Marching Orders “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed- in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 1 Corinthians 15:51-52

The Facts, Please! Trumpets, also called horns or coronets, are mentioned in several places in the Bible. They were made of either metal or bone. Their sounding air column was about two feet long. This produced a high, shrill tone.

The Facts, Please! The bone trumpets were usually made from a ram’s horn. The Jews called this a shofar. It was used to signal a battle or peace at the end of a battle, the beginning of Sabbath, the first day of the month, and the Year of Jubilee. In the month of Tishri they blew these trumpets all day long on the first day on the Festival of Trumpets.

The Facts, Please! When God gave Moses instructions for building the tabernacle, he also commanded that two silver trumpets should be made. These were to be blown as signals to the Israelites when they were camped in the wilderness. One long blast blown by the two trumpets mean that all the people were to assemble before Moses at the door of the tabernacle. If the long blast was blown on only one trumpet, just the tribal leaders were to assemble. A special blast, called an ‘alarm’, was sounded when the camps were to march forward.

The Facts, Please! Paul said that when Jesus came in the air to take us to heaven, the ‘last trumpet’ would sound. The people in Palestine in those days were familiar with Roman soldiers, who were signaled by three trumpet calls. The first blast meant “Strike tents and be ready to depart.” The second meant, “Fall into line.” The last trumpet meant, “March!”

Bible Story The Trumpet Call to March (Numbers 10:1-36)