Hope From the Word

Guest (Male): Be on the lookout for pride. It's dangerous. Pastor Bill Luebkemann explains.

Bill Luebkemann: His pride led to his downfall. When the Lord's blessing you, you need to remember where it's coming from and to give credit to God for the things that he has done. When the Lord's raining down his blessings on you, don't ever think it's because you did everything right, it's because you're entitled to it, or because you deserve it. Don't ever think how wonderful you are, how smart you are, or anything like that. Pride is very dangerous and it could happen to anyone.

Guest (Male): Though it's hard for some of us to admit, we all have a tendency toward pride. That's especially true when God uses us. It sure is important to give credit where credit is due. Think about it. What do we have that we didn't receive? This is Hope from the Word. On today's broadcast, we take another look at the historical record of the kings of Judah found in Second Chronicles.

We'll be in chapters 25 and 26 discussing the end of the reign of King Amaziah. And then we move into the reign of Uzziah. He's a good king, but he still falls prey to the sin of pride. Like Amaziah, prosperity becomes a snare for him. With their stories, here's Pastor Bill in chapter 25, starting in verse 20.

Bill Luebkemann: For God so worked that he might hand him over to Jehoash because they sought the gods of Edom. Let's make it clear here. He's going to lose this battle not because his 300,000 men are not well trained, or not because they're not as good as the others. He's going to lose the battle because God orchestrated it in such a way to bring this guy down. And the reason why was because he sought the gods of the other country.

So Jehoash king of Israel attacked. He and Amaziah king of Judah faced each other at Beth Shemesh in Judah. Judah was routed by Israel and every man fled to his home. Jehoash king of Israel captured Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Ahaziah at Beth Shemesh. Then Jehoash brought him to Jerusalem and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate, a section about 600 feet long. He took all the gold and silver and all the articles found in the temple of God that had been in the care of Obed-Edom together with the palace treasures and hostages and returned to Samaria.

The king of the South here, Amaziah, didn't listen. He wanted to have a fight. So the king of the North came down. We could just shorten up these verses, make it nice and easy. We'd say here, Jehoash came down and cleaned Amaziah's clock. Just wiped him out. He came down and he attacked. They faced each other and Judah was routed and every man fled. They gave up. They flew the white flag. They took off and ran to their own home.

And the king of the South, Amaziah, was captured by the king of the North. And then the king of the North came down to Jerusalem and he tore down a big long section of the wall and he pillaged the city. Because of the king's stupidity, the nation of Judah suffered this terrible defeat. Part of the wall was ripped down. The gold and silver from the temple were taken away. And the king himself was taken away as a hostage. And there were other hostages as well. All because God had orchestrated this thing to tear down and to tear away the kingdom from Amaziah.

Amaziah son of Joash, king of Judah, lived for 15 years after the death of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel. Eventually, the king of Israel died, but Amaziah was still alive. Perhaps he was released from being a hostage at that point, but he didn't have much of a kingdom left. As for the other events of Amaziah's reign from beginning to end, are they not written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel?

From the time that Amaziah turned away from following the Lord, they conspired against him in Jerusalem and he fled to Lachish. But they sent men after him to Lachish and killed him there. He was brought back by horse and was buried with his fathers in the city of Judah. Eventually, he gets to the same end as his old man. He's caused a problem. His old man, Joash, became wicked at the end and he was executed, assassinated. And Amaziah here, his son, the same kind of thing happens. He turned away from the Lord and so people conspired against him. He fled, they fled after him, they got him, killed him, brought him back and buried him with his fathers in the city of Judah.

The last guy was Joash. He was the guy that became king when he was seven years old and started out in such a good note. As long as the priest Jehoiada was alive, he did well. But when the priest died, he became wicked. And here you have this guy Amaziah starting out well, listening to God, making a mistake but a prophet comes and corrects him and he's willing to listen. Somehow the victory goes to his head. They say power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. You can almost see this kind of thing going on here over and over again.

Happens to the next guy also. Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was 16 years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah. He was the one who rebuilt Elath and restored it to Judah after Amaziah rested with his fathers. The son here is Uzziah. He's 16 and the people come and declare him to be the king. We have mention here that he rebuilt Elath, a port city that ships sailed from, and he restored it to Judah. That's something he did at some point in his reign.

Uzziah was 16 years old when he became king and he reigned in Jerusalem 52 years. Really long reign here from when he was 16 to when he was 68. His mother's name was Jecoliah. She was from Jerusalem. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord just as his father Amaziah had done. He sought God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God. As long as he sought the Lord, God gave him success.

That is something that you see repeated over and over again throughout the scriptures. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord just as his father Amaziah had done. But his father Amaziah got off the horse at some point and started doing things wrong. And this guy had the same kind of problem. He started out strong. He sought the Lord during the days of Zechariah. Zechariah was able to teach him about the fear of the Lord.

As long as he kept seeking the Lord, God gave him success. But at some point, that success goes to his head and he thinks, "Hey, I'm really something. Look at what I'm doing. Look at me. I'm a legend in my own mind. I'm outstanding in my field." He should have been outstanding in the field. He went to war against the Philistines and broke down the walls of Gath, Jabneh and Ashdod. He then rebuilt towns near Ashdod and elsewhere among the Philistines.

God helped him against the Philistines and against the Arabs who lived in Gur Baal and against the Meunites. The Ammonites brought tribute to Uzziah and his fame spread as far as the border of Egypt because he had become very powerful. Uzziah here was blessed by God. He sought the Lord and God blessed what he was doing. He went to war against the Philistines and he had a victory there. He conquered their towns and rebuilt their towns.

God helped him and his fame spread. The Ammonites brought tribute to him. They paid some kind of tax to him so he would leave them alone. And his fame spread far and wide because he became very powerful. He had victories everywhere he went. Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate and at the angle of the wall and he fortified them. He also built towers in the desert and dug many cisterns because he had much livestock in the foothills and in the plain.

He had people working his fields and vineyards in the hills and in the fertile lands for he loved the soil. This was a guy that loved agriculture. Building cisterns so that he could provide water for the fields and water for the flocks. And he had people working for him in all kinds of industries. He had fields where he was growing crops and he had vineyards and he had livestock.

He was building protection into the city, building towers so that the city would be protected. This guy had lots of industry going on. He wasn't having any problems with his economy. It was going out in all directions there. Uzziah had a well-trained army ready to go out by divisions according to their numbers as mustered by Jeiel the secretary and Maaseiah the officer under the direction of Hananiah, one of the royal officials.

The total number of family leaders over the fighting men was 2,600. Under their command was an army of 307,500 men trained for war, a powerful force to support the king against his enemies. This guy here built up a major military operation. He had a major number of troops here. And unlike the previous king, his father who went out with his troops and got routed by the kingdom to the north, he developed his army here into a real fighting machine because he was seeking after God. And God was blessing him.

Uzziah provided shields, spears, helmets, coats of armor, bows and slingstones for the entire army. So he had enough weaponry to keep them all well supplied. He had shields so they could protect themselves and spears that they could use to stab and throw at the enemy and helmets to protect their heads and coats of armor and bows and slingstones for the entire army. So he was well prepared with every kind of weapon they had.

Listen to this. In Jerusalem, he made machines designed by skillful men for use on the towers and on the corner defenses to shoot arrows and hurl large stones. His fame spread far and wide for he was greatly helped until he became powerful. So he had people making inventions for him. And he developed ways to be on top of the tower and shoot arrows long distances and sling huge stones at the enemies.

You could think of movies like the big three-part movie that we liked, "The Lord of the Rings," where they were fighting by throwing stones and arrows. You can think about stuff like that. This guy was doing this. Not something that we would call a machine by today's standards. It wasn't gas-powered or diesel-powered or even steam-powered. Who knows, it may have had some big spring in it or something. Or they may have figured out a way they could pull on a rope and launch the thing up there.

The point was this guy was really something. He had quite a military going here. And his fame spread far and wide. But listen to this tell-tale sentence here. For he was greatly helped until he became powerful. The Lord helped him and the Lord blessed him and the Lord led him in every way until he became powerful. That's when it all went to his head and he decided, "I just don't need the Lord's help anymore. Look at me. Look at what I've done."

I know that's what happened because it says it in the very next sentence. But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. When the Lord's blessing you, you need to remember where it's coming from and to give credit to God for the things that he has done. When the Lord's raining down his blessings on you, don't ever think it's because you did everything right, it's because you're entitled to it, or because you deserve it.

Don't ever think how wonderful you are, how smart you are, or anything like that. Pride is very dangerous and it could happen to anyone. This guy became powerful and then he became proud and he started to think to himself, "Look at what I have done. I am something else. Nobody ever had an army like this. Nobody ever had machines like this. Nobody ever had so much industry going on, so much of their economy. Everybody had a job to do. Everybody's working. They probably all were well fed also."

And his pride led to his fall. How often we see that in the scriptures. It has to be that God is telling us to look out and be careful because it can work the same way in our lives. But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. Now, look, it was not the job of the king to go into the temple and burn incense.

That was the job of the priest. The king was in charge of the civil government, and the priests were in charge of the temple worship. Never the two would be mixed. But he took it upon himself to become the priest. Back in this day, the priest was the intermediary between God and man. You went to the priest and he went to God for you. What this guy did was he entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.

He thought that he could go into God's presence himself. "Hey, I don't need a priest." It's almost like he thought he was an equal with God. And maybe he did. His pride led to his downfall. He started to think how great he was and, "Hey, I'm equal to God. I don't need an intermediary. I'm something else. I can just go do it myself. I'm going to go make the offering to God myself."

Azariah the priest with 80 other courageous priests of the Lord followed him in. They confronted him and said, "It is not right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord. That is for the priests, the descendants of Aaron who have been consecrated to burn incense. Leave the sanctuary for you have been unfaithful and you will not be honored by the Lord God." Now here, another opportunity goes to waste.

Another chance for somebody to repent. Another chance for him to say, "What a fool I am. How crazy I was to come in here," and get the heck out and quick go grab some bulls and bring them back to the priest and say, "Please make this offering to God for me that I might be forgiven." So many opportunities are lost because people are so set in their ways and they won't change and they won't see God's hand in something or God's hand upon it.

And the priests tell him. They're courageous because the king could order them executed. They stand up to him. "You shouldn't be in here burning incense. The priests do that, the descendants of Aaron. They're the ones that have been consecrated. Leave this place for you have been unfaithful and you will not be honored by the Lord God. The Lord will not accept your offering, he will not honor what you're doing. You've crossed the line here."

Uzziah didn't listen though. Uzziah, who had a censer in his hand ready to burn incense, became angry. He had the censer, he loaded the incense and he's ready to burn it. He's mad now. While he was raging at the priests in their presence before the incense altar in the Lord's temple, leprosy broke out on his forehead. He was screaming at the priests and boing! His forehead turns white as leprosy appears.

When Azariah the chief priest and all the other priests looked at him they saw that he had leprosy on his forehead, so they hurried him out. Indeed, he himself was eager to leave because the Lord had afflicted him. They didn't see miracles happen very often. Outrageous miracles. They went into battle, they won the battle, God's hand was upon them, but they didn't see with their eyes the angels fighting for them. Probably any more than we do.

When we go into a situation and God works and it just works out and we know God was in it. We didn't see God, we didn't see the angels with our eyes but we know he did something. When we're sick and when God heals us or we have some need that God provides for or we're broke and we can't pay the electric bill and God provides and we say, "We know that was God." Experienced God in much the same way.

So to see leprosy which would have normally come about very gradually, to see it just boing, pop in on his forehead immediately they were like, "Whoa, that's a God thing. We want to get away from here." As my wife says, "Put up your lightning rod." They saw that happen. He was eager to get out of there. They were eager to get him out of there because all of a sudden he realized, "Man, I'm in the wrong place."

All of a sudden his pride was gone. This was eating humble pie. His pride went from a 100% to a 0% there and he couldn't get himself out of there fast enough. King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died. He lived in a separate house, leprous and excluded from the temple of the Lord. Jotham his son had charge of the palace and governed the people of the land.

That was it now. The rest of his life. It doesn't really say how much longer that was but he couldn't associate with anybody. He had leprosy that was highly contagious. You had to live separately. He lived in a separate house and he was excluded from the temple and he had to let his son run the day-to-day affairs of the kingdom. The other events of Uzziah's reign from beginning to end are recorded by the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.

Uzziah rested with his fathers and was buried near them in a field for burial that belonged to the kings. For people said, "He had leprosy." And Jotham his son succeeded him as king. They wouldn't even bury him near the other kings because he had leprosy and that would make the tomb unclean. I was just looking at the beginning of Isaiah because Isaiah talks about Uzziah. The very beginning of Isaiah.

The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. So here Isaiah as a prophet began his ministry there at the time that this guy Uzziah was king. The other events of his life are recorded here. He rested with his fathers but he didn't get to be buried with them and his son succeeded him as king.

On the good side, he was not assassinated like his father and grandfather. On the good side, he lived a very long life. And on the good side, he seemed to serve God rightfully for many many many years. He did things right, he served God, and God worked with him. If you think that you can walk with the Lord and serve him and that you're doing everything right and if you think that it would be impossible for this ever to happen to you, you better think again.

Here was a guy that was doing everything right. And the Lord blessed him. And he kept blessing him. And he blessed him more. And he had a bigger army and he won more battles and he had machines that he could use to fight with and his army was well trained and it was organized and he had enough wealth in his kingdom he could provide everybody in the army with shields and spears and helmets and coats of armor to protect them.

They were well trained and well equipped, this army. And his fame kept spreading and spreading and his kingdom got bigger and bigger and God kept saying, "I'm going to bless you and bless you and bless you and bless you and bless you," and it's almost like he reached his limit and pop one day. And it was his pride. One day he got out of bed and he said, "Well, I'm really a great guy, aren't I? Aren't I something else?"

And that was the beginning of the end for him. He began to treat God as an equal. He's going to go in and bring the offering to God himself. "I don't need a priest. I don't need an intermediary. Maybe while I'm there I'll even give God a little advice on how he should do things." There's a lesson in here for us and it's the same lesson it seems like we get every time we go through another chapter in Chronicles here.

Kings that sought the Lord, God blessed them. When they didn't seek the Lord he didn't bless them. When the same king started out seeking the Lord and ended up not seeking him they went from being blessed to being cursed and God allowing them to be assassinated or allowing them to get a disease like leprosy. It didn't have to happen this way. This guy could have gone out strong.

Look at Solomon how big everything his life was, his kingdom was. He had 700 wives and 300 concubines. The offspring he had probably couldn't be counted. But he ended up worshipping the gods of his foreign wives. And God said, "Don't have any foreign wives." Better than that God said, "Have one wife." We just see the same pattern over and over again. It happens so many times.

It's so sad but it's in here for a reason and that is to remind us that it could happen to us also. We can be walking with the Lord and and doing okay with him and the minute a little bit of pride starts to get in there that can be the beginning of the end. It can really mess you up like it did this guy. And I think we need to be alert for that in our own lives.

I think we need to be always humble and be alert that any possible pride comes, get rid of it. Anything we have, anything we are, anything we've done, anything about anything, all the glory gets to him. We mess up, that's our own fault but if something good happens we got to give the credit to where it comes from. As the years go by we got to keep doing that and keep doing it and not begin to think, "Look at what I have. Look at what I've done."

"Look at what I've achieved here. Look at what I've accumulated. Look at how much money I have or how much property I have or how big my house is or how much is in my 401k or my bank account or how much stocks I have. I'm pretty smart. I invested well. Look what I got." It's a bad thing to happen. The lessons are repeated over and over again in the Bible here almost on every page of this book. We would serve ourselves well and the Lord also if we listen to this message.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Hope from the Word. We're currently in a study of Second Chronicles. You can hear this message or more Hope from the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann by going to ccmarlton.org. Pastor Bill's messages can also be found by downloading the Hope FM app on your smartphone or tablet. If you prefer to listen via podcast, you can find Hope from the Word wherever you find your podcasts.

We'd love to have you join us at Calvary Chapel of Marlton, either in person or online. Our Sunday service begins at 10:00 AM and there's a Wednesday evening service at 7:00. To catch us online you can subscribe to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton or just go to our website for the link: ccmarlton.org.

And if you'd like to take a moment to write to Pastor Bill, it would be such a blessing to us. We're thankful each and every time we hear what God is doing through our listeners' lives. And we want to pray for you too. Either email us through the website at ccmarlton.org or call 856-983-1662. We'll continue our study in Second Chronicles next time on Hope from the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann, a presentation of Calvary Chapel of Marlton.