Till He Was Strong

Patterns are all around us. We see patterned cycles in nature: sunrise before sunset, spring gives way to summer and fall to winter, sprout before the bloom, caterpillar becomes butterfly, birth before death. Often, we live our lives in patterned rhythms: waking and then sleeping, lunch before dinner, weekdays that lead to weekends. Our very biology functions in ordered patterns: from the rhythm of the heart beat to the sequence of infancy to childhood to adolescence to adulthood-one always coming before the other. These patterns bear the image of the Creator who brings order to chaos, and is indeed the God of order.  Sadly, there are also patterns to the sin of mankind, but God is faithful to give us his good Word to expose these patterns and provide a way out of them. 

In 2 Chronicles, we encounter the story of King Uzziah. His rule began when he was sixteen years old, after his father passed, and: “He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.” (2 Chron 26:5) And prosper he did! God helped King Uzziah win wars, build cities, become famous, grow herds, acquire workers, amass an army, and invent machines for defense (hello catapult!). For a time, King Uzziah assumed a posture of dependence as he sought the Lord, received instruction, feared God, and made God his help. For Uzziah, “…his fame spread far, for he was marvelously helped, till he was strong…But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction.” (2 Chron 26:15b and 26:16a)

Till he was strong. 

In four words, we see a detrimental shift in Uzziah. He turns from dependence to independence as he relies on his own strength, embraces the gift instead of the Giver, and exchanges God’s law for his own desires. The price of this shift is high, as pride stoked discontentment which stoked anger and unrepentance, leading to fiery, lifelong consequences of disobedience. This narrative exposes a pattern that is described in the Proverbs: “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.” “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” “Before destruction a man’s heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.” (Pro. 11:2, 16:18, 18:12) One comes before the other: pride before disgrace and destruction; humility before wisdom and honor. Do you believe this? Are you willing to explore and expose the patterns of sin in your own life?

Are you in a “till she was strong” moment? When do you feel strong and how do you respond to your weaknesses? Have you considered the ways you have been marvelously helped and given thanks, recently? What areas of your life are you pursuing independence and self-reliance? Consider your affections, what gifts of God have begun to overshadow God himself? What is your heart posture in response to the Scriptures and accountability? Is your heart receptive and humble or resistant and prideful? Today, let us ask God for the courage to consider the patterns of our thoughts, desires, attitudes, and actions. Let us trace the fruit (good or bad) to the root and examine why we do what we do. Let us seek the Lord and make Him our marvelous help. And let us look to Jesus who lived the perfect pattern of humility and obedience and wisdom. Let us look to Jesus who assumed a cross shaped posture in order to bear the consequences of our pride.  Let us look to Jesus who perfectly and gloriously displayed the pattern of humility before honor.

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2:5-11)

By Sawyer Taylor