The Jubilee Trumpet

"Jubilee" is an interesting word. It’s the source of the English word jubilation—fervent rejoicing. In the spirituals of the Negro slaves in America, the Year of Jubilee became a code word for emancipation.

The Hebrew word for Jubilee, yobel, is also the word for trumpet, particularly the ram’s horn trumpet. At the close of the Day of Atonement on the 49th year, the trumpet was sounded throughout the land to announce the coming Year of Jubilee (Lev.25:8-11). This was a year of holiness unto the Lord (25:12,17), when God’s people were reminded that they were aliens in the land (25:23) who belong to the Lord.

According to Leviticus 25, the Year of Jubilee is a year for

-->forgiving debts,

--> a year of release from bondage,

--> a year of thanksgiving to God and

-->depending on God for provision.

Both literally and symbolically, the trumpet call is the means by which the Lord summons His people. In Numbers 10:1-10, God’s people in the wilderness were given their marching orders. The priests were to blow the silver trumpets for these four purposes:

(a) to call the people together; (b) to begin the march; (c) when going into battle, to call forth the power of God; (d) during festivals, as part of their worship.

The probable root of yobel (Jubilee, trumpet) is yabal, meaning "to bring forth." Just so, the prophet brings forth God’s word to the people. Amos gives us a vital teaching on this subject: (3:6-8)

When the Lord has plans regarding the judgment or salvation of humankind, He always reveals those plans beforehand through His prophets. For the prophet himself, when the message is one of judgment, it becomes a burden of excruciating knowledge which he is obliged and compelled to announce, even though it makes him weep with anguish, and even though the Lord may have told him his warning would fall on deaf ears (for example, Isa.6:9-10, Jer.5:20-21). Mercifully, the Lord’s announcement of judgment is almost always followed by a promise of gracious forgiveness for those who repent.

"If the trumpet does not sound a clear call," Paul wrote, "who will get ready for battle?" (1Cor.14:8) This statement comes in a chapter where Paul is emphasizing the importance of prophecy within the church (see verses 1-5, 39). For us, under the New Covenant, to sound the trumpet is to speak clearly and forcefully what God is saying to us here and now: it is to speak prophetically, to prophesy. The trumpet of true prophecy will accomplish the same purposes as the priestly trumpets in the Sinai desert: to call God’s people together, in the unity of the Spirit; to set them in motion, as the Spirit directs; to call forth God’s power in spiritual warfare; and to lead the people into fervent worship.

In coming days, this trumpet call for repentance will go forth more loudly, clearly, and often, until the church hears and responds.

-->The first fruit of repentance is heartfelt worship, and in the Old Testament the trumpet call was often associated with worship. When the ark of the Covenant was brought into Jerusalem, seven priests blew trumpets before the ark, and "so all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouts, with the sounding of ram’s horns and trumpets, and of cymbals, and the playing of lyres and harps." (1Chron.15:24-28) Later on, when the ark was brought into its new home in Solomon’s temple, 120 priests blew trumpets as part of the sacred celebration (2Chron.5:12-13). Still later, when the reforming King Hezekiah purified the temple after years of idolatrous abuse, he had the priests sound the trumpets again (2Chron.29:25-28). On all these occasions, the trumpets were announcing the presence of the Lord with His people. That’s what all the excitement was about.

Trumpets are also a primary Biblical instrument of warfare. In Joshua 6, at the battle of Jericho, the ram’s horn trumpets were sounded repeatedly, just as they were again in Judges 7 in the battle against the Midianites. The purpose of the trumpets was to call on the Lord and, again, to announce His presence. The principle that "the battle is the Lord’s" (2Chron.20:15) pervades the whole of Scripture. When the people of Israel were trapped between Pharaoh’s army and the Red Sea, Moses prophesied to them, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still." (Ex.14:14-14) When Nehemiah was directing the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem, he had trumpeters sound the alarm when an enemy threatened, and told his fellow workers, "Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!" (Neh.4:20) It is His presence that makes all the difference in battle, whether physical or spiritual.

What the Lord’s presence accomplished at the battle of Jericho was to throw down the city walls. The book of Hebrews furnishes another insight on this: "By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days." (11:30) The power of God’s presence brought down the walls, but He was acting in response to His people’s obedient faith, a faith they demonstrated by taking the risk of looking mighty foolish after walking around in circles for seven days right under their enemies’ noses.

It’s exactly the same today: sounding the trumpet—prophesying in faith at the risk of being considered a fool—still brings down walls. "The wealth of the rich is their fortified city; they imagine it an unscalable wall." (Prov.18:11) But God’s prophet warns against this sort of pride: "God will bring down their pride despite the cleverness of their hands. He will bring down your high fortified walls and lay them low; He will bring them down to the ground, to the very dust." (Isa.25:11-12) The main instrument the Lord uses to bring down walls is the trumpet of true prophecy.

What kind of walls? For one,

Prophecy can break down the walls of separation— racial, ethnic, or class walls—that people have erected between themselves. Christ has overcome the bitter division between Jews and Gentiles: "For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility . . . ." (Eph.2:14) No walls of prejudice can remain standing between believers who truly love and obey the Lord—but it may require a prophetic word, from the pastor or another member of the body who listens to God, to break down such walls that have been a part of many people’s "baggage" all their lives. Likewise, the prophetic trumpet sounds the call to the church’s unity in Christ (John 17:20-23, Eph.4:3-6), breaking down the denominational divisions that have fractured the church ever since Paul wrote to the Corinthians (1Cor.1:10-13, 3:1-9). This prophetic call to unity is very high on the Lord’s agenda right now.

-->A major wall that true prophecy breaks down is the wall erected by false prophets. This is the subject of a lively passage in Ezekiel 13, where the Lord likens the false prophets’ efforts to someone building a flimsy wall and covering it with whitewash to conceal the defects. Then, speaking through His true prophet Ezekiel, the Lord says: "In My wrath I will unleash a violent wind, and in My anger hailstones and torrents of rain will fall with destructive fury. I will tear down the wall you have covered with whitewash and will level it to the ground so that its foundation will be laid bare." (13:13-14) Paul warned Timothy that in the last days, false prophets and teachers, claiming to be speaking for God, would lead people astray (see 1Tim.4). Timothy was currently ministering in Ephesus (1:3), and Paul urged his young protege to warn the Ephesian believers, with true prophetic authority, to shun the false prophets and their doctrines. In our own day, many systems of false prophecy and doctrine have taken root, and some have flourished and become worldwide in scope.

-->Finally, and most importantly, the trumpet of prophecy breaks down the walls we have built to separate ourselves from God. In Ezekiel 43, the Lord brings this accusation against His people: "When they set their threshold by My threshold, and their doorpost by My doorpost, with a wall between them and Me, they defiled My holy name by the abominations which they committed; therefore I have consumed them in My anger." (43:8 NKJV) On the literal level, the reference is probably to one of Solomon’s palaces that was built right next to the temple. That was bad enough, but the "abominations" that went on in there (after Solomon’s time, most likely) made it even worse.

How does this apply to us? The connection is that we, the body of Christ, are now the Lord’s temple. Our Lord jealously guards His prerogative of building His church His way. When we get involved in the ambitious fleshly business of "churchianity," presuming to build His church using our own ideas and energies and strategies—that is, the world’s way with a religious veneer—we wind up with a "building" all right, but it’s not His and there is a solid wall between Him and us. A bad scene. But God is merciful, and He enables His prophets to identify the differences between what He builds and what we build, and then, like a clear trumpet, to call us to repentance. Brothers and sisters, may we respond to that call! Hardly anything is worse than to be separated from our Lord and not even be aware of it. What most separates believers from the Lord is sin, but religion comes in a close second.

--->As the day of the Lord draws near, the trumpeter’s responsibility becomes all the greater:

Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sound the alarm on My holy hill.
Let all who live in the land tremble,
for the day of the Lord is coming. (Joel 2:1)

When that Day finally comes, it will not be men who blow the trumpet: "At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other." (Matt.24:30-31)