Listen for the Trumpet

“The work is great and widely spread, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another. In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us.”

Too many people get excited about Jesus coming back (which is exciting, don’t get me wrong), that they lose the joy of serving now. They are listening for that trumpet call to call us home. But maybe we should be alert for the trumpet call to rally around each other.

Nehemiah is written about an exciting time seeing God at work, seeing all the people of God serving in building the wall, and watching God frustrate efforts of those who go against His people and their work. But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t problems. Opposition, exhaustion, discouragement, distractions, and more. Kind of like today – little has changed.

Yet one thing that had to be comforting back then was knowing people were listening for the sound of the trumpet – the call to rally together and help each other was real. And when that trumpet sounded, swords were grabbed, legs were moving, hearts were pumping, and the peeps came to have each others backs.

Last night our church had a business meeting. Normally these are joked about and avoided.

But that’s not what happens here. People showed, people cared, and people had each others back . At one point, we voted to move a short list of names to inactive membership. This was a mere record keeping but we didn’t just vote. We stopped the meeting and prayed for them. I challenged each person to reach out them if they could. To rally around them and let these on the list know they are not alone.

The vote was a trumpet call to rally – not a final notice.

Maybe the trumpet calls are health crisis, family turmoil, job loss, anything. People need each other. One day you may need them to rally to you as well.

Listen for the trumpet – let us rally in support of each other. Don’t let listening for that final trumpet distract listening for the rally trumpet.