Today’s Scripture Reading (January
28, 2016): 1 Samuel 19
Donald Trump’s
Achilles heel may be beginning to show. The reality star continues to lead in
the polls, and it is beginning to look like he will lead in the polls as long
as a plurality of candidates is involved, but there are an increasing number of
Republicans who say that when push comes to shove, they will not vote for the Donald.
Translation – as long as there are more than two or maybe three candidates in
the race, then Donald Trump will likely keep his lead. But when the candidates
are reduced to only two or three, Donald’s support group will remain stable and
while the other candidate(s) simply fly right by him.
If that
doesn’t happen and Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination, then it looks
like a number of Republicans will simply sit this election out. According to a
recent New York Times opinion page, political columnist Peter Wehner will be
one of them. He writes that he will not be able in good conscience to vote for
Trump in this November’s election, even though he has voted Republican in every
election since Ronald Reagan. He also admits that he will be unable to vote for
Hillary Clinton or any of her Democratic colleagues because they stand for so
much that he is against. So the only path left is one of abstention.
The bottom
line of the problem, according to Wehner, is that Trump only seems to know how
to take care of himself. He is not part of the process, he is above it. He is
ignorant of the facts and has no interest in fixing that ignorance. He has
become a point of tension within the Republican Party, and might just destroy
it. In fact, one has to wonder how the Republican Party can reign themselves
back from the brink that they seem to be currently running toward. Right now,
they seem hopelessly fractured and beyond possible redemption. They are hurt
and grasping at straws – and Donald Trump would seem to be one of those straws.
The Republican Party currently seems to be a party without a direction. What
they need is a leader that bring them back together, maybe another Ronald
Reagan, but those are hard to find, and indeed none seem to be running. Without
someone to draw the party together, we may find that the wounds in the party
inflicted by the presence of Donald Trump might be impossible to heal – at
least in the short term.
Saul is
beginning to be a national problem. He is narcissistic, self-absorbed and
unable to grasp the reality of the situation in Israel, and he has no
willingness to learn (if he had bad hair, we might begin to make some
comparisons.) His family is fractured. And maybe the place where most of the
hurt lies in the life of his daughter, Michal. Jonathan, Saul’s son is at least consistent.
He understands the great benefit that the presence of David is having on the reign
of Saul. At every opportunity he reminds his father of the positives that David
has brought to the kingdom. He defeated Goliath and has led the army well. And
Saul, at least to a certain extent, is convinced by his son’s words.
But Michal,
Saul’s daughter and David’s wife, finds herself fractured by the conflict. She
warns David that Saul intends to kill him, but unlike her brother, she in
unable to support her husband in the presence of her father. Instead, she hands
her father one more reason to hate David – according to Michal, David
threatened to kill her.
For Michal,
she simply becomes a pawn from this point on in the growing conflict between
Saul and David. And the biblical writings seem to indicate that she also becomes
very bitter. Even after the death of Saul, the wounds inflicted on Michal seem
impossible to heal. And her marriage to the man that she once claimed to love
becomes more about convenience than love as the shadow of Saul continues to
shape the marriage of his daughter.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1
Samuel 20
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