2/18/26

Zephaniah 1:16 NASB95 A day of trumpet and battle cry Against the fortified cities And the high corner towers.

The Shofar has a distinctive sound, and each blast from it carries a specific meaning. The coming of the Lord, the call for war, and the call for an announcement are just a few. You also have the call to praise, worship, and the call to assembly around the Lord.

How can something have such beauty and such destruction in it? The beauty of gathering His people in love and then the destruction of battle.

It is the difference of sin. When it is blown, is the hearing of the trumpet in the ears of the redeemed, who have been cleansed of all unrighteousness by the blood of Jesus? Because, if it is not, then when it is blown it is heard in the ears of those who are buried in the filth of sin.

One sounds beautiful as it is not distorted and the other sounds eerie as it travels through the sin of this world.

One day a blast will come that will gather God's people. It will be the least or last trumpet they will hear. They will be gathered into heaven. When His people are no more here on the Earth, then the trumpet call will be for battle on the earth and our text says, it will be against the fortified cities And the high corner towers. All of man's defenses will fall like the walls of Jericho. Zephaniah continues in 1:17-18 NASB95 I will bring distress on men So that they will walk like the blind, Because they have sinned against the LORD; And their blood will be poured out like dust And their flesh like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold Will be able to deliver them On the day of the LORD’S wrath; And all the earth will be devoured In the fire of His jealousy, For He will make a complete end, Indeed a terrifying one, Of all the inhabitants of the earth.

What an eerie sound as darkness fills the eyes of the sinner. Blood will be spilled for sin, just like in the covering for Adam and Eve in the garden. The Earth will be devoured in fire flesh will smell like dung as the end comes and mankind suffers in eternal torment for the absence of faith in the Savior.

The shofar can make a beautiful sound 1 Corinthians 15:51-53 NASB95 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.

The shofar can make a horrible sounding call of darkness and fire. Revelation 9:14 NASB95 one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”

Revelation 9:18 NASB95 A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths.

You will hear the trumpet!

How will it sound to you?

Like a gathering of the redeemed or the death of the sinners?

Listen with redeemed ears. Matthew 13:43 NASB95 “Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

Love Bro. Scott