Donald Trump and Psalms 82

 I always enjoy listening to, and reading articles by, people who are more versed in the Bible and Christian theology than I am.  I am just an everyday Christian pew sitter who often wonders why everyone is talking about so much that does not matter, like what a certain celebrity said about another celebrity, or who is divorcing who.  In the end, the love life of Taylor Swift may fascinate but is totally unimportant, for example.  Ted Noel is such a person.  I barely manage to master the English language, much less Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic.  But Noel is able to read the Bible in the Pre-Christian Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew circa the third century before Christ.

So, Noel's take on Donald Trump And 'That Moment' In Time When He Was Saved seemed made for me to read. And I urge gentle readers to read it too.

The books that became the Bible were originally written in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. After years of study, I can now pick my way through the original Greek text but don’t accuse me of being fluent. Unlike my older brother, who sleep-talked in German in college (he was studying it then), I don’t dream in Greek and only use it when I’m fully awake exploring a theological point. So why would I wake up with a Greek word— Ekeinos—ringing in my ears? (I’ll explain below the phrase’s import.)

And why would Esther 4:14 pop into my head?

"For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?" (NAS, emphasis added)

One can quibble over translations. He apparently likes the New American Standard Bible, while I prefer the New King James. But every English translation has its quirks. Our church uses the English Standard Version, but then we have to go through and mark out "offspring" and insert "seed" which was in the original Hebrew. The "seed" (singular) referred in the Hebrew was to the future Messiah. God didn't decide to send Jesus into the world when He did on a whim. He planned it from the foundation of the world.

During the reign of King Saul, God told him to utterly destroy the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:2ff). Saul disobeyed this order. The prophet Samuel had to kill King Agag of Amalek himself.

Fast forward a few hundred years. The Jews had been taken to captivity in Babylon and were later freed to return home to Judea. Some stayed and lived under Persian rule, which is where the story of Esther (and Purim) fit. The villain in this story was “Haman the Agagite.” He managed to get a royal decree to kill all the Jews on a set date. An Amalekite had survived the divinely decreed judgment, and his descendant saw an opportunity for revenge.

Jewish Queen Esther’s uncle Mordecai gets word to Esther of what’s coming. She hesitates to go to King Ahasuerus to plead for the Jews because walking in on him uninvited while he was engaged in royal business could cost her life. Mordecai answers in the verse I quoted above. She was put in her position “for a time such as this.” The Jews are saved, Haman’s neck gets stretched, and the last of the Agagites are eliminated.

All this is interesting stuff, if you are a reader of the Bible and the Old Testament. We have just recently completed First and Second Samuel in our daily lectionary, and after wading through First and Second Kings and First and Second Chronicles, we will get to Esther. But what Noel is making note of is the fact that Trump is aware of the Divine miracle of his being rescued form an assassin's bullet, and the profound affect it has on his demeanor. Gone are the mean tweets. He seems to understand that he has a moment to perform a mission for the American people. He seemed at the RNC to be calmer, more resolute, more focused.

The nattering nabobs of negativism on the Left poo-poo any suggestion that Trump is truly a Christian. But when Dr. Phil asked him if he would forgive those who had done such evil to him, 45 demonstrated a more sophisticated Christianity than many seminary professors. “I’d like to be able to.” Donald Trump understood that his forgiveness requires repentance on the part of the wrongdoer. Trump was willing and able to forgive, but true forgiveness would have to wait.

Being a Christian, loyal to YHWH, is somewhat different from being a Christian who has been protected by the divine hands in a way that offers no other answer. They’re both Christians, but the latter has a much deeper personal appreciation for the divine. We saw that in Trump’s acceptance speech. It seemed to say that he’s done with mean tweets. He’s now totally focused on the mission YHWH gave to the fallen elohim in Psalm 82.

2 How long will you judge unjustly, And show partiality to the wicked? Selah.

3 Vindicate the weak and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and destitute.

4 Rescue the weak and needy; Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked. (Psalm 82:2-4 NAS)

The Swamp has set itself up as the ultimate authority over everything in everyone’s lives. Donald Trump is an existential threat to its evil. But this time, he’s not coming in as a roaring Lion. He’s coming as a servant of YHWH, fully committed to the divine mission of showing true justice to those who have been harmed. His task is to eliminate the Amalekites in government so that we can live free.

Everyone must do what is necessary of course. At a minimum vote! But pray and trust in the LORD.