NOTES for Num 10:1-36
The trumpets made by Moses serve not only as signaling instruments, but also so that the Lord may "remember" Israel in a moment of danger. The ark of the covenant is also not only an object of worship and a repository for the tablets of the law, but also the place of the Lord's presence with His people.
In the Bible we often see how elements of gift and task are intertwined: the call, the promise, and the need to carry out God's design stand side by side with signs of what the Lord has already done for His people, with His presence that has already taken place. If He is already here, then where else are we to strive?
The Lord Jesus will fully express this paradox in the New Testament when He calls Himself at the same time the truth and the life, and the way to the truth and the life; when He promises to return in glory and, at the same time, says, "I am with you always."