Have you packed your trumpet?

Dan Harper February 18, 2026 0 0

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Joel 2: 1-2, 12-17 (NIV-UK)

1 Blow the trumpet in Zion;
    sound the alarm on my holy hill.

Let all who live in the land tremble,
    for the day of the Lord is coming.
It is close at hand –
2     a day of darkness and gloom,
    a day of clouds and blackness.
Like dawn spreading across the mountains
    a large and mighty army comes,
such as never was in ancient times
    nor ever will be in ages to come.

12 ‘Even now,’ declares the Lord,
    ‘return to me with all your heart,
    with fasting and weeping and mourning.’

13 Rend your heart
    and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God,
    for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
    and he relents from sending calamity.
14 Who knows? He may turn and relent
    and leave behind a blessing –
grain offerings and drink offerings
    for the Lord your God.

15 Blow the trumpet in Zion,
    declare a holy fast,
    call a sacred assembly.
16 Gather the people,
    consecrate the assembly;
bring together the elders,
    gather the children,
    those nursing at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room
    and the bride her chamber.
17 Let the priests, who minister before the Lord,
    weep between the portico and the altar.
Let them say, ‘Spare your people, Lord.
    Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn,
    a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the peoples,
    ‘‘Where is their God?”’

Did you know that the oldest trumpet discovered was in the tomb of Tutankhamun. That is a trumpet that is at least 3,350 years old!

Trumpets go back a long time, well before today’s reading which was written around 835–800 BC, only about 2,250 years ago. The earliest trumpets were loud and arresting instruments, and were often used in battle. They were understood to have mystical properties, both in predicting war and defeating your enemies. And much like the bagpipes, which were considered a weapon of war, were used to both intimidate opponents and rally your own side.

There is certainly something prophetic in the warning that a trumpet blast can send.

The trumpets in our reading from the prophet Joel today are clearly prophetic. They are blowing from the mountaintops as a warning, but also as a call to gather, and most clearly as an impassioned plea to look back towards God.

As the trumpets sound from the mountaintop the people are called back into relationship with their God, their God who is moving with forgiveness and reconciliation before the devastation foretold is enacted.

This is ever the way with the minor prophets, those who hear the word are warned of death and destruction as they continue far from God, however there is always one more chance offered. There is always a chance to seek forgiveness and be forgiven.

Prayer:

Dear God,

Help me understand that no matter what I have done, no matter what I think of myself, no matter what others think of me, that the trumpets of the Lord are always sounding to call me back into the arms of the divine, loved as I am in that moment.

Amen.