Blowing of Trumpets

Wayne Matthews

September 21, 2017

Welcome, everybody, to this Feast of Trumpets.

The purpose of this sermon is to consider what we can learn from the Feast of Blowing of Trumpets. The title of today's sermon is Blowing of Trumpets.

We'll start by just reviewing what is required over the seven annual holy days because offerings are given on each holy day or each high day. So we're entering a season, this being the day of Trumpets, the 1st day of the 7th month. We're entering into a season which is about giving offerings four times. We have Trumpets, Atonement, the 1st day of the Feast, and the 8th day, the Last Great Day. So we're going to look quickly at Deuteronomy 16:16, which we all know well.

Deuteronomy 16:16—Three times (three seasons) a year (three times a year) all your males, and this is referring, basically, to baptized members, shall appear before the Eternal your God in a place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, being Pentecost, and at the Feast of Tabernacles. So we're about to enter this period of four annual high days, and they shall not appear before the Eternal empty-handed.

Verse 17—Every man shall give as he is able. Now, we are all able. Whether its 10¢ or 20¢, whatever it is, we are all able; $1, £1, looking at the UK and their currency. We're all able to give something because it all goes back to the spirit of the matter, why we do what we do. …according to the blessing. Now, if we look at it we have physical blessings, we have the spiritual blessings. Well, some people don't have the physical blessings that we may have, but we can look at our physical blessings, and if you compare the situation that we have in this world compared to other people we are blessed mightily in the western world on a physical level. We have so much compared to others.

But we here, as members of the Body of Christ, should look at it on a spiritual level, which is the calling that we have. When you consider the number of people in the world and we've been called? What a blessing! We have started the process of salvation ahead of others. Others will have their opportunity, but we are so blessed by God. He has thought on us because God had to think on us to call us for a purpose that we may or may not see in detail at this time, but at this time we have been mightily blessed. So if you have been called, it's a great blessing. What a blessing! And if you've been awakened as Chris and myself, and many others in the Body of Christ have been, that's to us a greater blessing in some ways because we went to sleep like everybody did. But to be awakened? That's just incredible! So what a blessing it is.

So we should count these blessings, according to the blessing, which is all about a spiritual matter not necessarily a physical one, of the Eternal your God which He has given you. So that points to it really clearly. It is God that gave it to us. Whatever we have on a physical level it's God that gave it to us, but on a spiritual level how much more? It's God. Only God can call. Only God can awaken, and we should know that.

So this is the time of the year when we should consider our situation on a physical and spiritual level and we should give according to what we see within our thinking, which is the spirit of a matter. So we're to consider both physical and spiritual blessings.

We'll turn now to the Feast situation, which is this Feast of Trumpets. Leviticus 23:23. Now, many in the body have been over this particular scripture many, many times, and it's read many a time during a year or any given year, and we do know it, but today we're hopefully going to see a little bit differently than what we would normally see, which is about the blowing of trumpets. Because when we look at it, have we ever heard a blowing of trumpets? Well, we haven't, really, because they're spiritual. When you look at it in the reality, the seven last trumpets, they are spiritual. We didn't hear a sound when the seven trumpets were blown in 2008. We heard nothing. But they actually were sounded because God is the one in charge of the blowing of these trumpets – looking at it on a spiritual level.

So today we're going to consider the element, or the aspect of it, which is relating to what God does with Trumpets. Often we would think, "Oh, we're going to celebrate the Feast of Trumpets." Well, what does that really mean? Well, it's actually spiritual in nature. So let's look at this from a spiritual perspective.

Leviticus 23:23—Then the Eternal spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, which is to us today, spiritual Israel, saying: In the seventh month, which is what we're celebrating, on the first of the month, this first day. Now, this is about a new moon because it was about the cycle of moons. …you shall have a Sabbath, you shall have a rest, which is what we're doing, a memorial… Now, what's a memorial? Well, we see in today's society people have war memorials, which is about remembering. It's a place to remember something. So we are to have this rest, which we are, a memorial. So we are to remember or have a remembering – and what are we to remember? …of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.

Verse 25—You shall do no customary work on it, which we're not, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Eternal, which is about giving offerings.

So the word here, "memorial," means "a remembrance." That's what we're doing. This is about a time, a day in particular, to stop (which we have) and remember something.

Now, we can look at this from Israel's point of view. When you consider this time when Israel actually came out of captivity, out of Egypt, we're now going to go to where there was the blowing of trumpets because prior to this, what did Israel remember? When did they hear trumpets? They'd been in captivity for a long period of time. All of those people would not have heard trumpets sounded by God. They might have heard some trumpets, maybe the Pharaoh might have used some, but this is a different situation for them. They're to remember something. So what is it they're to remember? Well, the only time they heard trumpets sound where it struck fear in them was at Mount Sinai because when you go to Leviticus 23 it's about the priesthood and remembering holy days and the annual holy days. Well, the children of Israel were now to stop and remember this blowing of trumpets. Well, the only time they heard the blowing of trumpets where it struck fear in them was at the beginning of the 10 Commandments. So we're going to review that because this is what they have to remember. Physical Israel had to remember something, and we're going to go over that.

They were in the wilderness at Mount Sinai. This would be the first time that they would have heard a very loud sound of trumpets that God used because this sounding of trumpets wasn't man. This was God using trumpets. A trumpet sounded loudly to prepare the mind to receive instructions and announcements. So normally we may hear trumpets from the point of view of some weddings, royal weddings, you might hear it when they announce a king. They'll blow trumpets and it's an announcement: “Here I'm presenting to you a king.” Well, Israel was going to be presented something and God used these trumpets for a reason.

The first reason was the strike of fear and when we get into it you'll see they were so loud and so piercing that they went into fear. They were terrified of the sound; it was so loud that they would remember this event. Well, Israel was commanded to remember this day of the blowing of trumpets, and we'll see what actually happened and what took place and what they would remember. When they got to this annual holy day, what did they do to remember? "I remember when the 10 Commandments were given and I was in personal fear it was so loud."

The trumpets were so loud because it would get their attention and strike fear into their minds. Now, the key to this is God uses trumpets before He demonstrates His great power. So when we go over various trumpets, when they have been used, we will see that it's God using them. He uses mankind to blow them, but there are spiritual trumpets, like the seven last trumpets. We haven't heard them, but they were blown in heaven, so to speak. It's an announcement. They have been used.

But there are other times, like the fall of Jericho where mankind was instructed to blow trumpets, Israel was instructed to blow trumpets. But every time it's about God and the demonstration of His power, not man's power. It's about what God does and we're going to look at some of that if we have time.

Exodus 19:1. We'll go to this demonstration of God's great power and how God used trumpets to teach Israel something, to give them an announcement. Now, we can look at this physically, but we should also consider the spiritual component of this for us today because it's different. We have God's holy spirit; they didn't, so we see things differently. We see things on a spiritual level because by the power of God's holy spirit God in us gives us the sight to see. Now, Israel couldn't see things on a spiritual level, but they could see things on a physical level, and therefore, when fear struck them it was a different fear than the fear of God that we have. We have a different fear. We're not terrified of God, but we fear God. We hold Him in awe. There's a respect for God because of who He is and how great He is and His ability, the power that He has. The God of the universe can do anything.

Exodus 19:1. So here we are, In the third month, so this is the third month. Remember they came out on the 15th of the first month. Passover was on the 14th. On the 15th they left by night, the beginning of a day.

Verse 1—In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt… They left on the 15th, which was at night. …on the same day, they came to the Wilderness of Sinai. So this is just before the day of Pentecost.

Verse 2—For they had departed from Rephidim, which is titled "a place of rest," had come to the Wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness. So Israel camped there before the mountain. So we should visualize this. Here we have millions of people. We don't know the exact number, but there are millions of people, and they're moving in an orderly manner, and they're now camping before this Mount Sinai. And Moses went up to God, and the Eternal called to him from the mountain, saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Israel, and tell the children of Israel… So we understand that it's physical. We'll, we can look at this on a spiritual level about God speaking to us.

Verse 4—You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, so they would have known that, yes. Moses would say, "Yeah, I saw that," and how I brought you on eagles' wings… Well, it's not on a physical thing; it's actually spiritually. This "bearing on eagles' wings" we know points to protection. God protected them on their journey. God saved them from Pharaoh and the army. It was God that did it. "I bore you." So it's now pointing to His great power. "Look what I did to the Egyptians. I pulled you out of this slavery. No man did it. I did it, and I was the one who protected you." …and brought you to Myself. So here is Israel being called out of Egypt for a purpose. "And I brought you to myself." So we can look at this on a spiritual level. We've been called out of spiritual Egypt and we've been "borne on eagles wings," we've been protected from Satan and his demons because Satan could destroy us. He is powerful. We don't understand his abilities and his power, but the fact that he could destroy the earth and the fact that he could cover it, in the sense of make it covered with water again and destroy things with planets and move planets around so that he destroyed the earth (because he thought he could do that), that's an enormous power. We don't have any abilities! We are nothing compared to Satan, but God says He brought Israel, physical Israel to Himself. We've been called to God. We've been called to God and we're protected because we could be destroyed easily, but God doesn't allow it. The Church of God continues. God says it'll remain because they are His people being brought to Himself.

Verse 5—Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My commandments, see, that's really straight forward. He's done all this and He's brought Israel to Himself for a reason. Now, we understand that reason. It was physical, but they were to be a nation that indeed obeyed God, who protected them and brought them out, and keep His commandments. They were to be an example to the nations. That's why Israel existed, an example to other nations, so that other nations would go, "Wow!" And there are other scriptures that are in there that say, "Look at that nation. Look at those people. God is their God. Look at them, how they're protected. God fights their battles for them."

But God says, "If indeed you will obey My voice and keep My covenant." Now, the key to that is, of course, this is what the Feast of Trumpets is really all about. If we, as members of the Body of Christ, will obey God, which is about obedience, and keep His covenant, we will have spiritual protection. The moment we are deciding in our own thinking that we will not obey God and not keep His covenants, His agreement, His agreement that we have on a spiritual level that we have with God, we're no longer protected. And there have been many. I know many that have left the Body of Christ, the Church of God because they no longer will obey God's voice and keep His agreement, which we made at baptism. Therefore, they've been given back to things that they don't even understand.

Continuing on in verse 5—then you shall be a special treasure. Now, this is something that God was going to do on a physical level. Well, we understand this is spiritual in nature, that we are a special treasure to God because of a calling. …to Me above all people. Yes, we are special to God above all people and not because of anything we have done, but God decided to call us. God decided to awaken us. That's what makes us special to Him because God has a plan for us. We know the end result of that plan is about entering Elohim, but in between all of that we don't know. We don't understand what God has planned for us. Particularly those that are going to live on into the Millennium or those that are part of the 144,000, we see certain things dimly, that if you live into the Millennium you see dimly. The reality is we do not really understand how incredible the Millennium is going to be for those that live into that Millennium, being part of the Body of Christ when you consider what's going to happen in the Millennium.

So we could be special to God, and He says, to Me above all people, which we are now. Israel had this potential opportunity, for all the earth is Mine. It's an incredible statement, which is God controls everything, God created everything. If we look at all the flowers and all the animals and all the different birds, God created it. What an incredible mind! Where we live, and all the different flowers that we see and we have an opportunity to see what's called "wild flowers" because they're protected and you're not allowed to pick them, etcetera, but they're incredible. When you see flowers open and the colors it's amazing. Well, they all came from a mind just like animals. Where we live there are lots of Koala Bears and you see mother with little baby sitting on the back. Incredible creatures. Incredible. Wallabies, snakes, all those types of things. Snakes upset some people. You can get away with a few snakes, but they are magnificent creatures. They really, really are magnificent. Well, that all came from the mind of God and God says here, He reminded Israel, "All the earth is Mine. I can do what I have planned and purposed. You have nothing to fear, nothing to fear because all the earth is Mine. I can control it all. I can win all your battles for you."

Now, we know a spiritual component of this is found, and we're not going to turn there today, in 1 Peter 1:1-9, which is about the Church of God, the Body of Christ, how we are a special people to God because God makes us special because it is great mercy to us. It’s nothing we do; it's all about God living and dwelling in us.

Verse 6—And you shall be to Me, to Yahweh Elohim, who is the Creator of the whole universe, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Well, Israel had that opportunity to be an example, if they obeyed God and kept His commandments they would be a special people to God and God would be their defender. They didn't need an army. They didn't need weapons. They needed nothing because God would do it all for them. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.

So Moses came down and called for the elders of the people, because each tribe had representation and had elders that were in charge of various groups, and laid before them all the words which the Eternal commanded him. Now, this is interesting: Then all the people answered together and said, All that the Eternal has spoken we will do. That was really positive: "Yep, we're going to do this." Well, this is the same as when we enter baptism. We go through the stage of repentance and we get baptized. We virtually agree that all the Eternal has spoken, what He says about what He has given, we will do. We will obey His voice. That's what we're virtually saying. Well, that's something that we all have to battle within our own being, about whether or not we will obey His (God's) voice or not.

So Moses brought back the words of the people to the Eternal. Now, you can see this. Moses comes down, talks to the people, and they all go, "Yep, we're going to do this." Well, Moses now goes back up to God and his attitude would be one that, "Yes, this is what the people said," believing it because by nature we tend to believe people. So, "Yep. They all said they're going to do it so it's going to happen." So Moses goes up to the mountain and God says to him, Behold, I come to you in a thick cloud. So He's coming, you see this massive cloud, but the people can only see the cloud. They can't see an image of God at all. Behold, I come to you in this thick cloud that the people may hear, so they can hear what's being said. Later on they will, but they won't see anything other than the cloud and the lightning, etcetera... …in the thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you forever. So the people will now see that Moses represents God because God's using Moses. So they would see it, therefore, they should learn to understand and fear the government of God, which is Moses. They should treat him with respect because God's using Moses.

Well, it's no different for us today. It's within the structure that God has established in the New Testament that we have an apostle. Well, this is the same type of thing, different on a spiritual level; God's holy spirit's involved and it's not direct in the sense of a cloud, but the inspiration of God in a person, there should be a respect and awe of the office, not of the individual, but of what God is doing with His Church. So we should have this fear, and the same thing, we should have awe for the government God has established. We should have a respect for it because it's about respect to God, really, not about the individual.

So Moses told the words of the people to the Eternal. So God was going to use Moses as His spokesman. The people would know that God was working with a man, Moses, and therefore, they should respect that.

Verse 10—Then the Eternal said to Moses… Now, this is really interesting because Moses had gone up and said, "All the people said yep, they're going to do it." Now God turns around to Moses and says, Go to the people and consecrate (set them aside, sanctify) them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes, which is to be clean, which points on a spiritual level to repentance. So they're to get ready to be in the presence of God.

Verse 11—And let them be ready for the third day, which is the day of Pentecost. So here we are, we have three days, so they've got two days to get ready. For on the third day the Eternal will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, this was what Moses was to tell them, Take heed to yourselves… Well, this is the same for us. We need to take heed to ourselves, to the way we think, the way we see God, the way we see His government on this earth. …that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. So this is physical. They were told to get ready to listen to God, and they were not to be presumptuous to think that they could approach God, to touch the mountain. They weren't to go near it. They were going to put up boundaries. So they're not to be presumptuous. Well, this is about Church government. We're not to be presumptuous. We're to take heed to ourselves, that we don't think that we can go out and do things. No. We're not to touch the government of God, to think "I want this office," or "I want 'that,'" or "I think 'this,'" because we need to watch what we think because this is about government.

Continuing on verse 12—Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. Now, this seems rather extreme in today's world if you turn around and say, "Look. There's a boundary there. You're not to go up and touch the mountain or touch its base otherwise you're going to die." People think, "That's cruel! That's a bit hard, isn't it? Boy, that's over the top!" Well, why? Why would God say that if you do this this is what's going to happen? Because this is rebellion because this is a clear instruction. God says, "No, don't touch the base. No, don't touch the mountain." So don't do it. Well, it is "the wages of sin is death," because rebellion is sin. They're going against what God says, the Creator of the earth. He says, "All this is Mine, so don't do this," and they said (being presumptuous), "Ah, I'm going to do it." Well, if you do you're going to pay a penalty and it's called death. So God was telling them something on a physical level. Well, we should take heed to ourselves as well that the wage of rebellion against God's government and against God's way of life is death. It's called the second death if we want to persist with that and not be repentant.

Verse 13—Not a hand shall touch it, so you're not to be presumptuous and think, "Oh, I think I'll do 'this,'" but he shall surely be stoned or shot with an arrow, so in other words, he'd be killed, whether man or beast, he shall not live. When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come near to the mountain, and not before. So this is the instruction, "When you hear the sound of this trumpet, which is a physical sound you're going to hear, it's going to blast long and loud, then that's the sign that you're to move towards the mountain. But not before," because that would be being presumptuous.

We can see this on a spiritual level. They had to be washed and cleaned first which is repentance. To be fully washed, which is to be immersed, is baptism. So we go to a state of repentance because of God's mercy and a calling, then we're baptized and we said, "All that You have said, we will do." That's what we actually say at baptism. Once we respond to the calling, which is like a trumpet call—it's a call, we've been called; there's a sound, a call. We're called by God, which is all spiritual— we can now come near the mountain. Isn't that amazing? We can come now near and listen to what God's got to say through government. So we are now called to the government of God on this earth, which is the Church of God. Amazing!

We are to take heed to ourselves that we don't become presumptuous, that we follow the instructions of God, which is we're to believe the truth and we're to follow the truth, what God puts into the Church. That's what we're to do, we're to follow it. If we don't follow the truth, the instructions, because truth is instructions about the way we think, changing the way we think, we will be destroyed from hearing God because we won't hear – because we can't.

Verse 14—And then Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes. So they're getting themselves ready. And he said to the people, Be ready for the third day, which is the day of Pentecost, do not come near to your wives. This is about not becoming unclean.

Verse 16—Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there was thunderings and lightning, and a thick cloud on the mountain. Now, we should be able to visualize this. There's a mountain and you see the top of the mountain and all of a sudden there's this massive, thick cloud that you can't see through and there is lightning flashing around everywhere (which would be scary in itself), and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so there's this massive sound which would strike fear into you because of who's blowing them because it is God that's in control of this sound. …so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. So this created fear in their minds because it's so loud that they're actually quite scared about all this now.

We should listen to God, which is the sound of the trumpet. We should listen to God. So here this created sound, this fear in their minds, so that they would listen to the instructions, the announcements because it's God that is in control of the sound of the trumpets. It would strike fear in their minds. Now, as a human, the first that we saw that, what would it do? It's about power because we would think, "Wow! How incredible is God that He can bring down a cloud like that and have lightning flashing everywhere and this massive sound that's piercing to the ears. Well, isn't this incredible? This is a demonstration of God's great power." Now, trumpets are often used for that very reason; it's a demonstration of what God can do. God can do anything. Well, the sound of a trumpet should be to us that God is in control of the universe and He is almighty. God is almighty, all powerful.

Verse 17—And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet the Eternal, to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain, which is the same as us within the Body of Christ, the Church. Now, we would follow those instructions and we can approach God's government, but we're to listen to what's being given to us.

Verse 18—Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke before the Eternal descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, which we've seen, like it billows around, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. So it's like a big shaking going on. There's the noise going on, there's a dark cloud, there's thunder and lightning, and all the people at the base of the mountain. It'd be striking great fear in them because only God can do this. That's the thing we can come to see. Only God has this power. We don't; humans don't. And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice. So these people would have been in a lot of fear at this time. What we can see from this? We have to be ready to receive things in faith, which is to receive the truth. We have to be ready. We have to take heed to ourselves to make sure we're ready to hear the truth. We will receive the truth if we fear God and are willing to listen and obey His voice, just like the physical Israelites were told. Well, we're the same, if willing to listen and hear God.

Verse 20—Then the Eternal came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain. And the LORD (the Eternal) called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. And the Eternal spoke to Moses saying, Go down and warn the people, lest they break through and gaze at the Eternal and many of them perish. So this is about following instructions and not being presumptuous. Now, Moses, in his mind he's probably thinking, "Well, I've already told them. We've put barriers up and we've already told them. They're not going to do that," because that's the way we reason.

Verse 22—Also let the priests, the ministry, pointing to spiritually, who come near to the Eternal consecrate themselves, in other words, make themselves clean, lest the Eternal break out against them, because of this rebellion, because we're being presumptuous and rebelling.

Verse 23—Then Moses said to the Eternal, The people cannot come up to the Mount Sinai. Why? For You warned us, "They're going to listen and they're not going to do it." God knows better. God knows what He made, the natural carnal mind. It is presumptuous; it won't follow instructions. It thinks it knows better. …saying, Set bounds around the mountain and consecrate it. "Well, I've told them that. God, I've told them. They're not going to do it." Well, God says, "No, you head back down there and warn them, because they will." Then the Eternal said to him, to Moses, Away! Another different phrases there, but basically, "Go back down." Get down and then come up, you and Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Eternal, lest He break out against them, because of these rebellions. So it's clear instructions here about this relationship they are to have with God and it's pointing to a ministry. There's a structure that God has given (and not to be presumptuous) to follow as guided until God raises up or pulls down.

Verse 25—Then Moses went down to the people and spoke to them. Then we know the 10 Commandments were given.

Exodus 20:18. Now, the people have heard the 10 Commandments. This is the first time they've heard trumpets because this is a memorial, a remembering of the blowing of trumpets. Well, physical Israel would go, "Ah, I remember that day. I was there. I remember it. I remember the power of God. I remember what He told us, the instructions." That's what this day is about, that remembering, remembering what God has done for us.

Exodus 20:18—Now all the people witnessed the thunderings and the lightning, the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. They learned to fear God. They saw God's power so they were really scared. Now, how much of the instructions they actually took on, in the sense of the 10 Commandments, well, that's probably very debatable. The natural mind doesn't remember a lot, but here God is giving them the 10 Commandments, but they remember this smoking and all the lightning and that because they saw it and it's burned in their brain. They're pretty scared of this so they backed away.

Verse 19—Then they said to Moses, You speak with us and we will hear, because they know this is dangerous, this getting too close to God. "You talk to us Moses because all that was striking fear in us." …but let not God speak with us, lest we die. So there's a self-preservation here. There's a real fear, a human fear involved. They didn't want to get too close to it. It was very terrifying. And Moses said to the people, Do not fear; for God has come to test, which is to prove your attitude because this is a test. The 10 Commandments are tests. They really are. Whether we'll listen and obey or not, they're tests to us. Well, Moses is saying, "Well, God's only testing you. Will you be My people? Will you be a special people to Me? Will you obey My voice and follow the commandments?" …and that His fear might be before you. Now this is that awe, that fear, to fear to go against God, to fear to rebel. They've seen all this physical evidence of God's great power. Well, will you fear God because He's demonstrated what He's capable of doing – the sounding of the trumpets and all that – will you hold God in awe? Will you do that? …so that you may not sin. So this is the key about the 10 Commandments. All of this demonstration of God's great power, the sounding of the trumpets, the lightning and everything was all about one thing— sin: "So that you may not sin." This is about fearing God because the fear of God is to hate evil, which is to hate sin within ourselves. Now, we understand that on a spiritual level. On a physical level they would see all this and they would hold God in awe and respect Him and go, "Whoa, I won't break that commandment," because you've seen how Great God is, the power that He has. So it's about fearing God and not sinning.

For us it's exactly the same. We, on this day, can remember that we should have the fear of God, that God is almighty, all powerful, and our calling should be a great demonstration of that.

Why did God call you and me? Well, it's nothing we did. We know what we came from. We know our mind. We know what we were thinking. We didn't really have anything to do with God. We didn't really want to obey God. Well, God in His great mercy has called us. That's an incredible power that to think the Eternal Creator, that has all power over all His creation, He knows when a bird drops dead; He knows all those things. He has that much power. He decided to call you and me for a reason that we don't understand. All we have to do is simple; it is what the Israelites said. "Yep, everything you say, God, I'll do." It all sounds wonderful, but course it's much harder than that in reality because of our human nature.

So we have to learn to fear God and not sin because that's fearing God, to learn to control self, working on self by the power of God's holy spirit.

Verse 21—So the people stood far off, but Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. Physical Israel was to always remember God's great power, remember the blowing of trumpets. Remember that, how powerful God is. Remember to fear God by obeying His voice. It is no different for us today. We are to remember to fear God, hold Him in awe, how great He is and what He has done for us, the calling and awakening that He's given us, by obeying His voice.

We, as spiritual Israel, are to always remember God's great power and we can remember that because of our calling. Remember to fear God by obeying His voice. We are to hold God in awe for what He has done. This day, this Day of Trumpets, is about remembering God and obeying His voice. It sounds simple. Sounds simple.

They were physically called out from Egypt. They were the called-out ones on a physical level, but we as spiritual Israel are the called-out ones. We're called out of spiritual Egypt, that bondage that we were in. Well, they were in bondage; they were in slavery. We were the same. We were in bondage to our selfishness. We're in slavery to our selfishness, what we obey, what we gave into – ourselves.

We have been called to come out of Egypt and that's what we're doing. It takes time. We're on this journey. Well, we have to remember the blowing of trumpets. We're to remember it as well because it has great meaning and it is about fearing God and obeying Him. The only way we can leave spiritual Egypt is to follow the instructions given by God because it is a process. It's not just a one off, "Oh yes, I've left Egypt." No, Egypt will, you know, get a hold of us really quickly again if we allow it, if we do not follow the instructions of God and fight the fight because the reality is this battle is about fighting the fight, never giving up. Now, we will lose the battle. Every single one of us will lose the battle on a regular basis, but the overall intent is that we will win because God will do it for us. But we do lose the battle regularly, which is we slip, we err, we fall, we sin. The beauty of this calling is that we can repent. No matter how evil we might think it is, no matter what we have done that we think is so bad that God can't forgive, God can forgive every sin.

The only reason He won't forgive a sin is because we are unwilling to repent, which is called the unpardonable sin. It can't be pardoned because we won't repent. But God says in His mercy, in His greatness that He will do it. So if we ever slip and fall and we sin again and again, and we make these mistakes, and sometimes we're horrified at what we have done or what we've thought, we should remember that God is all merciful, that He will forgive if we're willing to ourselves forgive others. But if we're willing to repent. God will forgive it and we can move on. We can remember what we did, but we can remember that God has forgiven it and we're no longer under the penalty of sin: "The wages of sin is death." We're no longer under that. We're freed because of what Jesus Christ fulfilled.

We have been called to remember today, to remember to listen and obey. That's what we've been called to.

Now, after two years in the wilderness—they've been given the 10 Commandments on this day of Pentecost, which is when it was done, and it was about blowing trumpets, which is about a sound—two years later God gave Israel some instructions. We're going to quickly look at that in Numbers 10:1.

Numbers 10:1. Now, these instructions were for a priesthood to guide the people. Now, we understand these, and I'm not going to spend a lot of time on them, but I will read them and hopefully not get too diverted away from them. Numbers 10:1, which is about the two silver trumpets. Because, remember, this is about sounds that give instructions or directions and to hold God in awe and there's a reason why the two silver trumpets were made.

Numbers 10:1—And the Eternal spoke to Moses, saying, Make two silver trumpets for yourself. And you shall make them of hammered work. You shall use them for the calling of the congregation, for directing the movement of the camp. Now, this is physical because we know there are millions of people in tents in the wilderness and they've got livestock, they've got children, and they have to leave in an orderly manner. Well, this is no different for us today. The ministry gives us direction when to move. Now, when does that movement take place? It's called truth because we, by nature, think that we know most things, we have truth, but new truth enters the Church through an apostle. Well, it's a time to move camp. It's a time to move our thinking. There's no use staying where we were because we'll be left behind by the movement of the camp. God will move. The tabernacle will move, which is God's Church will move. It moves in its thinking. Well, we're to move as well. So these trumpets were for movement.

Verse 3—When they blow them both (both of them) all the congregation shall gather before you at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. In other words, there's going to be instructions or something given. So they're both blown. They have to gather to listen. But if they blow only one, then the leaders of the heads of the divisions of Israel, because it was broken down into structure, shall gather to you. So clear instructions. Now, a sign of rebellion would be not following the sound of the trumpet. So the trumpet sounds once and the leaders say, "I'm not going. I'm not going to follow." Well, that's rebellion. The wages of sin is death, so there's a death penalty that'll be earned. So trumpets were for help; they were guidance. They were given to direct a camp. Well, we should remember the blowing of trumpets. We should remember that when announcements are made by God's apostle that we should follow. We should change our thinking and move camp, move the way we think.

Verse 5—And when you sound the advance, the camps that lie on the east side shall then begin their journey. The question here is will we follow? Will we follow God's Church? Now, you and I know many that have not followed the instructions. You know them; they were with us once. They are no longer with us. They've left fellowship with God's people. They've left fellowship with God. They surrender. When we stop and just contemplate, how horrendous is that? But then we think how blessed are we that we can actually hear the instructions and that we're following the sound? Whenever an announcement is made we follow, we're willing to follow. Well, Israel had a chance. Now, there were some that lagged behind at different times, but generally they knew the sound of the advance. It's time to move, and you have to pack up by tribe, you have to pack up in an orderly fashion. We're to follow the instructions in an orderly fashion, not to go to the left or the right by going outside of it, being presumptuous and adding to or taking away, because unless God gives it, and until God gives it, it will never be fully understood. As we know, just recently that was the very thing that happened, about Peter walking on the side of the road. That is something that was new to God's Church. We never ever knew who that was, but now we know. Well, have we changed our thinking? Have we moved when that sound has come, which is the announcement has come of a new truth? Well, we have either packed up and followed or we haven't and only we know the answer to that (and God).

Verse 7—And when the assembly is gathered together, you shall blow, but not sound the advance. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow the trumpets, because God uses a structure, and He always has used this structure, and these shall be to you as an ordinance forever throughout your generations.

When you go to war in your land against the enemy who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with trumpets. So this is physical. Now, the interesting part of this is Israel didn't have to fight. We have enemies. We know those enemies. We had a sermon recently which covered that, which is about knowing your enemy. Well, we know our greatest enemy there really is Satan. So that alarm is sounded in the Church often. There's a cry to God's people to fight against selfishness because “the prince of the power of the air” is trying to influence us to sin, which is what this is all about. When we go back to Mount Sinai it's all about sin. This is what you're not to do. This is what you are to do, which is about sin.

So here it says there's an alarm. We see an enemy, and there's an alarm being sounded. Well, we hear that alarm often within God's Church because we know who that enemy is and what the outcome of that is. It's death if we're not careful.

Well, verse 9, continuing, and you will be remembered before the Eternal your God, and you will be saved from your enemies. Isn't that incredible? They don't have to do anything. The sound for an alarm, well, God says He will remember what He had promised— His commandments, if we're being obedient, and God will fight the battle for them. There are many examples in the Bible where God fought those battles.

Now, we have the power of God living and dwelling in us to win the battle, which is God's holy spirit. So we have that. Now, whether or not we want to yield to it and follow the sound that is given there, which are the instructions of God about fighting against our selfishness, fighting against ourselves, well, only we can make that choice.

Verse 10—Also in the day of your gladness, in your appointed Feasts, which this is, and at the beginning of the month, which this is, the first day of the seventh month, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over your sacrifices and over your peace offerings, because this is about going to God, about presenting ourselves to God, and they shall be a memorial to you before your God: I am the LORD your God.

Now, there are some instructions here, and there's five, and I'm going to cover them quickly. One was a call to assembly. Two was a move of camp. Three was the alarm for war. Four was in your appointed Feasts, a rejoicing. The sound of trumpet was a rejoicing. Last, it was a beginning of months. So there are five areas, basically.

Now, spiritually a call to assembly is like a calling, which is we've been called by God. We're to appear before God to listen to Him. Now, when's that? Sabbath's. Holy days. Another one is prayer. We can appear before God in prayer, which is a call to assembly; we go before God at any time we want. Movement of the camp is like a new truth that requires a change of direction in our thinking. We're to follow where God leads. Now, when you look at what God did with the tabernacle when they used to pack it up and the cloud or the pillar of fire would move, they had a choice. Now, they saw that. It was a constant reminder of God's great power, that He had that ability to do it, but whether they wanted to follow it and remember the blowing of trumpets, the movement of the camp, whether that would happen, it was up to them. They didn't have to. But we know the majority at that time, physical Israel did, but within spiritual Israel that's not always the case.

The alarm to war is about remembering our enemies. God warns His people on a regular basis about our real enemy and God says He will win that battle. Now, we know that we are His special people and we are protected because if we were not protected from Satan and his demons we wouldn't survive this very long at all. Satan has a lot more power and has been given a lot more power than we even imagine. We are engaged in a spiritual battle, which is the key to all of this. We are engaged in a spiritual battle that we can never give up on. It's never going to stop while we are human. God has the power to win any and every battle. It's a matter or not of whether we will rely on God. The point is we must turn to God so that we can gain the victory, which is what Israel was to do.

Then there was appointed times, which is God's Feasts. We've been called to listen on these high days, these holy days. That's what God has done. They were reminded that these Feast days were God's Feasts. We're the same. We're reminded these are God's Feasts. They're not our Feasts. These are God's. This is an appointed time for us to assemble before God to listen. We were to celebrate and they were to celebrate. This is a celebration. It's not about a time of mourning, which we'll hopefully get to.

And five, at the beginning of months, which is a regular reminder of the spiritual component of our lives. So we are reminded all the time about this spiritual battle.

This Feast day is a day of remembering the blowing of trumpets. The remembering to remain in the fear of God and remembering His great power to achieve His will and purpose because God's will and purpose will take place. We're to remember the commandments, the spiritual application of those commandments, the instructions and announcement God makes.

Solomon made an incredible statement at the end of the book of Ecclesiastes, which you can turn to. Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, because he was not given the power we have. He saw a lot of things on a physical level and he was given the power of wisdom, which is God's thinking on a matter, but it wasn't in the sense of God's spirit as we have it because we see things on a spiritual level. Many of the things that he wrote were physical applications, but all of the Proverbs, as we know that were written, and all of the book of Ecclesiastes were spiritual in nature, really, but not everybody could see them because it requires God's holy spirit to see them. Solomon, to our knowledge, never had God's spirit, but he was given a lot of things to see, but he probably didn't understand what he was writing. Like many a prophet who have written things, they didn't see, like Daniel. They wrote things and thought, "I wonder what that really means." Well, Solomon would have been the same. He had an overview of things, but we can see the spiritual application.

Ecclesiastes 12:13, because we see because of God's great power in us. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter, which is talking about the conclusion of life. No matter what age – if we get to 60, 70, 80, 90, what's it all about? What is the most important thing? How much wealth we've got, what property we've got, what car we drive, all of those things are all irrelevant. What's the conclusion of life is another way to put it. Fear God and keep His commandments, which is what the Israelites were told at Mount Sinai. It's pretty straight forward. We have life for one reason – to learn to fear God and keep His commandments. That's why we're in the Body of Christ, the Church of God. For this is man's all. This is the purpose of life. The purpose of life, we're to put God first.

Verse 14—For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, so nothing's hidden. Mankind thinks that they can do things in secret. …whether good, which is replying to God's spirit if God's spirit's involved, or evil, which is from our own selfishness.

We have been called to bring every work, which is about every spiritual intent, into judgment. We've been called to repent, therefore, yes, there is a penalty to be paid for sin, but we're not under that penalty: "The wages of sin is death." We're not under it because we repent. So Solomon tried everything. He was given access. As a king he was given access to much. When you go through the book he says he tried everything. He tried everything he could on a physical level, you know, to learn about it, but he came to this conclusion: in the end all those physical pleasures are only temporary, only temporary. They're all going to pass. In the end when you get old and you die or maybe you're not as old, it's just that's what's going to happen. So why not turn around and start by learning to fear God, which is to respect or place Him in awe (same as what Israel was told), and keep His commandments.

Now, that's what we should strive to do on this Day of Trumpets, to remember what we're here for. We are here to learn to fear God and keep His commandments, just like Israel was at Mount Sinai: "For this is man's all." This is the purpose of life. Well, we've been called into the Body of Christ for this very purpose, only it's all on a spiritual level. God will bring every work, which is every intent of the mind – because with us, it's intent. Mankind is not under judgment like we are. We're actually now under a judgment because we've been given the ability to judge ourselves so that we're not judged by God. So the way you come out of being under judgment is by judging ourselves. We're to monitor our intent, monitor our thoughts, words, and actions, and therefore, we repent of those, therefore, we're no longer under the penalty of that judgment. So we, brethren, can come out from under this judgment by repentance.

So what is the fear of God? What is Solomon really saying? "Learn to fear God." What is it? Proverbs 8:13. Now, as the Day of Atonement went on with Israel, as the Feast days went on with Israel, some things were probably lost for them on a physical level because that's just natural, the natural mind. For example, if you go to Mount Sinai and you were standing there and listening, where you have this ability to understand and listen, it would probably be burned in your brain a lot more, if you saw the water collapsing in. But there was a lot later on, as we know as they went in the wilderness for forty years, there were a lot that never saw any of that, therefore, this Feast day would have not meant as much to them as what it did to the Israelites that actually saw it and witnessed the sound.

Well, for us it can happen the same. The Day of Trumpets, or any of the Feast days, cannot mean as much if we're not careful. "Oh, it's another Feast day." Literally, you give an offering and hear a sermon, but the reality is this day is a really important day, that God says this is a reminder. It's a memorial of the blowing of trumpets. It's a day to stop and remember "My great power," and what we're to do, "fear God and keep His commandments." That's what we have to remember on this day, that our life is about fearing God and keeping His commandments. That's man's all. That's the purpose of life. Why are we in the Church? Learn to fear God and keep His commandments. Battle self. Fight against self so that we do keep those commandments.

We've been called to bring every thought into judgment. That's what our calling is about.

Proverbs 8:13—The fear of the Eternal, or holding God in awe, what does that mean, really? Someone says, "I fear God." Yeah, well, they don't really. We should, but they don't really. Mankind doesn't, just like Israel didn't in the end. Fear God is to hate evil. That's an incredible statement because we have to learn to hate sin within our thinking. That's the demonstration we fear God. Now, people in the world say they all fear God, "Oh, yeah, I fear God." They have no comprehension of God and His mercy and His greatness and His character, His moral excellence. No. His virtue. No, not even remotely. Well, the demonstration that we fear God is if we're part of the Body of Christ we are learning to hate evil within ourselves.

Now, I found in my life it's easy to hate evil in others when it affects you or it's easy to look out in the world. The other night two police turned up into a night club and you find out there were videos of it and everybody's nude. You find out it's a swingers club, you know, like they're all nude at night, 1 o'clock in the morning, 2 o'clock in the morning. Your mind boggles! You know, that's easy to hate that. "That's terrible!" But that's not the point. The point is do we hate it within our thinking? Do we hate our selfishness? That's fearing God. Now, if we hate our selfishness we are learning to fear God, to hold God in awe because God says we're to fight against ourselves. Well, if we're fighting against ourselves we're demonstrating we hate evil. If we're not fighting ourselves, we're not demonstrating we hate evil, therefore, we do not fear God. It's not possible because the fear of God is to hate evil.

Pride and arrogance and the evil way. Now, we all have pride. We all have arrogance. As much as we might not think we do everybody has pride, everybody has arrogance, and everyone has an evil way. It's called selfishness. It's about the spirit of the matter. …and the perverse mouth I hate. Now, we would think we try to keep control of the mouth. You know, the perversity, it's something that's wrong. Well, this is really referring to we can have a perverse mouth without knowing it. The world has one because they don't talk about God and God's greatness. It's perverse. They give credit to other things. People give credit to stock markets and money and they give credit to astrology and soothsayers and tarot readers. That's perverse. Those things have no power. They're manmade concepts. They have no power. That's a perversity. Well, we have to be careful we don't go down that path.

Psalm 111:10—The fear of the Eternal is the beginning of wisdom. This is a beautiful scripture, really, because it's the beginning of wisdom because if we fear God and hold Him in awe then the mind can be worked with because it's the beginning of wisdom. Now, what is wisdom? It's the thinking of God. So if we fear God and keep His commandments we'll begin to transform or change the way we think, which is repentance, but the transformation of the mind will take place, because it's the beginning, it's the start. So during our whole life as part of members of the Body of Christ we have to learn to fear God and if we do it's the beginning of this transformation, the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom is the thinking of God.

Now, we all have degrees of wisdom. We all have degrees of wisdom, and it takes time. The only time we're ever going to have full wisdom is when we're in Elohim, when we're transformed because there can be no sin because we can't think sin. There is no ability to think sin. It's a different mind. It's not the carnal mind. It's not the natural mind. There's no selfishness in it. The mind is the mind of God; it's virtue, it just doesn't think that way. It can't think that way. It's just totally different. There's no way to explain it. It's a different mind because we often think on a physical level about the way God is. God's not physical. God's mind is not physical. It doesn't think the way we think. There's no element of evil in God at all.

So this transformation of the mind has to start with fearing God, which is what the Israelites were virtually told, to hold God in awe. They were terrified. They held God in awe because of His great power. How much more should we hold God in awe for His great power, of the ability to call us individually and transform the way we think from this selfish evil mind that we have to think like God, and at some point in time (as incredible as it may sound), we here, and all those that God works with at a point in time, could enter Elohim where we do not think evil ever? Isn't that an incredible plan? Now, the world would say we're all nuts, just to think that we can enter Elohim and not think the way we think. Well, that's what God says. Well, this holding God in awe, respecting God, remembering this Day of Trumpets is one of the beginnings. Now, people are going to have to learn in the future to keep the Feast of Trumpets the way God says, to remember how great He really is, His great power, His ability, His plan of salvation. Well, all of that is the beginning of wisdom.

A good understanding, which is separate to knowledge because we can have knowledge, but "a good understanding" is seeing the knowledge, of what it is, to understand it on a spiritual level. …have those who do His commandments, because it's about the spirit of the matter. His praise endures forever. Now, when you look at that, "His praise endures forever," because God is love and it will endure forever. We will always praise God for His being, the fact that He is the way that He is.

Now, after the captivity they were brought out and they went into the wilderness and they were given the 10 Commandments and all the trumpets sounded and the blasts and they were in fear, but of course over time all those things were eroded and Israel never remembered the blowing of trumpets. They actually forgot about it, which is natural for the natural mind.

Well, we can see that in Nehemiah 7, if you'd like to turn to Nehemiah 7:73. Now, this is when they had returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall. At this point in time there was a massive erosion that had taken place in the people's thinking. They had gone into captivity for breaking the Sabbath, basically, and not listening to God or following His voice or listening to Him, and now God had brought back a group and they had come back to Jerusalem and they were rebuilding the wall.

Nehemiah 7:73, we'll pick it up in. So the priests, and the Levites, and the gatekeepers, and the singers, and some of the people, the Nethinim, which is the temple servants, and all Israel dwelt in their cities. When the seventh month came, the children of Israel were in the cities. Now, we understand we're heading for the first day of the seventh month, which is the Feast of Trumpets.

Nehemiah 8:1—Now all the people gathered together as one man, they were in full unity, in the open square that was in the front of the Water Gate; and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which would have covered the 10 Commandments, because we understand this book that they're referring to is the first five books of the Bible we have today, which the LORD commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest, which is pointing to the ministry, brought the Law, the first five books, which is about, basically, obedience and how to live love to others, which is the law. The first four Commandments about how to love God. The last six is about how to love one another. Well, they knew that on a physical level. …before the assembly of men and women and all who could hear and understand, or had understanding. Now, that's interesting because children can hear but can't understand. Now, this is about those that could understand obedience. In other words, there was a certain age that they could come because they could understand what was being said to a degree, on the first day of the seventh month, which is today, the Feast of Trumpets.

Verse 3—Then he read from it in the open square which was in front of the Water Gate from morning till midday, which is from light to noon. Now, we think an hour and a half, two hours is pretty tough. We're talking four hours or so here. This is a long time where they're standing. …before the men and women and those who could understand; and all of the ears of the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. So they were listening to God on the Feast of Trumpets. They're already there; they're assembled there to listen to what God's got to say.

So Ezra the scribe stood on a platform of wood, which elevated him above the others so they could see him, which they had made for the purpose; and beside him, on his right hand, stood Mattithiah.

Verse 5—And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people… So there were a lot of others there and we are going to see what they were there for. …for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. Now, they stand up because of the respect of God's law. They stand for God. So they're standing up; they want to listen to God. They're not going to sit there and lay there and go to sleep. No, all stand up and we're going to listen to what God's got to give, which is the Feast of Trumpets, which was the same of Israel, when they went to the mountain, and stood there to listen to God. Here, Israel is now years later doing the same. So they stand because of the respect for God's word.

And Ezra blessed the Eternal (praised the Eternal), the Great God. And then all the people answered, Amen, Amen! Which is "Let it be! Let it be!" Which is similar to what Israel did before, "All that God has said we will do." Well, this is similar. It's a great praise to God. They agree in praising God. …while lifting up their hands, which they raised their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Eternal with their faces to the ground, which is a sign of respect.

Also Jeshua, and all the other names which I'm not going to read because I will mispronounce them, continuing on in the middle of verse 7, helped the people to understand the Law. So there's an explanation because we can read things like, "Thou shalt not kill." What does that mean? It means I'm not allowed to go up and stab somebody. Is that what it means? Well, no, they were now explaining more what that really means. It's not just a physical murder, stabbing someone. What is killing? There's a lot more to be understood about it, as we understand. Well, here these people are explaining more about what is being said, remembering there are five books of the law here. There's a lot to be going through. There were groups now explaining about what's being read out. …and the people stood in their place. So they were helped to explain scriptures.

Verse 8—So they read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, so explained it, and helped them to understand the reading. Now, it's no different than us. I remember before I was called, that there were certain elements of the book of the law that I had read and I didn't understand it. I needed somebody. Well, aren't we so blessed that we have God's spirit so that we can understand because there are many a scripture that we would say, "It's pretty simple. Can't you see? Keep holy the Sabbath day," and they go, "You're all crazies," but we see it. We've had it explained to us and we've had a lot of scriptures explained to us so that we see and understand the reading of the Bible.

Verse 9—And Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra the priest and the scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, This day is holy to the LORD your God; this day, the Day of Trumpets is holy to God, do not mourn nor weep. Now, what was happening? For all the people wept when they heard the words of the Law. They realized when they saw it that they weren't doing the right thing at all and they would have been disappointed in themselves. This incredible Great God, who should be feared, held in awe, they weren't holding Him in awe at all by their obedience so they were upset and they're all starting to cry. They realized that they had not been faithful to God. They had not feared God and obeyed His commandments. Now, this is a physical type of repentance, which is like a self-pity thing really when you look at it because to get all upset and to cry about disobedience to God, they didn't have God's spirit so it's only a physical thing, but they realized they'd be disappointed in themselves for what they had done on a physical level.

Verse 10—Then he said to them, Go your way, eat the fat, which is the prosperity that they had, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared, because they hadn't prepared for a holy day. They hadn't prepared to rejoice. They hadn't prepared. Now, we understand that in the Levitical system people prepared the sacrifices, for example, because there's a number of sacrifices to be done and certain things and they'd blow trumpets over the sacrifices. Well, there was no preparation. Here they are on a holy day of God and they hadn't prepared. Well, it says, "Go away," you know, "Share. Rejoice," for this day is holy to our God. This day is a day God has set aside. Do not sorrow, so this is not a time to be miserable and full of self-pity, for joy of the LORD is your strength. Now, this is a beautiful scripture, really, "For the joy of the Eternal is your strength" because this is a day of rejoicing about what God has done for us. We are to remember what God has done for us individually. It's a day to remember, a time to rejoice. Now, we should rejoice. Just the fact that we're here today is a day to rejoice. We should be so excited about this day. We're here on a Day of Trumpets, a blowing of trumpets. We can remember to fear God and hold Him in awe for what He has done – called us.

Verse 11—So the Levites quieted all the people, saying, Be still, so, you know, "Calm down. Don't get so upset," for this day is holy. It's a separate day. Just like a Sabbath day, it's separate, set aside by God for our benefit. The Day of Trumpets is for our benefit. It's for our benefit. And do not be grieved. But rejoice! It’s a time to celebrate.

Verse 12—And all the people went their way to eat and drink and send portions and rejoice greatly, because they understood the words that were declared to them. They understood on a physical level. How much more can we rejoice on this day because we understand on a spiritual level? We're on the road of salvation. They weren't. We are. We're on the path of salvation to enter Elohim. They weren't at that point. They're going to get their opportunity later. We should rejoice because we've begun a process over a time to enter Elohim. What a time to rejoice and thank God for this, hold Him in awe. He's the only one who can do it. He's the only one who can create a spirit family. We can't. We're pathetic. We're useless. We can't do much at all. Our minds think we're pretty good, but we're not. We are pathetic, but look at God. In His great mercy He takes this bits of earth, man, Adam, earth, and is going to transform it so it can enter Elohim and have Eternal life with God for ever, never to sin. What an incredible plan. This Day of Trumpets is a reminder of God's great power to do what He has set out to do. His will and purpose is to have a family; there's going to be one. Now, whether we're in it, a lot of that depends on what we decide. A lot of it depends on what we decide. God's got a desire for us, that's why we're in the Body of Christ now.

So we understand on a spiritual level, and everything that's declared to us, we see it. We know what God is doing.

Now, there have been other times when God has used trumpets to demonstrate His great power and control over things. God uses trumpets to point people to His awesome power and His power to achieve His will and purpose. Nothing can stop it. Now, we're not going to get time to go into Joshua, about what Joshua did in the fall of Jericho, but if you remember what actually happened, where they had to walk around the city at different times and the blowing of the trumpets and on the seventh day they walked around seven times and the trumpets sounded, but it wasn't the trumpets that brought the walls down. It was God made the walls fall flat. But the trumpets, they pointed to God's power. The people were to follow the instructions. Pack up the camp, and everyone was in a particular order, and they had to walk around the first day once, the second day go around again, and on the seventh, seven times. Well, that all pointed to something. It points to God's great power to achieve things. We have to just listen, fear God, and follow the instructions. That's all they had to do. Well, they did. Israel did at that point and we know what happened. God gave them the victory. God gave them the victory. It’s no different than for us.

So we have examples of God demonstrating His great power. Joshua and the fall of Jericho. This past example points to the future fall of the Babylonian system which man has established; which we're in today. We are coming out of the Babylonian system, but this all pointed to God's great power. It is God through Jesus Christ that is going to bring down this current system. No one else can bring it down. No one else wants to. Satan wants to keep it going, but God can bring it down and He is going to. So that event of the power of the trumpets that were used as a demonstration of God's great power is going to happen again.

Now, we know and we believe that all 7 Trumpets have been sounded on the 14th of December, 2008, but we didn't hear a single sound. Isn't that incredible? Where when you look at Jericho, the people in the walled cities would have heard the sound and looked out at this people. How crazy would they have looked? You know, they all walk around and they sound a trumpet and walk around once. The next day they walk around again and then again. "What's going on?" They don't know about seven and what seven means and seven times. They don't know all of that. They are just in fear because they'd heard about this awesome God. They know about this awesome God, and of these Israelites turning up here in Jericho. This is great! Imagine being in there. It would have been reasonably scary for them.

So we have actually seen aspects of things, but we haven't seen the fulfillment of these Trumpets. They haven't been fulfilled yet, but we do believe on the 14th of December, 2008, they have been blown. We can say, well, we're heading soon for a 9 year anniversary of that event, which is 2017, and then when we get to the 14th of December, based on the Roman calendar, of 2018, it's ten years of that event. So we've been going a while where we haven't seen a lot of evidence of certain things. Certain things, rumblings, but it's building, as we can see.

I don't remember in my lifetime a time (that I can remember), when mankind was openly talking about blowing each other up. Even on the news in Australia, which is rare, because normally it's about people and they are condemning the American president and they reckon that the person in North Korea is crazy, but they are openly talking about, "Well, you know, you do this and I'll do that." It's like a school yard. "You do this, and I'll do that." This is serious. And now in the newspapers and even on the radio interviews people are talking about nuclear war. What does that mean for Australia? The Prime Minister of Australia gets up and says, "Well, we have an alliance with America, and if anyone attacks America we are at war with that person. It's automatic." Just like if anybody attacked Australia we are protected because America will come to our aid. That's what we think. We like to think that, but that's the agreement and so they said, "Well, what happens if a bomb goes off and Guam is bombed?" Australia said, "We will be there to do whatever America requires." Ephraim and Manasseh. You know, they don't know that, but it's incredible this alliance that's there.

Well, the rumblings are there. The rumblings are there, openly talked about nuclear war. "You do this and I'll do that." The last one that I heard was, "We're loaded and ready," basically. You know, like, "Just try it! Well, you'll soon find out." We’ve just got to hope the wind doesn't blow towards China because all the radiation’s heading in that direction and all the people in South Korea are probably going to die as well. It's not that simple. You can't just let off a nuclear bomb and think, "Ah, yes. We've wiped out North Korea," but everybody else around is going to be pretty badly affected because winds and everything else. So it's not all that simple, but we know from God's word that it's coming. We know from God's word that it's coming.

The Trumpets have sounded; now the effects are to take place. It's just a matter of time.

So we can see from Joshua that there were examples of the fall of Babylonian system. It's coming. It’s not long now before it comes.

We can also look at Gideon, which we will look at. I'm not going to get through everything here, but we'll touch base on some of it. Gideon and the defeat of 135,000 Midianites because it was not Gideon, and it wasn't the 300 that did it. God used them. God defeated the army, which we're going to read because trumpets are about God's power, not about man's power. Man has no power. He's pathetic.

Judges 7:16. We're going to cut into the story. Then he (Gideon) divided the three hundred men into three companies, hundred, hundred, hundred, and he put a trumpet into every man's hand. Now, the trumpet has no power. Of itself it can't do anything. It's just a sound; wind blowing through an instrument makes a sound. …with empty pitchers, and the torches inside the pitchers, so they couldn't be seen. So what it really is about is pointing us to the power of God. That's why we should hold God in awe on this day. It's God's power that does everything. It's God's power that called us. It's God's power that awakened us. It's God's power that will give us life in Elohim. It won't be trumpets. They have no power of and by themselves. It's the power of God that we should hold Him in awe for what He is doing and how He does it.

…the torches inside the pitchers. So it's just like the last 7 Trumpets are not seen yet but they've sounded because they were spiritual in nature, but we haven't seen the effects of those yet. They're hidden from us. They're inside the pitcher at the moment.

Verse 17—And when he said to them, Look to me, which is what we have to do; we have to look to an apostle, and do likewise; watch, so we have to watch, we have to be alert and ready, watch spiritually and be ready spiritually because we've got a work to do. We have a work to do. We'll watch, and when it's ready we'll dive straight into it. That's what really is happening here. Because the hundred, the hundred, and the hundred, the three divisions all had choices. They could follow Gideon or not, but these were chosen; these 300 were chosen for a reason. We won't go into all of that.

Look to me and do likewise; watch, and when I come to the edge of the camp you shall do as I do. Now, it has to be God that protects them because otherwise they would have been seen. There are 135,000 other men who had guards, etcetera, but God protected them so they couldn't be seen. Their torches were hidden. They had the trumpet.

Verse 18—When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, which is the hundred, then you shall blow the trumpets on every side of the whole camp, and say, The sword of the LORD and of Gideon!

Verse 19—So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outpost of the camp at the beginning of the middle of the watch, just as he had posted the watch. So there's been a change take place and there's a new guard that has come to place. And they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands. Now, this would have been terrifying because the Midianites weren't expecting anything, but it looks like there's a lot more because of the torches and the 300 trumpets all blasting. Just like at Mount Sinai the noise would have been terrifying, and the light. It's the same type of thing, but God's doing it. They're only just being used as instruments to achieve an outcome which is to hold God in awe.

Verse 20—Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers—they held the torches in their left hand and the trumpet in the right hand for blowing—and they cried, The sword of the Eternal (the LORD) and of Gideon! And every man stood in his place, which is what we have to do. Stand in our place. Stand in the truth. Stand for God. No matter what happens around us, even if it looks like thousands are against us – which is true. There are thousands against us in a spirit realm, but when we get into the end-time do we think that everybody's going to be for the Church of God—PKG? I don't think so. There are going to be a lot that are going to be against us. But we have someone who's going to win our battle for us. It's called the Eternal God. We hold God in awe. We respect Him. He's all powerful.

…and every man stood in his place all around the camp; and the whole army ran and cried out and fled. So panic and fear entered them and they fled because God is going to win this battle for them. When the three hundred blew the trumpets, the Eternal set every man's sword against his companion throughout the whole camp. So it was God who did it. He influenced their minds so that they turned on everybody. It wasn't the trumpets that destroyed the people, it was God, because God affected their mind. For them to think a particular way He guided it and they responded accordingly, and the army fled to Beth Acacia.

Now, we should learn to fear God and not the sound of a trumpet. It's not the trumpet that we have to worry about, it's the power of God. Now, we fear God because we respect His greatness because we've been called to it. We also know that in Ezekiel 33 (we're not going to turn there), but in Ezekiel 33 God established a watchman and he says in verse 3 that the sword is coming. They're to blow and warn the people. Well, the third book is a warning. It's like a trumpet message that's going out. It's a warning to the people because they have to listen or not listen. It's up to them, but they're going to be warned. It's been written. It's ready for distribution. And God will inspire when that is to go out.

Psalm 81:1. We'll just start to work towards our conclusion here. Sing aloud to God our strength. That's what we should do on this day. We should praise God, our strength, because of a calling and the power of His holy spirit He's giving us. Make a joyful shout to the God of Jacob. Raise a song and strike the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the flute, or the lute. Blow the trumpet at the time of the New Moon, the 1st day of the 7th month, the Feast of Trumpets, At the full moon, on our solemn Feast day. For this is a statute for Israel, statute for spiritual Israel. This is a day to rejoice, to praise God for what He has done – on the 1st day of the 7th month, this Feast of blowing of trumpets.

Drop down to verse 8. What's it about? Hear, O My people. Well, it's physical Israel, spiritual Israel. Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you! O Israel, if you will listen to Me! Isn't that incredible? Because that's what the book is about, "If you will listen," God says, "I will listen." Well, God's saying, "Will you listen to Me, what I've got for you?" All choices to be made.

This is now speaking about what the problem is within Israel: There shall be no foreign god among you; nor shall you worship any foreign god. Why? Well, they have no strength. They have no power. We shouldn't hold anything in awe. They have nothing! Tarot readers and all these other religions, they have nothing. They are empty, false gods. There is no power compared to the Almighty God, the Creator of the universe. Surely we would hold God in awe and fear His name compared to all this other garbage which isn't real, manmade concepts.

Verse 10—I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. That's exactly what has happened to us. We've been brought out. Isn't that wonderful? Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it, with spiritual food! "I will give you the truth," but we have to be willing to receive it.

Verse 11—But My people would not hear My voice, referring to physical Israel, but there's people in spiritual Israel that "My people would not heed My voice," even though God gave everything and wanted to feed them; they wouldn't listen. …and Israel would have none of Me, wouldn't have a relationship with Me, wouldn't hold Me in awe. So I gave them over to their stubborn heart, to their stubborn way of thinking, their selfishness. To walk in their own counsel. Selfishness is our own counsel. This has happened to many. Oh, that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways! They forgot about the blowing of trumpets. They forgot to hold God in awe.

Verse 14—I should soon subdue their enemies, so God would soon do that if we were to turn to Him, and turn My hand against their adversaries, which is on a spiritual level for us. We turn to God, He'll turn to us. We can overcome Satan and his demons by the power of God's spirit. God can win all battles. God is almighty!

Verse 15—The haters of the Eternal would pretend submission to Him, because you know what? The reality is false religion fulfills a scripture. "The haters of the Eternal," because they really hate God. They won't listen to what He wants to do, "would pretend submission to Him." They do. They pretend that they worship God, they're submitting to God, but they're not. They haven't been called to it. …but their fate would endure forever. Judgment is coming for false religion. Judgment is coming for anybody who will not listen to God.

Verse 16—He would have fed them also with the finest of wheat, which is what we get on the Sabbath and holy days, sermons, and with honey from the Rock, from Jesus Christ, I would have satisfied you. Isn't this an amazing scripture that we could be satisfied on a spiritual level?

The King of Kings, which is God the Father, has appointed Jesus Christ as King of kings over this earth. Trumpets are used by God to announce the arrival of an anointed King. Trumpets announce a King. Well, we have Jesus Christ coming to this earth.

We're going to conclude by looking at John 18:35 because Jesus Christ has been an appointed King. He is the King of kings and he's coming to this earth. There are 7 Trumpets that have sounded, and one of them in particular, the 7th, announces the return of Jesus Christ to this earth. It's a sound that nobody has heard because it's God that has the power to send Jesus Christ. It's God that has the power to fulfill the 7 Last Plagues, the 7 Trumpets. All of those things.

John 18:35— Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Because, in other words, he was saying, "Well, you're here and am I a Jew that I should understand all you're saying?" Your own nation, Jews, Judah, and the chief priests have delivered you (Jesus Christ) to me. What have you done? "What have you done that that would happen? It must be pretty bad that your own people are turning you into me to make a judgment."

Verse 36—Jesus answered, My Kingdom is not of this world, not of this age. It's not of this time. If my Kingdom were of this world, because it's spiritual, it's not physical. It's a spiritual Kingdom coming to rule a physical earth, mankind. It'll be done through a manifestation so that they see physical beings that are spiritual, if you know what I mean, a manifestation. It's going to be an incredible time. If my kingdom were of this world my servants would fight, there'd be an angelic realm and those of the 144,000 when they come would fight, but they don't have to because they've got all power. …so that I should not be delivered to the Jews. So Christ wouldn't be the Passover, but it's not the right time for that, but now my Kingdom is not from here. It's not from this time. It's from God. It's the Kingdom of God that's coming to this earth.

Verse 37—Pilate, therefore, said to him, Are you a king then? It's a direct question, "Well, are you a king?" That's the question. Jesus answered and said, You said rightly, in other words, "Yes, I am a King. I'm the King of kings," but it wasn't the time to announce that. …that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness of the truth, which he did. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice. Well, that's us.

We understand from 1 Corinthians 15 that there is a transformation that is taking place: "In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last Trump. For the Trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed." There's going to be a change that takes place. Those that are part of the 144,000.

Trumpets have been used by God to reveal His great power, which we saw at Mount Sinai. We, as spiritual Israel, are to always remember God's great power, remember to fear God, hold Him in awe. And how do we do that? By obeying His voice. We are to hold God in awe because He is almighty and we're never to forget it. So we're to remember today the memorial of the blowing of trumpets. We're to remember the power of God, the awe of God, how great He is, and that He is the master over all things. He controls all things according to His will and purpose.

This day is a day of remembering the power of God and to remind ourselves that we need to fear God and obey His voice.

With that, we'll conclude.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1