the ark of the Lord, while the trumpets blew continually. On the second day they marched around the city once and then returned to the camp. They did this for six days. On the seventh day they rose early, at dawn, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city.
Joshua 6:1-16 (NRSV)
And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.
Revelation 8:2 (NRSV)
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
1 Corinthians 15:52 (NRSV)
Message: That just about everyone on this planet recognizes seven days in the week is perhaps one of the greatest witnesses to the God who has created us. This number seven is used more than all other numbers in the Word of God, save the number one. This is the overwhelming wonder of it all; the symbols God embedded in the design of His Word continue to build one upon the other, endlessly and effortlessly amplifying their mutually coherent implications both physically and spiritually. Life operates in a cycle of sevens. Changes take place in the body every seven years. There are seven bones in the neck, seven bones in the face, seven bones in the ankle, and seven holes in the head. Most gestation periods are multiple of sevens. Mammals have a period from conception to birth of an exact number of weeks, a multiple of seven. Human physiology is constructed on a law of sevens. Children are born to mothers in a certain number of weeks usually 280 days, a multiple of seven. In a few days we sing the Halleluiah Chorus and no it has not escaped me that there are seven notes in the musical scale and that we sing Halleluiah at least seven times seven. Friends, like the trumpets sounding around the walls of Jericho. Like the trumpets sounding in Revelation…trumpets will sound this Easter.
Pray we have a prayer that God wants to answer. Pray we have faith that brings down walls. Pray we believe in redemption, repentance, reconciliation, restoration, and resurrection. Pray as our Lord taught us that God’s Kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Pray we awake before the trumpet blast. Pray we realize that man may have named the notes but God has fixed the sounds even as God has fixed the days until the return of the King.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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