TYPOLOGY PART TWO
THE PERSON AND WORK
OF JESUS CHRIST
TRUMPETS
Taken from the book "The Feasts of the Lord" by Robert Thompson,
pages 133-140
" The Lord Jesus Christ is the TRUMPET of God. Through
Christ, God has announced His purpose in the earth. Men see their
sins, because in Christ God has SOUNDED THE TRUMPET of Divine
warfare against unclean spirits. Christ is the King of the
kingdom of God, the commander of the armies of heaven......
The coming of Christ has announced the coming of the kingdom
of God to the earth, and also the coming of the day of
judgment.....God has revealed His will through the Lord Jesus....
Christ is the TRUMPET of God. He is drawing near to the
earth in the days in which we live and is warning us to prepare
for the coming CONFLICT OF THE AGES, the great FLOWING OF SIN in
the earth and the abundance of the hideous fruits thereof. Christ
is telling us also, in these days, that through Him there is
abundant power and provision so that we will be able to stand,
and stand in abundance and glory, no matter what develops in the
earth.
Christ is the DAY STAR (2 Peter 1:19). He rises in our
hearts, proclaiming the day of the Lord, the millennium, which is
just over the horizon.
The TRUMPET is found in the Bible in a variety of usages.
One of the primary associations of the trumpet in Scripture is
with WAR. The trumpet must give a certain sound, and then we can
prepare ourselves for the battle, Paul teaches (See 1 Cor.14).
We are sick of war in these days, but we Christians are just
now getting ready for the greatest war of all - the dispossession
of Satan and his hordes from the earth....It is only through
war that the Lord Jesus Christ can come into His inheritance in
the earth. At the present time, the Lord Jesus is waiting until
His enemies be made His footstool.
The contrast between the Twenty-third and the Twenty-fourth
Psalms shows TWO important aspects of the PERSONALITY of the Lord
Jesus. In the familiar Twenty-third Psalm, we see the Lord as the
gentle SHEPHERD who leads His lambs besides still waters. If we
have never learned to know the good Shepherd, if we have never
followed Him through the valley of the shadow of death, nor had
Him lead us besides the still waters or prepare a table for us in
the midst of our enemies, then we have not been made ready for
His revelation to us in the Twenty-fourth Psalm.
In the Twenty-third Psalm Christ is our heavenly MOSES. He,
the SHEPHERD of the flock, LEADS through the WILDERNESS. But
Moses can never lead us across the Jordan and into the land of
promise. That takes JOSHUA! And so, in the Twenty-fourth Psalm,
Christ comes to us as Joshua.
The Twenty-fourth Psalm starts out with the reference to the
earth, because the kingdom of God is to be set up in the earth.
Christ has come in the anointing of the Holy Spirit to break
the bondage of sin and death in the earth. The creation awaits
His revealing so that the creation itself may be brought into the
glorious liberty of the children of God (see Rom.8).
Then, the psalm goes into the question of SIN. Today, as the
Holy Spirit brings to us the good news of the coming kingdom of
god, and the fact of its being set up in the earth, the central
issue becomes one of sin and righteousness. It is impossible to
ascend into the holy hill of Zion, the fortress of God, with
UNCLEAN HANDS AND AN IMPURE HEART. The issue today is that of
holiness and righteousness, through the enabling power and wisdom
of the Holy Spirit.
As soon as we receive the blessing that comes as a result of
the cleanness of hands and purity of heart, then we are ready to
lift up the everlasting doors of our heart to the Lord. And
how does He come into us? As the good shepherd? Not at all! He
comes into us as the Lord of armies; as the Lord, STRONG AND
MIGHTY IN BATTLE; as the KING OF GLORY.
When the TRUMPET is BLOWN, in the sequence of the Levitical
convocations, it announces the new year of doing business with
God. That is why the Twenty-fourth Psalm commences with a
reference to the earth. The convocation of TRUMPETS is always
followed by the DAY OF ATONEMENT. That is why the Twenty-fourth
Psalm immediately gets into the issue of SIN, which is the issue
of the Day of Atonement.
As soon as the sin has been pardoned - the warfare has been
accomplished - the next convocation is TABERNACLES. Therefore,
the Twenty-fourth Psalm goes directly to the ABIDING OF GOD'S
PEOPLE. But He comes as the man of WAR, because as soon as the
heart of the saint has been made pure, then it is the Lord's
intention to enter into a pure heart, setting up His fortress.
And from here He will go forth to BATTLE against the power of
Satan in the earth. This battle He will CONTINUE UNTIL every
breath that is drawn in the earth will be breathing the praises
of Christ Jesus, the Son of God. Unto Him every knee shall bow,
and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father......
There is a WARFARE to be accomplished before PEACE can be
established on the
earth.....
The Lord of hosts is going to descend from heaven with a
SHOUT, with a word of command, with a VOICE of the chief angel,
and with the TRUMPET of God. This is the kingdom-wide fulfillment
of the convocation of TRUMPETS. Paul informs us we shall be
CHANGED during this last trumpet. The word "last" implies that
there are trumpets which PRECEDE the trumpet which announces our
change and the RAISING OF THE DEAD into incorruptibility (1 Cor.
15: 52). And so there are! There are, in fact, SEVEN TRUMPETS.
The seven trumpets commence in the eighth chapter of
Revelation.....the convocation of Trumpets is number FIVE of the
seven Levitical convocations....."
(Number 5 is the number for GRACE in the numerology that God
uses in the Bible. We have seen that clearly demonstrated in
another study. God will through warfare show ultimate grace to a
sin sick world that will be at the brink of completely
obliterating itself in its own warfare. God will be gracious and
step in by sending Christ Jesus back to this earth to make war
with the warring nations, and so bring peace and mercy and grace
to earth, as He established the Kingdom of God on earth. This is
fully covered in my study called "Armageddon and the Age
to Come" - Keith Hunt).
Continuing with Thompson's comments:
" When the 'seventh seal' was opened (Rev. 8:1), the seals
being the concealing of the wisdom and purpose of God, there was
silence in heaven for about thirty minutes. This silence results
from the solemnity and enormity of the occasion; because that
which is about to happen is the beginning of the Day of the
Lord....It is the day of which the prophets spoke.
The seven angels are given seven trumpets. Then, still
another angel came and began to minister at the altar of incense
which stands before the throne of God Almighty in heaven. It is
interesting that an angel should minister here, because the
offering of incense in the Tabernacle of the Congregation was one
of the most important and distinguishing acts of the high priest
of Israel.
The ministering angel was given 'much incense.'.....This
incense typifies the very essence of Christ who is the substance
of God. When some of the holy incense was poured upon the glowing
coals in the altar of incense, the holy perfume billowed forth in
the face of the holy One of Israel who dwelled between the
cherubim covering the mercy seat.
The ministering angel held a golden censer (a pan for
holding hot coals) in his hand. He poured the holy incense over
the coals. Then the angel brought the prayers of all saints
mingled with holy perfume and offered the mixture before God
Almighty. This mixture represents the essence of Christ mingled
with supplications and thanksgivings of the saints.
Before the face of the Almighty come two things: the
fragrance of His beloved Son and
the fervent supplication, 'Your kingdom come, Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.' The bride is calling, 'Come, Lord
Jesus!' God hears the pleas of His holy ones; He 'smells' the
fragrance of His beloved Son. The opening of the seals has caused
such trouble in the earth that the prayers of God's saints have
grown in strength and insistence. The nature of Christ has been
'beaten into' and 'salted together' with the personalities of the
saints.
The combination of the supplications, pleas, intercessions,
praises, adorations, mingled together with the fragrance of His
beloved Son reaches the level at which the Father is compelled
in His boundless love to act. He gives the AWFUL WORD. He
authorizes the blowing of the SEVEN trumpets, the last of which
will change the bodies of the saints and bring them into perfect
union with the Lord Jesus. The end of all things in now at hand.
The mighty Lord of hosts, the Lord Jesus Christ, stands before
the everlasting doors. The kingdoms of this world are about to
become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.
Then the ministering angel filled the censer with FIRE from
the altar of the God of the whole earth, and cast it into the
EARTH. The result was 'voices, and thunderings, and lightnings,
and an earthquake' (Rev. 8:5). The seven angels lifted up their
trumpets. The first angel sounded, and the result was terrible
destruction upon the earth. This is the beginning of the plagues
upon Egypt, so to speak. By the time the last angel sounds, Egypt
(the spirit of this age) will be reeling under the destruction
which comes from the hand of the Lord God. Then will come the
great kingdom-wide exodus of Israel (the seed of Abraham, those
who are in Christ) from the bondage of Pharaoh, to speak in a
figure......
It is always true that God's FIRE brings forth righteousness
and blessing to the saints, and destruction and death to those
who hate God. The same fire which burned up Nebuchadnezzar's
mighty men burned the bonds of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
The jawbone of Sampson slew the enemies of Israel, but provided
refreshing for Sampson. The same cloud which protected the
fleeing Israelites confused the Egyptians.....The saint who is
walking in Christ Jesus will find only profit in the fire of God,
the fire which comes from His altar in heaven. But the same fire
is terror and judgment to the enemies of the Lord.
God's saints never have been, are not now, nor will they
ever be, destroyed by the wrath of God. But the saints very often
have to go through the fire of God.....We saints have to be
vaccinated with fire until we become fireproof. But the same fire
is destruction and eternal death to those who are dwelling in
sin. The mercy of God brought Israel into the land of milk and
honey, and at the same time killed the Canaanites. That is the
way it has to be when there is enemies and rebels against the
truth of God.
Notice the following verses from Psalm 136 how the mercy of
God appears when seen from the point of view of God's enemies:
'To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn: for his mercy
endureth for ever.....
But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea: for his
mercy endureth for ever....
To him that smote great kings: for his mercy endureth for
ever; Silon king of the Amorites: for his mercy endureth for
ever: And Og the king of Bashan:for his mercy endureth for
ever' (verses 10, 15, 17-20)......
We see, then, that the fire from the altar of God brings
voices, thunders, lightnings, and an earthquake. There will be
TWO kinds of VOICES: one preaching the gospel of Christ with
unprecedented POWER, and the other advocating the rule of the
wisdom of mankind. It is even so now. When the judgment of God
hits our life there are two voices in us: ONE tells us to put
our faith and trust in God; the OTHER voice counsels us to flee
from the God and take our chances with the world.
Also.....Everything in our life that can be shaken is shaken and
removed, and only the WORK of Christ STANDS. But to the work of
Satan, unclean spirits, the spirit of this age, and our own
flesh, the voices, thunderings, lightnings, and the earthquake
create confusion and a tearing sown of what has been built up.
The coming down of the FIRE of God into the earth is the
beginning of the end for the works of iniquity.
The SEVEN TRUMPETS will SOUND, one at a time. During the
sounding of the LAST TRUMP, the Lord Jesus will descend with a
word of summons, with the voice of the CHIEF angel. 'Come up
here,' the Lord will command. And we will caught away in CLOUDS
to meet the Lord in the AIR and shall be with Him evermore. The
will be poured out upon the inhabitants of the earth the
FRIGHTFUL WRATH of God which has been reserved unto this day.
The SEVENTH ANGEL SOUNDS the TRUMPET which heralds the
coming of the most SOLEMN of all days, the DAY OF ATONEMENT! "
End of quotes from Robert Thompson
..................
Written and compiled by Keith Hunt in September 2000. All
capital lettering was by Mr. Hunt.
All studies and articles by Keith Hunt may be copied,
published, e-mailed, and distributed as led by the Spirit. Mr.
Hunt trusts nothing will be changed (except for spelling and
punctuation errors) without his consent.
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