Christ in all the scriptures
A memorial of blowing of trumpets Leviticus 23v23-25
Scripture references: Leviticus 23v24, 25v1; Numbers 10v1-10, 29v1; Joshua 6v5, 6v20; 2nd Samuel 6v15; 1st Chronicles 15v28; 2nd Chronicles 13v12, 15v14; Psalm 47v5, 81v3,150v3; Jeremiah 4v19, 49v2; Joel 2v1; Amos 2v2; Zephaniah 1v16; Matthew 24v31; 1st Corinthians 15v52; 1st Thessalonians 4v16; Hebrews 12v19; Revelation 1v10,4v1, 8v2v6v13, 9v14.
"Throughout biblical history trumpets have served as powerful symbols heralding significant moments and Divine messages"-anon. In the scope of the above scripture references, we find trumpets are used to declare a number of significant events:
Exodus 20v18; Hebrews 12v19 The presence of God among His people.
Leviticus 23v24; Psalm 81v3 Thanksgiving to the Lord for a full harvest-a great ingathering.
Leviticus 25v9 Proclamation of the year of Jubilee.
Numbers 10v1-3,v7 Call to assembly; 10v4-6 Call to journey forward; 10v9 Call to war; 10v10 Declaration of days of gladness, and solemn days, and at the beginnings of months.
Joshua 6v5v20; 2nd Samuel 6v15 Israel's shout of victory over enemies.
2nd Chronicles 15v14 Vow of devotion to the Lord.
Psalm 47v5, 68v33 God's triumph over all enemies.
Psalm 150v3 Universal praise to God.
Joel 2v1; Amos 1v14, 2v2; Zephaniah 1v16; Revelation 8/9 Announcement of impending Divine judgment on the godless world.
Matthew 24v31 Call in the end times for the regathering of Israel.
1st Corinthians 15v52; 1st Thessalonians 4v16 The call of the Church to heaven.
Revelation 1v10 Call to the vision of the exalted Christ.
Revelation 4v1 Call to witness prophetic events.
The word used in Leviticus 23 for trumpets is teruah, literally to shout; it is used in Hebrew to denote a loud wake-up call announcing an important event. Thus the thought here is of a distinctive sound to signal the end of harvest, and a time of rejoicing and thanksgiving. The feast of trumpets, in a religious sense, represented the end of harvest; in a civil sense it was New Year known as Rosh Hashanah (in both senses it was a time of great rejoicing and thanksgiving to the Lord).
Consider the simple link of biblical interpretation. The trumpet call came at the end of harvest. The present day is a time of harvest, the harvest of souls from the nations of the world! Remember what Jesus said, referring to the sowing of spiritual seed, and growth, and harvest? "The field is the world..."-Matthew 13v38; "He that receiveth seed into good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty"-Matthew 13v23; "Say not ye there are yet four months, and then cometh the harvest (a direct reference to Leviticus 23). Behold I say unto you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already unto harvest"-John 4v33. We are living in the time of sowing and reaping for the souls of men; the harvest is yet to come. It will be announced by the loud, unmistakeable blast of the trump of God. It will take place secretly to believers only, it will take place swiftly, "in a moment", and the souls of the dead and the living will rise to meet the Lord in the air. Jesus will come when the harvest is complete, when the last soul is saved, known only to God from the beginning. Paul wrote in 2nd Thessalonians 2v1 of "the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto Him". The chapter is clear that this takes place before the great apostasy and the rise of the man of sin who will dominate the world, according to prophecy for at least three and a half years. The harvest will be ended, the Church, the body of Christ complete, and taken to heaven and glorified. What was a signal of the end of wheat harvest for Israel, prefigures this great event, with Jesus coming for His Church, (accompanied by the voice of the archangel and the trump of God), to bring them all home!
From Pentecost to the Rapture, every born again believer, the dead first, then the living, will be taken to heaven before the great tribulation that will come on the whole earth. A short time later God will take up Israel again to serve Him through the time of greatest trial the world will ever experience. Meanwhile, may we thrill at the prospect of billions from the earth being changed and moving to heaven and glory, in a spectacular transition to a new life, and our "forever home"!! All this was prefigured in Old Testament scriptures:
Noah was asked to go through the flood, but Enoch was translated to heaven without dying before the flood came. The picture is too obvious to ignore.
Elijah was taken to heaven in a chariot, alive, following a lifetime of loyal service.
Moses died, but they never found his body. He appeared on the Mount of transfiguration centuries later with Elijah.
These delightful cameos erase to nothing all the fanciful teaching to the contrary. As the hymnwriter said "The harvest is passing, the summer will end". This is the day of opportunity; Jesus is coming, the dead will arise, the living will be changed. Soon the acceptable year of the Lord will become the day of vengeance of our God-Isaiah 63v4.
"The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed..."-1st Corinthians 15v52
No comments:
Post a Comment