The Final Trumpet

591 - Today's Prime Time Devo comes from 2Sa 18:14-17, “ Then Joab said, "I cannot linger with you." And he took three spears in his hand and thrust them through Absalom's heart, while he was still alive in the midst of the terebinth tree. 15 And ten young men who bore Joab's armor surrounded Absalom, and struck and killed him. 16 So Joab blew the trumpet, and the people returned from pursuing Israel. For Joab held back the people. 17 And they took Absalom and cast him into a large pit in the woods, and laid a very large heap of stones over him. Then all Israel fled, everyone to his tent. (2 Sam 18:14-17) Joab thrusts three spears through the heart of Absalom. Then his armor bearers added insult to injury brutally finishing the job. With the death of Absalom, there was no need to continue fighting, so Joab blows the trumpet signifying the end of the conflict. Absalom's body is taken from the tree and cast into a pit where a large pile of stones was heaped upon him. Absalom's burial and the heaping of stones serve as a reminder that this grave would be memorable because the person who was buried here deserved to be stoned. The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary puts it this way, “The people of the East indicate their detestation of the memory of an infamous person by throwing stones at the place where he is buried. The heap is increased by the gradual accumulation of stones which passers-by add to it.”....Wonderful. The sounding of the trumpet and the burial in the pit should cause us to think of the next supernatural heavenly trumpet that we will hear. In 1Th 4:16, we read, “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.” The Last Trumpet will be the one that signifies the war between Christ and Satan is over. The rebel Lucifer and his followers will be tossed into the pit of eternal torment. The question for all of us is simply this. Will we be counted as the ones rising to meet Christ in the air, or will we be left behind to join Satan in the pit of eternal damnation? The answer to that question is found all over the Scriptures, for starters you might want to read Jn 3:16, or Mark 16:16. Father, thank You for saving us from the pit. Help us to look forward to that final trumpet because of grace granted faith in Christ.