Trumpets - Numbers 10

It seems I was mistaken previously, they didn’t set up the tabernacle every time they stopped, only when the cloud of the Lord rested on it in such a way that indicated that it was time to set it up. But I was correct in assuming that the set up and tear down were crazy long and tedious endeavors. God came to Moses and told him to make “two trumpets.” TB notes that it is inaccurate to call them both trumpets because even though that it the word that has been used in the English translation, these two “trumpets” were not the same as each other. In fact, one was long and skinny with a flared end that emitted the sound and was used to call armies together and for the military commanders to trump out orders of troop movement, battle plans, etc. TB says that “when the horns are blown during battle the Lord will remember and Israel will be delivered.”

This kind of phrasing bothers me because of course God is highly aware of every battle that people engage in, especially if it is the battle that his specific chosen people are engaging in explicitly because He told them too. And if this “blow the trumpet and I’ll remember to make you win” sentiment was legitimate, the I would blow it as soon as the battle started, but that’s just me. Of course, that’s not really what happens, God doesn’t have to be reminded, and the battle ends in Israel’s victory only when God is ready due to His timeline, and I realize that this narrative wasn’t necessarily written for me, so I digress. The second “trumpet” was the shofar which was used in religious ceremonies and to signal to the people as a whole about the goings on of the priests. He also noted that when each directional “side” would move out, these were troop movements, that’s how the camp of Israel was organized, even around the tabernacle during peace time. The overall message was for them to get used to being a military organization because they were going to have to take the land of Canaan by force.

On the 20th day of the second month, “the cloud was taken up from off the tabernacle of the testimony. And the children of Israel took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran.” So that gives a little bit more demonstration about how the people moving by cloud direction was accomplished. TB notes that this first leg of their journey was only 3 days long, they only moved 3 days away from the original camp where they had spent over a year. He speculated that this would have been at most 30 miles but almost certainly less.

Finally, in verse 29 we get a conversation between Moses and a man named Hobab. The scriptures is pretty ambiguous but might imply that this is Moses’ father in law, but TB say this could be another name of Jethro, or it could be any close male relative to Jethro like a grandfather, son, uncle, brother etc. The IM says that this is Moses’ brother-in-law. Here, Moses is asking Hobab to go with the people of Israel on their travels and Hobab doesn’t want to, he wants to go home. Why doesn’t Moses want Hobab to go with them? The iM answers, saying, “Although Jehovah gave general directions, Hobab knew the area and could help locate specific trails, campsites, etc. That he and his family went and did become heirs to lands in the land of Israel is apparent later from Judges 1:16 and 4:11.” He wanted him to come because he knew the area and could help the people find the best resources and it sounds like Hobab and his family did go with the people of Israel and help them navigate.