Isaiah 27:13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown… I. THE PERIOD to which this promise or prophecy refers. That day. In the prophetical parts of Scripture, this phrase is often to be understood of New Testament times. II. THE GREAT MEANS that God promises to employ in New Testament days for accomplishing His design among the Gentiles. "The great trumpet shall be blown." 1. The Gospel intimates to all that hear it, the offering of a great sacrifice. 2. The Gospel contains an indication of a joyful and solemn feast. 3. The Gospel is the appointed means of gathering a solemn assembly. As me silver trumpets were used for gathering the assemblies in Israel, so the Gospel is employed, according to Christ's appointment, for gathering a Church to Himself. 4. The Gospel is the great means of directing the march of the armies of the spiritual Israel, through the wilderness of this world. When the priests sounded an alarm with the trumpets, the tribes of Israel were to decamp, and set forward in their journeys, in that order which God had appointed. 5. The Gospel is the great means of calling forth the armies of the living God to that spiritual warfare in which they are engaged under Christ, — of directing their motion in the day of battle, — and of animating them to continue the combat, amidst all the dangers and terrors with which they often find themselves surrounded. The silver trumpets were also to be used to blow an alarm when Israel was called to go to war against any enemy that should oppress them in their land. 6. The Gospel proclaims an universal jubilee to all that hear it. III. THE PERSONS UPON WHOM THE SOUND OF THIS GREAT TRUMPET SHALL TAKE EFFECT are described by two circumstances. 1. They are persons ready to perish. The original worn is still more emphatical — there shall come "the perishing in the land of Assyrian" All mankind are, by nature, in a perishing condition. Situated in desert land, which affords no provision but empty husks, we faint for spiritual thirst and hunger, and are ready to perish for want. Led captive by a cruel enemy, we are ready to perish by the weight of our chains. Enslaved by a tyrannical master, and employed in the vilest drudgery, we are ready to perish through fatigue and weariness. Sunk into a fearful pit, and struggling, without a possibility of extricating ourselves, in the miry clay, we must quickly perish without supernatural help. Above all, being condemned to death by a just sentence of the Court of Heaven, we are every moment in danger of perishing by the hand of justice. 2. They are outcasts. There seems to be here an allusion to the situation of the Hebrew children in Egypt, who, by Pharaoh's inhuman decree, were all to be cast out into the river. IV. THE PLACES FROM WHICH THESE PERSONS WERE TO BE GATHERED, by the sound of the great trumpet, are also two. "The land of Assyria" and "the land of Egypt." These two countries are mentioned as examples: and what is here said of them has been verified, and will again be verified in all other countries resembling them. Perishing sinners have been gathered from every quarter. V. THE END TO BE GAINED by the blast of this trumpet among them. This also is set before us in two particulars. 1. They shall come. (1) They shall come to Christ by faith. (2) They shall, come to the holy mount at Jerusalem. Jerusalem was of old the place of God's solemn worship. Every person who feels the efficacy of the Gospel becomes a genuine citizen of the New Jerusalem. And from that time forth he takes pleasure in attending upon God's ordinances; accounting a day in His courts better than a thousand. (3) They come to God Himself who dwells in the holy mount. 2. As they come, they worship. This imports — (1) Their cordial renunciation of all idolatry and false worship. (2) Their careful and diligent observance of all those ordinances by which God has required Himself to be worshipped. (3) Their carefulness to perform every act of worship in the manner that the Word of God has prescribed. (J. Young.) Parallel Verses KJV: And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem. |
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