The price and peril of pride Uzziah
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King Uzziah- “The price & peril of pride”
Pride is deadly. It will kill your spiritual growth. It will crush your intimacy with the Savior.
Why is pride so spiritually devastating? It is because pride moves one to focus on self instead of Christ. Pride enthrones self rather than the Savior. That condition can produce but one result:
Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before stumbling.(Prov.16: 18).
The scriptures have much to say about the price and peril & problem of pride.
As we look into the life of King Uzziah today, we must be warned that God’s blessings can have the unintended result of pride if we are not careful. We must stay alert; ever staying focused on the true source of every blessing—God Himself.
As we pull into 2nd Chronicles 26 as we begin to look at King Uzziah we see there are some real good things he does, and we see he really is a tremendous leader and manager in many ways.
1 And all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the place of his father Amaziah. 2 He built Eloth and restored it to Judah after the king slept with his fathers.
Eloth was an important port city. Retaking this city would be very strategic for the nation to again rise to power and safety from its enemies. This is a very wise move by Uzziah.
3 Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Jechiliah of Jerusalem.
What were you doing when you were 16? Imagine being King? Uzziah has the 2nd longest reign of any King of Judah.? Mannasseh reigned 55 years.
4 He did right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father Amaziah had done.
5 He continued to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding through the vision of God; and as long as he sought the Lord, God prospered him.
This Zechariah isn’t the prophet Zechariah we are familiar with this is another Zechariah, apparently a man of God, who himself was a prophet who had a great influence for good on King Uzziah. (Someone else can’t live life for us, one day we all need to stand on our own two feet.)
Notice that key phrase the end of verse 5 as well. and as long as he sought the Lord, God prospered him. When a person seeks God and puts Him 1st in his life there is great blessing.
Now in the Old testament the blessings were often physical. In the age we live in we are promised spiritual blessings, though sometimes there is certainly a measure of material blessing.
This is so true for any person “and as long as he sought the Lord, God prospered him”
In your own life you know the joy and peace and contentment that come from obedience in putting God first in your life, seeking Him above all. You also know the emptiness of when worldly and fleshly distractions come in, they may bring a brief time of fleeting enjoyment, but the result in our lives is emptiness and lack of fellowship with our Lord.
Some of us probably know of some wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ that were serving Him and walking with Him. Then something happened. It was kind of gradual, but it happened. No longer are they in Church worshipping and serving with us. They are somewhere else. You see they no longer sought the Lord. They began to seek other things and their hearts grew cold toward the Lord and His people too. It is so sad to see, but it happens because our Lord gives each of us choices.
It’s hard to work through this passage without thinking of nations as well. Specifically the nation we live in. I keep wondering how long will our Lord continue to let us as a nation keep plugging along. The #1 nation in abortion, and promoter of homosexuality and pornography and drugs and alcohol. We are a nation with a great disease. Some have said a nation with heart disease. I agree with that but I also tend to agree that there is a disease so rampant through out our land the same one King Uzziah would ultimately succumb to “The disease of me.” Me, me, I, I. We are a nation all about me. What can you do for me? How can you help me? Who can solve my problems, (because I don’t want to). What’s in the stimulus for me? This whole focus on self though is really promoted at such a young age. Little children are made to believe that the world revolves around them.
**A man once noticed how easy it is to forget from whom our blessings have come, when he said: we have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand, which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.”
Now all of this really impacts us in the Church as well. Often when people come to visit a church, our Church they are asking these questions. What can you do for me? If you were here for our Leadership seminar with Randy Keeley you may remember Randy showed a brief little video on The Me Church. It was really rather funny, but it was also so sad to realize how true it was about what people are thinking in regards to a church. Even more sadly is the fact that the expectations of Christians for a church to meet their every need is much greater than the expectations that most unbelievers have when they come and visit a church.
The disease of me. The cure: look for ways to serve unselfishly. Ask for places to serve.
When you come to church be thinking how can I bless someone else? How can I minister to others today in an unselfish way?
Let’s look at some of Uzziah’s successes, notice what they involve.
Uzziah Succeeds in War
6 Now he went out and warred against the Philistines, and broke down the wall of Gath(Goliath) and the wall of Jabneh and the wall of Ashdod; and he built cities in the area of Ashdod and among the Philistines. 7 God helped him against the Philistines, and against the Arabians who lived in Gur-baal, and the Meunites.
The King makes some pre-emptive strikes on these key cities. These had been problem cities to the nation for years, the King takes care of them, a good move militarily. The Lord helps the King to accomplish these military victories.
8 The Ammonites also gave tribute to Uzziah, and his fame extended to the border of Egypt, for he became very strong.
Here we have a King on the rise, he has become famous- his fame extended to the border of Egypt , he was the topic of conversation hey man, did ya hear about that King Uzziah? Man is he something! He is the man! Our African brothers would call him “The Mokoyo!
He became very strong!
9 Moreover, Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate and at the Valley Gate and at the corner buttress and fortified them. 10 He built towers in the wilderness and hewed many cisterns, for he had much livestock, both in the lowland and in the plain. He also had plowmen and vinedressers in the hill country and the fertile fields, for he loved the soil.
These are some good things the King has done for the nation, for the city, for the people. He is paying attention to defending it, certainly important for any people surrounded by enemies.
He also is making sure the livestock are taken care of and notice that this King liked farming. He loved the soil, now I must say one of my greatest memories and things I would look forward to each year was when it was time to start plowing in the spring. Is there anything quite like a freshly fitted field? I say there is something special about that first field that is turned over in the spring. Can’t you smell it? One of the funnest things I got to do as a kid was run the disks and drags. I had a whole field to run around it, it was awesome! Can’t wait for spring.
We continue on to see more of the Kings successes.
11 Moreover, Uzziah had an army ready for battle, which entered combat by divisions according to the number of their muster, prepared by Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the official, under the direction of Hananiah, one of the king’s officers. 12 The total number of the heads of the households, of valiant warriors, was 2,600. 13 Under their direction was an elite army of 307,500, who could wage war with great power, to help the king against the enemy.
This was on well organized army. They were an elite army. They are ready to fight.
And we see in the next verses that they are well armed.
14 Moreover, Uzziah prepared for all the army shields, spears, helmets, body armor, bows and sling stones. 15 In Jerusalem he made engines of war invented by skillful men to be on the towers and on the corners for the purpose of shooting arrows and great stones. Hence his fame spread afar, for he was marvelously helped until he was strong.
This army is well equipped with all the latest in arms, even body armor. They even had great catapults for shooting arrows and great stones. They are up to date on the battlefield. It would be like our troops being equipped with the very latest and best arms available. Which we certainly want them to be.
The King is doing well here militarily all kinds of good things going on. Things seemed to be well managed. Well led. There is one thing that seems to be so absent in this section is nothing is really said of the Kings spiritual condition for good or bad. But the King is certainly powerful and famous now isn’t he. Vs 9 said his fame extended to the border of Egypt , the end of verse 15 says; Hence his fame spread afar, for he was marvelously helped until he was strong.
Now was this power and success and fame due to the King as simply his own wisdom and cleverness?
No, certainly he needed to do the right things but who has blessed him and his efforts?
The Lord has. There is a great danger at this point, a great peril something each of us should take notice of here and it is this.
That if we’re not careful, somewhere in the midst of all the goodness we begin to believe that we are receiving God’s blessings because we’ve got it all together—we’re a notch above the rest, we’ve done more, we’re better than everyone else and more deserving, and it leads us down the perilous path of pride.
It has been said that pride is the dandelion of the soul. Its root goes deep; only a little left behind sprouts again. Its seeds lodge in the tiniest encouraging cracks. And it flourishes in good soil: The danger of pride is that it feeds on goodness.
Pride is the only disease known to man that makes everyone sick except the one who has it.
As we move on to verse 16 we see how this fame, power, strength & success has affected King Uzziah.
Pride Is Uzziah’s Undoing
16 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.
Here it is. Because of the blessings bestowed on him the King becomes proud and leads him to act corruptly. He wanted to usurp the place of the Priest, do what only the priest was to do.
Uzziah’s pride has set him on a perilous direction.
17 Then Azariah the priest entered after him and with him eighty priests of the Lord, valiant men. 18 They opposed Uzziah the king and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron who are consecrated to burn incense. Get out of the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful and will have no honor from the Lord God.”
Azariah the priest and the 80 others notice they are called valiant me. They were brave enough to confront the King. They didn’t merely look the other way as the king desired to do what is forbidden. They wholeheartedly confronted him. They warn him. But Uzziah doesn’t take kindly to their rebuke and confrontation. He is so full of himself so focused on what he wants, we now sadly see the peril and price of pride full blown.
19 But Uzziah, with a censer in his hand for burning incense, was enraged;
and while he was enraged with the priests, the leprosy broke out on his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord, beside the altar of incense.
20 Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he was leprous on his forehead; and they hurried him out of there, and he himself also hastened to get out because the Lord had smitten him.
21 King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death; and he lived in a separate house, being a leper, for he was cut off from the house of the Lord. And Jotham his son was over the king’s house judging the people of the land.
The peril of pride, the price of pride, Uzziah now knew full well. He was smitten by God for his pride with Leprousy and would be a leper until the day of his death.
What a horrible thing to be a leper all your remaining days, forever unclean and not able to take part in the religious celebrations of that time along with being viewed as an outcast, having to live away from others a very lonely existence. The price & peril of pride.
What can we learn from King Uzziah?
1. One man put it very well when he said “Don’t forget who you are and how you got here.”
Remember our Lord is the one who blesses and provides. It can be so easy for self to take the credit and praise that belong to God alone.
2. Pride is an occupational hazard for those in authority. Being in positions of power, prestige, and privilege can easily seduce people into thinking that they got there solely by their own abilities and cleverness. And, they can begin to assume that rules that apply to others don’t apply to them.
3. A good beginning is no guarantee of a successful ending, (One recurring theme through Chronicles) Uzziah and so many other Kings started well, very well. But, they finished so poorly. So many churches have started well, have finished so poorly and closed the doors.
If you took an honest look at your spiritual life, your devotion to Christ today as compared with times in the past would you say it is better and growing or is your spiritual life just a small spark as compared to what used to be a red hot flame for Christ?
4. Warren Wiersbe is quoted as saying “King Uzziah is a warning to all who nurture unholy ambitions to intrude into that which God hasn’t appointed for them.”
Uzziah the King wanted to be Uzziah the priest as well. But it was forbidden.
Sometimes people want to cross the line into an area that God does not have for them.
People some times try to be usurpers of a position and place God never intended for them.
5. We must be diligent in our own lives to not allow pride to creap in and begin to grow. It can destroy a family, a ministry, a church, a business, a friendship. Pride can break our fellowship with our God.
Pride can creap up on us in the most unsuspecting places, we need to have our spade and weed killer ready so as we spot it starting take a hold in some area of our lives that we can kill it where it stands.
There is no better directive to us on dealing with this than what is written for us in Phil 2:3-11
3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.