Musing – When the trumpet sounds, why don’t they hear it?

Hebraic Musing – When the trumpet sounds, why don’t they hear it?

When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble? When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it? — Amos 3:6   Be serious! Who cannot hear a trumpet blowing! They are loud!

Or, if a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, does it still make a sound?  Do people hear the trumpet?

With Rosh Hashanah, or Feast of Trumpets, coming Sept. 16 to 18, 2012, this is a timely musing. The first of the Fall feasts is traditionally celebrated with 100 trumpet calls alerting Saints to be ready for the end of times and so this feast is designed to awaken us from our spiritual slumber and cause us to repent. What if the people are unmoved by the sound, or the message?

This story explains the problem:

A blacksmith’s assistant from a village once visited a large city. There he visited the local smithy. He noticed that the workers used bellows to fan the flames in the forge. Back in the village, they fanned their fire manually. The bellows were much more efficient and far less exhausting than manual fanning. The assistant excitedly purchased a bellows and returned with enthusiasm to his master’s shop.
Immediately, he set out to demonstrate the magic that he had uncovered. He set up the bellows and began to pump vigorously. But, alas, no matter how quickly he pumped, no flame appeared. “I can’t understand it,” he said. “In the city, I saw with my own eyes how a huge flame was produced by the bellows.”
“Did you first light a small fire?” the master asked.
“No,” the assistant replied. “I just pumped the bellows.”
“You fool!” the blacksmith said. “The bellows can only increase the size of the flame when you begin it with a spark. When you have no spark of fire, all the pumping of the bellows is of no use at all.”[1]

If the people or the nation do not have a spark, then..….?

The musing of a year ago, Sept. 19, 2011, entitled Are “acts of god” really acts of GOD? (available on request) spelled out 18 ‘natural disasters’ God used in the OT to get the attention of His People And then I listed 11 recent acts of god which some think may have been acts of GOD which coincided amazingly with Anti-Israel actions by the USA. Some readers were stirred by the parallels while most others waived it off.  Is there a spark?

Points to Ponder

Why might God be telling us to wake up?  And repent?

Does America have a spark?

Does the Church have a spark?

Do you and I have a spark?

Shalom y’all                                                                                        September 4, 2012     

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd

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[1] Copied from Rabbi Eckstein’s Holy Land Moments Daily Devotional <Devotional@HolyLandMoments.org>