“Put the trumpet to your lips!
    An eagle is over the house of the Lord…”
Hosea 8:1 (NIV)

Living in the midwest means living with the threat of tornados. As a kid, you quickly learn the drill when the tornado sirens go off. I remember the thrill of getting woken up by mother and told to scurry to the basement. In school, we regularly went through tornado drills and told where to go within the school in the event of a tornado.

One of the things that has changed over my lifetime has been the proliferation and advancement of technology that allows one to accurately track a storm front from a smart phone. It’s not unusual for the tornado sirens in our neighborhood to sound when the storm front is relatively far away. It’s not uncommon for us to step outside when the sirens sound to check out the storm that is miles away on the horizon for sight of the tornado that tripped the alarm.

In today’s chapter, Hosea begins by sounding the Emergency Broadcast System of his day. Residents with flocks would graze them outside the city walls during the day. If watchmen on the walls spotted danger such as an approaching army or a bird of prey looking for for an easy meal, they would sound the trumpet, or a ram’s horn, to warn the shepherds to get their flocks safely back within the city walls.

Hosea’s metaphor at the start of his message was intended to get the attention of his audience. He was sounding the alarm. There was danger on the horizon because of their own actions:

They had rejected what was good.
They had forgotten God and His law.
They had chosen their own kings without God’s consent.
They had made idols for themselves, breaking God’s #1 command.
They had put their faith and trust in Assyria’s protection, not God’s.
They gave God the occasional offering, but didn’t place their faith in Him.

Hosea then proclaims that the Hebrews “will return to Egypt,” and what is fascinating about this is that it’s a metaphorical double-edged sword. Before they had become a nation, the Hebrews were in slavery in Egypt, so Hosea’s reference means they will be returning to the slavery and exile from which God originally delivered them. But there is also a literal meaning, as their King would go to Egypt to try and cut a better deal. This betrayal of their alliance with Assyria would start the chain of political events leading to Assyria’s wrath and Israel’s exile.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself thinking about tornado sirens and the prophetic Revelation of John in which seven trumpets sound warnings of events on the horizon, much in the same vein of Hosea in today’s chapter. I can’t help but think of what Jesus said to the descendants of Hosea’s audience: “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.”

Just this last week I read a fascinating article about the “Moral Inversion” being observed in our culture. Right is now wrong. Wrong is now right. Men are women because they say they are. Women are told to be as silent and compliant as a handmaid when a biological male with mediocre ability claims to be a woman and decimates them in competition. Little children who can’t get a tattoo without parental approval until they’re an adult now have the cognitive ability to go through drastic, gender-bending medical procedures (with life-long consequences) and the educational system will both assist in serving the child up to the medical community for profit while keeping parents in the dark. Teenaged girls are suddenly embracing an ideology that would make them the chattel of male oppressors. Heinous violence is celebrated. Hatred has become fashionable. Evil is good.

To Jesus’ point, when the tornado siren sounds, I know to check the radar. I can discern when it’s time to head to the basement and when I can step outside to view the storm clouds on the horizon. I pray I have the discernment to interpret the signs of the times, to cling to what is true and good, and to stand against evil, even in the midst of the storm.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.