Hi folks

Here is the last study in this series by Chuck Swindoll that we are studying with Zwingly.  Is there something in particular you would like to study in this coming season. Please bring your suggestions on Sunday.

Every Blessing

Steve

We're near the end of our study of very significant "nobodies." My desire in this book is the same as in my life: to finish well. So, I've chosen to end with Uzziah, a remarkable man for a lot of reasons. My purpose will become more evident as his story unfolds.

Uzziah was born during a tumultuous period in the history of the Hebrew people. One hundred years prior to Uzziah's reign, the foolishness of Rehoboam (remember him?) had torn the kingdom into two bitter enemies: Israel in the north and Judah in the south. In the century that followed, the nations routinely warred against one another, as progressively evil kings occupied their thrones and dominated their people. Israel's kings were all reprobate, violent pagans, while many of the kings in Judah were at least somewhat godly. But eventually the violence of the north became commonplace in Judah.

Bear with me through a quick 'n' dirty bit of history; it's important. Uzziah's father, Amaziah, was assassinated. Amaziah's father, Joash, fell victim to a conspiracy by his officers. Joash's father, Ahaziah, sat on the throne for only one year before he was murdered. Ahaziah's mother, Athaliah, reigned in his place until she was executed. So the last four monarchs to sit on the throne of Judah had all been killed prior to Uzziah's coronation. Welcome to an ugly, violent world, young man.

This was a bloody, wicked era for Judah. Her bad kings were thoroughly godless. The nation would have despaired were it not for the presence of faithful prophets and priests. Her good kings brought periods of relative stability and peace, though they never worshiped and obeyed God with the kind of passionate devotion that David and Solomon had displayed. After nine kings, Uzziah promised to be different. A close look at his history tells us that he may have reigned toward the final years of his father. A curious statement appears in the text that prompts us to think that probably occurred:

And all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the place of his father Amaziah. . . . 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.

2 Chronicles 26:1, 3; emphasis added

Based on a careful chronology of Judah's kings, it appears that Amaziah was king for only six years when the people installed his sixteen-year-old son as coregent. Why? Scripture says of the older man's leadership, "He did right in the sight of the LORD, yet not with a whole heart" (2 Chronicles 25:2). Another translation puts it this way: "Amaziah did what the LORD said was right, but he did not really want to obey him" (NCV). In other words, Amaziah was a fence rider, an unstable man who could not be counted upon to remain consistent.

Amaziah started out well, relying upon the Lord's strength to defeat Judah's enemy, Edom. Then he made a compromising decision to set up their idols and begin worshiping them instead of the one and only true God of Judah, who gave him victory. He paid a huge sum of money to buy mercenaries, only to send them home with the money without using their services. He picked a pointless fight with the king of Israel, only to lead Judah into a humiliating loss. Fed up, the people crowned his sixteen-year-old son to rule as vice regent. Eventually, though, the people could tolerate Amaziah no longer and killed him, leaving the much younger Uzziah to lead the nation.

Unfortunately, young men from such sordid roots ultimately become old men who look a lot like their fathers. He began well, and the good he did was reminiscent of his father's early start:

He did right in the sight of the LORD according to all that his father Amaziah had done.

2 Chronicles 26:4

Before we continue, allow me to make this personal by asking you a probing question. If your children follow in your steps, will they do what is right in the sight of the Lord? If your children emulate you—and they will—will you be able to say that their adult years were God-honoring?

Imagine walking over snow-covered ground a few paces ahead of your child. Each step you take leaves an imprint he or she can clearly see. Now imagine that little person following you stretching those short legs to place his or her feet in the footprints you left behind. That's exactly what your children will do in life. In fact, that's what we see Uzziah doing. He made good tracks early on, just like his father, but he made them with a reluctant heart, also like his father:

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.

2 Chronicles 26:5

Don't rush too quickly past those last ten words. They point to a principle: seek the Lord and He will prosper you. That doesn't mean you'll necessarily enjoy great financial gain or material wealth or widespread fame or anything that the world considers a sign of prosperity and success. It means the Lord, in His own inimitable way, will use you and honor your efforts and, in that sense, prosper you. You may have to rethink your definition of prosperity to grasp the true spiritual meaning of the concept. It's worth the effort to do so.

THE WORK OF A GOOD KING

Because of grace, God prospered Uzziah in many of the ways we would expect a king to enjoy success.

Military Conquest

Now he went out and warred against the Philistines, and broke down the wall of Gath and the wall of Jabneh and the wall of Ashdod; and he built cities in the area of Ashdod and among the Philistines. God helped him against the Philistines, and against the Arabians who lived in Gurbaal, and the Meunites.

2 Chronicles 26:6–7

Uzziah was not only a capable general, but he was a wise and compassionate statesman. He didn't merely pillage his enemy after conquering them. He subdued these potentially dangerous nations and then turned them into peaceful neighbors by treating them with compassion. More importantly, however, are the words in verse 7: "God helped him."

Notoriety and Respect

The Ammonites also gave tribute to Uzziah, and his fame extended to the border of Egypt, for he became very strong.

2 Chronicles 26:8

In the ancient world, tribute was appeasement money. It said, "We respect your power over us. Please accept this gift as a token of our loyalty to you . . . and our gratitude for not wiping us out."

Prosperity

Moreover, Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate and at the Valley Gate and at the corner buttress and fortified them. 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.

2 Chronicles 26:9–10

Uzziah made wise plans, carried them out, and in keeping with the principle of grace pointed out earlier, the Lord gave him favorable results. As the psalm goes, "Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it" (Psalm 127:1). Kings not only ran nations, but they also built personal estates.

This particular king was a farmer at heart. He loved to work the soil. If you and I were to have visited Uzziah's Jerusalem, we would have seen a bountiful landscape covering the slopes of Judea. The land known as wilderness became known as a fertile field. Uzziah had a talent for making anything he touched bloom and bear fruit. (Unlike me. I love the soil, but it doesn't like me at all. Honestly, I could kill a dead plant deader!)

Power

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. The total number of the heads of the households, of valiant warriors, was 2,600. Under their direction was an elite army of 307,500, who could wage war with great power, to help the king against the enemy.

2 Chronicles 26:11–13

Uzziah was a very capable warrior—a creative, strategic thinker. We have already seen how he was ready to take the offensive when strategy called for it, but unlike his father, he wasn't looking for a fight. Virtually everything he did was to ensure the prosperity and safety of the kingdom.

Security

Moreover, Uzziah prepared for all the army shields, spears, helmets, body armor, bows and sling stones. 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.

2 Chronicles 26:14–15

I'm impressed by the inventiveness and ingenuity of this man. He didn't rely entirely upon brute force—weapons, helmets, and shields—for defense. Uzziah put together an ingenious array of machines to augment his towers and strengthen the walls. Along with the impressive army he had assembled were all these cutting-edge inventions that put Judah far ahead of other nations. Before long, the country Uzziah led bristled with defense-ready cities, surrounded by a vast, lush, produce-rich countryside. Anyone even thinking of attacking Judah would be smart to change his mind.

THE PRIDE

Uzziah's impressive reputation as a creative, prosperous, strong king spread rapidly. His neighbors both feared and admired him. His subjects praised him and pledged their loyalty. And with all of this success surrounding the man Uzziah, everyone quite naturally supposed that the credit belonged to him.

This is to be expected in human nature. When people admire a public figure, they think, My, isn't that person great? There's really nothing wrong with that. The danger isn't in what the public thinks, but in what the admired person thinks. And in case you're wondering about Uzziah, check out the last four words of verse 15: "He was marvelously helped until he was strong."

For many years, Uzziah acted wisely, and the Lord multiplied his efforts. It could have just as easily gone the other way. Uzziah acted wisely and the Lord let it come to nothing. Farmers seem to have an instinctive understanding of this. They can prepare the ground, plant, water, fertilize, and protect the crop from bugs, but it's always the Lord who is responsible for the increase.

As soon as a public figure begins to believe the press about him or her, everyone's in for trouble. While pondering that truth, another name comes to mind. We studied him earlier. His name is Saul.

Remember him? He was another "nobody." He originally thought so little of himself that when God put His hand on him and said, "You will be the king of My kingdom," he hid among the baggage. He doubted his ability to do the job and had no desire to be in the public eye. But what a change once the Lord prospered him! After a few victories on the battlefield, he saw himself as a big shot, so he began to strut around the kingdom as though he had built it. People snapped to attention when he barked orders, and he began throwing his weight around as his fame spread. Before long, he believed the great press he received.

Remember what happened next? He gave himself a promotion. No longer satisfied with the position as merely supreme commander of Israel, he decided to become high priest. He slipped a priestly robe over his battle armor and prepared for sacrifices. That's when Samuel, the man of God, confronted him, saying, in effect, "Saul, when you were little in your own eyes, God could use you, but now that you are great in your own eyes, you are useless to Him."

These thoughts give us reason to pause and ponder. Take a few moments to put yourself in Uzziah's sandals. You may or may not be a public figure, so let's look at this more in terms of blessing and success. Perhaps you're on the way up right now. You're implementing plans that are paying off. You're creative and competent. You're reaping the harvest of hard work. Things are going well for you. You can justifiably say that the success you're enjoying is the direct result of applying good strategy or wise leadership or creative thinking or uncommon perseverance or, perhaps, a combination of those things. If that's you, I say, "Good for you!" I mean that sincerely. No hint of sarcasm in that at all. Why should there be? The Lord has chosen to bless and prosper you. How gracious of Him to do so!

Uzziah was a remarkable man in many ways. The Hebrew in verse 15 reads, literally, "and his name went out to a distant place, for he did extraordinarily to be helped until he was strong."¹ He deserved a great deal of credit for his accomplishments, and kept in the right perspective, so do you. Giving all the glory to God doesn't mean that you should deny your role. (Read that again, please.) The danger lies in diminishing the Lord's role.

THE FALL

Linger over the first word in verse 16. "But . . ." Amazing what that one word does to your spirit, isn't it? How eloquent a role it plays in many a life! We've seen that repeatedly in this book.

But when he became strong, his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly.

2 Chronicles 26:16

This can happen to anyone, not just kings and public figures. You can be a minister of the gospel or a business professional or an artist, a teacher, a salesperson, a homemaker, a waiter, a construction worker, a musician, a mathematician . . . any role. When you recognize the necessity of God's power and the futility of your efforts apart from Him, He wants to "marvelously help you until you are strong."

But . . . there's that awful word again. But, when you become strong in your own eyes, things change. Uzziah didn't read history, so he was doomed to repeat it. Driven by self-importance, nothing remained sacred. If you're like me, you see Saul in the next verse:

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.

2 Chronicles 26:16

As Christians—those of us who know the Lord Jesus as Savior—our first area of faithfulness is not the workplace and not even the home. Our primary realm of faithfulness to the Lord is our hearts. We won't struggle to remain humble publicly if we keep a proper perspective inwardly. After all, we merely behave the way we think.

Uzziah began to think, My, I'm really something. Those Egyptians are right. There's never been a king like me. Why, look at those inventions. There's never been anyone that's come up with something like that. Look at the prosperity I have brought the kingdom. These citizens haven't had it this good since Solomon. Am I great, or what? Eventually, his conceit convinced him that his sovereign rule included the Lord's temple. He probably thought, I don't need priests to worship the Lord. I'm in charge here! Who are they to say that I can't do something if I want to? So he grabbed the censer, and he stepped into a place where he had no right to enter. Blinded by pride, he lost all restraint. In doing so, he stepped far beyond the bounds of safety:

Then Azariah the priest entered after him and with him eighty priests of the LORD, valiant men. 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."

2 Chronicles 26:17–18

Some people would call this "a moment of clarity." Moments like this have a remarkable way of crystallizing the truth. In this explosive collision of wills, everyone could see Uzziah's conceit, his pride, his disrespect for the Lord, what he thought of his role and the role of the priests. Everything is exposed. If anyone had missed it before, the truth about Uzziah's attitude was unmistakable. And what happened next helped to clarify reality for the king as well:

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. 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.

2 Chronicles 26:19–20

Can you picture it? Uzziah, clad in his royal finery along with the flowing priestly robe, censer in his hand, eyes blazing with furious indignation, commands the priests to move aside. Just as he begins to remind them of his "divine authority" as the king of Judah, a small, leprous sore forms above his eyes. Then the flesh of his face, neck, and arms begins to decay far too quickly to be natural. Within a few minutes his body is covered with the most dreaded disease of his day. Nothing reduces a person to ground zero like leprosy.

In 1958, I had just enough exposure to see why leprosy caused such fear in the ancient world. While I was a marine stationed on Okinawa, I had the privilege of playing in the Third Marine Division band. On one occasion, we were invited to play a concert for a leper colony in the northern part of the island. We played a number of selections, using various ensembles, giving our very best performance for these dear, wonderful, albeit forgotten people. While we felt sure they enjoyed the music, we heard only muted applause. When we finished the concert, the victims of this awful disease did their best to clap for us, but they did so with disfigured hands and arms—many having only stubs because of the necessary amputations.

After we packed our instruments, we did our best to mingle with them and say a few kind words before leaving. But that proved awkward. They hid their disfigured faces with their mutilated hands and arms, moving away from us because they felt ashamed of the "unclean" disease that made them so undesirable. I noticed the absence of one quality more than any other. Pride. There wasn't an ounce of it anywhere in that colony of broken souls.

THE IMPORTANCE OF FINISHING WELL

Considering Uzziah's long, impressive career—fifty-two years in all—this was a tragic end. A just end, but tragic nonetheless. The Lord helped him. The Lord prospered him. But when this remarkable and greatly gifted leader presumed to extend his authority to the temple, God's holy place, the Lord struck him down. Enough was enough. And Uzziah the leader became Uzziah the loser.

Read his epitaph with a sigh:

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.

2 Chronicles 26:21

I mentioned before that I played in the Third Marine Division band. Something I learned as a musician is that the most important notes you play are often those in the last few bars of the piece. You can recover from a rough beginning. You still have time to settle down and find yourself in the middle. But there's nothing to follow those last notes except silence. The quality of those final notes on the final page of the finale will usually be the ones that shape the audience's memory of your performance.

Without question, Uzziah started well. The majority of his career provided a godly, safe, prosperous environment for God's people. But the final notes of his performance spoiled the whole concert. Observe what his audience remembered:

So Uzziah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the field of the grave which belonged to the kings, for they said, "He is a leper." And Jotham his son became king in his place.

2 Chronicles 26:23

Because he was a leper, he lived out the rest of his days all alone. Think of it! When he died, they buried him in a field adjacent to the royal cemetery—not within it—because he was still considered unclean. They didn't mark his gravestone with "He was a king." They didn't even say, "He was a king who became a leper." By the end, his greatness was forgotten. They wrote what they remembered: "He was a leper."

UZZIAH'S IMPACT ON US

Here are three powerful principles we can glean from this fascinating story:

First, there is no genuine success apart from the Lord God. The psalmist got it right: "Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it" (Psalm 127:1). Uzziah started strong, but it was the Lord who gave his efforts success. If you're enjoying prosperity, give God all the credit and all your thanks. Even though it came as a result of careful planning and strong commitment and honest labor, the harvest was only possible because the Lord gave your labor success. Never forget that, please!

Second, few tests reveal the character of a person like success. I said in an earlier chapter that success doesn't ruin a person; success reveals a person. Curiously, most people can handle adversity with grace, but very few can handle life at the top. If you're enjoying great success, don't fool yourself into thinking that it's your reward for being God's favored child. Better to consider it a trial. Do with success what you do during any other difficult time. Pray. Hold it loosely. Seek wise counsel. Don't be afraid of it . . . but regularly ask the Lord to keep you safe and aware. Look for the lessons. This trial, just like any other, is an opportunity to grow. Furthermore, it's temporary. It may have taken you years to get here, but it can vanish in a flash. As Solomon wrote, "Riches make themselves wings; they fly away" (Proverbs 23:5 KJV).

Third, the God who blesses is also the God who can break. Remember the old adage: don't bite the hand that feeds you. Uzziah's father defeated the Edomites by the power of the Lord God, then he brought the impotent gods of his defeated enemy home and began worshiping them. So the Lord disciplined him. Like his father, Uzziah became strong because the Lord prospered him, but when he tried to use his power to flout God's law in God's temple, the Lord disciplined him. That cause-and-effect principle still occurs.

God is a God of grace, so we must not come away with the idea that we have to be good to enjoy God's blessing. He will always give us better than we deserve. However, God is far more concerned with our holiness than our happiness, so He will send us whatever will make us holy. If blessing won't get the job done, then He has little choice but to send chastisement.

Let's face it: the Lord wants to bless us beyond all we can imagine. The Lord that helped and prospered Uzziah is the same Lord who said, "Let him have leprosy." Does that sound harsh? Consider this: because God is perfectly right, infinitely loving, absolutely holy, inexhaustibly patient, and inexplicably merciful, we can be sure that leprosy was the very least He could do to get the attention of the king He loved. It worked.

A FINAL THOUGHT

Uzziah was a someboy who ended up as a "nobody." As we have seen all the way through this book, God loves "nobodies." When God walked the earth as a man, He said, "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Mark 2:17). The exquisite irony of this story is that the proud king merely discovered what he really was from the very beginning. The uncleanness of his sores and his status as an unclean outcast alerted him to the uncleanness that had been in his soul all along.

When he finally accepted his status as a "nobody," he took his place alongside the rest of humanity. Then, and only then, was he prepared to meet the only real Somebody. My hope is that Uzziah, quarantined from society at large and permanently barred from public service, allowed the Lord to make him somebody worth emulating. It's quite possible. After a long string of outright evil kings and good kings gone bad, Uzziah's son, Jotham, became the only king of Judah in 130 years to be listed as exclusively good. I would like to think that it was the seven years Jotham spent in coregency with his father, perhaps learning from his mistakes.

If so, that's the kind of impact every "nobody" should have, including you . . . and me.

Questions For Growth Group

King Uzziah started well by depending on God, but his success ultimately revealed his true heart. Sadly he learned just how destructive pride can be. The sin of pride tempts all of us to rob God of the glory He deserves.

Can you think of a God made success story and how does it compare to a man made success story?

What are the every day attitudes and actions and words of a person marked by pride?

Read 2 Chronicles 26:1-15.  What were the successes that marked Uzziah's life?

Read 2 Chronicles 26:16-19.  What does this teach us about our pride?

Read 2Chronicles 26:20-26.  What were the consequences of Uzziah's pride?

Read James 4:4-10

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.⁵ Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, "He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us"?⁶ But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."⁷ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.⁸ Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.⁹ Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

1Peter 5:5-11. 

⁵ Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."

⁶                Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,⁷ casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.⁸ Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.⁹ Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.¹⁰ And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.¹¹ To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Why is God opposed to the proud?

How can you show humility in your relationships in the family?

How can you show humility in the work of the church?

Giving all the glory to God doesn't mean that you should deny your role. The danger lies in diminishing the Lord's role.  Please explain.

What are the warning signs of pride?

Jesus said John 15:⁵ I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Try to memorise this verse this week.