Sound the Silver

SOUND THE SILVER Why We Sound the Silver Trumpets, Lift Our Voices, and Bring Our Offerings Before YAHWEH A Doctrinal Treatise of First Harvest Ministries International By Rev. John S. Vaughn Founder & Apostolic Overseer The Apostolic Assemblies of the House of Israel (FHMI) PREFACE There is a silver lining to Yom Teruah. For generations, Yom Teruah has become almost universally associated with the shofar. Yet when we return to the Torah itself, we find something that deserves far greater attention. The Torah does not forbid the shofar. The shofar is a biblical instrument, and we will never create a prohibition where YAHWEH did not create one. But neither will we allow tradition to bury what YAHWEH did command. Sound the Silver · 1 And what did He command? "MAKE THEE TWO TRUMPETS OF SILVER." That is the foundation of this study. Not what Torah permits. What Torah commands. I. THE DAY OF THE SOUND Leviticus 23:24 says: "In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing, an holy convocation." The Hebrew expression is zikhron teruah — a memorial of teruah. Numbers 29:1 says: "In the seventh month, on the first day of the month... it is a day of blowing unto you." Again: Yom Teruah. The Torah does not call this day Yom Shofar. It calls it Yom Teruah. Teruah describes a sound. It can be a shout, an alarm, a battle cry, a joyful noise, a trumpet blast, or a loud proclamation. Yom Teruah is not the day of an instrument. It is the day of the sound. One of the great misunderstandings of this feast is the assumption that teruah must come from an Sound the Silver · 2 instrument. Scripture shows otherwise. At Jericho, Joshua commanded: "All the people shall shout with a great shout." The people themselves became the teruah. Their voices were the instruments. Psalm 47 joins voice and trumpet together: "O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto Elohim with the voice of triumph... Elohim is gone up with a shout, YAHWEH with the sound of a trumpet." There is the biblical combination: voice, shout, trumpet, and kingship, all in one psalm. This is why we place special emphasis on shouting on Yom Teruah. Not merely playing an instrument, and not merely listening to one. The saints must raise their voices. The congregation must proclaim. The assembly must shout. Because the day is prophetic. Yom Teruah points toward the great transition when the governments of this age yield to the government of Messiah, when the dead in Messiah rise, and when those appointed to reign with Him are assembled before Him. Yom Teruah should sound like what it prophesies. IT SHOULD SOUND LIKE A KING IS COMING. Sound the Silver · 3 II. MAKE THEE TWO TRUMPETS OF SILVER Numbers 10:2 records YAHWEH's command: "Make thee two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shalt thou make them..." These were the chatzotzrot. They were not shofars. They were two trumpets, hammered from silver, and YAHWEH gave them specific purposes: to assemble the congregation, summon the leaders, direct the movement of Israel, sound alarms, prepare for battle, and accompany His appointed worship. Then Numbers 10:10 gives the command that governs our study: "Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings..." Notice carefully. The Torah does not merely tell us that trumpets existed. It tells us when to sound them: on appointed days, at the beginnings of the months, and over the offerings. Yom Teruah is all three. It is an appointed day. It is the beginning of a month. It has its own offering. The command converges upon this day from every direction, and the instrument Torah names in that command is the silver trumpet. Sound the Silver · 4 III. BEFORE IT IS YOM TERUAH, IT IS ROSH CHODESH There is an obvious fact about Yom Teruah that is easy to overlook: it always occurs on the first day of the seventh month. Before Torah ever calls it a feast, Torah locates it as Rosh Chodesh — the beginning of the month. Numbers 29 proves the two never separated. The chapter describes the special offerings of Yom Teruah, then verse 6 adds: "Beside the burnt offering of the month..." On Yom Teruah there were the regular new month offerings and the special Yom Teruah offerings. The feast did not replace Rosh Chodesh. Both operated together. The day carries a double identity. Now apply Numbers 10:10, which commands the silver trumpets "in the beginnings of your months." Even if someone disputed every other connection between Numbers 10 and Yom Teruah, one fact remains unavoidable: Yom Teruah is Rosh Chodesh, and Torah explicitly commands the silver trumpets at the beginnings of the months. Before we say one word about the feast itself, an overarching Torah command is already standing over this day. It is the first day of the month. Torah says: blow the silver trumpets. That fact must not be buried beneath later customs. Sound the Silver · 5 And this is not merely another month. The seventh month opens the great prophetic season: Yom Teruah, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Last Great Day. The entire prophetic drama now lies before us, and at its threshold the trumpets must speak. IV. SILVER, REDEMPTION, AND THE OFFERING Why silver? Silver is the metal of redemption. From the Tabernacle forward, Torah binds silver to ransom, to redemption, and to a price paid for a life. In Exodus 30, Israel gives silver as "a ransom for his soul." In Numbers 3, silver redeems the firstborn. Silver means ransom. Silver means redemption. Silver means a price paid. So when YAHWEH chooses silver for these trumpets, the imagery is unmistakable. These are not merely trumpets that summon. They are silver trumpets — the sound of a summons carried in the metal of redemption. Silver speaks of the redeemed. The trumpet speaks of the summons. Before this study is finished, we will see those two ideas come together. Now return to Numbers 10:10. The silver trumpets were sounded: "over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings." Sound the Silver · 6 We are not restoring animal sacrifices. YAHSHUA is the sacrifice. But the worship principle survives where the sacrificial form has changed: when an offering is brought before YAHWEH on His appointed day, the commanded sound accompanies the offering. The trumpet was never blown at random. It was blown over what Israel surrendered to YAHWEH, so that the worshipper heard redemption proclaimed over his gift. Therefore every household should prepare a special offering unto YAHWEH for Yom Teruah. And when that offering is presented before Him: Sound the silver trumpets over it. As the people give, let the silver speak. Let the sound become a declaration: Everything we have belongs to YAHWEH. Our harvest came from YAHWEH. Our provision came from YAHWEH. Our redemption came from YAHWEH. Our coming Kingdom belongs to YAHWEH. Let the trumpet proclaim that we remember our Redeemer, we remember our Provider, we remember our King, and we remember the Kingdom that is coming. Sound the Silver · 7 V. THE SILVER SUMMONS THE GOVERNMENT Numbers 10 gives one more remarkable detail. When both trumpets sounded, the whole congregation assembled. But Numbers 10:4 says: "If they blow but with one trumpet, then the princes, which are heads of the thousands of Israel, shall gather themselves unto thee." One trumpet summoned the princes — the heads of the thousands of Israel. The silver trumpet had a governmental function. It summoned those appointed to authority. Hold that Torah pattern, and now read Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:16: "The Master himself shall descend from heaven with a shout... and with the trump of Elohim: and the dead in Messiah shall rise first." Shout, trumpet, resurrection — the same combination we found in Psalm 47. Then 1 Corinthians 15:52: "The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible." The trumpet sounds. The redeemed rise. But why are they raised? Revelation answers: "Thou hast made us unto our Elohim kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth." Sound the Silver · 8 They are not resurrected merely to exist. They are resurrected to reign. Now the two ideas come together. Silver spoke of the redeemed. The trumpet spoke of the summons. And the summons, in Torah, went first to the princes. In Torah, the silver trumpet summoned the princes of Israel. At Messiah's return, the trumpet summons the redeemed who will reign with Him. Their identity is kings and priests. Their purpose is to reign upon the earth. The resurrection is therefore not merely an awakening. It is a governmental summons. The King has arrived, His rulers must take their places, His priests must report, and His government is about to be established upon the earth. We usually hear the resurrection trumpet as wake up. It is far more than that. It is assemble. THE TRUMPET DOES NOT CREATE THE LEADERS. IT SUMMONS THEM. PRINCES, ASSEMBLE. SAINTS, ARISE. THE KINGDOM HAS COME. VI. SOUND THE SILVER Now the picture is complete. TERUAH demands a sound. Sound the Silver · 9 THE PEOPLE supply the shout. SILVER speaks of redemption. THE TRUMPET announces a summons. THE PRINCES reveal government. THE OFFERING reveals surrender and thanksgiving. ROSH CHODESH opens the prophetic season. THE RESURRECTION TRUMPET calls the redeemed to reign. And THE KING RETURNS. Therefore, on Yom Teruah: We will blow the silver trumpets — because Torah commands them. We will blow them over the offering — because Torah connects the trumpet and the offering. We will shout with our voices — because this is Yom Teruah, the Day of the Sound. And we will remember that this day is Rosh Chodesh — because the first day of the seventh month carries its own silver-trumpet command. We do not need to forbid the shofar to establish this practice. We need only read what YAHWEH commanded. "MAKE THEE TWO TRUMPETS OF SILVER." That is the silver lining. And prophetically, those trumpets point us toward the day when the Sound the Silver · 10 redeemed will hear the summons of the King — the dead will arise, the rulers will assemble, the saints will take their places, and the government of YAHSHUA Messiah will begin upon the earth. THE SILVER WILL SOUND. THE PEOPLE WILL SHOUT. THE REDEEMED WILL RISE. AND THE KING WILL REIGN. SOUND THE SILVER. Rev. John S. Vaughn Founder & Apostolic Overseer The Apostolic Assemblies of the House of Israel — First Harvest Ministries International P.O. Box 2757, Bay St. Louis, MS 39521 HisComingKingdom.com Sound the Silver · 11