Uzziah’s
Unfaithfulness Despite Blessings
King
Uzziah had it all. You may not remember
much about this king of Judah. In fact,
you may not even recognize his name. But
from the small amount that is written about him in the pages of the Bible, it
is clear: King Uzziah had it all. First
and foremost: he was the king of God’s chosen people! His ancestor was the famous King David, which
also meant that he carried on the line of Jesus. And Uzziah became king at the age of 16! From a very early age he was the ruler of an
entire nation. But he was a successful
king as well. The Lord allowed him to
defeat the Israel’s arch enemies, the Philistines, and take over their capital
city; the Lord gave Uzziah the means to construct towers in the city of Jerusalem,
cisterns in the desert, and fields and vineyards throughout his kingdom. He had over 300,000 men in his army and was
able to provide spears, shields, helmets, armor, and bows for each one. His craftsmen invented the catapult to use
against enemy walls and he became so powerful that the Bible says “his fame
spread far and wide.” Uzziah had it all:
power, success, accomplishments, fame, possessions, peace… And he had all of those blessings because “As long as he sought the LORD, God gave
him success” (v.5). And so with all
that the Lord had given him and with everything that the Lord had done for him,
you would think that Uzziah would be the last person to ever be unfaithful to
his Lord, right?
“But after Uzziah became powerful, his
pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful
to the Lord his God, and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the
altar of incense. Azariah the priest
with eighty other courageous priests of the Lord followed him in. They confronted him and said, “It is not
right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord. That is for the priests,
the descendants of Aaron, who have been consecrated to burn incense. Leave the
sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful;
and you will not be honored by the Lord God.”
Uzziah, who had a censer in his hand ready to burn incense, became
angry. While he was raging at the priests in their presence before the incense
altar in the Lord’s temple, leprosy broke out on his forehead. When Azariah the chief priest and all the
other priests looked at him, they saw that he had leprosy on his forehead, so
they hurried him out. Indeed, he himself was eager to leave, because the Lord
had afflicted him. King Uzziah had
leprosy until the day he died. He lived in a separate house—leprous, and
excluded from the temple of the Lord.”
The Lord
had given Uzziah everything he could have ever wanted, but Uzziah ended up
being unfaithful to the Lord by ignoring his Word. Uzziah certainly had no problem taking the
blessings from God’s hand, but he wasn’t about to take any orders. And so his pride and his arrogance led him to
be unfaithful to the one who had given him so much.
Our
Unfaithfulness Despite Blessings
The Lord
has given you everything. Now you might
not be king of an entire nation, you might not have a powerful army under your
control, you might not have vineyards and fields and cisterns scattered
throughout the country, your name might not be world-famous; but look around! You’ve been given everything! Look at your home, not just the area of the
country but the physical place in which you live. Look at the thousands of things that fill up
those rooms! Look at the blessings of
your family, your health, your congregation.
Look back at all of those little things that the Lord has given you over
the years and all of those big things that have provided you with so much
happiness.
If I had
you write down all of the blessings that the Lord has given you throughout your
life, where would you even start? Would
you start with a little thing like the sun shining or would you start with a
big thing like the Son of God shining as your Savior? A little thing like food on your plate or a
big thing like the food of God’s Word for your soul? A little thing like the shade from the tree
in your backyard or a big thing like the forgiveness from the tree on which
Jesus’ died? There are so many big and
little (and in between!) blessings from your Lord it’s almost overwhelming to
try to think of them all! And he keeps
pouring them on you! Day in and day
out! Whether you’re thinking about them
or not; whether you’re praying for them or not; whether you’re thanking your
God for them or not; these blessings just keep coming! And so with all that the Lord has given you
and with all that the Lord has done for you, you would be the last person to
ever be unfaithful to your Lord and his Word, right?
When I
was grade school age, I spent a lot of time at the outdoor pool in town during
the summers. And just like any pool,
there were a number of rules that you were supposed to follow. One of the rules was that you could not play
tag. Because by playing tag kids would
end up running around the outside of the pool, jumping sideways off of diving
boards, landing too close to other people, and generally doing dangerous things
in order not to get tagged. But there
were always plenty of kids each day that attempted to play tag anyway. Because it was fun! And it was against the rules! And so the trick was to play tag without the
life guards noticing that they were playing tag. It’s not that the kids didn’t know the rules
(everyone knew the rules!), it’s just that they ignored the rules when it
suited them.
We know
the rules. We know what God likes and
what he doesn’t like. We know what we
should be doing and what we shouldn’t be doing.
We know we aren’t supposed to play tag.
But there are times when we flat out ignore God’s Word and play tag
anyway, aren’t there? We are unfaithful
to our God when it suits us; we are unfaithful to God’s Word when we don’t
“feel” like doing what he says; we are unfaithful to God’s Word when we don’t
care enough to take his Word into consideration. And so no matter how much our God has blessed
us with, our pride and our arrogance sometimes lead us to be unfaithful to the
one who has given us everything we have ever had. We are willing to take the blessings from his
hand, but we sure don’t like to take any of his commands…
The Lord’s
Faithfulness for Nothing
What do
you think the Lord should do with people like us? How many times does he need to catch us
playing tag before he kicks us out of the pool altogether? How many times are we going to ignore his
Word before he starts to ignore us? How
many times are we going to prove to be unfaithful to him before he just gets
too sick and tired of putting up with our ungrateful attitudes? If the Lord were anything like I am, he would
have abandoned us long ago. He would
have given up on us after the first few offenses. Fortunately, the Lord is nothing like I am. He’s much more patient. He’s much more forgiving. He’s much more faithful. Because listen to what the apostle Paul once
said to a young man named Timothy about the Lord: “If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown
himself” (2 Tim. 2:13). Even if we
are unfaithful to our Lord, he will always remain faithful to us. But why?
Why would our Lord remain faithful to a people so unfaithful to him? “Because he cannot disown himself.”
He promised to always remain faithful, so no matter what we do he cannot
go back on that promise; he cannot disown his own words; he must keep
them. And so he will remain faithful and
loyal and dedicated to us no matter how poorly we treat him! Isn’t that almost unbelievable! But it’s true! He will remain faithful to us for the rest of
eternity.
Which
means that every time our pride and arrogance get in the way of God’s Word, he picks
up those obstacles, puts them on his shoulders, and pulls us close to him once
again. And every time we blatantly
disobey his commands, he patiently takes some of his blood from the cross and forgives
us once again. And every time we turn
our shoulder and walk the other way, he runs in front of us and welcomes us back
with open arms once again. He does not
take the effects of his cross away from us.
He does not hide his tomb from our sight for even a moment. He does not hold back the power and peace of
his resurrection just to teach us a lesson. He will never despise you for
despising his Word; he will never cut you off for cutting communication off
with him; he will never disown you even at those times when you don’t want to
have anything to do with him. Your Lord
will remain faithful. You can always
count on him. Your Lord will remain
faithful. You don’t have to ever worry
that your actions have somehow changed his mind. Your Lord will remain faithful. That is his promise. And his promises never fail.
The Lord’s
Faithfulness Might Mean Taking Blessings Away
They didn’t
even fail for Uzziah. Even though Uzziah
deliberately and unapologetically made his way into the temple and attempted to
offer incense; even though Uzziah refused to listen to the rebuke of the
priests; even though Uzziah reprimanded the priests in God’s own house; the
Lord remained faithful to him. But
notice how the Lord remained faithful
to this prideful and unfaithful king: the Lord took everything away.
The Lord
struck Uzziah with leprosy - a nasty skin disease that apparently was
incurable. And so Uzziah had to be rushed
out of the temple immediately and from then on he was confined to a separate
house, “excluded from the temple of the
Lord.” He lost his throne, he lost
his power, he lost his ability to lead, he lost his fame, he lost all of those
possessions that he once enjoyed so much.
Uzziah lost everything. But that
is exactly how the Lord remained faithful to him. Because that’s what Uzziah needed! He needed to have everything taken away so
that he would learn from his unfaithfulness and trust once again in his
God! It may have been a punishment from
the Lord, but it was a punishment for Uzziah’s good. Because that’s how the Lord operates: when it
comes to his children he will do everything and anything for the sake of their
faith. And if that means he must take
blessings away, then that is exactly what he’ll do.
The Lord
may take blessings away from you from time to time. You may not be ready for it, you may not be
happy about it, you may not understand it at the time. But know this: your Lord will always remain
faithful to you. And so if he takes a
blessing or two away, that is because he is faithful. Even if he takes away every blessing that you
have ever known, that is because he is faithful. And he knows that taking something away at
that time is exactly what you need for the good of your faith and for the
protection your eternal life. He wants
to see you in heaven. And he will
faithfully carry out that mission until you get there.
We don’t
know if Uzziah ended up in heaven or not.
It’d be nice to think that he learned from what the Lord did to him and
clung to the forgiveness found in Christ as he had done before. But whether Uzziah is in heaven now or not,
we know that Jesus is: the Faithful One.
The One faithfully watching out for us, the One faithfully taking care
of us, the One faithfully guiding us with is Word, the One faithfully forgiving
us over and over again with his blood that he let drop to the ground so many
years ago. And so throughout the ups and
downs of this life, throughout the problems and the difficulties, throughout
the pains and the disasters, throughout the let downs and the disappointments, through
sin, pride, arrogance, and death, Jesus will be your constant. Because he will remain faithful to you, when
nothing else is, and when no one else can.
Amen.
“The grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.” - Gal. 6:18
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