2 Chronicles 26:19
“But Uzziah, with a censer in his hand for burning incense, was enraged; and while he was enraged with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of the LORD, beside the altar of incense.”
Uzziah was once a good king. He feared God and did great things for the country. Today’s incident was later in life. A few verses earlier it says of Uzziah, “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).
I wrote about this earlier. Proverbs 30:8,9 says, ‘Keep deception and lies far from me, Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my portion. So that I will not be full and deny You and say, “Who is the LORD?” And that I will not become impoverished and steal, And profane the name of my God.’ Uzziah became so strong that he forgot that God was the great help in his life. Then he goes and does something foolish like in today’s passage. The proverbs passage is a great prayer to pray.
What I want of focus on is the kings anger. He was wrong. Anger is a tough emotion. It’s not always sin. Ephesians 4:26 says, ‘“Be angry, yet do not sin.” Do not let the sun set upon your anger.’ People call this righteous anger. I’ve heard it said that it’s usually anger that’s focused on the abuse of another. We can always get angry when we don’t get our way. Rarely is that righteous.
I’m concluding a two week period in which I’ve been angry. It started off with a coworker taking some license in team decisions. I didn’t say “no”, just “why?” I informed the assistant principal. She joined our meeting a few days later. She sided with them against me. That tripled my anger. Scenarios have been running through my mind. What I could say and rehearsing it. This was a tempest in a teapot. I couldn’t free myself from it. I asked God to help. It’s getting better. I still don’t know if it’s over. I hope it is on my end. If anyone else brings it up, then I’ll see.
While going to school yesterday the driver in front of me was frustrating me. That seemed to be a sign to me that I need more patience. I can’t always get what I want. That is probably a life long message, but one with immediate application. I do need to be more patient. I should have been more patient with my coworker. Maybe bring up the immediate issue, but don’t die on that hill.
Anger is difficult to deal with. In high school I had a metal shop class. We had a foundry. A couple of times we worked with molten aluminum. The people had to have on full leather suits with face coverings. We had a six foot pole with the molten material in a pot in the center. We would pour the metal into casts. This reminds me of dealing with anger. It’s dangerous and can wreck lives. We need to be cautious with it. Paul says not to let the sun go down on our anger. The issue might not be resolved, but we need to not allow it to burn in us. Let that go.
We need God’s help with that. Bring it to Him. Allow His peace to guard our hearts. This past trial I’m not sure if I passed it. It burned for almost two weeks. I’m too close to the issue to properly judge.
One comment I would make is to say the devil may be behind this. What’s happening at the same time is the inception of a bible club at lunch. It’s exciting to see. The enemy may be trying to wreck me for this.
We need to keep up our quiet times with God. Allow Him to be lord of it all. Proverbs 3:5,6 comes to mind. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.” To acknowledge Him means to bring all our troubles to Him. Keep coming back. My quiet times are in the morning. I am living it right now. Get His Word in us. Allow it to have it’s way.
Lord, thank You. Forgive me my errors. Help me to get back on Your way. Help me to deal with anger in a healthy way.