“Josiah For President”

“Josiah was eight years old
when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. His
mother’s name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah; she was from Bozkath. He
did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed completely the
ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the
left” (2 Kings 22:1,2).
“Josiah
For President” is a musical about an Amish man who runs
for president. It will be playing here in Lancaster County this summer, as well as
Shipshewana, Indiana and Sugarcreek, Ohio. We plan to see it when it opens. The summarized plot is:

“When former Congressman Mark Stedman throws in the towel on his
presidential campaign, his only choice is to return to his home state
and decide how to spend the rest of his life … until he meets Josiah
Stoltzfus, an Amish farmer from Pennsylvania. Stedman learns more from
Josiah in a few hours than in his many years in office. He comes to the
conclusion that someone like Josiah should be running the country. Not
a career politician, but someone with a little old-fashioned common
sense, someone who’s not afraid of rolling up his sleeves and getting
his hands dirty. Someone like Josiah Stoltzfus.”

We
still have over eight months of politicking until the presidential
election in November. I sure long for someone to be president like
a Josiah Stoltzfus and many other level-headed, common-sense,
no-nonsense
practical people I
regularly interface with. That may be a farmer or small businessman.
The other day I was talking about this to a long-time friend and
expressing my dismay at the condition of our country and appealed for
him
to consider running! Now he wouldn’t be considered “qualified” since he
lacks formal education, let alone, from the elite institutions where the
experts insist our leadership must come from.* He would certainly not be considered
well-connected. He’s just a hard-working, faithful, steady family man who is
seeking to live his life responsibly and in obedience to God. You
surely know people like this wherever you live.

Here in Lancaster County the surname
Stoltzfus is very common, especially among the Amish. In our neighrhood we buy plants from Elam
and Naomi Stoltzfus who run a greenhouse on Donegal Springs Road. We have friends who are descendants of the
original Stolzfus’s who settled in America. In regard to given names the
Amish often name
their children after Biblical characters such as boys named Eli, Moses,
and Malachi and girls named Naomi, Anna and Sarah. However I don’t
recall ever meeting an Amish named Josiah. But I called our Amish friends and they do know several with that name.

The musical was written by Martha Bolton, a Christian comedy writer.
We’ve used her materials in former churches where we pastored. I don’t
know whether the intent was merely to use an Amish-sounding
name or if any special consideration was given to the most famous Josiah in the Bible.

There are at least two Josiah’s in the Bible but the most famous was a
good king who lived shortly before the exile and oversaw a short but
significant period of revival and reform. He became king when he was
just 8 years old! The Scriptural record sums up his life with this
acclamation, “He
did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed completely the
ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the
left.”

Slightly modified that’s a good standard for all of us. “He
did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed completely the
ways of his heavenly Father, not turning aside to the right or to the
left.”

We sure need someone like
this Josiah, although under our present conditions, he would never get elected
unless there was
an accompanying national revival. And can you imagine the bickering if
he was elected and commenced to bring reforms back to our
Judeo-Christian heritage!!!

In studying for today’s message, I came across a very thoughtful blog
article by writer Joel Rosenberg titled, “America needs a Josiah.”

Rosenberg writes, “Choosing the right leader is not an easy process,
but it is vitally important. America is on the wrong track, going in
the wrong direction. We are heading steadily—perhaps rapidly—towards implosion. We’ve murdered 57 million babies. We have five
Justices on the Supreme Court who have decided that the Bible is wrong
and they know better than God what the definition of marriage should
be. We have taken on $18 trillion in debt and we’re taking on more and
more debt with no end in sight. We are surrendering to Russia, Iran and
ISIS. Our tax code is corruptingly complex and killing jobs and
opportunity. We can’t — or won’t — control our sovereign borders. Our
schools are a mess. Violence, drugs and pornography are epidemic.
Sadly, the list goes on and on.

So who can get us turned around and heading in the right direction?
I’ve been praying about this and studying the Scriptures for many
months, asking the Lord for clarity, and here is what I have concluded.
America needs a Josiah.”

Rosenberg goes on to provide an exhaustive study of Josiah’s background, reforms and the parallels and
non-parallels to our situation in America (Link to article below which
we encourage our readers to examine). He wisely points out that “the
role of president isn’t the same in the U.S. as the role of king was in
the days of Judah.”

Our land certainly needs to be healed.
Based on the current trajectory that we are headed we wonder how much longer will judgment be withheld. “When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan” (Proverbs 29:2). We rightly recognize the importance of leadership but many it seems, place an undue
expectation of what leadership can do. Some have a Messiah-like expectation of our political leaders.

While it is proper to pray for our country (wherever we may live) we
must realize where our ultimate citizenship is along with the frank
assessment of Scripture that kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall.

Make the prayer of Daniel in our daily prayer your own as we bow in awe of the
power of God and give proper honor to our eternal God whose kingdom
never ends.


Be encouraged today,

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber