The Purpose of Trumpets

I'd like to thank both of our participants here, Rachel and Carolyn, for their help with the services and beautiful music, which I could sing and play the piano. But don't do either one, so we really appreciate those who are gifted and are able to do so. I believe we all realize that today is an annual Sabbath. As I mentioned earlier, the first satishary, and it is a holy day of God. This is what we call the Feast of Trumpets, because it symbolizes trumpets. What do trumpets mean to us? What possible meaning do they have, and should they convey to us? What meaning or impact will the Feast of Trumpets have on the human race here as time goes on? There are many people alive today who will experience the fulfillment of this day, not from just our perspective, but who are going to actually live into the time that the Feast of Trumpets pictures. What are those people going to think when these events begin to take place? Let's go back to Leviticus chapter 23, where we find in Leviticus 23, 23, that this annual holy day is recorded.

It says, Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, saying that in the seventh month, on the first day of a month, you shall have a Sabbath rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets. The word memorial simply means a reminder.

It is a reminder of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation or commanded assembly. So, it is called the blowing of trumpets. When we look at this expression in Hebrew, it gives you several different ways that it is used. Let me read you a couple of definitions. 1. It is an alarm. It is a signal. Sound the tempest. A shout. A blast of war. Or a warm. Or joy.

So, it pictures the fact that there is an alarm being sounded.

2. It is a blast for a march. You want to move the camp. You want to take a journey.

So, the journey of the camps where they can move.

3. It is a shout of joy. Sometimes, this word is translated simply, the shout.

4. They would shout. A shout of joy.

It was also used, and this is not a part of the definition, as we will see, for the calling of assemblies, as well as it was blown on the holy days and the first of the month.

Let's go over to the book of Numbers, chapter 10, where you find a number of the uses of trumpets outlined. Numbers, chapter 10, beginning in verse 1. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Take two silver trumpets for yourself, and you shall make of them hammered work, and you shall use them for calling the congregation and directing the movement of the camp.

So, whenever they wanted to call the congregation together and say, Hear you, hear you, or we have an announcement to make, whatever, they would sound the trumpet. Or when they were getting ready to move, or to march.

And when they blow both of them, all the congregations shall gather before you.

And then if they only blow one, the leaders were to come. Verse 5, When you sound the advance, or the alarm, the camp that lies on the east side shall then begin their journey. And then it goes through, showing that they would sound a certain alarm, and then each one of the camps, or the sides, would move. Verse 8, The sons of Aaron, the priest, shall blow the trumpets, and these shall be to you as an ordinance forever, throughout your generation.

When you go to war, so when they were to go to war, in your land, against the enemy who opposes you, when you shall sound an alarm with the trumpet, and you will be remembered before the Lord.

In other words, God would remember them. He would look down, and He would say, Uh-oh, they're in trouble.

And He would jump into hell.

And it says, And you will be remembered before your Lord, your God.

And you will be saved from your enemies. How often do we lift up our voices to God?

You know, just as a side note, when we're going through trouble, and ask God to hear us, and to know, you know, God knows what we have need of before we ask, right? The Bible says that. But He expects us to ask.

Is it a matter that God didn't know that Israel needed help, and they had to blow a trumpet to get His attention? Well, of course He knew they needed His help. But He wanted them to follow through and do what was right, to come to Him and to look to Him. And when they blew that trumpet, they were looking to God for salvation, for help, for deliverance. And so should we. And that's why we get down and pray, because we know that God will deliver us.

In verse 10, also, in the day of your gladness, in other words, your feasting, in your appointed feasts, at the beginning of the month, you shall blow the trumpet over your burnt offerings, over the sacrifices of your peace offerings. And they shall be a memorial before your eyes. I am the Lord your God.

So, the purposes are mentioned here for the calling of assemblies, for the journey of the camps, for an alarm at the beginning of the month, for the festivals, you and I, in all of these ways. They were blown.

Now, let's notice over in Psalm 47. Psalm 47, we'll begin in verse 1 here.

Psalm 47 and verse 1.

It says, Oh, clap your hands, all of you people. Shout to God with the voice of triumph, for the Lord Most High is awesome.

He is a great king over all the earth.

Well, it shows here that God is eventually going to come to this earth, and He is going to subdue the nations. He's going to conquer the earth. He's going to be king. So, here it's describing the time that He is a great king over all the earth. He will subdue the peoples under us.

And the nations under our feet.

So, God will conquer the nations, and we will assist Him in ruling.

Verse 4.

He will choose our inheritance for us, the excellence of Jacob, whom He loves, Salah.

God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of trumpet.

Sing praises to God. Sing praises. Sing praises to our king. Sing praises.

So, the sound of a trumpet here is associated with God ruling, and the fact that He's going to rule, and He's going to subdue the nations.

In verse 7, says, God is king of all the earth. Sing praises with understanding.

God reigns, verse 8, over the nations. God sits on His holy throne.

And this is what we're ultimately looking forward to, the time when God, when Christ will come to the earth, and He will rule the nations at that time.

Now, before that, you find that He's going to have to subdue the nations. He's going to have to intervene on the behalf of Israel.

Let's go over to the book of Joshua, Joshua chapter 6. It is interesting that there are books of the Bible that are called prophets. They're looked upon as prophecies, even though they are historical, and even though they may be in that section. Joshua judges Ruth. All of these books fall into that category.

Notice in Joshua chapter 6, it's concerning the battle of Jericho, if you remember. Israel entered into the Promised Land, but right smack dab in front of them was a big stronghold in Jericho, and it was all sealed up, locked up. They thought they were safe.

They were in the pendantryple, and nobody could knock down their walls. This is now verse 1. Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel. None went out, none went and came in. The Lord said to Joshua, See, I have given Jericho into your hands, and it is king and mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all your men of war, and you shall go all around the city once. This you shall do for six days. So they get up and march around the city for six days.

The seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark.

But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times.

Now this was, let's face it, seven days there's a Sabbath in there.

So whether it's this day going around seven times or another time, they still got out and marched around the city. They went further than quote-unquote a Sabbath day's journey. You know, that the Jews had come up with. And it just shows you, you know, God told them what to do, and they obeyed God. They weren't disobeying the Sabbath.

But they march around and the priest says, the seven times and the priest shall blow the trumpet.

And it shall come to pass, and when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all of the people shall shout for the great shout, and then the walls of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall go every man straight before him.

And so they did as God commanded, and the walls came tumbling down. Verse 16.

And it says, the seventh time it happened, and when the priest blew the trumpet, so Joshua said to the people, shout for the Lord has given you the city.

Now, this is symbolic, I think we all realize. When the seven horns sounded, it signaled the end of Jericho.

Jericho is a type of the nations of this world falling before the armies of God in the future.

And the trumpets are blown.

You know, they march around seven days. The book of Revelation you find that, you know, there are seven trumpets blown, but then on the seventh trumpet, there's going to be a great shout take place.

Christ comes back with the voice of the archangel, with a great shout.

The seventh trumpet, that great trumpet will sound, and the nations will come tumbling down before Christ and his armies.

This occurred before Israel was able to possess the Promised Land. And Christ is going to have to come back and defeat the armies of the nations before, you know, Israel can be regathered and his kingdom can be set up.

Remember back in Revelation 17, I won't turn back there, but in Revelation 17, it talks about the fact that the nations fight against Jesus Christ at his return.

And they're not going to say, Oh, here comes Christ. They're going to think he's an invader.

Somebody's come up with a super weapon. They're not going to know exactly what to make out of this.

Let's notice, though, in Isaiah 27, in verse 12. Isaiah 27 and verse 12.

It says, It shall come to pass in that day, in that day, generally a reference to the time of the return of Christ, day of the Lord, that period of time, that the Lord will thresh from the channel of the river to the brook of Egypt, and you will be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel.

So they're going to be gathered one by one, brought back to the land of Palestine.

So it shall be in that day, the great trumpet will be blown, and they will come, who are about to perish from the land of Assyria, and they who were outcast in the land of Egypt, and they shall worship the Lord in the holy mountains in Jerusalem.

Verse 13 here, Isaiah 27.

So they're going to come back, and they're going to worship God at that time.

So when the great trumpet sounds, is blown, God will intervene to protect the peoples of Israel and to deliver them.

Now, the question is, where will you be when that trumpet is sounded?

Where will you be if you're alive?

And when that trumpet sounds, will you be protected in a place of safety, in the tribulation, somewhere up here in the mountains?

You know, where will you be when you begin to hear the trumpets belong, and especially this last trumpet?

One of the things we want to take a look at today as we go through the meaning of the Feast of Trumpets is, how does this day apply to you and me?

How does it apply to us?

You and I have heard a warning message already, have we not?

Part of what we heard when we first started reading, studying, listening, was the fact that we heard a message about the return of Christ.

What was going to happen to Israel, the nations of Israel?

Now, God is going to have to come back and save mankind from cosmocide or total destruction of the human race.

And so, we heeded that warning.

Now, I'm afraid there were a lot of people who came to the church just simply because they wanted to save their flesh.

And that was not enough to hold them into the church.

They had to also heed the fact that they needed to be deeply converted. And change. And have God's law written in their hearts and their minds.

So, we've heeded a warning, but we have also been commissioned to help spread the warning to the nations. To go to this world with a warning message. That's part of the message. We also give a message of hope.

We also explain God's plan, His purpose.

Let's notice in Revelation 3. Let's look at the beginning of the verse. We have the angel of the church. We have the angel of the church. Beginning in verse 14. Revelation 3 and verse 14.

We have the Laodiceans described here.

It says, Through the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, right, these things say, The Amen, the faithful, the true witness, He goes on to say in verse 18, Don't see themselves as God sees them. They have a totally different opinion of the spiritual state, who they are, what they're doing. They don't realize that they are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. They think just the opposite when it comes to spiritual. We live in an age of compromise. We live in an age of water-down values, water-down standards, and you're compromising with the truth. You find that these individuals will go into the tribulation. The Bible is very clear here.

But in verse 10, you find also that at the end time, it says, Because you have kept my commandments to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which will come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth. Behold, I am coming quickly. Hold fast that which you have, that no one take your crown.

So there are a group of people who are doing the work of God, who persevere, who hang in there, who are going to be protected. These prophecies are about the Church of God, those that God is called, working with at the end time. We have a choice. These prophecies are about us. We can be lukewarm or we can be on fire. Notice Revelation 12. I didn't write this in my notes, but the Bible does say at the very end time, beginning in verse 13, Revelation 12.13, When the dragon saw that he was cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.

That's the Church. It can also be Israel. Both are going to be persecuted. But a woman here, in general sense, refers to the Church. But to the woman, we're given two wings of a great eagle. But she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time, times, and half a time. Three times and a half. That's three and a half years from the presence of the serpent. So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.

Water can be literal or it can be symbolic of armies. But the earth helped the woman. The earth opened its mouth, swallowed up the flood from the dragon, and had spewed out of his mouth. In other words, God protects this group of people. But notice, the dragon was enraged. He gets extremely upset over what God does in protecting this group of people. He gets enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring.

See, the rest of them who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. But they're also Luke 1. And so, you and I need to realize that we find ourselves just sort of slipping into taking everything for granted. Our prayer life, our Bible study, you know, maybe I'll fast once a year, you know, this type of thing, that we need to take a hard look at ourselves. Isaiah 58, Isaiah 58, and verse 1 says, Cry aloud and spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet.

Tell my people, their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins. So this was a commission, a duty, a job, a responsibility given to Isaiah to tell the people. And today, Isaiah is dead, but we have his words. And the work of God continues on. God has in every generation raised up a work, his people, and they have been commissioned with various responsibilities and duties.

Let's notice in Ezekiel 33, beginning in verse 1, part of the job and responsibilities that we have is to warn the nations. This isn't the only thing. As I said, we give hope to people. When they hear the message, they need to hear that there's something they need to do. They need to realize what's wrong, but they also need to realize that if they repent and change and follow God, that God will be with them and protect them. Verse 1, again, word over word came to me, saying, Son of man, speak to the children of your people.

Ezekiel 33, verse 2 now, say to them, when I bring the sword upon a land and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman. And he sees the sword coming. He's up here in this high tower, wherever he is, he can see all the surrounding territories, sees the invading army, he sees the problems, and he blows the trumpet. He warns the people. And whoever hears the sound of the trumpet, it does not take warning if the sword comes and takes him away.

His blood shall be on his own head. If he didn't heed the warning, then he's guilty of his own blood. He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning.

His blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning shall save his life. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, see, if we don't lift up the trumpet and let the nation know what's coming, that's part of what we have to do. And the people are not warned and the sword comes and takes any person from among them.

He has taken away his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman's hand. And so you, son of man, I've made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Therefore you shall hear a word from my mouth and warn them.

So that's a duty, responsibility that God has given to us. We must know whom God has selected today to be the watchman. The church has that responsibility to go to the nations, to warn the nations. This notice in the book of Joel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, that section of your Bible, Joel chapter 2 and verse 1, blow the trumpet in Zion. Now, Zion can stand for Israel, but it also stands for the church. Let's apply this to the church. Blow the trumpet in Zion in the church.

Sound of alarm in my holy mountain. Let the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord is coming. That's the time when God intervenes to punish the nations. And it is at hand. So the trumpet is to be blown in the church. Also, Zion is a type of the church. Now, we have a warning going out on two levels.

Number one, to physical Israel. Number two, to spiritual Israel. The holy mountain would certainly describe the church. Now, in the book of Amos, turn over to the next book in chapter 3, beginning in verse 6. Amos 3, 6. Is a trumpet, or if a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid? If there is calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it? Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret to His servants, the prophets.

So God is not going to do anything at the end time until He reveals to His servants, as it says here, the prophets, what He's going to do. Now, we have a general grasp and understanding of the Bible, scriptures, what they mean, but there's a lot we don't. We don't know every detail.

Anyone who thinks He does doesn't. And, you know, God hasn't revealed everything yet, but He will before the end time begin to reveal even more things. God won't bring the tribulation until the trumpet has sounded, until the servants of God stand up and say, this is going to happen and proclaim it. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, let's notice in 1 Corinthians 15, beginning in verse 50, we find that the final or last trumpet is sounded here. And I want you to notice what occurs at that time. Now, this I say, brethren, that the flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump. So, there are seven trumpets, and at that last trump, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

So, the final or last trumpet, when it sounds, is a gathering of an assembly.

God will gather the resurrected saints together. We read that in Matthew 24, that He will circle around the earth like lightning going from the east to the west, and you find that He will gather the saints together. It's also a signal for the fact that God will gather Israel. Now, God will start with Israel to bring them back to Palestine first. Now, I say Israel. I'm not just talking about the little nation of Israel. I'm talking about the United States, Britain, Australia. You know, all of our people from the tribes, the 10 or 12 tribes, will come back to that land. There will be a sounding of an alarm of war against the nation. Because we do find the other nations will try to come up and fight against Christ.

This is the last trumpet. This is why it's called the Feast of Trumpets. You buy us because there are a multitude of trumpets. There are seven trumpets mentioned in the book of Revelation.

Now, in 1 Thessalonians 4.15, we find where this trumpet is mentioned again. 1 Thessalonians 4.15 says, If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. Now, some use this scripture to try to refer to the rapture that Christ will come for his saints and he will come with his saints. But let's notice.

And this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. The Lord is dead in the grave. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout. This isn't in secret. He's going to come back and there will be a great shout with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be called up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Thus we shall always be with the Lord. So Christ will come back at the seventh trumpet. This is the time of the resurrection, that that will take place. Notice in Revelation 11 verse 15, same period of time referenced here. Revelation 11 15 describes the period of time when the seventh trumpet sounds.

It says, Then the seventh angel sounded. And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever. That's verse 15 here, Revelation 11.

So Jesus Christ, in this verse 15, is the summary statement of what all is going to take place. Trumpet sounds. Kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of the Lord and his Christ. He's going to reign forever and ever. Notice verse 18. And the nations were angry, and your wrath has come.

In the time of the dead, that they should be judged. So the dead in Christ are going to be judged, and you shall reward your servants, the prophets, and the saints. So it's at this time that you will get your reward. Somewhere, I don't know exactly how Christ will do it, you'll be resurrected, you'll meet him in the air, you'll come back down, but we'll watch the seven last plagues being poured out first, and then we'll come back down to the earth.

And somewhere through there, there's probably going to be a marriage supper.

And at some point, Christ may come up to you, put his arm around you, and say, Eva, or Jim, or Marcus, whoever you might be. Well done, good and faithful servant. You're going to rule over ten cities over here. And I'm going to get you out there very soon, and he's going to give you instructions. And away you go. And so you will be given your reward and your responsibility.

Maybe a few thousand angels to back you up and to assist you in carrying out your duties.

And then it goes on to say, and those who fear your name, small and great, you should destroy those who destroy the earth. So the kingdoms of this world are ultimately going to have to come under the jurisdiction of Jesus Christ. Now, you might remember that the book of Revelation is a marvelous book because it does something none of the other books of prophecy do. It gives you the story flow. It tells you a sequence. And it tells you exactly, there's seven trumpets that are blown. There's seven last plagues. And you have all of these sevens being mentioned here in the book of Revelation. And we don't have time to go through all the seals, all the trumpets today. But there's seven seals, seven trumpets, seven last plagues.

And God will eventually carry those out. But they give you a sequence of events. So you can see the timeline. Then you can go back in prophecies, and you can begin to pick prophecies. Oh, this is where this occurs. This occurs at this seal, or this occurs at this trumpet. And you can begin to create a story flow. Notice back in the book of Acts, the disciples had no knowledge of when all of these events were going to take place.

In Acts 1, verse 9, it goes, notice their question.

It says, now when he had spoken these things while they watched, he rose up, or was taken up, I should say, and a cloud received them out of their sight. And while he looked steadfastly towards heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into the heavens? This same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will so come in light manner as you see him go into heaven. There should be absolutely no doubt in anybody's mind that Jesus Christ is coming back to the earth. You have the testimony of these two angels sent from God.

Now notice verse 6.

Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? See, they didn't understand the timeline. They didn't know when this was going to take place.

They didn't realize there was 2,000 more years of history to take place before all of this began to unfold. And he said to them, it's not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in his own authority, but you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be witnesses of me. And so he goes on to talk about that. They didn't understand prophecy. They didn't understand the time sequence of the prophecy. They knew that Christ was going to return, but they didn't know exactly when.

We've seen the historical fulfillment of many of the prophecies of the Bible.

We've seen the revivals of the Holy Roman Empire come and go. We've been able to see a lot of these events take place. We are looking to the events that are yet to take place here in the future. How do you know? How do I know that Jesus Christ will return in our day?

We think that he will. How do we know that? Why would we even think that?

Why would the thought cross our mind? Well, notice in Matthew 24, we have the benefit that the other ages have not had, and that's the record of history. We have the recorded revivals of the Roman Empire and the events that have taken place, and we're able to match some of those events up with the Bible. But notice here in verse 34, shortly I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. The first century generation did pass away, and all these things were not fulfilled in their day.

But back up to verse 21. It says, For then there will be great tribulations, such as not been since the beginning of the world until that time, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved, meaning saved alive. But for the elects, say, those days will be shortened. So it's the generation in which it's possible for all life to be destroyed.

That wasn't possible until we got into biological warfare, chemical warfare, radiation, atomic bomb, hydrogen bomb, till our day today.

So we have the advantage of looking back over history for 1862 years since Christ was on the earth and started the church. And we can see what's going to happen. This is a generation in which all flesh could be destroyed, that apparently Jesus Christ is coming back.

Remember Christ's promise to his disciples? And it's the same promise to us. Chapter 14 of the book of John, chapter 14, verse 1, Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in Christ, believe also in me. In my father's house, or many mansions, if were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again. He is going to come again to this earth and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also. This is the promise that you and I cling to. We have the hope of the resurrection. That is a hope. But we also have a hope that the mess we see about us, the destruction, the misery, the suffering, the heartache, that all of that is going to be cleaned up also. And that's going to take the return of Christ to the earth.

He's not going to come back secretly. In 2 Thessalonians, chapter 1, verse 7, notice how it describes it here. 2 Thessalonians, chapter 1, verse 7, and it says, And to give you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven.

There's going to come a time when He will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It says, These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power, when He comes in that day to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.

Brethren, we sit here today because we heard the testimony about the kingdom of God, Jesus Christ, the plan of salvation, and we believed. Not only did we believe, but God's law and way of life began to be written on our hearts and our minds. I want you to notice, turn back to Philippians 3, the book of Philippians, chapter 3, verse 20. It says, For our citizenship, verse 20, is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait. What are we waiting for? What are you sitting here today eagerly waiting for?

For the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Well, He's going to transform our lowly body this physical fleshly body that it might be conformed to His glorious body. Whatever body He has, we will have, according to His conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. So, brethren, we eagerly wait for that time. Hebrews 9, 28, likewise, talks about this. Hebrews 9, verse 28, says, So Christ was offered once the bare of the sins of many, and to those who eagerly wait. That's us. We're not just enduring it. We're eagerly waiting for Him. He will appear a second time apart from sin for salvation. He's not going to come back the second time to die for the sins of mankind. He did that the first time. Second time, He's coming back for salvation. The church will receive salvation. The saints will receive salvation. The nations of Israel will be delivered from captivity, and they will be saved. And ultimately, God will extend salvation to all the nations. Now, there's a lot more we could read here, and I'm going to skip a whole section. Let's go over here to the book of Hosea. Hosea, chapter 5.

Now, I want you to notice the book of Hosea is written to Israel.

It was a prophecy for the Northern Kingdom. And especially in chapter 5 here, you find it begins to focus on Israel, but specifically on Ephraim. And in the book of Hosea, Ephraim stands not only just for Great Britain, the British Commonwealth of Nations, but also for Joseph, Evrem, and Manasseh. And it is possible that some of the nations of Israel might be included in the final beast power. But I want you to notice here in verse 3, God says, I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me. For now, O Ephraim, you commit harlotry. Israel is defiled. So the nation of the UK that just shows that God says they are involved in harlotry. In fact, I heard a very interesting comment by a commentator on television. I think it was yesterday, because several of the Arab nations have come out and said they'll pay for our war against Syria. And they used the expression, you mean that we are now going to have the Arab nations pay for us to go to war. In other words, we become their army for them, their surrogates. Well, the Bible uses another terminology. It says, you go out and you buy lovers. Other nations that we commit harlotry with, what is harlotry? Except instead of relying upon God for protection, safety, blessing, they're looking to other nations. They're looking to pacts and treaties and all of this.

And Israel is defiled. And you look at our country and you look at our standards, our approach. We certainly are defiled. Verse 5, The pride of Israel testifies to his face. Therefore Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity, and Judah also stumbles with them. That's a little nation of Israel, Palestine, the Jews, and the Mideast. They stumble likewise. Verse 6, As with their flocks and their herds, they go to seek the Lord, but they shall not find him. See, there comes a point where our people think they're religious. Well, we go to church on Sunday. We keep Christmas. We have Easter. We honor God. They can point to everything religiously that they might be doing, but God is not going to hear. They can seek God, but there's going to come a time when God says, no, that's it. You've been warned. You've been told. You refuse to listen. Now you're going to have to pay the piper. Last part of verse 6 says, He has withdrawn himself from them. Verse 8, Blow the ram's horn in Geba, the trumpet in Rama. Cry aloud at Beth-Avon.

Look behind you, O Benjamin. Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke.

So again, talking about national captivity and desolation.

Among the tribes of Israel, I have made known what is sure.

Or, I think, King James version says, what is to come to pass. That God has made known. How has he made it known? Well, you and I are making it known today.

The internet is a horrible instrument in one sense, in that you can put anything you want to out on the internet. But you can also put the gospel out on the internet also. And we're able to go around the world with the truth. And I don't know exactly how much of a warning. There will be two witnesses at the end time who are going to go to the nations and are going to tell the nations exactly what God is going to do, who will prophesy of armies and invasions and earthquakes and all of these kind of things happening. And they take place. And so, we as a church are to warn Israel. The two witnesses will warn Israel. We are to sound the trumpet to the peoples of Israel. And let's notice, going on in verse 10, The princes of Judah are like those who remove a landmark, talking about moving boundaries, which have been done in the mid-east. And I will pour out my wrath on them like water. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment because he willingly walked by human precepts, human ideas, philosophies, and the Bible. The true values are being kicked out.

We see today where they're even wanting to remove under God out of the pledge to allegiance.

And we live in a society where any quote-unquote religious, anything that's called religious, is not to appear in public or you're not to say it, you're from the atheist. And those like that, their perspective. Therefore, in verse 12, God says, I will be to Ephraim like a moth. What does a moth do? You get a moth in your clothes, it begins to decay it from inside out. It eats holes in it. It destroys it. Into the house of Judah, like rottenness, God says, like an apple piece of fruit that rotten and it's going to decay. And so in verse 13, when Ephraim saw his sickness, so again, it's talking about Ephraim standing, Ephraim being the leading tribe. When we see our sickness and how often do we find that there are individuals today in this nation who are standing up and saying we're sick, that we've given up our values, we've given up what we have believed in in the past. And so when Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah saw his womb, so there's going to come a time when Judah will be wounded in war and their survival is at stake. Then Ephraim went to Assyria, which we think today is Germany or go maybe to the EU, and sent to King J. Radd, or a harsh king, and he cannot cure you nor heal you of your wound. For I will be like a lion to Ephraim and a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear them and go away, and I will take them away, and no one shall rescue them. They will go into captivity. No one will be there to rescue them. I will return again to my place. But notice, until they acknowledge their offense.

So they will have to go into the tribulation. But once they go into the tribulation, they will acknowledge their offense, and they will seek my face. In their affliction, they will earnestly seek me, God says. So even though our people will have to go into tribulation, they will begin to cry out to God. How will they know who to cry out to? Well, there will have been a warning message. There will be a message of hope going to them. There will be the two witnesses prophesying. In verse 1, notice chapter 6. There's no chapter break, actually, in the book of Hosea. Notice what the people say. Come, let us return to the Lord, for he is torn, and he will heal us. They acknowledge that God did this to them, and he will heal us. He is stricken, but he will bind us up. After two days, he will revive us, and on the third day, he will raise us up. So after two years of being in the tribulation, they will begin to seek God, cry out to him, ask for forgiveness, and God will begin to revive them. Somewhere in the third year, they will begin to come out of the tribulation, and God will begin to protect them. Why? Otherwise, none of them would be left alive. Our scriptures in the Bible indicate that only one tenth will be left alive. So, I have a nation of 300 million, maybe 30 million, and you will truly be left alive. Out of that number, how many truly are Israelites, who go back to the ten tribes? So, God will intervene to begin to spare the nations.

He will begin to bring, as we read earlier, people back to Jerusalem, one at a time.

I don't want to get into this here, because that's my sermon at the feast.

I'll be talking about that more at the Feast of Tabernacles. But God will extend salvation to all mankind at that time. Let's go back to Psalm 149. One final scripture here, beginning in verse 1. Psalm 149, beginning in verse 1. These last few chapters in the book of Psalms are amazing, if you haven't read them recently. They talk about the kingdom, they talk about the future, what it's going to be like. It says, Praise the Lord! Your word, the expression, Praise the Lord, simply means hallelujah. You can say hallelujah, or Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song.

So this new song is going to be a victory song for God's deliverance and his praise in the assembly of the saints. Let Israel rejoice in their Maker. Let the children of Zion, that's the church, that's the saints, that's us. Be joyful in their King. Let them praise his name with the dance.

Let them sing praises to him with the temple and the heart. For the Lord takes pleasure in his people and he will beautify the humble with salvation. So God is going to beautify you with salvation. I don't know if you think of it that way, but in the kingdom you will be beautiful.

You will be beautified with salvation. You will, you know, we will recognize one another, but we will be spirit beings and God will be there with us. Let the saints, talking about us, be joyful in glory. Let them sing aloud on their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouths and the two-edged sword in their hands to execute vengeance on the nation's punishment, on the peoples. So God will use us to tame the nation, so to speak, and begin to bring them under his government to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute on them the written judgment. This honor have all his saints. Praise the Lord, or hallelujah, the Bible says. So, brethren, we today are observing this holy day that pictures the culmination of God's plan for mankind, the first fruits, we'll put it that way. This is going to be our birthday, the time of the resurrection. And as this day is kept throughout eternity, we'll be able to look back and say, yes, this is our day. Here's a day that people are keeping, because you see, in the millennium, guess what? They'll look back on the Feast of Trumpets as a fulfilled event. They'll look back on the Day of Atonement as a fulfilled event. They'll look at the Feast of Tabernacles as ongoing. It's something they're doing. Now, once the millennium is over and the wife's throne judgment takes place, those who were in the millennium will look back on the millennium. Those who come up in the wife's throne judgment will look back on that day. It's past. But they're now living the last great day. And so, as God's plan unfolds, it has great meaning.

We will be made immortal, given eternal life, assist Jesus Christ in ruling the nations.

You and I, though, need to make sure that we heed the trumpet warning to the church. We need to be ready. What does the Bible say? The church, the bride, has made herself ready. We need to be prepared and ready for the Second Coming. The world does need a warning message. The church will give that, and so will the two witnesses. A few will respond. Most will not. But we still have the responsibility to take the gospel of the kingdom to the world. One of the big questions we need to ask ourselves, though, is, where will we be when the seventh trumpet sounds?