As I started to think about pride, I started to think about all the areas of my life that I struggled with pride in. I thought about having it all together, my (mostly) functional family, my education, my home, my, my, my. That's the worst part. Pride is all about me. Ugh. I'm not saying I should feel guilty for what I have, but I shouldn't be proud of all of it as if I've earned it somehow. God showed me someone in my very same predicament of heart.
King Uzziah became king of Judah when he was just sixteen years old. He followed God and God helped him. He overcame many enemies of Judah and became very strong. He built up the kingdom with towers and turrets and farms. He beefed up the army and gave them the latest technology to prepare him for battle. His fame quickly spread around all the land. God made him strong. 2 Chronicles 26:5 "...and as long as he sought the Lord, God prospered him."
God is the one who made King Uzziah great. How could he have done all of that on his own at sixteen? Sadly, King Uzziah took the credit for himself started to get a little too big for his britches. 2 Chronicles 26:16 "But when he became strong, his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly, and he was unfaithful to the Lord his God..." Uzziah's heart became proud and he was about to do something awful in those times. He walked right into the temple of the Lord to burn his own incense, rather than the consecrated priests who would normally do so. This was a big no no. Priests had to undergo a lifetime of preparation in order to enter the temple of the Lord, because coming into God's presence was a huge deal. (Read through Leviticus if you want all the details.) You couldn't just waltz in there to talk to God whenever you wanted to like we can now. Oh, Uzziah, you should have known better. Well, then the priests came in and told him to get lost. Uzziah, being king and very proud in his heart, got really mad. No, he was enraged! To him, he was offended that they would question his presence there. To Uzziah, he had a right to be there because he was so strong and that's pretty great. Great enough, in Uzziah's mind, to deserve entering the presence of God. The moment he became enraged, Uzziah became a leper. 2 Chronicles 26:21 "King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death; and he lived in a separate house, being a leper, for he was cut off from the house of the Lord..." Yikes. That's a reality check if I've ever seen one. God built Him up and he took everything He gave Uzziah away in a moment. The Bible doesn't say, but I hope Uzziah's heart was humbled.
Proverbs 16:18 "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling."
Here is just one of my many Uzziah moments. I was sitting in a restaurant with my family and looked over at the table next to us. There was another family there much like ours and the mother was giving the baby Big Red to drink. Here we go, I snickered at the stupidity of it and made fun. What a great example I am to my daughter who was sitting next to me! I thought I was the superior mother with my soy organic formula and all natural blah blah blah. I judged the woman on the basis of one decision and was not at all the picture of grace, mercy and love that Christ is. I'm prideful and that's just as bad as Uzziah. I deserve the same punishment he got (and worse), but thankfully, I have a Savior that covered all my pride and countless other sins by His own righteousness when He took my place on the cross and died for me.
Uzziah was a part of the line of Jesus, the Messiah, so it just goes to show that even if we mess up, God's plan prevails. God promised a Savior, and He used a bunch of imperfect people to achieve that plan so that none could take credit. How glad I am that God has power over sin and that my sin cannot get in the way of His plan. He is still working out my pride and that will be a lifelong process. Grace abounds. Thankfully, God has already overcome it where it really matters, and for that, I will ever praise Him.
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