All That Isn’t Enough

As rulers go, King Uzziah was about as good as it gets. In 2^nd Chronicles 26, we read about his rule. Taking the throne at sixteen years of age, he ‘did right in the sight of the LORD’. He defeated some of Israel worst enemies and forced others to pay tribute. His fame spread across the region. He improved the infrastructure of the cities, was a friend to the farmer, and strengthened the military. He not only increased the manpower of his nation but brought in new technology and innovation as well. You name it, religion, power, prestige, technology, defense, agricultural; he excelled in them all during his reign.

Except at the end.

In 2 Chronicles 26:16 we read:

But when he became strong, his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly, and he was unfaithful to the LORD his God, for he entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense.

He wanted to go and lead the worship. He was a king, a respected man, a dedicated follower, so why not? Because the priest said God had told them to do it. It wasn’t his place. Of course, this made Uzziah irate. Who were these priest to tell him what he could and could do!

Then the Lord made his feeling know. He stuck Uzziah with leprosy. Now this great leader was forced out of the palace, out of the house of the Lord and out of power.

Pride goes before the fall.

It doesn’t matter what we accomplished, how faithful we seem, the skins we have on the wall, when we think we can overrule God’s plan, we are in error. We see it today. She is a good a speaker as any man, why should she be allowed to use her talents as a preacher? He a great leader, he should be an elder even if he had more than one wife. He does more than anyone else, why shouldn’t he be a deacon even if he doesn’t have children?

Why? Because God doesn’t allow it. It might make folks mad but that’s a pride reaction, not a faith one. Maybe the best way to view it is in an earlier statement about Uzziah, in verse 5, “and as long as he sought the LORD, God prospered him”.

Pride says my way it best. Faith says God way is. If we want to really succeed, It has to be God’s way.

Comments

I Know All Those Words, But That Sentence Makes No Sense To Me

Let’s say you travel back in time six hundred years or so. Luckily, you happen across a fellow that speaks English. Upon hearing your tale, he describes you as nice, smart, and handsome. Wouldn’t you feel good? You shouldn’t. As Sol Steinmetz in his book, Semantics Antics , explains; Nice originally meant someone who was foolish, ignorant, senseless, or absurd (middle English 1300). Smart for the first 300 years of its use meant causing pain, sharp, cutting, or severe, a sense that survives in the idiom "smart as a whip.” Handsome wasn’t complimentary. When coined around 1425, it just meant easily handled; it didn’t have its current positive connotation until 1590. You might think he said you were a kind, intelligent, good looking bloke, when in reality he said you were a foolish pain easily dealt with. Words have an annoying habit of changing meaning over time in the same language and it becomes even more compli...

Master Your Self

In a contest for the toughest president of the United States, it would be hard to go against Theodore Roosevelt. He was known for his “manly” pursuits hunting big game, climbing the Matterhorn, participating in boxing match while president. (These weren’t play fights, he lost the vision on one eye because of them!) Once before he was about to give a speech an assassin shot him in the chest. Roosevelt refused to go to a hospital and insisted on giving his speech, still wearing his blood-soaked shirt! Teddy might have become tough but he wasn’t born that way. He was a sickly child that suffered from severe asthma that almost proved fatal. As was a young boy, doctors discovered that he had a weak heart, and advised him to get a desk job and not strain himself. He was homeschooled because of his many illnesses and spent most of his time indoors. But then as a teen his father, whom Teddy Roosevelt revered, told his son, “ ...

The Gift You Give Yourself

I always hated buying gifts for my Mom. If I got her something like a new set of pans, it was like saying “Here’s something you can use to go make me something to eat”. A gift for her was seemingly a gift for me. There are however gifts you give that benefit you more than the receiver. For example, forgiveness. When you give it, you are giving it to yourself as much as you are giving it to them. Jesus said that when we forgive others it means God is forgiving us our wrongs (Matthew 6:14-15). I once read: “ Heaven is where everyone's forgiven. Hell is where nobody's forgiven. So, when we forgive we pull heaven down into our lives. When we withhold forgiveness, we pull hell up into our lives ” Give yourself something nice today, Forgive.

Ecclesiastes 12:10

Search This Blog