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Think of the Star Wars trumpet fanfares composed by John Williams. Listen in your mind to morning reveille's rousing notes or evening taps' plaintive cry drifting down upon your ears.
God loves the sound of trumpets too.
Long ago God ordered trumpets blown to coordinate the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. Like more modern armies, trumpets directed and motivated the Israelite army in battle. He had His priest sound trumpets to announce religious events and ceremonies around His temple in ancient Israel.
With danger or great events on the line, you've got to have trumpets. Years ago a comedian imagined an army marching to a guitar: "Strummm...here they come on the run. Strummm...hurry up and get your gun. Strummm." Doesn't work, does it?
God likes trumpets, all kinds of trumpets made of metal or even horn. The earliest trumpet of the Bible was made from the horn of a ram or a bull and was called in Hebrew the shofar. As a simple horn, the shofar played no variety of notes, but yielded a rich, haunting resonance or blast that could be heard over great distances. A signal horn to alert the locals in time of war, it was also a trumpet of celebration and praise toward God.
Metal trumpets, not unlike those used to play fanfares for Olympic Games ceremonies, served many purposes (see Numbers 10:1-10). The Bible first talks about a pair of silver trumpets used during the Exodus and later in the Promised Land. Metal trumpets produced a more piercing and musical sound than the shofar.
In the priesthood of ancient Israel the number of trumpets grew to 120, accompanying the great choir and orchestra for religious musical performances at God's temple in Jerusalem (see 2 Chronicles 5:12-14).
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