2 Chronicles 26:18
‘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 have been consecrated to burn incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have been untrue and will have no honor from the LORD God.”’
Uzziah was an amazing king. He sought God and He blessed him. All sorts of great developments were done in the city and all throughout the land. Then came an interesting line. A few verses earlier it says, “But when he became strong, his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly, and he was untrue to the LORD his God, for he entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense”, (v. 16).
That’s a sad fact about people. We have the tendency to become proud and self reliant. Proverbs 30:8,9 says, “Keep falsehood and deceitful words far from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the bread that is my portion. Otherwise, I may have too much and deny You, saying, ‘Who is the LORD?’ Or I may become poor and steal, profaning the name of my God.” That is great wisdom.
That is why Jesus gave the first Beatitude. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”, (Matthew 5:3). We are all poor when it comes to the state of our spirits. The blessing comes when we know it. Most don’t. King Uzziah felt strong. He felt invincible. Not poor in spirit.
If most of us knew part of our lives was in disrepair, we would do something about it. Unfortunately most are blind when it come to our spirits. Here is what Romans 6:12,13 says, “THEY HAVE ALL TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME CORRUPT; THERE IS NO ONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.” “THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE, WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING,” That is a frightening state. Most have no clue about this assessment.
God gave us the Law to make us aware of how far we fall short. It was meant to drive us to Him. The pharisees made a mistake about this. They made commentaries about it which made the Law doable. Jesus addressed this. Matthew 5:21,22 says, “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT MURDER,’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be answerable to the court.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be answerable to the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be answerable to the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.” The Law is supposed to speak to our hearts. That is raising the bar to a level that makes it impossible to fulfill. We are all guilty of far more than we realize. We are truly poor in spirit.
Unfortunately we can become blind to our real states. Just because we are aware of our poverty of spirit doesn’t mean we will always be so. If we don’t stay close to the Lord we begin to become dull of senses (Hebrews 5:11). We can drift and find ourselves far from God. That’s what happened to king Uzziah.
We need to stay in God’s Word and in fellowship with other believers. Proverbs 27:16 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” David prays this in Psalm 19:12, “Who can discern his own errors? Cleanse me from my hidden faults.” God points things out that He wants to work on. The list could be unending. But God sees us in Christ, perfect. However He wants to work on things here and there.
Lord, keep us close to You. Thank You for working in our lives.