THE WORDS OF THE PROPHETS ARE WRITTEN

After Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, took Jerusalem in 597 BC, he engaged in a massive ethnic cleansing campaign that became known as the Babylonian Captivity, forcing the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Judah to the east, into Babylon proper, between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.  The author of Psalm 137 (possibly the prophet Jeremiah) wrote about it.  “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, also we wept at our remembrance of Zion.”

Their deliverance came 47 years later, at the hands of the Persian King, Cyrus the Great.  Cyrus conquered Babylon and allowed captives – from throughout the empire, not just Judeans – to return to their homelands.  He had a remarkably enlightened imperial philosophy, which was that he was willing to let the nations and tribes he conquered keep their local customs and religious beliefs.  As long as they kept the tribute flowing into Persepolis, they’d be left alone. 

That seemed like a pretty good deal to Judeans and Israelites, and their Old Testament prophets spoke highly of Cyrus the Great.

When pro-Trump evangelical Christians needed a way to rationalize their support for the profoundly unchristian Donald Trump in 2016, they seized upon the example of Cyrus the Great.  If God could use a Persian king to achieve his purposes, he could certainly use a reality show buffoon who never met a commandment he didn’t want to break.  But apparently Trump evangelicals worship a small-g god, powerful enough to use a heathen like Donald Trump, but not powerful enough to use Hillary Clinton.

Trump Evangelicals have created a self-fulfilling false prophecy.  Their modern-day Cyrus, Donald J. Trump, has begun to speak of himself in Biblical terms.  So far, in the year of our Lord 2019, he has referred to himself as “a very stable genius,” “the king of the Jews,” and “the chosen one.”  This weekend, he claimed to have “great and unmatched wisdom.”  Perfectly normal presidential behavior. 

But if we’re looking for comparisons to ancient middle eastern conquerors, Donald Trump reminds me less of Cyrus the Great than of Ozymandias, the subject of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s famous poem.  Here it is in its entirety: 

“I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.” 

Donald Trump has the sneer of cold command.  He desperately longs for obedience and praise.  He’d love to be able to say something like “Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair.”  Sadly, Trump has yet to accomplish anything of note during his nearly three years as president. 

The only strategy he has left is to thrash around like a bull in a china shop, breaking things.  It took him less than three years to go from newly elected Leader of the Free World to “the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare.”

But what if the best Biblical analogy for Donald Trump isn’t Cyrus, but instead a remarkable figure from the New Testament?  (Ever notice how Trump’s evangelical supporters look to the Old Testament, rather than the teachings of Jesus and his disciples, to support their arguments?) 

What if Donald Trump is the second of the Four Great Beasts of Revelation, known as The Beast From The Sea?  According to the Book of Revelation (13:5), “And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months.” 

Donald Trump has been in office just shy of 34 months. 

As the song goes, “You know I ain’t no prophet, and I ain’t no prophet’s son.”But Trump’s 42 months will be up next summer.If it happens, remember you read it first here.