Scripture Daily

Context No. 3402 of 4322 · Numbers

Context · Reflection

Numbers 29:1-6: in context

1“‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no regular work. It is a day of blowing of trumpets to you. 2You shall offer a burnt offering for a pleasant aroma to the LORD: one young bull, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without defect; 3and their meal offering, fine flour mixed with oil: three tenths for the bull, two tenths for the ram, 4and one tenth for every lamb of the seven lambs; 5and one male goat for a sin offering, to make atonement for you; 6in addition to the burnt offering of the new moon with its meal offering, and the continual burnt offering with its meal offering, and their drink offerings, according to their ordinance, for a pleasant aroma, an offering made by fire to the LORD.

The first day of the seventh month was marked by the blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation with rest from work and appointed offerings. The trumpet blast was a call, summoning the people to attention, to assemble, to stop and remember God.

Amid the ordinary flow of the year, God set a day to sound an alarm, as it were, calling his people back to himself for worship and remembrance. There is wisdom in built-in reminders. Left to ourselves, we drift and forget; the sounding of the trumpet interrupts the routine and recalls us to God. We too need appointed times that break into ordinary life and call us to attention before him, lest the days blur together and we lose sight of the One who gives them. The trumpet says, in effect: stop, gather, remember. Without such deliberate reminders, even devoted people slowly forget to lift their eyes.

Do I keep the rhythms and reminders that call me back to God, letting them interrupt my routine before the ordinary days blur together and I forget him?

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