Pride Comes Before the Fall; 2 Chron. 26

May the mumbling commence!

Pride comes before the fall.  It is not good to read you own press – so to speak.  The negative will discourage you, and the positive will inflate your ego and your head.  If we allow the latter to happen, we will find ourselves attempting acts of service for the Lord not meant for us.  We will believe our fame and fortune entitles us to whatever we want to do.  Read a cautionary tale for 2 Chronicles 26:16-21 –

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.  Jotham his son had charge of the palace and governed the people of the land.

There are a number of relevant questions we should ask ourselves.  How do we respond when we are at the top of our game?  How do we respond when our Christian brothers and sisters call us to task for inappropriate ministry tasks?

When King Uzziah became leprous, the disease of his poor attitude became readily apparent to the priests of Judah.  The priests isolated him for the rest of his life.  Uzziah’s son, Jotham, reigned in his place.  AND Uzziah was excluded from the temple of the Lord.

Pride and arrogance separates us from the Lord.  Let’s remain humble before the Lord.  Our accomplishments and good deeds are nothing but filthy rags in the sight of the Lord.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out