Insight for Living

Bill Meyer: Pastors and Christian leaders face a subtle but deadly temptation, and it's this: following a huge success, it's tempting to assume that the outcome is tied to one's brilliance rather than God's blessing. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll recounts the tragic story of a king who had everything: military victories, national fame, and decades of God's favor.

Yet, in a single moment of pride, it all came crashing down. Through this forgotten account, Chuck reveals the crucial difference between movements of God and monuments to self, offering a sober warning to anyone who serves in ministry.

Guest (Male): Centuries ago, Isaiah painted a grand mural of the Lord's glorious coming back to earth. The scene is out in the wilderness, rugged and formidable. In the distance, a voice cries out, "Clear the way. Listen, it's the voice of someone shouting. Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord. Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God.

Fill in the valleys and level the mountains and hills. Straighten the curves and smooth out the rough places. Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. The Lord has spoken." Those words appear in Isaiah 40, verses three through five. The picture of God's glory, His *kavod*, as we read in the Hebrew language, *kavod*. Its basic meaning is to be heavy, weighty. God is heavy with splendor and weighty magnificence. That's the idea.

In contrast to God's *kavod*, man's glory is as insubstantial as a blade of grass that withers when the breath of the Lord blows on it, Isaiah writes in verse seven. Yet how we loathe to admit that. How tempting it is to claim the credit ourselves for the mighty works that God alone does in and around us. Like a teenager flaunting her mother's diamonds, we sometimes slip His royal robes over our own tattered rags and then strut around as though they were ours.

Perhaps no one feels that temptation stronger than those who serve Him in public ministry, those who have been called to hold His glory in sacred trust. Whether their work becomes a movement of God or calcifies into a monument to themselves depends really on one crucial factor. And that factor is: who gets the glory? No matter how gifted we may be, no matter how valuable others may think we are, no matter how many people hang on our words or listen to our songs or heed our counsel, we have no right whatever to take lightly God's name or eclipse His glory or rob Him of His praise.

Soon as we do that, the movement of God halts, and a monument to our own glory is erected. And how quickly those monuments come crashing down, taking us with them. There's a tragic example of this in the scriptures. It's about the rise and fall of a king whose name was Uzziah. I want to read his story as it is recorded in 2 Chronicles, chapter 26, verses one through 21. It's an amazing passage, so I want you to listen carefully.

2 Chronicles 26:1 begins, "All the people of Judah had crowned Amaziah's 16-year-old son, Uzziah, as king in place of his father. After his father's death, Uzziah rebuilt the town of Elath and restored it to Judah. Uzziah was 16 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem 52 years. His mother was Jecoliah from Jerusalem. He did what was pleasing in the Lord's sight, just as his father Amaziah had done. Uzziah sought God during the days of Zechariah, who taught him to fear God. And as long as the king sought guidance from the Lord, God gave him success.

Uzziah declared war on the Philistines and broke down the walls of Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod. Then he built new towns in the Ashdod area and in other parts of Philistia. God helped him in his wars against the Philistines, his battles with the Arabs of Gur, and his wars with the Meunites. The Meunites paid annual tribute to him, and his fame spread even to Egypt, for he had become very powerful. Uzziah built fortified towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate, and at the angle in the wall. He also constructed forts in the wilderness and dug many water cisterns because he kept great herds of livestock in the foothills of Judah and on the plains.

He was also a man who loved the soil. He had many workers who cared for his farms and vineyards, both on the hillsides and in the fertile valleys. Uzziah had an army of well-trained warriors ready to march into battle, unit by unit. This army had been mustered and organized by Jeiel, the secretary of the army, and his assistant, Maaseiah. They were under the direction of Hananiah, one of the king's officials. These regiments of mighty warriors were commanded by 2,600 clan leaders. The army consisted of 307,500 men, all elite troops. They were prepared to assist the king against any enemy.

Uzziah provided the entire army with shields, spears, helmets, coats of mail, bows, and sling stones. And he built structures on the walls of Jerusalem, designed by experts to protect those who shot arrows and hurled large stones from the towers and the corners of the wall. His fame spread far and wide, for the Lord gave him marvelous help, and he became very powerful. But when he had become powerful, he also became proud, which led to his downfall. He sinned against the Lord his God by entering the sanctuary of the Lord's temple and personally burning incense on the incense altar.

Azariah the high priest went in after him with 80 other priests of the Lord, all brave men. They confronted King Uzziah and said, 'It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord. That is the work of the priests alone, the descendants of Aaron, who are set apart for this work. Get out of the sanctuary, for you have sinned. The Lord God will not honor you for this.' Uzziah, who was holding an incense burner, became furious. But as he was standing there raging at the priests before the incense altar in the Lord's temple, leprosy suddenly broke out on his forehead.

When Azariah the high priest and all the other priests saw the leprosy, they rushed him out. And the king himself was eager to get out because the Lord had struck him. So King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died. He lived in isolation in a separate house, for he was excluded from the temple of the Lord. His son Jotham was put in charge of the royal palace, and he governed the people of the land."

Bill Meyer: You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into today's topic on your own, be sure to purchase our Searching the Scriptures Bible study workbook by going to insight.org/offer.

Chuck Swindoll: I did not learn my theology first at seminary. I learned it first at home. I learned it at the knee of my mother. As a matter of fact, I was only a preschooler when I heard my first serious theological statement. As I recall, in a frustrated moment, she made the statement which contained only ten words, but they were memorable: "May God help you if you ever do that again." I learned at my mother's knee what the fear of God was all about.

I was a teenager, however, before I asked my first serious theological question. And it wasn't at home, and it wasn't in a church. It was in a car. Let me explain. I come from a musical family. My mother, now deceased, played wonderful piano and sang lyrical soprano. She had a wonderful voice. In fact, she taught piano for over 30 years. My sister sang contralto and still sings beautifully. My brother sings bass, and I sang tenor. It sounds like a country-western tune when I give you that description, doesn't it?

We used to stand around the piano and my mother would play. My father played a great harmonica. Most hymns don't have that written in the score, so he sort of picked what was left out, and we made scary music for years together as a family. One fall, early one fall, my mom noticed in the Houston Press one afternoon that there was a concert that would be given at the downtown First Methodist Church under the direction of the great Walter Jenkins, who had led the masterwork of George Frideric Handel for years.

In fact, he had it memorized. He was to direct a choir that was to be a volunteer choir and we were to audition if we wanted to be a part of that 350-voice choir. Mother thought that was a great idea. I was only 15. I wasn't too sure about it, and yet we all auditioned and to everyone's surprise, we made it. And we began a rehearsal, a series of rehearsals night after night for about four or five weeks before we did our three performances. It was with full choir, a full orchestra, and a massive pipe organ.

And being only 15 years old, I had never sung in anything that magnificent. And being tender in spirit, especially as it relates to music, I will never forget the night of the first performance. As Dr. Walter Jenkins stood and just before he had us stand, we listened to the tenor recitative, "Comfort ye my people," and then the aria, "Every valley, every mountain, every hill made low." It was a wonderful rendition. And then we stood after the aria for the first piece, which goes, "And the glory, the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. And all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."

And I don't know that I got more than about ten notes out before I dissolved in tears. If you have ever sung in a great choir and if you've ever had the privilege of being surrounded by great voices that eclipse your own voice, you know something of the thrill of music. And we were singing of something that was transcendent. In fact, the piece concludes as only Handel could have chosen, with "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and honor and glory and blessing. Glory."

I rode home that evening in the back of the car. My dad was so thrilled to have us all in the performance, and my brother and sister and mother were talking of it. I was very quiet. I was struggling with the word. In fact, I asked the question, "What is that glory?" I could understand power and riches and wisdom and honor and blessing, but glory? What is that? We got home and I checked the World Book and didn't even have it listed. And then I went to Webster's Dictionary and found a magnificent series of definitions, synonyms really: great honor and admiration, worshipful adoration, splendor, magnificence.

It was about 12, 13 years later, I was in my second year at Dallas Seminary under the very capable instruction of Dr. Bruce Waltke. And in a Hebrew course that was tough, and yet I did a quick flashback to my year when I was 15 in that car as Dr. Waltke was going over a particular word he discovered and amplified for us out of Isaiah's prophecy, and it was *kavod*, K-A-B-O-D, for heaviness. And he struck a chord in my mind when he said, "And this is the word for glory."

376 times used in the Hebrew scriptures. 45 of those times, and rightly so, used only of our God, who is the King of glory. My heart leaped within me. The King of heaviness, the heaviest of all the heavies. He is the one who is impressive and noteworthy. He is the one who is full of praiseworthiness and splendor and adoration. The passage we were looking at in the Hebrew class was Isaiah 42:5-8. I direct your attention to this significant section of scripture.

I learned of the fear of God from my mother, but I learned of the glory of God from my God Himself through the art of music and the magnificence of that chorale, from the teaching of a mentor and the intricate workings of the Hebrew text, but mainly in the years to follow, from God Himself. And I dedicate this message today to all of us engaged in ministry of any kind. Ministry of the word, ministry of music, ministry of education, ministry of counseling. This is a message for us to take and hold as a sacred trust.

I have a sense of timing in this that it is the right occasion to speak it. We are watching these days with an ache in our hearts as kingdoms of men are crumbling about them that once were under the guise of ministry. And we sorrow, we grieve, as we watch fellow men and women falling in ministry because of the failure to hold the glory, the heaviness, the splendor that belongs only to God. And failing to give it all to Him, they've taken it, and they've loved it, and it's ruined them. And it could ruin us just as well, any one of us.

Isaiah writes of God's own word: "Thus says God the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it, I am Yahweh. I am the Lord. I am the Lord." Does that mean we have no part in His ministry and in His work? No. Look at the list of things that follow. "I have called you," so we have been called. "I have called you in righteousness. I will also hold you by the hand," we are being helped.

We are being guided. "I will watch over you," we are being protected as in a shield of God's divine providence. "I will watch over you. Furthermore, I, the Lord, will appoint you." Look at this, He will use us. "I will appoint you a covenant to the people. And look at the areas of ministry: as a light to the nations, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and those who dwell in darkness from the prison. I am the Lord." He repeats it. In scripture for emphasis, exclamation points weren't used. Repetition is used.

"I am the Lord. I am the Lord. Remember it. That's my name. It's not your name, and it is not for you to use lightly or misuse or abuse. I will not give my glory to another." There it is again, *kavod*. "It is my heaviness of splendor, and I won't let you borrow it. I won't let you take it. Nor my praise will I give to graven images." The word is idols. "You build idols, my praises don't go to your idols. You build empires, they do not receive my praises. My praises come unto me and come unto my works. They come unto my name."

It is true in John 17:22, Jesus in a prayer speaks of the glory that God gave to him and he in turn gives to his his own. But he tells us there it is for the purpose of unity. In other words, he gives his glory to the church as a body of people to represent in unity his message and his works. John, who writes that, also is the one who writes in the third letter words of great rebuke to Diotrephes, who attempted to take the place of the Lord in the church. And he loved first place, says John, and he brings words of reproof to Diotrephes.

So this is not to be confused with that sharing of the glory in John 17. This is unto the Lord. "I am the Lord, that is my name. I will not give my glory to another, no matter how gifted, no matter how useful, no matter how valuable, no matter how many people follow, no matter how many hang on your words and listen to your records and sing your songs, no matter how many would say you're the reason I'm still alive from your wise counsel. I am the Lord. My glory I will not give to you, and I will not give my praise to your idols."

That's the formula, very simple formula to follow that will keep a ministry a movement of God rather than a monument unto ourselves. Number one: remember His name. Number two: reflect His glory. Number three: rejoice in His praises. Remember His name. Reflect His glory. Rejoice in His praises. Hold all of it in a sacred trust. No amount of time in ministry ever gives anyone the right to take His name or eclipse His glory or steal His praise. The tragedy is the longer we're in ministry, the more loosely we handle such statements, and the easier it is to rationalize around the fact that we are abusing the right of ministry. Let me give you a statement that represents everything I have said: ministry monuments result in disaster. Ministry monuments finally crumble, and disaster occurs.

J. Oswald Sanders, in a book you must buy and read, *Spiritual Leadership*, writes: "Egotism is one of the repulsive manifestations of pride. It is the practice of thinking and speaking much of oneself, the habit of magnifying one's attainments or importance. It leads one to consider everything in its relation to himself rather than in relation to God and the welfare of His people. The leader who has for long been admired and deferred to by his followers is in great danger of succumbing to this peril."

Bill Meyer: This is Insight for Living. Hold your place right here because there's much more to this dramatic story that Chuck Swindoll wants to show us. It's a cautionary tale for anyone in leadership. Chuck titled today's message Uzziah: The Leader Who Became a Loser. It's the final study in a 14-part series called *Fascinating Stories of Forgotten Lives*, and it concludes on Monday's program.

Insight for Living has chosen to feature this collection of Bible stories because it elevates lesser-known Bible characters. Each one teaches us deep lessons about life. Some are heroes, others are casualties of their own making. But with each one, Chuck has a remarkable ability to resurrect these forgotten lives from a verse or two of scripture. Suddenly you're not reading about ancient history. You're sitting across from someone who knows what it's like to yearn for more.

*Fascinating Stories of Forgotten Lives* brings these encounters to life. Whether you're starting your morning with one of these stories or your small group is hungry for something deeper than surface-level discussions, our Searching the Scriptures Bible study workbook will guide you. To purchase a copy today or for other related resources, go to insight.org/offer.

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In *Guided by Grace*, you'll discover Chuck's insights on each theme, inspiring testimonies from Insight for Living offices around the world, and devotionals designed for meaningful personal reflection. It's practical biblical content that meets you right where you are. Your one-year subscription costs nothing. It's our gift to you. So let us send you *Guided by Grace* by calling us at 800-772-8888 or visit insight.org/guidedbygrace.

I'm Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Swindoll tells the fascinating story of Uzziah: The Leader Who Became a Loser, Friday on Insight for Living.

The preceding message, "Uzziah: The Leader Who Became a Loser," was copyrighted in 1989, 1994, 2003, 2006, 2012, 2015, and 2024, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2024 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.