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What Does Qāḏaš Mean For The Reflecting Pool & The GOP?

What Does Qāḏaš Mean For The Reflecting Pool & The GOP?

Last updated on: June 26, 2026 at 9:51 am by Martin Thomas Johnson

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What Does Qāḏaš Mean For The Reflecting Pool & The GOP? 2026-06-26T09:51:09-04:00 Martin Thomas Johnson

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This week, the news has centered around the President. Trump and his Washington, D.C. revitalization project, beginning with the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The president had promised to clean up Washington, D.C., before America’s 250th anniversary celebration.

Image by Wikipedia Commons

The president then had a no-bid award to the contractors who would restore and clean up the Lincoln Memorial and the reflecting pool, which had become overgrown with algae and dirty. After spending $16 million by paying his friends and donors to clean the reflecting pool, the algae returned less than a week after its completion. The president even bragged that no one could cut the pool’s new painting with a knife.

An embarrassed President Trump had park services pour hydrogen peroxide into the pool to kill the algae, only for the newly painted pool to begin feeling and deteriorating due to the hydrogen peroxide, which is a paint remover.

The president and his followers aren’t listening to our great Shepherd (Matthew 6:19-21). Clearly, the president and his followers haven’t learned the truth about money, temporary things, and earthly greatness yet:

Temporary
Worldly
Cannot save
Doesn’t satisfy

As the situation worsened, the president kept changing his story about what happened to the reflecting pool. Initially, he tried to say the algae was all part of the revitalization process. Then the president turned to blaming Pres. Obama for the algae that was left in the pipes.

Finally, this week, the president came up with the idea without any evidence that the pool, which is uncutable according to him, was slashed by vandals who then poured fertilizer into the pool to cause the algae to grow and spread.

Hopefully, the president has learned biblical truth, only God can clean and sanctify us (Isaiah 5:21, 1 John 1:9).

What Is Sanctification

Because of sin, all humans are filthy and fallen just like the reflection pool. Likewise, we all need to be cleaned and fixed, especially if you belong to God (Hebrews 10:22, James 4:8). The Bible calls this process sanctification and is meant to cleanse and separate God’s people from this fallen world.

Image by Pixabay

Sanctification is defined as “A state of growing and divine grace as a result of Christian commitment after baptism or conversion.” God doesn’t save us to leave us in our filthy and sinful ways, just like you don’t drain and clean the reflecting pool only to let it get dirty again.

The problem is, we are fallen people who cannot clean or save ourselves; we can only be saved and cleaned by a perfect, pure God (Hebrews 9:14).

That is why the Bible has a lot to say about sanctification, what it is, and who does it (Leviticus 20:8, Hebrews 10:10; 13:12-14). When we come to God, we are broken like this dirty world, and God has to clean us from the inside out in order to set us apart from it (Psalm 51:10, 2 Corinthians 7:1, Hebrews 10:22).

God promises new lives and new hearts for His people (Ezekiel 36:26, 2 Corinthians 5:17). We are saved by God, we believe, but sanctification is a lifelong process only God can do (Romans 6:22, Ephesians 2:8-9, 1 Peter 1:2). The apostles remembered their Jewish education about being sanctified by God.

Qāḏaš

The Torah tells us that everything was good in the beginning when God created it (Genesis 1:1-31). At least until mankind wanted more than God had given him and disobeyed God’s one rule, which caused sin and death to enter the creation (Genesis 3:1-6).

Eventually, God decided to create a nation of holy people dedicated to Himself through Abraham and called Israel out of this fallen world to be set apart and purified for God (Genesis 12:1-3, Exodus 19:5-6).

The Hebrew word in the Old Testament for sanctify is qāḏaš, and it can also mean, “Hallow, dedicate, prepare, or set apart,” depending upon the context it is used in. It was God who chose to set Israel apart from this world to be a clean and holy people (Leviticus 20:26, Deuteronomy 7:6, Isaiah 62:12). That is why Israel gave God the name JehovahMekoddishkem (the Lord who sanctifies you). Over the years, Judaism developed its own ways to be sanctified to God:

Mitzvah
Torah study
Observance of Shabbat
Kiddish Ha-Shem
Ritual purity and prayer
Acts of lovingkindness

When Jesus began His earthly ministry, He reminded His followers that they needed to be cleansed and reborn in God’s Spirit (John 3:1-21). Our Lord himself chose to be baptized by John, and God reaffirmed Him (Matthew 3:13-17).

Jesus in the storm

Our Lord reminded his followers they need to be sanctified and set apart for God (John 7:16-19). He made it clear that His kingdom is not of this world (Matthew 6:10, John 18:36).

Our Rabbi taught His followers to be humble and let God lift them up from this fallen world (Matthew 23:12, Luke 18:14). Yet, 2000 years later, God’s people still don’t get it!

The GOP

In other big news this week, the GOP leadership and MAGA standouts have lashed out at President Trump over his handling of the Iran war and the economy. Both Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene both announced that they were done with the Republican Party as it stands now and warned President Trump that others will follow them.

Image by Wikipedia Commons

Even the GOP-led Senate voted initially to limit President Trump’s powers in the Iran war through the War Powers Act. Then the president threw a temper tantrum and refused to sign their housing bill unless they passed the Save America Act.

A total of four Republican senators joined Democrats in rebuking the president over his careless actions in Iran:

Susan Collins
Rand Paul
Bill Cassidy
Lisa Murkowski

Eventually, Sen. Cassidy reversed course and caved to the president’s demands after a big argument between the Senators and the president and the capital. It’s obvious that the president has failed to keep his promise to “Drain the swamp, because he only wants to control or replace it with loyalists to his demands.

We shouldn’t be surprised. If the president cannot drain and fix the reflecting pool, then how can he drain the political swamp? It appears the current GOP (including MAGA) is at a crossroads of who they really serve: God, Satan, themselves, or President Trump. Yet, the Bible is clear we can only serve God because He is Jehovah Mekoddishkem (Leviticus 20:8)!

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