Jan. 28 - Boromir, Rohan, and The Trumpet

From the First Lesson for this day, Ezekiel 33:1-20

In J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings, a character named Boromir faces and fails a significant temptation. Upon learning of his error (too late), Boromir finds himself surrounded by mortal enemies. As he begins a futile battle against impossible odds, he sounds the "Horn of Gondor," beckoning whatever friends to his aid.

Unfortunately, the friends arrive too late. Boromir is slain and the enemy moves on its sinister plot.

Later in the saga, the city of Minas Tirith is under seige, again by an impossibly fierce and unrelenting enemy. Hope for the beleaguered residents is nearly gone. Assistance from former allies seems to be for naught. Then suddenly, as the enemy has breached the walls of the city and soldier and civilian fall into despair, a horn - and horns - pierce the air.

The armies of Rohan have arrived on horseback: the battle is turned and the enemy is defeated.

In today's lesson, I can't help but think of those two episodes when the Lord calls Ezekiel to be a watchman on the walls: "set him for their watchman: If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people..."

The Lord's advice is pretty straightforward. If they hear the trumpet and don't listen, destruction will come. If they hear the trumpet and listen, they will live.

But God takes the lesson even one step further, by placing the onus on the watchman to sound the trumpet. It's not enough to be faced with an enemy and to grit your teeth to fight. The watchman's role is to give the warning ahead of time.

What is the warning? For the righteous, the warning is to be aware and wary of the snares of the wicked. All of their righteousness will mean nothing if they succumb to the ways of evildoers: "The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth."

The warning for the wicked is also clear: turn from wickedness and live. "When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right; If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die."

The warning of the trumpets is neutral - what I do with the warnings makes all the difference.

I suspect if Boromir had sounded the trumpet when facing temptation rather than after giving in to it, the battle that followed may have gone differently, and he may have lived.

Likewise, Minas Tirith heard the sound of the trumpet and it was a rallying cry for them. All was not lost and vistory would be theirs.

When I hear God's warnings in my own life, they are rarely as clear as a trumpet. They're more like a pleading of the Holy Spirit from within. "Watch what you say." "Be careful with what you're spending." "Check your attitude."

Heavenly Father, sound the trumpet in my life. And where it's necessary, let me be your watchman, your trumpeteer, for others who need to hear. Amen.