In 2 Chronicles, we read about two good kings, separated by four generations. The first is Uzziah who grew strong in Judah because the Lord was with Him. And his fame spread throughout the world. He was able to build a strong army along with engines of war that kept him strong with an army that was much smaller in size than many that the kings had before him.
But rather than humbly accept the blessings from the Lord and realize that it was God who was the true strength of his might, King Uzziah grew proud in his heart and started to think that he was the one who was strong. And this pride caused him to forget God and do what was right in his own eyes. But the God who made him strong was watching Uzziah.
“But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the LORD his God and entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense.” (2 Chronicles 26:16 ESV).
Uzziah thought that he could do all that his heart desired because he confused God’s blessings with his own power and sovereignty. Blessings from God are something we should accept with thankfulness and enjoy; but when we forget where the blessings come from, we drop the guard of our heart and let pride permeate. And when we let pride go unchecked, it blinds us and we begin to think that the blessings we have were given by our own hands. Pride causes us to forget God altogether.
Uzziah suffered a lifetime of leprosy because this good king let pride cause him to take God’s blessings and turn it into a curse for him. That’s what pride does. It takes the good gifts and blessings of God and turns them into a curse.
Four generations later, his great grandson King Hezekiah ascends to the throne. He too was a good king and he too was blessed by God. And he too let pride enter his heart.
“But Hezekiah did not make return according to the benefit done to him, for his heart was proud. Therefore wrath came upon him and Judah and Jerusalem. But Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the LORD did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah.” (2 Chronicles 32:25-26 ESV).
The difference between the two kings is that we see Hezekiah humbling himself before the Lord and purging his pride from his heart. He goes on to become one of the best kings that Judah had.
The lesson for us is that we need to be careful with the blessings God gives us. They are given so that we might glorify Him and not ourselves. It is always by the hands of the Lord that all blessings flow. We must guard against pride in our hearts that will tempt us to think that we have these blessings by our own hands alone. The moment we forget God, our blessings from Him can become a curse to us.
What has God blessed us with? When was the last time we counted our blessings? Let us always give credit where credit is due and give humble thanks to the One who can both give and take away. Let us stay humble in our hearts when blessed and not let those blessings become a curse and a snare to us by allowing them to cultivate pride in our hearts.
Yesterday, I finished reading through the Bible and today, I am starting to go through it again. This time around, I listed all the books in the Bible in the order in which they were written. I am still going to go back and forth between the Old and New Testament; but today, I started in the new Testament.
A passage in my reading struck me that I will dwell upon today:
“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” (Galatians 6:7 ESV).
I am sure that we have all read this many times, right? But what is weighing on my heart is the phrase, “God is not mocked.” Perhaps it is because I am spending so much time studying the sovereignty of God for a book I am writing, but I am deeply in tune with God’s supremacy and His absolute wisdom.
We fool each other all the time through our hypocrisy and we even fool ourselves into believing that we are justified before God even while we continue to live our own way. We adopt an entitled attitude that we can do what we wish and we will still reap the benefits of righteousness.
But God is not mocked. We will not be able to discard what He says and expect to reap anything other than what we sow. It is a fearful thing to sear our conscience to the point where we feel safe in our sins; where we feel that we can continue to disregard the Lord’s commands and expect to avoid reaping what we sow.
I’m not talking about the steps that we take where we falter in our walk with Jesus. I am talking about the times we walk in darkness and refuse to walk in the light, while thinking we will be able to reap the harvest of those who walk in the light.
“For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” (Galatians 6:8 ESV).
Let us be sober in how we walk. God is not mocked. If we are walking in the flesh, then let us come to Him and start walking in the Spirit. How we walk is our choice, but the consequences we reap are not ours to choose. They come from what we sow.
Sometimes, we get so caught up in living that we forget what living is about. We plan and set goals, which are good; but they often can cause us to justify forgetting or ignoring what is important.
Jesus condemned the religious people of His day who withheld support from their parents by saying that the money was devoted to the Lord:
“But you say, 'If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.' So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.” (Matthew 15:5-6 ESV).
The apostle John gives us similar warnings decades later because things do not change much. And it is the warning of John that I ask that we all prayerfully consider this morning. After experiencing the gift-giving and sharing of the holiday season, let’s make sure that we don’t relegate generosity to a season or a day. Consider what should be part of our walk with the Lord:
“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:16-18 ESV).
Isn’t it easy to say in our hearts, “The gift that I would have given to you is already appropriated elsewhere. I have it committed to my future planning; I have it committed to a rainy-day fund; After I save for my vacation, then I will help.”
I am not saying that we must give everything we have away. But when we see someone without food, clothing or shelter, then we need to take a look at what we have planned for our material blessings. Can we in all good conscience say that we have already assigned our goods for another purpose and let our brother go away hungry, naked or homeless?
We will always find a million excuses to say why we cannot use what the Lord has blessed us with to help others. As we contemplate what we will do with the world’s goods that God has entrusted to us, let us not forget why we are here. Jesus puts it in perspective for us:
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19-20 ESV).
Imagine being a faithful child to your parents and having to live with resentment from your siblings who struggle in their faith.
Imagine doing what God wants you to do, and then being arrested and sent to jail for a crime you didn’t commit.
Imagine how hard it would be to stay faithful to a God who allowed hatred against you to prevail even though you only responded with good.
Imagine watching evil men prosper while you remained forgotten by those you helped.
Imagine that this all happened not over a few weeks or months, but year after year.
Where would your faith be?
This is what Joseph experienced. In my daily Bible reading, I read in the course of a few minutes what he lived through for about 13 years of his life.
When given the chance to repay his brothers for the evil that they brought upon him; for taking away his father from him; for stealing his youth; for sending him to a pit, to slavery, to a prison, this is what he says instead of repaying them for their sins against him:
“And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.
And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.” (Genesis 45:5-8 ESV).
Are you in your pit today?
Are you in your prison?
Are you forgotten?
Not by God if you are His faithful child.
Never forget that.