Hansel and Gretel are young but smart, according to the familiar tale by Hans Christian Andersen. When Hansel and Gretel are taken deep into the woods, they wisely think of dropping white pebbles along the way. These pebbles will allow them to retrace their steps and find their way home.
Our journey of exploration is similar. We are tracing passages about music through the Bible. The difference is that we have not passed this way before. The pebbles we follow were left long ago by our all-wise guide, God.
What do we find so far? In the long period from Adam to Moses the pebbles are few and far between. That is not to say that music is unimportant. It simply means that God chooses not to say much about it in His record of those early ages.
Then we stumble onto an astonishing fact: The law of Moses, which specifies so many details about every facet of formal worship, gives scant attention to music. Indeed, the two instruments it specifies serve mainly as signals. As a dinner gong calls a family together for a meal, so the law’s silver trumpets summon Israelites to assemble. As a bell on a door warns of someone’s arrival, so the bells on Aaron’s robe signal his presence to God. We should not read too much into what we learn. While music hardly features in the law as given at Sinai, that in itself does not imply that Miriam hangs up her tambourines.
Let’s say it this way: Music does not feature much in priestly worship. Only the priests enter the sacred tent and they alone blow the silver trumpets, and only the high priest enters that tent’s Holy Place and he alone wears the golden bells. But people also worship privately and as families away from the priestly rites. In informal settings, the ordinary people may be using instruments as suggested by the tambourines that appear so conveniently for Miriam’s celebration by the Red Sea and by lively homecoming parties (Judges 11:34; 1 Samuel 18:6).