The Sound Of The Shofar (Part 2)

The shofar is blowing, can you hear it? 

On Friday afternoon, May 31, 1889 a man called Daniel Peyton galloped along a road in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, U.S.A . He was shouting for all he was worth that the dam had broken. 

Some listened to his warning and raced to higher ground. Others thought he was crazy, and ignored the warning. They said, "We have heard rumours for years that the dam might burst, but they were always false rumours." They just laughed and went about their business. Scarcely had Daniel ridden out of town, however, when they heard another sound. It was a dreadful rumble and roar of a flood. Now it was too late, and moments later a wall of water 4.5 meters (15 ft) high came smashing down upon them, and hundreds of people were swept to their death.

 

 

It's a funny thing about warnings... we can choose to listen to them, obey them, make our way to safety, or ignore them, and suffer the consequences. 

 

in 1812 Napoleon and his army marched toward Moscow in his determination to conquer the world, even though he had clear warnings that his attempt to invade Russia would end in disaster. The storks, cranes and other migratory birds were flying South because they knew a terrible winter was coming. God gave the animal kingdom built in instincts to obey the warnings of nature. Man was left free to choose, and Napoleon chose to ignore the warning of the birds. When the winter struck, with a vengeance, he was forced to retreat. Out of an invasion force of 600,000 soldiers and calvary, more than 500,000 were frozen to death, scattered over the countryside. This momentous event is commemorated in Tchaikovsky's famous symphony The 1812 Overture.

**Many residents of Washington State, U.S.A. remember exactly where they were and what they were doing on the morning Mount St. Helen's was ripped wide-open. The shock wave rattled windows for hundreds of miles around. Prior to the eruption, scientists monitoring the peak didn't know when it
would go off or how big the blast would be. But all the signs of a live volcano were evident. It was just a matter of time.

Local media issued warnings and faithfully reported St. Helen's vital signs. But as time elapsed and the big eruption did not occur, people became less wary and more bold. Campers, photographers, and others moved in to get a closer look. Then on May 18, 1980, the mountain that had been dormant since 1857 spewed ash skyward and killed at least thirty people. They had failed to heed warnings, and they died needlessly.

The Book of Hebrews was written to first century believers, and contained five clear warnings that they were living in the rapidly approaching end of an era. They were warned that the world that they had known was coming to an end. Jerusalem would fall, the Temple would be destroyed, and they would be scattered. The people were slipping away from the true faith, doubting and showing signs of spiritual immaturity, and not really doing anything about that.  

 

Israel's history shows not just one rejection of God's warning through His prophets, because time after time, consistently, they repeatedly ignored those warnings through the generations. The ancient Israelites did not heed either because of not believing the warning, or taking it lightly, or procrastinating until it was too late to do anything. Remember the Parable of the Ten Virgins? They were guilty of either taking God's calling lightly, or of procrastination, so that when the cry went out that the Bridegroom was coming, it was too late to do anything effective.

 

 

These same warnings apply to us moderns... we too are living in the closing days of our age! 

 

There are clear warnings all around us... and yet we are living as if tomorrow is guaranteed. There is a sustained "falling away" from the true faith, doubt abounds, spiritual immaturity is rampant, the voice of the church is being silenced, and dubious theology passes as teaching. Unbridled nationalism has subsumed the teachings of Christ, turning Jesus into a political parody.

 

Many today are saying that history (of the Church) does not matter, that God is doing a new thing in our day. A much wiser person than me said " The worst thing that mankind has ever done is to forget the lessons of history". Do you know what forgetting those lessons does? It condemns every generation to re-invent the wheel. The author of Hebrews says, "Listen!" "Tend to." "Give attention to." This is what we have to do.

 

Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing you are dull of hearing. For when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Hebrews 5:11-14 NIV 

 

Hear the shofar here

 

 

 

** Christine Dallman, The Quiet Hour, December 1997