A long reading today brings us much to talk about, but I want to focus on something that some of the men have in common, and that thing is pride. First, we see Amaziah, who the scripture says did good in the eyes of the Lord, even though the high places were not taken down, ]and the people still burned incense to other gods. Amaziah defeated 30,000 of the Edomites, and thought he had a nice, strong army. He had even hired 100,000 n=men from Israel to fight with him, but then decided not to bring them along to the battle. When this went well, Amaziah’s heart was lifted up, and he thought it would be fun to go fight Israel. Joash, king of Israel, told him he would lose, but Amaiah didn’t listen. He fought Israel anyway, and lost in a big way. It cost him all th3e silver and gold in the tabernacle! Amaziah fell to pride.
Uzziah was a good king in the eyes of the Lord also. He kept the same practices as Uzziah though. He built up the armies of Judah, and was a very good king. He was feeling pretty good about himself, and the scripture says his heart was strong and lifted up. Because of this, he decided he was good enough to go into the temple and burn incense. But this was the part of the priests and Levites, and not the king. Because of his arrogance, he was stricken with leprosy, and the rest of his reign lived in Isolation. Uzziah fell to pride.
Jonah is a very familiar story to us. We learned of him when we were children, and remembered the story of the great fish swallowing a man all of our lives. Jonah thought he could hide from God. Adam thought the same thing, yet God found him. This is the first sign of pride we see in Jonah, thinking he can actually hide from God. When we think this way, we actually are thinking we can outsmart God, and that is pride, Jonah finally repents while in the fish, and is vomited up so he can preach in Nineveh. After a very successful revival in Nineveh (the people all turned to God) Jonah goes asnd sulks becaue his prophecy of destruction did not happen. This is also pride, thinking things should happen just the way we said, and not allowing God to be God. Jonah says he knew this would happen because he knew God was merciful, gracious, slow to anger and full of loving kindness. Now if you were going to preach in a certain city, and you knew God would bring revival, wouldn’t you be that much more delighted to preach there? Jonah was mad at God because God did His thing. That is pride.
We see pride today in a number of different scenarios, and this is how pride works. It is not always the same thing that can bring us down. Amaziah had confidence in his troops, Uzziah grew strong and lifted up in his own heart, and Jonah thought he should be right in his preaching. We must always be careful that our hearts do not become lifted up within us, that we can venture out on our own into this world. We need Jesus beside us every day, and when He is, we will be safe from the enemy. But when pride comes in, we become vulnerable, because we put God behind us instead of before. Remember that a shepherd always leads the flock, he does not walk behind them. May we be the ones, unlike these men today, who humble themselves before Almighty God. May we let Him lead all the way!
God's Maintenance Man 