Jerusalem, oh Jerusalem,
Your moment of pride has come.
To the breadth you betrayed your prophets
And called them mad and liars and a fool.
You have allied with Media,
Oh Jerusalem…
I had loved you.
I had spoken good of you.
Yet I did see you of the world
As a giant. I saw you call me a “god.”
O! Mad Prophet! I am not a god!
I had wept for you.
I had prayed for you.
I had given you my benefit of the doubt.
Yet, you stood at the birth of the world
And lifted yourself with pride against your sister Sodom.
The prophet you scorned,
He had made his mistake.
He had humbly requested to go into captivity.
He had fought and shamed his own council
And therefore incurred war against himself
For the foolishness of putting himself in bonds
To appease his LORD’s wrath.
You, you had laid out the tongue against him
Every day, and had slandered him
Your own brother.
Andrew saw I was right.
So did Elisha.
Who are you? Thou art Jerusalem in Ezekiel.
I had taken my oath, and I had performed it
Unto the LORD, I was not late in paying my vows.
I had mourned, and wept, and given all my bread to the hungry
That I could afford.
What did Christ say?
He who has bread share it.
What did you say, “Work like a slave! It is only right.”
This is not the message to the prophet
O foolish man! I had loved you as my own brother!
For God’s servants had required rest.
And rest I did.
I had not taken a mark upon my palm or forehead.
This mark I have is not the mark of the beast
But the mark of a Christian…
To give what I have unto the poor
To love my neighbor
And to desire my God above even my own bread
Which I wept over in tears.
Had there been a single thing you said
That was right? So you can fortune tell.
Had you spoken what was true of an interpreter?
That is to have mercy? That is to have kindness?
That is to loosen the bonds of the captive?
So you had power to heal the blind with a word.
I had healed the blind without a word.
So you had strength to deliver over the spoil in battle
To yourself.
I had fought no battle,
And what battle I fought, it was a sin
Just like yours.
Violence is in your hands
O Jerusalem.
In my hands is chaff
For the nations consume my work
Because of your false prophecies.
Repent. But you will be like Jerusalem
Crying over your sister Sodom;
“She had done so too!”
You had forgotten her in your day of pride
O Jerusalem.
I, I had humbled myself and realized my confession was vanity.
That is why I did not resist nor trust in Farrow’s Chariot.
Instead, I had rejected his counsel
And did not resist the punishment.
I did not go forth into greater wrath,
But to appease my LORD I stayed where He had
Made a place for me
And there I had listened to the preachers.
It is not me who is guilty
For I had known my sins;
And when I confessed I realized
Had I resisted, I would be like a snake charmer
Who had no whistle
Or a man walking on coals
And standing there to let my feet burn.
I had loved you like a brother.
I had wept for you.
But I found you in the world
As if you belonged there.
Woe unto Jerusalem
Who scorns her prophets.
B. K. Neifert 