Job 6:28

But now, pray, turn toward me,

   You may turn away if I should lie.

(Written 3/22, Posted  4/4)

I read a novel that covered the time frame of the 2020 elections and aftermath. It provided a very negative portrayal of Donald Trump and while fiction, it reinforced my idea that I do not want him to be president again, and I do not want him to even be on the ballot nor influential in the results. In my mind, he was the lesser of two evils in 2016, but in 2020 he might not have been. Either way, I feel my main worldly service will be to pray for a more godly candidate in 2024.

Once again, I am skipping over some word choice points that I have addressed before.

“Turn toward” me was selected over “be pleased to look at”, “be so kind as to look at”, “be content to look at”, “so good as to face”, “be good enough to turn toward”, “deign to turn toward”, and “give me heed”. I do not know how to address my dropping of the implied “be so kind as to” other than to not think it as appropriate to ask God to do so in such a manner. In my mind, I would have said something like:, “God, please listen to me now.” I know it seems that Job is speaking to his companions, but I had the overwhelming sense this verse starts a new passage where he calls out to God.

The bulk of my sources had the second stitch as something like: “I will not lie to your face.” I did not like this rendition at all. Liars lie, even to God, even if it takes lying to themselves first. Only my favorite source carried the idea that he might indeed lie, and that God could turn from him if he did so. God knows when we lie, so we cannot successfully lie to him, just ourselves and other people. The only other source that seemed not wrong was the King James that proclaimed “For it is evident unto you if I lie” which would only be true if he was speaking to God.

In my mind, I think it would have been better if Trump had been impeached and could not run for office. I do not understand why the “GOP” was so weak as to not do so, but there are a lot of political aspects to it that I cannot know without the knowledge they had. I do not believe the Democrats are leading the country to where the regular people want to be. I do not believe Trump would lead us where we need to be. I hope that the political process we have will provide us an option that will be clearly the preferred path of God. I know our world is headed to destruction, but  pray that God will listen to my plea to delay so that I and my children might not have to see the worst of it.