Seeds For Thinking

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

Scripture: “Sound the trumpet in Zion! Call a fast and gather all the people together for a solemn meeting. Bring everyone - the elders, the children, even the babies.” (Joel 2:15-16a, Living Bible)

What calls you to worship services? Bells, drums, a gong, a shofar, trumpet or loud voice? Chances are, in our time, None of the Above.
All are time-honored ways of communicating with the faithful or alerting the community. Imagine a time when there are no clocks, no telephones -either cell or Plain Old Telephone Service. No radio or TV to reach the multitudes. What do you do?
Make a loud noise! Sound the trumpet. Ring a bell. Bong a gong, or beat a drum. Shout from the roof tops1, if that is what it takes to spread the word.
The Christian communities long depended upon tintinnabulation -
To the swinging and the ringing
Of the bells, bells, bells -
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells -
To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells! (Edgar Allen Poe: The Bells - c1845)
A church bell was rung either to signify the hour or the time for worshippers to go to church, perhaps to attend a wedding, funeral, or other service. Before mass communication they were the only way to gather a village together, so they served for secular functions also.
The bells peal joyfully on wedding days and on the great feast days of the Church. They toll mournfully as the departed receive the Church’s last blessing.
By the end of the eighth century, bells and belfries were seen as an integral part of every church. By medieval canon law, cathedrals were required to have at least five bells, a parish church to have two or three and small chapels to have one.2
The Shofar is one of the earliest instruments used in Jewish music. Usually made from a rams horn, a shofar can also be made from the horns of other animals, including those of a goat or sheep. It is the one musical instrument that has not changed in over 5,000 years. The blast of a shofar emanating from the thick cloud on Mount Sinai made the Israelites tremble in awe (Exodus 19:16-19). Many texts use the word “trumpet” for both the shofar (ram’s horn) and the familiar trumpet instrument. Each had its special significance. The 'trumpets' described in Numbers 10 are a different instrument, described by the Hebrew word 'trumpet' not the word for shofar.
The shofar was blown to start the battle of Jericho, “and the walls came tumbling down.” (Joshua 6:4-5) The ‘trumpets’ were to be blown loud and long on the Day of Atonement to proclaim the Jubilee year. "Then you shall transmit a blast on the horn; in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, the day of Yom Kippur, you shall have the horn sounded throughout the land ... And proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." ((Leviticus. 25:9-10a).)
In our times its liturgical use is restricted to New Year (Rosh Hashanah) and the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). 3
In Joel’s Day, it was “Blow the trumpet in zion, consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; gather the people sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders.” Today - “Tell a friend or neighbor - don’t count on horns or bells to draw them in.

1 The Islamic Call to Prayer -The muezzin, a man appointed to call to prayer, climbs the mineret of the mosque, and he calls in all directions, "Hasten to prayer."
http://www.balaams-ass.com/alhaj/calltoprayer.htm
2 Why Do Church Towers Ring Bells? http://www.ehow.com/facts_5873166_do-church-towers-ring-bells_.html#ixzz17HfulUWU
3 http://www.holidays.net/highholydays/shofar.htm
(Go to page: Scroll down and listen to examples of shofar)

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

Scripture: David said, "The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; The God of my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and refuge . . . " (2 Samuel 22:3a)

There are many scriptural references to horns, in both the Old and New Testaments. Animal horns, the "usually paired bony processes that arise from the head of many ungulates," especially those of cattle (the ox) and sheep (ram's horn) were used for musical instruments and as containers.
The shofar, a ram's-horn trumpet, was blown by the ancient Hebrews in battle and high religious observances and used in synagogues before and during Rosh Hashanah and at the conclusion of Yom Kippur.
A horn was used to hold oil for the sacred rite of anointment (see 1 Samuel 16:1-13, where the Lord instructs the prophet to anoint David as king.)
The altar used during the Exodus journey had 'horns' on the four corners, overlaid with bronze. (See Exodus 27:1-8) The Book of Ezekiel also mentions an altar with four horns extending upward from the hearth. Blood from the sacrifice was to be placed on the four horns as part of the ceremony. (Ezekiel, 43:15; 20)
The Jewish historian, Josephus, describes the temple of Jesus' day in The Wars of the Jews, Book V, Chapter V. The altar, which stood in front of the temple, had "corners like horns."
The criminal, when his crime was accidental, found an asylum by laying hold of the horns of the altar (1 Kings 1:50; 2:28).
The phrase 'horn of my salvation' is typical of many scriptural references, in both the Old and New Testaments where it is obvious that "horn" had significance beyond trumpets and anointing vessels.
. The Bible uses 'horn' as a metaphor for strength; its loss as dishonor.
Moses compares the tribe of Joseph with a firstborn bull, with horns like the horns of a wild ox, (Deut. 33:17) denoting strength.
Lamentations 2:2-3 describes how the Lord, in fierce anger, has cut off the horn of Israel (strength) and brought her kingdom down to the ground in dishonor. Job, also, laments that he has "defiled my horn in the dust." (Job 16:15, KJV)
Horns are emblems of power, dominion, glory, and fierceness, as they are the chief means of attack and defense with the animals endowed with them. The books of Daniel and Revelation are rich in prophetic imagery of horns, signifying royal dignity and the might of kings, especially military power, (Jer 48:25; Zac 1:18; Dan 8:24). John saw beasts with horns in Rev. chapter 13, vss. 1 and 11.
Zacharias echoes David's psalm of triumph in Luke 1:69, that the Lord has "raised up a horn of salvation for us," in the Christ, the Messiah, of John 3:16. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
Paul proclaimed that all things - of the world, of life, death, things present or things to come - "all are yours. And you are Christ's, and Christ is God's." (1 Cor. 3:21-23)
February 4, 2007