2 Chronicles 26:5 And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the LORD… I. WE HAVE THE MARVELLOUS HELP WHICH JEHOVAH GIVES TO A RIGHTLY-PURPOSED MAN, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. No one can suppose that Judah was very prosperous before the accession of that king. For, not only had it been humbled at the battle of Beth-Shemesh, but Jerusalem itself had been ravaged and partially dismantled. And, considering the extreme youth of the king, only sixteen years of age when he came to the throne, one would naturally have expected to read of the gradual increase of the disorders of the kingdom through the contests of opposing factions, and of its gradual diminution and enthralment through the successes of its enemies. But, on the contrary, the first thing recorded of Uzziah is that "he built Eloth and restored it to Judah"; and thenceforward, throughout the greater part of his reign, the story of no single disaster or defeat interrupts the current of prosperity. First of all the Philistines, and then the Arabs, the Mehunim, and the Ammonites were compelled to restore to Judah the cities they had before appropriated, were, indeed, in some instances reduced to the condition of tributary nations. And the internal administration of the country was not less fortunate than its external relationships. Jerusalem was refortified, and for the first time in Biblical history we read of "engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal." And "he built towers in the desert, and digged many wells; for he had much cattle, both in the low country and in the plains; husbandmen also and vinedressers in the mountains and in Carmel; for he loved husbandry." Everything shows that the kingdom reached a condition of prosperity such as it had not known since the days of Solomon. And the explanation of it all is the marvellous help of the Almighty. You may see it in almost all aspects and exigencies of life — the wonderful help of God making s Christian prosperous and strong. It is quite true that we sometimes trouble ourselves, as Uzziah must have often in those difficult years troubled himself, with the thought that we have no inherent ability for the work which God gives us to do, whether it be work of service or of sanctification. But in that imagination we are altogether wrong, and therefore wrong in letting ourselves be depressed and unnerved by it. For the Scriptural doctrine always is that it is the marvellous help of God that makes a man strong, that no man is or can become strong, in any religious sense of that word, apart from such help. "Work out your own salvation, for it is God that worketh in you." There can be no other explanation of the prosperity of Uzziah, his conquest of difficulties greater than ours, his faithfulness under burdens heavier than ours, than simply that God, because of his faith in God, helped him. And in all times, when duty, sorrow, responsibility, or doubt presses upon ourselves, we can adopt a course that has never failed, and resolve, "I will seek unto God, and unto God will I commit my cause, which doeth great things, and unsearchable, marvellous things without number... to set up on high those that be low, that those which mourn may be exalted to safety." II. THE PERIL OF PROSPERITY, WHICH WAS TOO GREAT A PERIL FOR UZZIAH. His splendid career elated him, and "his heart was lifted up to his destruction." Instead of reverent praise to God for having helped him so marvellously, he began to flatter himself with the thought that his success had been achieved by his own wisdom and skill, and "he transgressed against the Lord, and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense." It is easy to find excuses for Uzziah, which are sufficient to protect him from our blame, but not sufficient to reduce the heinousness of his sin in the sight of God. It might, for instance, be said that his old godly counsellor Zechariah had lately died. Or it might be said that he was but imitating the conduct of his father, of Jeroboam, of the idolatrous kings around him. But, whatever our charity may dispose us to urge in palliation, the fact remains that he showed his gratitude to God for the marvellous help he had received by setting at nought the express commandment of God. For when Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were destroyed, their brazen censers were made into broad plates for a covering of the altar "to be a memorial unto the children of Israel" (so runs the law) "that no stranger, which is not of the seed of Aaron, come near to offer incense before the Lord." Nor can Uzziah have forgotten that law. It was, indeed, when he became wrath with the faithful priests who reminded him of it, and pressed forward with his censer, that that moment "the leprosy rose up to his forehead," and, conscience-smitten, he hastened out of the temple. Just think of the contrast which that sin caused between the earlier and the later parts of Uzziah's reign. There is another place in the Old Testament where that warning is embedded in associations of even greater interest than these — the song of Moses in the thirty-second chapter of Deuteronomy. The marvellous works which God had wrought for Israel are enumerated first. Then follow the ungrateful exaltation of Israel in their own eyes, their desertion of God, and the wrath they thereby brought quickly upon themselves. It is just a type of the process that takes place in many hearts. First of all, God blesses us, enables us to do what otherwise we could not possibly have done, makes us great in control over ourselves, and perhaps, also, in influence over others. We, in some crisis of temptation, listen to the whisper that it was our own hand that made us strong; self-complacency begets presumption; until at last conscience smites us; we know ourselves to be leprous in spirit in the sight of God, and the self-built fabric of prosperity crumbles in a moment. Blessed for us if the Lord gives us what He gave Uzziah — seven quiet years for penitence, thought, and humbler service. It may be well to linger a little upon the different stages of this process, which sometimes leads a godly man from strength to leprosy. Obviously pride was at' the bottom of Uzziah's sin. Uzziah seems to have thought, "Philistines and Ammonites, it's I have defeated them, and my name which they applaud and fear even to the entering in of Egypt. My father left the kingdom circumscribed, so reduced that he had to give hostages to Joash; I have made it great and free." And still whenever by the help of God we have done any useful work, we are liable to a similar temptation, to attribute to ourselves the credit of having done it, and in our self-complacency to forget and to dishonour God. There is nothing but sin, failure, and ruin to be found in yielding to that temptation. For the immediate and necessary consequence of pride is presumption, which, though it may not take the exact form it took in the case of Uzziah, may take an equally sinful form. One form it often assumes now, in the case of men whose real knowledge of God is very defective, is that of patronising the Gospel. But much as that habit of thought requires to be guarded against, it is probably in other directions that most of us are more apt to err. The remembrance of what we have done by the help of God prompts us to attempt what we have to do apart from His help, with confidence in ourselves as sufficient for it, with a neglect of Divine aid as more or less unnecessary and superfluous. Any particle of the pride which leads us to attribute to ourselves the success of the past, whatever the particular form or particular associations of that pride, is a mistake even according to human judgment, an element of weakness which will grievously impede us, and a sin in the sight of God. And, whilst that principle teaches us what is forbidden, it teaches us also what is enjoined. Pride always means folly and failure. And therefore trust in God, the more perfect and supreme the better, means wisdom and success. It was whilst Uzziah "looked unto God" that he was marvellously helped and made strong. And it will be in proportion as we trust in Jehovah that we shall have vigour to finish and patience to bear whatever He gives us to endure or to do. (R. W. Moss.) Parallel Verses KJV: And 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. |
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