When the Trumpet Sounds

*The sermon manuscript below was generated from the recording by AI…

Well, things often have warning signs on them nowadays, don’t they? Bottles, food, pretty much everything comes with a warning label on it. And, and they tend to have warning labels for a reason. I know we like to ignore them.

Uh, I found this out the hard way one time. I got a, a hair treatment that I had to do for a season, and it said on the label, uh, “Don’t put it in your eyes.” And th- I read that and then turned around to my family in the lounge and said to them, you know, “What kind of person squirts the stuff in their eyes? Like, why do they even make these labels?” And then I put it on my head, and it rolled immediately down the front of my face into my eyeball, and it, it felt as if someone had squirted acid in my eye. It was the most horrendous experience. It burned like crazy. I was, like, flushing it with water over and over, and it just stayed there. I ended up with eye drops, trying to get the stuff out of my eye. It was horrendous.

So what, what had happened? I had ignored the warning sign, right? There was a sign on the bottle that made it very clear, and me in my ignorance thought I could ignore it, and I, I suffered and paid the consequence of my action.

You know, the Bible’s filled with warning signs, All throughout the Bible, there’s lots of warning signs, and in our passage today, we have a series of warnings.

See, trumpets can serve many purposes. When we think of a trumpet, we probably most often think of the brass win- brass wind instrument, right? We see it at, uh, different events. We used to have one. Uh, Jerome used to play one at Covenant. It was great. People love the trumpet.

But when, when the Bible says trumpet, it doesn’t think so much of a lovely musical instrument. It thinks of a horn. It’s speaking of often a war trumpet or a warning trumpet. And throughout the Bible, the word trumpet brings with it a whole bunch of different connotations. And for an early reader and a person seasoned in the Old Testament, when they hear trumpets, they probably think something quite different to you and I. They think impending doom, they think war, and they think covenantal implications. And we’ll actually consider some of those covenantal implications tonight when we look in the Book of Nehemiah, Lord willing.

But one of the most common themes is that of warning. It’s with the sound of a trumpet throughout the Old Testament that the enemies appear. It’s the sound of the trumpet that summons the judgment of God upon Israel. It’s the sound of the trumpet that heralds the return of Christ. It’s the sound of the trumpet that warns for doom. that’s how it’s functioning here. It’s the warning of judgment.

7 trumpets. We have to Y-you see that, I think, when you look at it in its narrative context. We’ve been following a story, remember? It’s like a picture book, the book of Revelation. And we saw 7 seals, and the imagery of 7 seals was very fitting because it was talking about what? The purposes of God and how God’s purposes unfold, and that the lamb is the one who works out God’s purposes in the world. And so a seal on a scroll being broken is a very fitting picture, isn’t it?

Well, now, the, the story, though it’s a repetition of the 7 again, is emphasizing a different thing. You see, the seals were emphasizing God’s purposes and also the safety of God’s people, whereas here we’re seeing the judgment of God upon the world and the unsafety of the unsealed.

You see, in chapter 7, you remember, the judgment was being poured out, and we asked that question, “What about the church? What about the church?” And then in chapter 7, we see the sealing thing that happens. They go out and they put seals on the foreheads, and all of the sealed of God are safe and secure in the arms of God. Well, now we consider what you might say as the lot of the unsealed.

This is also part of a Old Testament picture too. There, there’s 2 pictures in particular that, well, there’s a lot, but 2 in particular that are being fleshed out here from the Old Testament. One is Jericho. You remember the story of Jericho? Israel walked around the wall each day, and then on the 7th day they walked around 7 times, and what did they do while they walked around the wall? There were priests doing something, right? They were blowing trumpets. And on the 7th round, on the Lord’s day, they blew the trumpets 7 times. And after the trumpets had herald, heralded, what happened? The walls fell flat. The judgment of God ensued, and the godless were destroyed, with the exception of Rahab and her family, who had cried out to God for mercy.

And so that’s a backdrop image here, 7 trumpets.

The other one, probably more strongly so, is the backdrop of Egypt. You remember the Exodus event? God turns up to deliver his people, and he does thro– does so through the judgment of Egypt, right? He could have just gone in, grabbed his people, and walked out, but he didn’t. He judged the nations, and he showed his sovereign omnipotence and power over the world, over all of creation. And it’s that backdrop of deadly plagues and the judgment and power of God that sort of puts a shadow over all of this chapter of what John sees.

And it begins with 4 trumpets. Just like with the seals, if you remember, there were the first 4 seals which went together as a unit, and then there were the second set that went together as a unit, and we see the same thing here.

The first thing we see is 4 trumpets, and they’re 4 trumpets that address the physical things that the people of this world trust in.

When I was a child, we used to often Holiday at a place called Ruapuke. I don’t know if any of you have heard of it. It’s a tiny little beach just south of Raglan. Everyone goes to Raglan. No one goes to Ruapuke. It was a tiny little beach. We’d go there, we’d be the only ones on the whole beach over New Year’s, Christmas break. It was marvelous. We used to laugh at all the people at Raglan and their busyness as we enjoyed a beach to ourselves.

And, and there was a little lagoon down the road from where we stayed, and we used to walk down there as kids to swim in the lagoon. And there was sort of a road, and on each side grass verges, and on one side there was tea tree. And you know if you see the top of tea tree, it looks almost like you can walk on it, right? And the tea tree’s there, and then you fall, or you go down into the tea tree down below.

And I was walking along the grass verge, assuming it was all safe and fine to walk on. And I’m walking along this grass, and it was kikuyu grass. And if you know anything about kikuyu grass, it spreads, and it’s spongy, right? And it all looks pretty much the same. And as I’m walking along, all of a sudden I step and just fall straight through the grass, bottom out at the bottom of the tea tree somewhere and have to find my way back up again.

You see, what had happened is I had trusted the grass that was before me. I had looked at it and gone, “This is safe, this is hard, this is physical. I can walk on it.” And I found out to my demise as I rolled down to the bottom of the tea tree hill.

Well, in our passage before us, we see what happens to those who trust in the things of this world, and we’re given 4 pictures. 4 trumpets are blown.

The first trumpet, b- as the angel blows, addresses the reality of earthly things, and so we read in verse 7, “The angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned”

Hail and fire, of course, is exactly what fell on Egypt prior to the locusts, and the, the, the country was decimated as hail and fire devoured the plants of the field. And here we see a similar thing.

Well, what’s it a picture of? Well, this grass and this vegetation, it’s a picture of food, isn’t it? It’s a picture of the ability to produce and sustain life through food. The ability to provide for yourself is all of a sudden removed and destroyed. By God’s sovereign act, in the blink of an eye, a third of every su- food substance is removed from the field.

Now, we need food for sustenance, don’t we? We need food for life. And what God is showing here is that He has the power to remove it immediately. He is sovereign over the fields, over the fruit trees. And those who depend on them run the risk of losing them under the judgment of God.

Then we get a second trumpet, another trumpet blows, and we see a fiery mountain, a great mountain burning with fire. And it’s thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea becomes blood. Think about the Nile, right? Becoming blood. It’s just like in Egypt. A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

So now we see what? Plague striking the sea. And it’s this great mountain. Now, there’s debate as to what this great mountain could mean. In Old Testament literature, very frequently great nations are portrayed as mountains. And so this could be God saying that He will take the nation and cast it down, whether it’s talking about Rome or whether it’s any nation of godless people, that God can cast them down. And I think that’s probably true. I think it’s equally likely that in the apocalyptic language, it’s meant to be a real mountain, and there’s a mountain being cast into the sea. Because it’s a picture book, right? And in the picture book, a great fiery mountain descends and destroys the sea, th- a third of it. And, and the creatures of the sea, so you can’t catch fish. And the boats, so there’s no trading. And what’s evaporated from society? Commerce, trading, sustenance upon the sea, and God’s hand of judgment falls upon it, upon those that would trust in their abilities to make food by fishing, for those who trust in their ability to trade on Wall Street and on stock markets. And God, in the blink of an eye, can remove it.

And then in verse 10 to 11, we see the third one striking the rivers. A great star, blazing like a torch, fall- falls from heaven, and falls on a third of the rivers and the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood, and a third of the waters become wormwood, and many people died from the water because it had been made bitter.

Judgment falls upon fresh water. N- not just the rivers, like in Egypt, but every source of water, springs. And they’re struck with this thing called wormwood. And you’re probably wondering what wormwood was. It was a plant, I don’t know if it’s around any longer, but it was a plant that made whatever it touched bitter. And if you put it in water, and it was constantly in the water, and you drank the water constantly, it would actually poison you and potentially kill you.

And so it’s the picture of that which gives life, the source of life, water, which we so treasure and so need, being corrupted and taken away, so that a third of all of humanity dies by the drinking of the water.

Then we see the 4th one. Another trumpet blows, and the skies are struck, aren’t they? A third of the sun, a third of the moon, a third of the stars, so that their light may be darkened. All of a sudden, just like in Egypt, when darkness struck, a third of the world is under blackness.

Now, I don’t know if you remember the, the little verse that says in Egypt, that when, when, when God did the plague of darkness, it says, it says, “And no one went out of their house.” There’s no streetlamps, right? But not only that, in, in the complete absence of any form of light, even a torch does you very little good. And the blackness is so oppressive that cavers talk about people, like, almost losing their minds when they’re stuck in the blackness of caves.

This is the picture we’re being given. That which we so trust in, the sun, the moon, I mean, it’s always there, right? You never question whether tomorrow the sun is gonna be there, do you? And, and though sometimes the stars are covered, even on the worst of storms, you know the stars are there on the other side. And the moon always comes back up eventually, no matter how long the clouds have covered it. And now they’re taken away. That which we would consider to be the most strong and steady is removed from the presence of humanity.

What is this picture we’re being given? Well, like Egypt, everything that humanity trusts in is being stripped away. You see, Egypt, the plagues were not just about God flexing his arm. He was stripping the idols of Egypt and showing the nations that there is no God like Yahweh. And so the 10 plagues correspond with 10 particular false gods in Egypt. And it’s no different here.

So what, what do people trust in today? What do worldly people trust in? Well, they trust in money. They trust in their ability to produce food, ability to be business people. They trust in their family. They trust in all measure of different things. And what God is showing is that he has the power to remove them in the blink of an eye. They are not trustworthy. They are not worth trusting. They’re like the kikuyu grass that I fell through. They’re unstable.

And yet, sadly, are, are we not, as humans, are we not so quickly to commit the sin of self-reliance, of independency, and a complete rejection of God?

Think about Nebuchadnezzar. Do you remember the story in N- in the Book of Daniel, where Nebuchadnezzar walks on his roof, and as he walks on the roof one day, he looks over the hanging gardens in the city of Babylon, and he says, “Behold the kingdom which I have built.” And what does God do? He strikes him, and he makes him to walk around on hands and knees like a beast for 7 years. And what’s God showing Nebuchadnezzar? “You didn’t build it. I gave it to you. I did it.”

And the same is being shown here, that the things that we love and trust are ultimately gifts from God, and that all honor and glory must be returned to him for them.

It’s like the Tower of Babel, remember? “Go and fill the earth,” God said. And what did the people do? “We’re not gonna go fill the earth. We’re gonna stay right here and build a massive tower to heaven that we can trust in.” And what does God do? He comes in judgment. He looks down upon them from heaven and strikes them and removes that which they trusted in.

It reminds me of a man called Philip Franklin. You’ve probably never heard of Philip Franklin. He was the vice president of the shipping company that made Titanic. He said these words, “There is no danger that Titanic will sink. The boat is unsinkable.” The height of folly and hubris, pride. Nothing can sink my ship. Maiden voyage, and down it went. Because God is the only sovereign. God is the only trustworthy, eternal reality.

And brothers and sisters, for the people of God, this is a, a reminder for us as our earthly things either are taken away or abound, that they are not trustworthy. They are not worth relying upon, that they will not last. All of your money will one day go to somebody else. It’s like it says in Ecclesiastes, “I saw something that was vanity. A man got real rich, and then he gave it to a fool.” Everything is fleeting, except God.

And that’s what we’re being shown, that the Lord who is sovereign over all is completely trustworthy, and so God’s calling us to trust Him. This is what, this picture’s so important for the persecuted church, right? But trust God. Don’t trust in your physical well-being. Don’t trust in your health. Don’t trust in your lives. Trust in God.

And so we see these 4 trumpets stripping away the physical trusts of the world and bringing judgment in them. The very things, it’s striking, isn’t it? The very things they trust become their judgment. They trust to the fruit trees and the wheat, and it’s burnt up. They trust to the fish of the sea, and it’s snapped away. And all of the things that they so tenderly held just fall like quicksand through their fingers.

I read this week of a, of a man in I think it was two thousand and eight who stood up and said with just brashness that effectively America’s financial economy is gonna be stable, and that he invested a whole bunch of money. You know what happened the next day? The economy crashed. Placing trust in untrustworthy places always ends up in failure.

And so trust, brothers and sisters, in God and God alone.

Then we see 3 more trumpets, ’cause of course 7 -4 is 3, right? You didn’t think you’d get a maths lesson at church today, but there you go, children. 7 -4 is 3. And so we have 3 more trumpets, 3 woeful trumpets.

All of a sudden we get this interlude. Interludes are powerful. If you watch movies or if you watch dramas or if you go to operas, they’ll have musical interludes, right? Whether it’s to anticipate something or whether it’s to mourn something. One of my most emotive experiences in any movie, you can probably guess it’s Lord of the Rings, is when Gandalf dies. Because straight after that, there’s this musical piece with an opera singer that is just profoundly powerful, and I, I get tears every time I watch it, and it’s just from the musical experience of how well they’ve done it.

This interlude is, is very powerful. And we get the same thing here. We get an interlude. You expect what? You’ve just had trumpet four, and so you expect another trumpet blast, but you don’t. All of a sudden you get an eagle. Like why is there an eagle in the sky? That’s a vision. It’s a storybook. You can do what you want in a picture And there’s an eagle in the sky. You might call him a heralding eagle. He looks out at the distance to see what’s coming, and the eagle cries out with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe.”

Now, if you’re an astute Old Testament scholar, this might ring bells for you. Why 3 woes? Well, maybe you’ve heard preachers say things like, “The thrice holy God, holy, holy, holy.” It’s, it’s the only repetition of its type. I’ve heard preachers say that. Well, it’s not. Here’s another. And, and you probably know if you’ve spent long times in the church that the Bible uses repetition to intensify things. In Hebrew, you can’t underline in Hebrew. You can’t bolden things in Hebrew. So what do you do? Well, you repeat yourself. It would be like if I spoke of my wife, I would say, “She’s beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.” Yes, she’s beautiful, but she’s not just beautiful. She’s beautiful, beautiful. But she’s not just beautiful, beautiful. She’s beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

And the same is true when it comes to God. He’s holy, holy, holy. No, no, holy, holy, holy. Thrice holy. And now we have the opposite. Woe. Not just woe, though. Woe, woe, woe.

What is this woe? Well, the other blasts are about to happen. 3 woes, 3 trumpets.

The fifth and the 6th trumpet go hand in hand. We had the 4, then we have the 2 woes that mix together. A-and these 2 are effectively 2 ways of expressing the same reality.

The first 4 were about physical trusts, right? The second 2 are about the oppression and judgment of God through spiritual realities. We see 2 woes intensifying one another.

The first is to do with locusts, the second to do with horses.

Let’s have a look what takes place. Firstly, we see a star in chapter 9, verse one, falling from heaven. I wonder if that rings any bells for you. Jesus said something once, remember? That, “I saw a star. I saw the devil like a star fall from heaven.” The star is representative of the devil. We know that from verse 11. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and Greek he is called Apollyon. It’s the names of the devil.

The devil falls down. He’s given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.

Now, you have to understand there’s 2, 2 phrases used throughout Revelation over and over again. One of them refers to the present, what you might call, hell, and the other refers to the place of eternity of hell, like the lake of fire, right? So people are not cast into the lake of fire now, they’re cast into Hades now, and in the future, they will be cast into the lake of fire. That’s the way he, this book treats it.

And here we’re talking about the first, the present reality of Hades, and the present reality of Hades in the vision is filled with all manner of locusts, and these locusts come out at the beckoning call of the devil. And these locusts are representative of s- evil spirits, of demons, those that do the bidding of the devil.

Now, there’s something really important to recognize at this point. The devil is not king of Hades. It doesn’t say that. It says he’s, he’s the king of the evil spirits. He’s the king of the bottomless pit, the things that come up out of it, but he isn’t sovereign over hell. Who gives him the right to open it up? Who gives him the key? Well, the Lord does. The Lord gives him the key. The Lord gives him, sovereignly gives him permission by his permissive will to open up the pit so that some things might come out.

And the locusts and the evil spirits, it’s, it’s from Joel, if you read the Book of Joel when you go home. The Babylonian Empire was portrayed as a invading army of locusts and, and there was an actual army of locusts. They got overwhelmed with locusts under the judgment of God, and then it was also used figuratively to speak of Babylon.

And here we see these locusts, evil spirits coming forth. And what do they do? Now verse 4 to 6, they harm. Have a look at verse four and six. They, they were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were allowed to torment them for 5 months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone.

They’re given the right to harm, and in those days, people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them. It’s an ugly picture. Pain.

Now you might say, “Why 5 months?” you might not know this, but 5 months is how long a locust lives for. The average life cycle of a locias- locust is about 5 months. And same thing with a scorpion. Interestingly enough, and many moons ago, there used to be flying scorpions. That’s a terrifying picture, isn’t it? An old Greek historian talks about them. Scorpion tail to sting, it’s said it was one of the most excruciating ways to die. It would last for days of agony, and they flew.

And here they are causing torment. What sort of, what sort of torment is this? Well, it’s spiritual torment. They’re evil spirits. They’re not coming to torture people’s physical bodies. It’s a picture, right? But what are they doing? They’re coming to attack people’s souls. Because the devil isn’t satisfied with just hurting people’s bodies, though he wants to destroy image-bearers of God, hence the LGBQT movement and abortion, but they desire to cause spiritual pain and agony and harm.

This is a picture of spiritual torment in now. And don’t we know this when we speak with unbelievers? Do they have great spiritual peace like you do? They live their lives in a constant upheaval, right? No matter how much they try and soothe their lives with things, the inner person is tormented and enraged within. They often don’t know it because they’re spiritually blind, and yet the Lord sovereignly sends His judgment through the devil.

I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about that. But the Lord is sovereignly doing this through the devil. You see, we often talk about the fact that, that the devil and the world is against us. But you need to know the devil doesn’t love the world. Yeah, it’s not like there’s 2 teams here, and the devil loves all the people on his No, he hates everybody equally. He loathes the people of the world, and he torments them as much as he can, and it’s the judgment of God upon a wicked and adulterous generation. They refuse to come to Him, and so He hands them over to be tormented by the devil.

Now, I wonder if this reminds you of anything in the New Testament. Do you remember the Apostle Paul? What does he say to do with someone who’s in unrepentant sin? Hand him over to the devil so that he might learn not to sin. Why? Because in handing him over to the devil, the devil’s gonna mistreat him, and he’ll realize the folly of his ways, and then he’ll return to harmony and peace and tranquility.

But then, then we see another picture. We’re seeing 4, 4 horses, 4 angels, I should say. 4 angels. They’re, they’re standing at the edge of the Euphrates. It’s the picture of an invading army. It’s in the Old Testament. It talks about invading nations to Israel. They stand on the edge of the Euphrates River waiting to come in, waiting for God to give the word for them to come.

And as they stand there, the word is given, “Go forth. Release the 4 angels.” And the 4 angels come with 10000, twice 10000. And what do they do? Well, they do the exact same thing, but it’s intensified, remember? It’s intensified. So now they don’t only just harm. They harm, but now they kill.

And so we’re told in verse 17, this is what they looked like, “And notice towards the end, they had lions’ heads, fire and smoke coming out of their mouths, and sulfur. And by these 3 plagues, a third of humanity was killed. By the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths, for the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails are like serpents with heads, and by means of them they wound.”

They, they’re carrying out the same task. Under the sovereign bidding of God, they come to make war against the enemies of God and God’s judgment upon the nations as He carries out His wrath upon an unrepentant people. But this time they harm unto death.

You see, they, they don’t just do damage to them, but they do spiritual damage so that they die, which means what? They experience the second death.

You see, the devil is working in the lives of the enemies of God, not just j- not just for sport. And under the judgment of God, it’s carried out so that they might die in their sin.

This is what the judgment of God is.

But you might ask the question, “Well, how do they do it?” Well, okay, so the, the locusts and the horses are figurative pictures of evil spirits who are oppressing the nations. Now, how does it happen? We actually, we get an indicator in the pictures.

Have a look at the locusts. The appearance of the locusts were like horses prepared for battle. On their heads crowns of gold, what looked like crowns of gold. Their faces were like human faces, their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lion’s teeth. They had armor, and they have noise, and they have tails and stings that hurt people.

But notice particularly what they’re dressed in. They’re glittering with gold, crowns of power. They’re regal, they’re important, and they’re beautiful. They’ve got long hair, and they’re attractive like women.

Well, what are we being told? We’re being told that the evil spirits, they’re calm and cunning. They’re beautiful. They’re attractive. They look like everything we would want. But what do you notice about their mouths? They have lion’s teeth. Why? Because they devour. Because it’s out of their mouths that damage comes.

And then notice similarly with the horses, where does the damage come from? Their mouths, right? And notice what’s said about them. They’re like serpents. Their tails are like serpents. So who’s a serpent? The devil. And what was the devil? “He was a liar from the beginning,” Jesus said.

What are we being told? We’re being shown that one of the primary tools of the devil in bringing the judgment of God is through deception as he seeks to deceive the nations.

Later on, when we get through to a latter chapter, we’re gonna see more about the way that the devil deceives the nation, and God, in His kindness, removes the deception so that the nations might believe in Jesus Christ.

But this judgment is a judgment of lying and deceit in every way. He is actively working as the father of lies to lead people astray.

Why is that important for us? Because he’s seeking to lead you and I astray. The devil would delight to deceive the church. He delights to deceive any and all, and I think we’re being encouraged here to look into the mouth. Something might glitter as gold and be beautiful as a young woman, but when you look in their mouth, you see lies and deceit. Don’t buy it.

And so lastly, we see one response. There’s no encore, is there? There’s no song at the end of the trumpets. There’s just one response of the unsealed. They refuse, they refuse to repent.

The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands, nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, or their sorceries, or their sexual immorality, or their thefts.

Just like Pharaoh, right? Ten plagues, and Pharaoh hardened his heart, and Pharaoh hardened his heart, and Pharaoh hardened his heart. And Pharaoh hardened his heart all the way out to the sea and died, didn’t he? And all of the horses and all of the chariots with him.

It’s a terrifying thing to realize, is that though God is always desirous for people to repent and live, the godless will never repent and live. You see, the problem’s not on God’s side. Why are these people dying under the judgment of God? Because though God warns through trumpet, and though He lays heavy hands upon them, they refuse to repent.

“I would that none would perish. I delight not in the perishing of the wicked, but that they would turn and live,” God says, and they refuse.

Now, if, if you’re an astute mathematician, you’ll notice we’ve only seen 6 trumpets. Where’s the 7th? Well, that, that’s actually one of the most terrifying aspects.

If you have a look in chapter 11, we see the 7th trumpet, and in the 7th trumpet, the elders are there, and the people of God are singing. And verse 18, “The nations raged, but your wrath come, came, and the time for the dead to be judged and for rewarding your servants and for the destroying the destroyers of the earth.”

Brothers and sisters, who’s not there? The wicked. As the 7th trumpet blast sounds, those under the judgment of God are gone.

And I think it’s just a very simple exhortation to us. Repent. Repent. All of us, to daily repent of our sin and call upon Christ, because He is the only one that can save us from the wrath of God.

It’s a comfort for believers. It’s a terror for those outside of Christ. Because the same noise can herald 2 different responses, can’t it?

when one of our children was very young, she could hear sirens 10 minutes before we heard sirens. And when she heard sirens, it terrified her. And when we heard sirens, we thought, “Oh, the police.”

And so, so is true with the trumpet sound. For believers, we trust ourselves by throwing ourselves upon the rock that is Christ. For the unbeliever, they are broken upon the rock.

May God grant each of us repentance.

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