Learning From a Sad Ending
We had lunch today with Debbie’s sister Sue and her husband Sam at their home in Wellington. This was our first visit to their home in close to a year. Since my illness came shortly after our move to Fort Collins, the impact of all that hit not only our life and theirs as well as they came alongside of us did what they could, when they could to help carry the load on several fronts.
I did get out for a ride in my racing wheelchair. It took me about 44 minutes to travel 1.25 miles. However, I will learn from this route not to do it again at least for a while. There was a long uphill stretch on the second half that was pretty taxing and really slowed me down.
In addition to that I got some good “walker time” in. I used my walker to get from the car to the front door at Sue and Sam’s house and used it to get to the car and back to the garage at our house. This is along with the shorter distances inside the house. I did make one trip up our garage handicap ramp and back down just using the handrails. That was fairly taxing but I made it. So overall that could have been around 100 feet of walking for today. I’m glad I took that morning nap.
 Bible Verse for Today… “In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and lofty throne. The bottom of his robe filled the temple.  Angels were standing above him…They called to each other and said, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Armies!  The whole earth is filled with his glory.” Isaiah 6:1,3
Yesterday, we saw how that King Uzziah was successful as long as he served the Lord with his whole heart. But when he became successful, his pride led to his downfall. Uzziah’s pride was revealed when he went in to the Temple and offered incense which was only lawful for the priest to do. When confronted by the Priest, he showed no submission to God’s ways and was struck with leprosy and lived isolated from the community and his throne until he died.
In Uzziah’s life we can observe the following:
1 – The role of a godly influence – “He dedicated his life to serving God in the days of Zechariah, who taught him to fear God”. 2 Chronicles 26:5
As a young King, the spiritual authority and accountability of a faithful priest helped Uzziah stay focused in his life. Scripture is silent but it appears that when Uzziah became power Zechariah was no longer on the scene. The important lesson is to become spiritually stable and consistent when our mentors, role models and those keeping us focused and accountable are not longer part of our life. This is the true test of devotion to God.
2 – Forgetting where success comes from – “As long as he dedicated his life to serving the Lord, the Lord gave him success.” (2 Chron. 26:6) There is the proverbial warning about “believing your own press releases.” I remember reading some press releases from my time in politics and they made me sound pretty good. It is always tempting to be impressed with yourself, and forget where your strength comes from. For some reason, Uzziah lost the connection between devotion to the Lord and success in life.
I recall that the Lord cautioned the Israelites that when they entered the promised land and achieved victory over armies larger, stronger and better than theirs to not forget the Lord and think that it was through their might the battles were won. They did forget and so did Uzziah.
3 – Serving the Lord, or using the Lord – The sin of Uzziah’s father was that he offered incense to the god of the people he defeat in battle. This was an act of idolatrous nations who viewed gods as powerful forces to be manipulated and used to get what I want. Uzziah in offering incense in the Lord’s temple felt, as King, he had the right; but in doing so was demonstrating that he was the one who wanted to the Lord to do what he wanted and it was not longer, he who was acting as God’s servant, doing God’s work. God had set those boundaries and separation of duties intentionally to remind His people that He was the Lord, and it was He that they served, not the other way around.
4 – A sad epithet – God’s judgment came upon Uzziah in the worst way possible outside of immediate death. Leprosy meant isolation and a slow painful death. The power he had was handed over to his son. When he died, he was not remembered for his obedience to God, or his success in battle or his military might, all that was said of him was, “he had leprosy.”
5 – A new call out of a tragic end – The death of Uzziah was a tragic end to a long rule and what could have been a successful, God-honoring reign. The Prophet Isaiah refers to his death in Isaiah 6:1 (our verse above). When human leaders disappoint, when a tragic death occurs, or a sad ending brings discouragement a fresh vision of the Lord is needed. A vision of who God is and what He desire for our life and those around us.
In this vision Isaiah is made aware of the sinfulness of those around him and his own sin. No pride is reflected in the prophet during this encounter. However, out of this vision we see Isaiah receiving the reason for the revelation from God. “Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom will I send? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8)
True success is found in doing God’s will, being totally devoted to Him and keeping Him in the forefront of our lives.