SOUND!

It’s the noise that catches your attention. Of course, the traffic itself is bad and people drive like maniacs. The rules of the road are for the birds: if you want to understand Judges 21:25, you need to drive in India.

In those days there was no king in Israel;
everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Judges 21:25

I’ve been driven on the wrong side of the road. I’ve been taken up one-way streets—the wrong way, of course! I’ve been chauffeured at night without lights. Drivers have blithely been chatting away on their phones as they negotiate the horrendous traffic with their nail-biting, hair-pulling, head-clutching passenger behind.

[That unfortunate soul (yours faithfully) is in South Asia on some preaching and teaching assignments.]

But it’s the noise. The honking. The blare of horns. Decibels to deafen. And it is non-stop, from around 6:00 in the morning to midnight. In fact, most commercial vehicles, like the truck above, command other vehicles coming behind them to “Sound Horn.” Yup, you are to “sound horn.” That’s how you announce your presence to everyone else. After all, no one is looking at the road.

I thought people in these parts of the world drove by faith not by sight, in perfect concordance with the biblical mandate.

For we walk by faith, not by sight.
2 Corinthians 5:7

Substitute “drive” for “walk” and you’ve got it. That’s driving in India.

Or so I thought.

Till I realized that they are not driving by faith. Obviously they are not driving by sight, either. Rather, they are driving by sound. “Sound horn!”

Even a blind person could drive here: “For we drive by sound, not by sight.”

Sound is important for believers in Christ, too, not just for drivers in South Asia.

How then will they call on Him
in whom they have not believed?
How will they believe in Him
whom they have not heard?
And how will they hear
without a preacher?
Romans 10:14

It is by the hearing of the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that faith begins to germinate. As one hears of Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection, the atoning of sins by this only God and Savior, one believes, placing one’s trust, putting one’s faith in the salvation He provides. Good news, indeed.

And for the preacher, sounding Jesus’ horn is an august, yet delightful, responsibility.

How will they preach unless they are sent?
Just as it is written,
“How beautiful are the feet of those
who bring good news of good things!”
Romans 10:15

Preaching lead to hearing leads to believing.

So faith comes from hearing,
and hearing by the word of Christ.
Romans 10:17

And those with ears must hear.

And He [Jesus] was saying,
“One who has ears to hear,
let him hear.”
Mark 4:9

Of course, it is not just hearing that matters, but the belief, the faith in Christ and the consequent bearing of fruit.

And those are the ones on whom
seed was sown on the good soil;
and they hear the word and
accept it and bear fruit,
thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.
Mark 4:20

And so we who have heard the Good News must “Sound Horn”—announce the presence of Jesus and proclaim His saving Name.

We have heard the joyful sound:
Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
Spread the tidings all around:
Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
Bear the news to every land,
Climb the mountains, cross the waves;
Onward! ’tis our Lord’s command;
Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
Priscilla J. Owens, 1882

“Sound Horn,” indeed!