Huldah appears in nine verses in the Hebrew Bible (2 Kings 22:13-20 and 2 Chronicles 34:22-28). Huldah’s story reveals nothing about her. Instead, she is identified by describing to whom she is married and subsequently the name and position of her husband’s father.
In a paternalistic society the identification with these men in Huldah’s life gives her prophetic talents a greater authority. After all, her father-in-law, a man named Harhas is “the keeper of the wardrobe.” That was a big deal on the King’s cabinet. Keeping the royal family’s robes and closet in good order was important.
As a result of King Josiah of Judah trusting Harhas with his underwear and outer garments, Josiah had come to know that Huldah, Harhas’ daughter-in-law, was thought by many to have great prophetic insights. She was thought to speak for God in relaying God’s judgements on current events and national direction.
Josiah sends a delegation to find out what message Huldah has received about Josiah’s executive decisions and directives; specifically in light of the recent discovery in that time of what we now know as the Book of Deuteronomy. Huldah tells it straight without flowery language:
Tell the man who sent you to me, “this is what the Lord says: I am going to bring disaster on this place and its people, according to everything written in the book the king of Judah has read.”
Josiah listens closely. He changes course and the lord has compassion for him.
Things have not changed a great deal over the centuries in terms of human behavior and politics. There are always ‘kings’ of one type or another too often leading their respective nations in dangerous direction. And to be sure, in every generation there have been thousands of prayers by millions of folks that God might speak in such a clear way to various leaders hoping they might change course and pursue greater good.
I am hoping that Huldah’s story will repeat itself. I am hoping that somewhere among the wardrobe caretakers of the present three branches of government in our country there will be some prophetic voice that will be heard and heeded before our nation slides further into division and toxic disillusionment.
But I am not holding my breath.
There is after all the White House Office of Faith serving as an obstacle to such a prophetic witness. It is our president’s effort to use religion – particularly the voices of Christian Nationalism – to undergird the MAGA agenda with the supportive prayers of White Supremacy and Prosperity Gospel advocates.
Since taking office this past January, President Trump, with the help of his MAGA Republican sycophants, has been enacting a strategy of “flooding the zone.” The flood includes using over 150 Executive Orders, making knowingly outrageous statements, demeaning the courts and defying court orders, freezing authorized federal funds, firing thousands of government service employees, deporting black and brown people, igniting a tariff war, ignoring the role of congress, appointing loyalists with little qualification to key cabinet positions, and endeavoring to keep everything off balance and a daily focus on himself. It is working.
There is just so much flood water in which to tread. It is difficult to stay afloat, keep informed, remain engaged, and most importantly advocate for more and more disenfranchised people and community programs such as food banks.
And that is the whole point of flooding the zone. To keep our citizenry distracted, arguing with each other, and ultimately to be so overwhelmed by the flood waters that we stop paying attention.
While we are being purposely distracted by the flood of presidential decrees including shower head volume and comments about possible annexation of Greenland, the real agenda creeps toward enactment hoping that we will not notice or become so tired of the culture wars being spawned that we will not have energy to keep on keeping on.
That is why knowing over 75% of our population disagrees with such things as major cuts to Medicare that the Republican controlled House Rules Committee has scheduled to vote on Trump’s proposed budget cuts – all disguised as eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse – at a 1:00 a.m. time slot in an effort to make sure as few people as possible are watching.
Trump and his sycophants are intentionally encouraging and profiting by the division his actions create. The more we are distracted by coping with the open floodgates of outrageous attacks on all things sacred in the kingdom, the more unseen destruction of our republic continues. Knowing that most all Trump initiatives result in court injunctions, appeals, and all manner of delay, the effort to enact the goals of Christian Nationalism and Project 2025 continue with unrelenting effort to be realized.
The real agenda includes moving massive amounts of money appropriated to help the working poor and marginalized to benefit instead the wealthiest among us. The real agenda includes the maintaining of power and the increase of wealth by the white gentry and their families all the while having supportive prayer meetings organized by Paula White and the White House Office of Faith.
Whether it is profiting in office by promoting bitcoin, the building of a Trump Tower in Qatar, or encouraging the gift of a fiery, new chariot as a 400 million dollar emolument of office, it is all being accomplished as we tread the flood waters of purposeful deception and obfuscation.
Let us put on Coast Guard approved life jackets and tread these waters. Let us stay awake and join our voices – or at the very least our hearts and minds – with those crying out and working for justice in this chaotic wilderness time.
I believe in the message of the Bible. I am looking for and hoping for the voice of a Huldah in our time. I am praying that a would be king will listen.