As I was driving to work a few mornings ago, I was listening
to a morning talk show ramble on about the Presidential candidates. Mentioned were pros and cons of the various
hopefuls, what they had accomplished in their pasts, and speculations on what each
one would do if elected to lead our country.
My mind began to wander back to the Old Testament, as it often does when
I think about politics and the leadership of our country.
For the past ten years, I have taught the
same lessons to the second graders at our church, so I feel pretty familiar
with the history of Israel. We start
with Israel wanting and getting their first king, Saul, and we go all of the
way through the history of the nation of Israel, including the eventual fall of
both Israel and Judah to other nations and then the return of the Jews to
Jerusalem. We talk a lot about the fact
that God had one simple rule – obey my commandments. If they just did that, then they would be
blessed. And they did, for a while. Then they turned away from God, and even each
other. The northern kingdom of Israel had ZERO good
kings after the division occurred.
Several years passed before the Assyrians took their land over, and they
were known as the lost tribes of Israel after that. The southern kingdom of Judah fared a little
better, as that their kings continued in the lineage of David, but there would
be years of good kings and years of bad kings.
In my mind wandering, the good king that I began thinking about was
Josiah.
Josiah became king when his father died, and he was only
eight years old. When he was 16 years
old, he began seeking after God. When he
was 20 years old, he began removing objects of idol worship from the
country. He even destroyed places in
Israel as well as Judah. When he was 26
years old, he ordered that the temple be cleaned up and repaired. During this repair effort, the book of the
Law was found and brought to King Josiah.
When it was read to him, he realized the sin that the country was, and
had been, living in. He was visibly
upset – he even tore his clothes! He
sent to the prophetess Huldah, to inquire of God just how bad things were. God said that evil would come to that place
(Judah) because the people had forsaken Him, but that Josiah would be spared from
seeing it happen. Josiah then stood
before the people and committed to follow God completely, and asked the people
to do the same. He simply “cleaned
house”, in the entire land. He also
re-instituted the Passover. The details of his reign can be found in 2
Kings 22-23 and 2 Chronicles 34-35. In verse 25 of 2 Kings 23, the Bible says “And
like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all
his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the
law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.” In 2 Chronicles 34: 33, the Bible says “All
his days they departed not from following the LORD, the God of their
fathers.”
And even though Josiah did all of these good things, in
2Kings 23: 26 we are told that the anger of the Lord was not diminished because
of all of the evil that former king Manasseh had done. And several years later, Judah was captured
by the Babylonians.
The United States of America is on the same path as ancient
Israel. The leadership in our country
has forsaken God. They act as though
they are above the rules, the real rules – the Bible.
I feel that we need a President who will direct the country
back toward God, but in the right way, like Josiah did. He showed the Israelites what they were doing
wrong against God’s law, and what it said would happen. They realized their sin and repented and
continued to follow God, just like their leader.
I have yet to hear “getting back to God” on anyone’s
political agenda. Considering how far
the country is down the road to Hades, it would take some pretty creative and
persuasive ideas to get the people to at least consider looking at God, much
less actually turning to Him. Our country needs a lot of things that are
being discussed these days, like a great plan to get out of debt, but what it
really needs is godly leadership.
So, I’m looking for a Josiah on the ballot.
