Today’s Scripture Reading (March 2,
2016): 2 Samuel 5
A recent BBC
article outlined the five (unlikely) ways that Donald Trump could lose the
Republican Presidential nomination. The five ways included the establishment
coming to the rescue of Marco Rubio, Evangelicals rallying around Ted Cruz, John
Kasich being able to take the winner take all states beginning with a rally in
his home state of Ohio and finishing with a brokered convention (the last
brokered convention was in 1948), and moderates and Democrats coming to the
rescue by turning out en masse to remove Trump from the Republican nomination
process (which is unlikely since the Democrats seem to be enjoying the idea of
running against Trump.) But the last reason cited in the article was probably
the only real possibility – Trump finally implodes. It is the moment that main
line Republicans have been waiting for, that moment when Trump finally crosses
the line and the voters realize that he is simply not who they want to
represent them as President of the United States. The reality is that every
politician has a line that he simply cannot cross. Just ask Marco Rubio who
flirted with his line by repeating a prepared statement regarding the Barak
Obama presidency in the New Hampshire debate. Marco crossed the line and what
should have been, at the very least, a second place finish became a fifth place
embarrassment. And Rubio promised he would never cross that line ever again.
Every
politician has a line – except maybe Donald Trump. So while this makes the most
sense, it is not likely to happen because you can’t cross a line that does not
exist. But the other thing that is worth noting is that Trump behaves the way
that he does because it is working. Making insane comments, threatening to
punch protesters in the nose, threatening Marlene Ricketts whose family owns
95% of the Chicago Cubs for opposing him, threatening to ban Muslims from the
nation; all of these things are currently working for Trump. Flirting with the
non-existent line that every other politician has to worry about is getting
Trump votes. But The Donald has repeatedly told us that if that stops working,
he will change. The brash Donald Trump of the campaign trail will not be the
Donald Trump that sits behind the desk in the oval office. The two men are
mutually exclusive. If that is true, then Donald will be a hard force to stop,
because a chameleon who is capable of changing his shape according to the
situation is hard to defend against.
That might
be the most significant thing to notice in this passage. In the first attack
against the Philistines, God seems to indicate to David that it is a frontal
attack that will work. Essentially David simply attacks the Philistines, and he
wins. But God indicates to David that what worked the first time is unlikely to
work this time. This time David needs to circle around from behind and take
them from the poplar trees. The probability is that after the first attack, the
Philistines learned from the attack and set their defenses according to what
David had shown them. So a different attack was required. One that was
unexpected.
So David’s
victory depended on his ability to be a chameleon and adapt to the changing situation
– and for David, that meant listening intently for the word that came out of
his God’s mouth.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1
Chronicles 11
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