[151]. A MESSAGE FROM A POEM – JEREMIAH’S DESCRIPTION – PROPHETS OF WIND
The catalyst for this poem was one verse in Jeremiah. It is Jeremiah 5:13.
The prophet always had awful opposition from false prophets, and the people preferred the false ones. Josiah’s sons did of course. Jeremiah did not have much support because his message was not liked. Is this not similar to our days? He faced persecution.
Often in Jeremiah’s prophecy, he had things to say about the false prophets and the disgraceful priests. They did not like it but the man of God is not in the business of being liked. For a minister/pastor, that can have its own problems when he treads carefully to be liked. Here are two verses including verse 13 I mentioned -
{{Jeremiah 5:12 They have lied about the LORD and said, “Not He. Misfortune will not come on us, and we will not see sword or famine.”
Jeremiah 5:13 THE PROPHETS ARE AS WIND, and the word is not in them. Thus it will be done to them.”}}
The prophets are just bags of emptiness when measured against the Lord’s standard. They are like the wind that has no stability but blows this way and that. Measure the wind by weight. It is air. It is light, just like the false prophets with no foundation. There was no substance to these false prophets.
I have kept to a short metre for this poem. That makes it more intense, and more direct, a sort of “quick hitting”. 6-5-6-5
This verse shows how widespread corruption was – {{Jeremiah 2:26 “As the thief is shamed when he is discovered, so the house of Israel is shamed - THEY, their KINGS, their PRINCES, and their PRIESTS, and their PROPHETS”}}
AND this verse shows what the result will be for all actions have consequences – {{Jeremiah 4:9 “It shall come about in that day,” declares the LORD, “that the heart of the KING and the heart of the PRINCES will fail, and the PRIESTS will be appalled, and the PROPHETS will be astounded.”}}
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JEREMIAH’S DESCRIPTION – PROPHETS OF WIND
Prophets of wind and storm,
Deceitful and false.
The deniers of truth,
Dancing Satan’s waltz.
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Glowing in angel light
With a blackened beam;
Encasing dark so thick
Through which evils stream.
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There Satan’s heart will sit
On falsity’s throne;
A liar from the start
Whom duped ones will own.
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Christ rejected, is light,
Only for the one
In humanism steeped,
Who the truth will shun.
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Darkness embraces sin;
Loves its essence well;
Hates the truth; loves the false -
Its way you can tell.
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False the teaching of some,
Prophets of dark shame.
They don’t know Christ the Lord;
Don’t know Him by Name.
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Wicked whirlwind of aims -
Their desires debased.
Volcanoes of error,
With God’s truth erased.
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If you set aside God
Just darkness remains.
The black future for you
Will see you in chains.
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Prophets of wind and storm;
False and deceitful.
Those planted tares of graft,
Evil and shameful.
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This world is froth and mirth;
Just pleasure seekers.
Our God is rejected
By sins’ marked keepers.
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Prophets of wind blow in,
All bags of hot air.
Don’t listen to what’s false.
Each one is a snare.
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There is a certainty -
A consequence comes.
He who pursues evil,
To judgement succumbs.
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Be not found there, my friend,
For their end is sure.
Hell’s door – it stands ajar,
Confined evermore.
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R E Ferguson 20 March 2024 ABCB 6-5-6-5
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The seventh stanza could be this:
Wicked whirlwind of aims -
True desires debase.
Volcanoes of error,
God’s truth they erase.