The danger of thinking ‘I have arrived’
Uzziah, we learn from 2 Chron. 26:55And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper. (2 Chronicles 26:5), "sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper." He went forth to war and the Lord helped him.
“He strengthened himself exceedingly." He built towers in Jerusalem and fortified them; he built towers in the desert, and digged many wells. He had husbandmen also, and vine dressers in the mountains and in Carmel. He also had a host of fighting men who went out to war by bands:
The whole number of the chief of the fathers of the mighty men of valor were two thousand and six hundred. And under their hand was an army, three hundred thousand and seven thousand and five hundred, that made war with mighty power, to help the king against the enemy. And Uzziah prepared for them throughout all the host shields, and spears, and helmets, and habergeons, and bows, and slings to cast stones. And he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal.
We do not need to dwell upon the description of the numerous army of King Uzziah We will turn to God's instruction for ourselves about it.
And his name spread far abroad; for he was marvelously helped, till he was strong. But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction.
There are few phrases more remarkable than these. One would have thought that the very object to be gained by Uzziah was to be strong. The strength we naturally covet, however, is independence of God. Saints are found mourning over their weakness, and what do they mean? Is it not that they have no resources in themselves? We forget that all real strength is derived from the fullness that is in Jesus, otherwise we should always be able to say with Paul, "When I am weak, then am I strong." We need to be deprived of every resource in ourselves, that we may know our strength to be in Him.
When Uzziah felt himself to be strong, he transgressed against the Lord God. There is great danger of our putting multiplied means in the place of the Lord Himself. We may rely on the means, and forget that they are not the source of supply.
This has been the history of the Church. She was marvelously helped till she was strong, and then when she was strong her heart became lifted up. The saints at Corinth had multiplied resources: men, wealth, and wisdom, and were tempted to think that by the exercise of this wisdom they could refute the heathen. But they were told by the Apostle that true wisdom only comes by the bringing in of the wisdom of God which is foolishness with man, and the strength of God which is weakness with man.
The Spirit of God shows us in The Acts that the Church, though few in number, is marvelously helped. But how soon did the Church begin to look to itself and to its own resources and greatness, instead of to the Lord. Has this no voice for ourselves? Our blessing is in taking the place of weakness so that God may help us for His own name's sake.
There is danger in saying or even supposing that we have attained to something. It is a mark of failure when a Christian (or a number of Christians) considers his own honor and credit instead of the honor of the Lord; the great thing is to be mindful of His name. A single eye will be occupied with Christ.
It is a very strong word that we have here in reference to a saint: "his heart was lifted up to his destruction." But there is as strong a word in the New Testament: "He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption." If any, even a saint of God, "soweth to his flesh," he will reap only a sorrowful harvest of corruption, having misspent all his time. We need to give heed to the searching words of Scripture, not turning away the point of them from ourselves under the supposition that they cannot apply to us. This thought has been the source of much mischief in the Church. That soul will prosper which trembles at God's Word, and is willing to face the most searching parts of it. The saint of God can sow to the flesh, can walk "according to the flesh," can "war after the flesh," but the miserable end will be that he will "of the flesh reap corruption.”
When Uzziah was strong, his strength being in his own resources, his heart became "lifted up" and more like King Nebuchadnezzar's heart (Dan. 4:3030The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty? (Daniel 4:30)), than that of God's anointed king of Judah. A heart that is lifted up is in a dangerous state, and almost always on the eve of a fall.
Although Uzziah was God's anointed king, he was not God's anointed priest. But he would have nothing restrained from him, and we find him transgressing against the Lord his God. He went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense which was not his prerogative, but that of the priests only. The sons of Aaron were consecrated to burn incense.
Let us, too, beware of dealing with the Lord in unholy familiarity; a humble spirit is always a confident spirit, but a humble spirit can trust only in the blood of Jesus. It does not rush into God's presence as the man who is lifted up in heart does. We can only come there through the incense of the Lord Jesus, not on the credit of our own graces or devotedness or in fleshly fervor.
Azariah the priest, with the fourscore priests that were valiant men, said to Uzziah:
It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the Lord, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honor from the Lord God. Then Uzziah was wroth, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense: and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord, from beside the incense altar.
This history of King Uzziah is written for our admonition. "Lifting up" of heart is always self-seeking, not God-seeking. We have, blessed be God, liberty to enter into the holiest, for we are priests unto God by the blood of Jesus, but it is always through the incense of our great High Priest.
In 2 Chron. 27:66So Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the Lord his God. (2 Chronicles 27:6) we have mention of Jotham's great army; he "became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the Lord his God." This is the way for the saint to grow in practical strength. Thus was it with the Thessalonians; their "work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope" was "in the sight of God and our Father." Jotham set the Lord always before him, and went on in an even tenor of conduct. In the eyes of man, he might not be as mighty as Uzziah, but the Holy Spirit records his name as that of one "mighty" in the eyes of God.