Last night, President Trump addressed the nation from the Oval Office, where he read from Scripture. This has been a sensitive time for the president in his relationship with believers. His wild Truth Social post on Easter morning and his AI image appearing to depict himself in the place of Jesus have put him in hot water with many Christian people. Even his most loyal supporters have called him out on these things. Obviously, the president has heard the dissent and is trying to rectify these mistakes. He announced a couple of days ago that he would be reading from the Bible on Tuesday night, and that he did.
The passage of choice for the president was 2 Chronicles 7:11–22. This passage reads:
11 So Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king’s palace, and successfully completed everything that [a] he had planned on doing in the house of the Lord and in his palace.
12 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send a plague among My people, 14 and My people [b] who are called by My name humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the [c] prayer offered in this place. 16 For now I have chosen and consecrated this house so that My name may be there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there [d] always. 17 As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, to do according to everything that I have commanded you, and keep My statutes and My ordinances, 18 then I will establish your royal throne as I covenanted with your father David, saying, ‘[e] You shall not lack a man to be ruler in Israel.’
19 “But if you turn away and abandon My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, 20 then I will uproot [f] you from My land which I have given [g] you, and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight; and I will make it a proverb and an object of scorn among all peoples. 21 As for this house, which was exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the Lord done these things to this land and to this house?’ 22 And they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who brought them from the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods, and worshiped and served them; therefore He has brought all this adversity on them.’”
With the president’s support for Israel, this is an interesting passage for him to read. It begins with the Lord speaking to Solomon about plans for building the Temple, but then it gets into prophecy, mentioning the covenant. The Israelites were expected to follow the Lord’s commandments and not serve other gods, or else they would be “uprooted” from the land given to them. The conditions are spelled out.
It would be extremely difficult to argue that the modern-day state of Israel, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, is following the Lord’s commandments and is committed to the One True God. As mentioned on The Trellis Hour, Israel was just bragging the other day about hosting the largest pride festival in the history of the Middle East in June. This is obviously a direct and open rebellion of God.
The prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, is a secular man. He identifies with Judaism as a cultural symbol, but not a real faith. He uses the Scripture when he talks about wiping his enemies out, specifically when he mentions Amalek, comparing the people in Gaza to the Amalekites who were completely wiped out in 1 Samuel 15 under the Lord’s command. Since Christ came to Earth, we know as believers that we are never called to wipe out every man, woman, and child. But of course, a blind man like Netanyahu has no understanding of Christ, who he defamed as not being as effective or powerful as Genghis Khan.
This is the type of leader that would not have been lauded in the Old Testament and would be leading Israel to ruin. I believe we see this now, as Israel has been in as much turmoil as you can imagine with their “7-front war.”
This is what makes it so interesting that President Trump would use this particular passage in his address from the Oval Office. Does he even know what he is reading? Like Netanyahu, Trump is also a blind man. I do not believe Trump is as wicked as Netanyahu, although I do not know either’s heart, as only the Lord does. I appreciate the president reading the Bible from the White House, whatever his motives may have been. I do think Trump feels sorry for his irreverence recently and wants to make up for it. He still does not understand that salvation is through faith. He is still trying to balance out his bad with good. The president has very little understanding of the Word, as evidenced whenever he has been asked about such matters.
We do not know the purpose of why Trump read that passage, but what we do know is that the Word of God does not return void. Praise the Lord that President Trump read the Bible from the Oval Office. We should pray that he continues to read and that it penetrates his heart.
