Dear Reader,

From the walls of the watchman I write these lines. In an hour when prophecies bloom like ripened figs and the shadows lengthen across the nations, I lift my voice not for fame, nor for fear, but that Jesus Christ—the Lamb once slain and the Lion of Judah—might be magnified above all. Israel stands betrayed by the very powers that once pledged her peace. Good is openly called evil, and evil parades as virtue. Perilous times have come, the Bridegroom is at the door, and the time is short.

This poem is my trumpet blast upon the prophetic stage. It is a solemn call to awake from slumber, to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus while mercy’s gate remains open, lest any be left behind when the saints are gathered and wrath is poured out. Every stanza has been forged in prayer and Scripture, that the alarm might stir hearts not to dread, but to hope in the coming King.

Read it slowly. Read it aloud. Then lift your own voice with the watchmen of old. The night is far spent; the Day is at hand.

Sound the trumpet. Repent. Believe. Exalt the Lamb.

In the service of the soon-returning Christ,

The Poet-Watchman

Watchmen on the Walls

• Isaiah 62:6 — On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest…
(The classic call for prophetic voices who do not keep silent.)

• Ezekiel 3:17 — Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.

• Ezekiel 33:6 — But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.

Ripened Figs & the Fig Tree Sign (Israel & the Season)

• Matthew 24:32-34 (and parallels in Mark 13, Luke 21) — “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.
(The fig tree is widely understood in this context as a symbol tied to Israel’s national revival.)

• Hosea 9:10 — Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season, I saw your fathers…” (Israel pictured as early figs.)

Good Called Evil / Moral Inversion

• Isaiah 5:20 — Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

• Romans 1:32 (in context of increasing ungodliness) — Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Perilous Times in the Last Days

• 2 Timothy 3:1-5 — But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power.

• 2 Timothy 3:12-13 — “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”

The Bridegroom at the Door / Time is Short

• Matthew 25:6, 10 (Parable of the Ten Virgins) — “But at midnight there was a cry: ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ … And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.”

• Revelation 22:12 — Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.

• Matthew 24:33 — So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates.”

• Romans 13:11-12 — Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand.

Saints Gathered / Wrath & Repentance

• Matthew 24:31 — And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

• 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 — For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air…

• Revelation 6–19 (the seals, trumpets, bowls) depicts wrath poured out after the Lamb opens the scroll.

• Acts 17:30-31 — The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed…

• 2 Peter 3:9 — The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

The Lamb Once Slain & Lion of Judah

• Revelation 5:5-6 — And one of the elders said to me, ‘Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.’ And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain…

• John 1:29 — Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

Upon the rampart where the faithful stand,

The night grows heavy with impending doom;

Lift high the shofar with unflinching hand,

And sound the blast that rends the gathering gloom.

Not ours the glory, nor the fleeting fame—

We sound the prophetic alarm for Jesus’ Name.

The ancient scrolls unfold before our eyes,

Each prophecy now ripening in haste;

The hour is late, the fig tree’s tender signs

Declare the summer near, the time of grace

Grows short. Betrayed is Israel, once restored,

By nations false who break their solemn word.

The Lamb once slain, whose blood the winepress stained,

Who bore the cup of wrath no tongue can tell,

Now claims the throne where seraphim have reigned,

And every knee in heaven, earth, and hell

Shall bow. O saints, exalt Him without cease—

Magnify the Lord, and let all discord cease.

Awake, ye slumberers wrapped in mortal night,

The Bridegroom hastens through the eastern skies;

Trim every lamp with oil of heavenly light,

Cast off the chains where gilded idols lie.

Repent, believe—the time is short, make haste,

Lest you be left behind when wrath is faced.

In perilous times these latter days descend,

When good is evil called, and evil good;

When men, lovers of self, their lusts defend,

And truth is trampled where the mockers stood.

Yet Israel stands surrounded, sore betrayed—

Fulfillment shouts: the King is on His way!

Let Israel’s towers with ancient trumpet ring,

“Behold the Lion! Behold the Lamb once pierced!”

Let dry bones stir, let deadened sinners spring

To life anew where grace has interposed.

No other standard shall our banner bear;

We sound the alarm that Christ alone be there.

Through tempests fierce of this our closing age,

Where Israel bleeds betrayed by nations’ guile,

And good is evil called, while evil’s rage

Is hailed as virtue in the devil’s style;

Time is short—repent, believe, O soul, awake!

Lest you be left behind when saints are taken!

We sound the trumpet on the prophetic stage—

That Jesus, only Jesus, be exalted evermore!

Amen and Amen.