While we were in Israel a couple of months ago, we bought a shofar. A ram’s horn, to be exact.

As we are going through the NT book of 1 Thessalonians at Grace, today we came to chapter 5 on the Day of the Lord.  Of the 19 times we read of the Day of the Lord in the OT, one classic passage is Joel 2:1ff:

Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain!  Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near.  

In chapter 4 Paul taught about the rapture of the church. He was answering a concern the new believers had about those that died before Christ came back.  He answered with this:

¹⁶ For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.  1 Thess 4:16-17

The coming Day of the Lord in chapter 5 is different from the rapture of the church in chapter 4. The Day of the Lord speaks of the Lord’s second coming, where He will come down at the Mount of Olives.

We sounded the shofar this morning at church!  The sound of the trumpet serves as an alarm that the Lord is coming back and the Day of the Lord; judgment, will be completed and be final.  So, the trumpet is an act of grace. God doesn’t come unannounced. He has told us He’s coming. Are we ready?

As followers of Christ, we need to be encouraged to stay alert. To keep our feet firmly planted in the here and now, but keep our eyes looking to Jesus!  He has saved us and has given us the mission to tell others of His amazing grace.

• Know that He loves you.
• Know that He wants you to trust Him, as Savior.
• Know that His Spirit is with us, allowing us to be alert and sober, keeping an eye on the events of our day, while we telling the story of grace.