Why did I name this web site the Clarion Call?  There was an occasion where God told me to sound the clarion.  I knew a clarion was a brass musical instrument, but that is all I knew.

I looked it up in the dictionary.  The definition was a medieval trumpet with clear, shrill tones.  Trumpets were often used to get people's attention for making announcements.  (In the Bible trumpet calls were associated with the calling of a holy assembly, a warning of danger, or the arrival of a king.)

God wanted me to sound the clarion.  At the time He told me that it was in reference to some things He wanted me to share with someone who was in a leadership position.  Yet, He has continued to urge me to stress how time is short and people are not allowing Him to get close and have a personal relationship with them.

A clarion has clear tones.  A dictionary calls it "brilliantly clear".  God wanted me to make sure I made things very clear.  The clarion's tones were shrill.  God let me know that often the things He wants people to know sound shrill in their ears because they don't want to hear them.

Sure enough, the things God had me pass on were shrill in the ears of the person for whom the message was intended.  What was given was rejected.

So, if God wants you to sound the clarion then you need to sound it.  Make the message clear.  Make sure that it is not you, but GOD, giving the message in the way He wants it given.  Then be ready because the message may just sound shrill in the hearer's ears.  If the message is rejected that is between the hearer and the Lord.

MORE ABOUT THE CLARION

The ancient Egyptians had short, straight silver trumpets for war. The Greeks used a trumpet for the Olympics called the salpinx. The Romans used an instrument called a lituus which was straight with a curved bell.

Trumpets called buzines and clarions were found in post-Roman Europe. The buzine was a long straight tube. The clarion was a smaller shorter tube with a bend.

The zigzag method of folding the tube first was developed in the 16th century. That was the principle from which modern trumpets are made.

There were three species of trumpets by 1511. They were the clarion, the military trumpet, and the Thurner horn. The clarion was later used in orchestras.

Keys and tone holes for trumpets were developed in the 17th century. Valve mechanisms were then developed and applied to the instrument. Valves were patented in 1818 by the German brass players Heinrich Stölzel and Friedrich Bluhmel in the early 19th century. Those changes made trumpets more versatile and enabled performers to play in tune with a larger range of notes. Slide trumpets were also invented but were not used. The more developed trumpet replaced the clarion in the orchestra and, as a result, we no longer have any clarions in use.

Another source says this about the clarion:
In the Middle Ages, "clarion" was a noun, the name for a trumpet that could play a melody in clear, shrill tones. The noun has since been used for the sound of a trumpet or a similar sound.

By the early 1800s, English speakers had also started using the word as an adjective for things that ring as clear as the call of a well-played trumpet.

Not surprisingly, "clarion" ultimately derives (via the Medieval Latin "clario-") from "clarus," which is the Latin word for "clear." In addition, "clarus" gave English speakers "clarify," "clarity," "declare" ("to make clearly known"), and "clear" itself.

CLARIONS AND THE BIBLE

The word "clarion" does not appear in the Bible.  The Bible only mentions trumpets.

In Numbers 10:1-2 God told Moses to make trumpets out of silver.  The Strong's Concordance shows this for trumpet:

In my Bible dictionary it says:
Jewish historian Josephus has described the trumpet as a straight tube, "a little less than a cubit (around 20") long," its mouthpiece wide and its body expanding into a bell-like ending.  The form of the trumpet is still preserved on the Jewish coins of the latter part of the period of the second temple.

When, in A.D. 70 the Romans erected an arch for Emperor Titus after his conquest of Jerusalem, they depicted on it his triumphant return to Rome with the holy objects robbed from the temple, among them a trumpet, which corresponds exactly to the description of Josephus.