The trumpet of the Lord is announcing to God’s people that it’s time to move on from where we had previously camped. He is moving us beyond our current confusion about failed leaders and beyond old ways of thinking that do not reveal His glory. The Lord has a new place and a new thing He wants to do in His people. He is leading the willing ones to that new place.

As the Israelites moved through the wilderness, their wandering resembles the wilderness the Church is currently navigating. The Lord is signaling His Church as He did with Moses, “Now the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make two trumpets of hammered silver for calling the community to assemble and for signaling the breaking of camp’” (Numbers 10:1-2).

The Israelites were called to follow the cloud of God’s presence, not a man, an institution, or their fears about the future. “So, the Israelites set out from the wilderness of Sinai and traveled on from place to place until the cloud stopped in the wilderness of Paran” (vs.12). 

Paran was a wilderness; a place not associated with God’s glory because of its barrenness. It would be in that place where the Lord would demonstrate His glory and provide provision in ways not imagined. If we follow the Lord, there is always hope in our future, even in what appears to be a barren place.

God is moving the Church to a new place that can appear like the wilderness of Paran, because the place where we had camped no longer serves His purpose. His purpose was to reveal His glory, not the shallow glory and praise of man. The evidence of our departure will be marked by our repentance and the restoration of those things that matter most to God.

We have entered a spiritual journey that can only be accomplished if we follow the Lord, not the sounds of our despair over the past or our fears about the future. The Spirit is revealing where we can stop and rest in God’s presence. “They marched for three days after leaving the mountain of the Lord, with the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant moving ahead of them to show them where to stop and rest” (vs. 33). 

“As they moved on each day, the cloud of the Lord hovered over them. And whenever the Ark set out, Moses would shout, ‘Arise, O Lord, and let your enemies be scattered! Let them flee before you!’ And when the Ark was set down, he would say, “Return, O Lord, to the countless thousands of Israel!” (vs. 34). 

Some of our current enemies are issues we have allowed to happen within our ranks, where assumption, not faith, has kept us camped in our assumptions and prevented us from moving forward to the new place where God is leading His Church.

We are in the process of returning to the Lord. That return will require us to leave behind those things that stood in the way of the revelation of God’s glory. Faith is not a place of encampment. It constantly moves us forward to something new if we are willing to repent, restore what was lost, and move on. There is hope in that kind of future.