Are you slumbering, sleeping, or listening to God’s word and what it teaches us about being ready for eternity? To slumber is to sleep, specifically to sleep lightly. In this state of mind, you can hear what is going on around you and react. However, it is a state of inactivity, and if you remain in it for a long time, you will fall into a deep sleep. In a deep sleep, you are harder to wake up, and if you do wake up, it will take a little time to be conscious enough to respond. The state of listening is one of alertness, where you are scoping out your situation and ready to take action.
As Christians, we are taught to always be ready to give and answer for our faith, serve where there is a need, and go when we hear the trumpet. In Joel 2:1, the prophet says, “Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand.” The blowing of the temple trumpet sounded an alarm to all that “The Day of the Lord” was present. It was the day when God would judge sin. All could hear it, and all would respond in some way.
Our world is so full of noise that many pay no attention to any warning signals. Social media, the sounds of pleasure, and political rhetoric all sound out constantly. Living in this atmosphere has made us desensitized to the world around us. We miss the warning signs that would awaken us from our spiritual slumber. We slip into a pattern of life that isolates us from the slow decline of moral values and Christian principles. We seem to be like the three monkeys that see no evil, speak no evil, and hear no evil. There is a major shift, but we don’t get it! We are slumbering away and blocking out the warning signs. In Joel 2:1, when the temple trumpet sounded, they were to stop, listen, and pay attention. It may be sounding out to gather to worship or to run from danger. If you slept and ignored the sound, it could bring detrimental consequences.
While the noise is great in our world, we must be listening for the sounds of the trumpet. The constant trumpet call today is to win all we can while there is time. In I Corinthians 15:52 Paul teaches us that the last warning call will be the trumpet sound from the Lord. It will be quick and permanent. Those who are not ready to stand before the Lord will no longer have an opportunity to repent. Their fate is sealed. In Matthew 24:31, Jesus said that “He shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” He knows His followers, and there will be no mistake in who He calls. They will recognize His trumpet immediately.
At the end of I Corinthians 15 we are given a charge to keep ready. In verse 58, Paul says, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” He is saying, to stay ready! Don’t be lulled into a slumber, and don’t go to sleep on the job. How do we ensure that we will be ready? He tells us to be steadfast. Study the Word and obey. This will give you a solid foundation, and you will be immovable because you have hid God’s word in your heart and you have practiced obedience. He also says we are always abounding in the work of the Lord. We do not take vacations from the Lord. Wherever we go, we are to be witnesses for Him. He dwells within us, and where we go, He goes. When we live out our lives intentionally for Him, we will be ready. I love the passage in I Thessalonians 4:16-18. One day, we will either be here, ready to go, or our spirit will be reunited with our perfect, resurrected body in the sky. We should think about this and talk about it because, as Paul says in verse 18, it is comforting to us. So, listen up, my fellow believers. One day, and only God knows when, we will hear the trumpet and begin the rest of our lives!
I Thessalonians 4:16-18 “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
