Today’s Scripture Reading (August 3,
2012): Numbers 10
This morning
I woke up to what sounded like a bell ringing. Actually, it was more like a
gong – like someone who had a metal rod and was hitting some sort of long metal
tube. And as I listened the rhythmic sound, it seemed to get louder – and then fade
away so that I could barely here the ringing. At first I thought that whatever
had made the sound had moved closer to my house and then moved further away,
but then the clanging got louder again. The pulsating clash continued for
several minutes, at times I wondered if I also heard sirens in the distance,
but they never got close enough for me to really hear them. And so I just laid
there wondering what the sound could signify.
I live in a
city. It is a place alarms and sirens and the honking of car horns are not an
unfamiliar sounds. I think my country friends often wonder how I or anyone else
could live with the continual noise all around that is simply a symptom of city
life. But the truth is that the longer you live in the presence of the noise,
the less you actually hear it. It is incredible how many accidents happen every
year because someone did not hear the sirens. Or how many people miss their
planes because they just did not hear the last call. The noise fades into the
background – unless the noise itself is unusual.
Israel would
have been comprised of over two and half million voices. It does not take much
of an imagination to envisage the kind of sound that would have dominated life in
the camp. It was unlikely that another voice would get anyone’s attention. And
so God dreamt of something else. In this case it was two trumpets. The number
two is likely just because there were only two sons of Aaron. The trumpet would
have been unlike the ram’s horn that would have been common to the Israelite people
from its use in Egypt. These trumpets would have been straight, probably about
four feet in length and about the thickness of a flute. Both ends would likely
have resembled a modern day trumpet, and because they were made of pure silver,
the metal would give a unique shrill sound – one unlike anything else heard in
the camp. And the idea was that when this unique voice was played, the people
would hear and would know exactly how to respond. And even two of these
instruments would be enough to be heard from one end of the camp to the other.
And that is
probably the difference between the bell I heard this morning and Moses’
trumpets. While I heard the bell clang, I still have no idea what the bell
signified. The trumpets of Israel would
have delivered a definite message - one that needed to be heard. And that is
why these trumpets have been used as reminders of the message of God – a message
that still needs to be heard.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Numbers
11
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