What did the Roman army's trumpet call mean to the soldiers after a victory?
In the Roman army, the trumpet call after a victory meant the battle was over and the legionaries were going home to Italy and back to Rome. It was the command every legionary could be exalted by, signaling victory and return home rather than continued combat.
Les explains that just as a trumpeter at the head of a long cavalry line in Westerns would blow his trumpet and the fellow at the back would know the command, so it was in the Roman army. When the battle was over and the Romans were victorious, the generals wanted to let the legionaries know: we're going home to Italy, we're going back to Rome. That was the trumpet call every legionary could be exalted by. The message was: the battle is over, we've won, and we're going home. Les then applies this to the believer, saying we are in a battle, Christianity is under ferocious attack and persecution is rampant, but what a joy to hear that trumpet call—the battle's over, come on home—and we will be taken out of this existence and suddenly, as Paul says, be changed.