King Uzziah had one of the longer reigns in Judah and accomplished much that was pleasing to God but then. How often we see what starts well fizzle out and have significant failure after everything was so very promising. As long as Uzziah was building and strengthening Judah in the ways of the Lᴏʀᴅ, the story is so very good. But, again that nasty ‘but’!
He did so many commendable’s, being ‘helped’ by both God and man. Until he was strong. Then he grew proud. To his destruction.
The saying, ‘Absolute power corrupts absolutely’ is all too often lived out in the lives of the successful. Another saying, ‘To who much is given, much is required’ warns that accomplishment has its own danger. Many of us have found in our own humble lives that it does not take much for us to become proud of ourselves rather than recognize the grace of God in what He accomplishes despite ourselves. One of my own reminders to myself is the joke, ‘I am proud of how humble I am.’
Uzziah took it upon himself after his many successes to presume to be ‘great’ enough to go into God’s presence to offer his own incense, refused the correction of the priests and immediately was stricken with the physical sign of uncleanness before God. The consequence was living the rest of his life in isolation.
Are we tempted to see ourselves too big, too important, too valuable to be limited to a humble life before God? How much success can God entrust to us before we take His glory as our own?