The Battle Belongs to the Lord




Date: 7/2/17
Text: Numbers 10:9 and select Scriptures
Title: The Battle Belongs to the Lord


God tells Israel to make trumpets in Numbers 10:9. He tells them to use the trumpets in a variety of ways including calling an assembly of some or all the people, signaling when they should break camp and indicating when different tribes were to set out. Trumpets played a part as well as in celebration of particular feast days.

They were to sound the trumpets when they are being attacked by an enemy. Why? The reason they were to sound the trumpet when facing a foe is not what we would expect. We do not read of some military strategy to ensure victory. We do not find a clever approach to gain supremacy. Instead what it says is that Israel was to sound the trumpet . . .so that God would remember them and God would save them.

Underlying the sounding of the trumpet in this way expressed faith in the LORD God, the god of Israel. The trumpet was not a magic horn that called down the angels or some heavenly army to fight for them. Rather it was an act of faith that acknowledged that the victory depended on God rather than on the arm of flesh. This theme is present, and demonstrated, throughout all of the Bible.

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