HOLDING ON TO HUMILITY!
Diḇre haYamim Bět/2 Chronicles 26
Shabbat Shalom family – it is always such a great joy to
come together in the Name of יהושע, our
Great King and High Priest, who humbled Himself, being obedient unto death,
death even of a stake; and therefore has been highly exalted and was given the
Name which is above every Name, that at the Name of יהושע every knee shall bow and every tongue
confess that יהושע Messiah
is the Master, aměn!
As we consider these words taken from Pilipiyim/Philippians 2 we
clearly can see that humility and obedience go hand in hand and in:
Miḵah/Micah
6:8 “He has declared to you, O man, what is good. And
what does יהוה
require of you but to do right, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with
your Elohim?”
What does יהוה require of
us? Well as we see – that it is to do right, love kindness and walk humbly with
our Elohim!
‘Walk’ in Hebrew is the
word הָלַךְ hā∙lǎḵ - Strong’s H1980 meaning, ‘to walk, to live, manner
of life, cause to live’ and literally speaks of how one lives.
It is used as a verb indicating that it is an active expression of one’s life.
We are to actively and continually be walking in Messiah, and as Miḵah tells us
that we are required to walk ‘humbly’ with Elohim. The root word used here for
humble is צָנַע
tsana
– Strong’s H6800 meaning, ‘to be modest or
humble’. In Miḵah/Micah 6:8 it is expressed as follows: וְהַצְנֵעַ
לֶכֶת ‘ve-ha-ts’nea
lechet’ which literally expresses ‘a making humble to walk’ or ‘showing a humble
walk’, again emphasising that our humility is seen in our walk –
that is our walk of obedience as we clearly see and understand the words in:
Yoḥanan Aleph/1 John 2:6 “The one who
says he stays in Him ought himself also to walk, even as He walked.”
The Greek word for ‘walk’ is περιπατέω peripateō – Strong’s H4043 and carries the same meaning and that is, ‘to walk, behaviour, to conduct one’s self,
to make one’s way, to tread with the feet, to make one’s life’. Why all the definitions? To clearly reiterate
that to walk as Messiah walked involves action and that action is to be in
complete line with His walk and that is a walk of total obedience – the
greatest expression of humility!
Tonight I
want us to look at the life of a king who reigned for 52 years and did what was
right in the eyes of יהוה, well for
most part and then sadly lost the plot as he certainly neglected the need to
walk humbly before יהוה. In a
message tonight called, “Holding on to
humility”, let us learn from the events of the life of Uzziyahu as we read
from the accounts of his reign as recorded in Diḇre haYamim Bět/2 Chronicles 26
(Read).
A very interesting chapter that portrays for us a very sobering
account of the rise and fall of a king, from which we can learn a great deal in
our need to guard ourselves from the danger of allowing pride to rise up in us.
Who was Uzziyahu? Uzziyahu was the son of Amatsyahu, who reigned
for 29 years in Yerushalayim and did what was right in the eyes of יהוה, but not with a perfect heart. Amatsyahu was the 9th
king of Yehuḏah who succeeded his father who was assassinated after the defeat
of the Syrians, where his own officials conspired against him and killed him
for murdering Zeḵaryah, the son of the likeable prophet Yehoyaḏa, after being
told that יהוה had left him. Amatsyahu means ‘the
strength of Yah’ or ‘Yah
is mighty’ and he certainly started out
right yet his heart was not perfect and did not break down all the high places
of worship and in essence allowed idolatrous worship to continue. I have given
a message before on the accounts of Amatsyahu called, ‘How is your heart?’ and so I do not want to dwell too long on his
account, except that he turned from following יהוה and
fled to Laḵish where he was killed. Uzziyahu was then set up as the 10th
king of Yehuḏah at 16 years of age and he reigned for 52 years – the longest
reign of a king of Yehuḏah up until that point and only Menashsheh, the wicked
king, reigned for longer (55 years). Uzziyahu - עֻזִּיָּהוּ –Strong’s
H5818 means ‘my
strength is Yah’ or ‘Yah
is my strength’ and his
mother’s name was יְכָלְיָה
Yeḵolyah –
Strong’s H3203 and means ‘Yah is able’. Uzziyahu is
also referred to in Melaḵim/Kings as עֲזַרְיָהוּ Azaryahu –
Strong’s H5838 meaning, ‘Yah has helped’. So coming
from a line of people whose names carried great significance in declaring that יהוה is their strength and mighty to help, Uzziyahu started
out in a great way in serving יהוה in
the right way. Verse 5 tells us clearly that he was a king who ‘sought’ יהוה, and had great guidance from Zeḵaryahu the prophet, and
as long as he sought יהוה, Elohim made
him prosper!
This is a vital lesson straight
up for us to never lose sight of – and that is we are to always be a people who
‘seek’ יהוה, for Messiah reminds us that we
must seek Him first:
Mattithyahu/Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the reign of Elohim, and His righteousness, and all
these matters shall be added to you.”
The Greek word here for ‘seek’ is
ζητέω zēteō – Strong’s G2212 and means, ‘to seek, inquire, try to obtain, strive after, to aim at,
crave for, and to seek in order to find out by thinking, meditating and
reasoning’. Pretty straight forward I would say – to seek takes
diligent effort – and to seek His kingdom speaks of diligently seeking and
meditating on Him and His instructions (Torah) – something we see lacking in a
great way today!
The Hebrew root word used for ‘seek/sought’
in our passage for tonight is דָּרַשׁ darash –
Strong’s H1875 meaning, ‘to resort to, to seek with care, consult,
investigate, search carefully, study, seek after with application, to practice,
follow’. Uzziyahu certainly was a man who sought after Elohim,
and saw the promised results; as we know that in Tehillim/Psalm 1 we are
reminded that blessed is the man who meditates on the Torah day and night, for
he shall prosper in whatever he does!
Yehoshua/Joshua 1:8 “Do not let this Book
of the Torah depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and
night, so that you guard to do according to all that is written in it. For then
you shall make your way prosperous, and act wisely.”
The same root word used in all of
these passages for ‘prosper/prosperous’ is צָלַח tsalach – Strong’s H6743 meaning, ‘to advance,
prosper, successful, victorious, press through and succeed’. The root means to accomplish
satisfactorily what is intended. Real prosperity results from the work of Elohim
in the life of one who seeks Elohim with all his heart!
As long as Uzziyahu sought יהוה, Elohim made him prosper.” Yosĕph is called a prosperous man, for יהוה turned all of his
misfortunes into benefit for Ya’aqoḇ’s sons (Berěshith/Genesis 39:2-3; 23).
יהוה expresses His purposes through His Word, therefore His Word will not
prove empty, but it will prosper in its fulfillment, and so as we seek His
purposes through diligent daily meditation upon His Torah, His promises will
not prove false, but are all yes and aměn in Messiah!
Iḇ’rim/Hebrews 11:6 tells us that יהוה is a
rewarder of those who earnestly seek Him.
Mishlĕ/Proverbs 8:17 “I love those who
love me, and those who earnestly seek me do find me.”
So Uzziyahu was a man who earnestly did
seek יהוה and prospered greatly for it as
he certainly was one of the most successful and powerful kings in Yehuḏah’s
history as he was a well-rounded king – He was a brave and courageous warrior,
an excellent engineer and an avid cultivator and he had a good instructor – a
prophet who instructed him in the fear of יהוה. And
what started out as a very humble walk with יהוה in
recognising that he could do nothing without יהוה,
became very powerful and was greatly strengthened through the help of יהוה. He was given victory over the Philistines and the Araḇians who lived in Gur Baʽal, and the
Meʽunites; and even the Ammonites recognised his power and brought him gifts. He
dug cisterns to provide water for the livestock, and cultivated the fertile
lands. He trained his army and organized them into divisions. He built towers
in Yerushalayim and in the Wilderness to keep watch against attacks, and
fortified the walls, and he invented new war machines for use on the towers to
shoot arrows and hurl large stones, for stronger defence systems, and news
about his success and powerful reign travelled far and wide as he was, as it
says in verse 15, “marvellously helped” – by יהוה of
course!!! “Till” – the word that
followed being marvellously helped – “till”
– it was all going so well up until this point – till he became strong. Now
there is nothing wrong with becoming strong and we pray that יהוה continues to strengthen us daily through His Word;
however we see the danger of what can happen when we become strong by the verse
that changes the scene in this chapter – verse 16. Instead of holding on to
humility he let go and became full of pride and proceeded to trespass against יהוה by simply not adhering to the Torah which he would have
for so long sought with his all!
He took all the success to his
head and forgot that it was because יהוה
helped him and became so proud that he simply began to ignore the instructions
of יהוה!
I find this passage very fitting
for us at this time as we have been going through the weekly torah portions in
Wayyiqra on leprosy as well as the strange fire that Aharon’s sons brought
before יהוה, after having been set-apart for
7 days!
Uzziyahu went in to the Hěḵal of יהוה to burn incense on the altar of incense; the very thing
he was not allowed to do as he was not a priest! Azaryahu the priest went in
after him with 80 other priests and confronted the king – very brave men they
were recorded as being – and yes very brave indeed as it is a picture for us
today as a royal priesthood who must be brave and stand up for the Truth
without compromise, declaring to those who are bringing ‘strange fire’ that they are indeed at fault and; are brave enough
to not be afraid to speak straight, even if the wrong get angry with us!!!
He priests told the king to ‘GET OUT’ of the set-apart place. Let me
tell you that this took guts – something that we need to learn from today, as I
fear that far too often most are afraid to stand up and speak what is right in
the fear that they may anger those who are walking in error!
Listen Uzziyahu was mad, and may
have even thought to himself, ‘how dare the priests speak to me
like this – I am the king!’ as he
would have been standing there when confronted with the truth with his chest
all puffed up and his head heightened by his stiff neck of pride and
stubbornness to listen! Yet while he was still angry leprosy broke out on him
and he was hurried out of the set-apart place. Now we have read just this past
week in our torah readings that when leprosy breaks out on the forehead of a
man he is immediately pronounced unclean by the priest for his infection is on
his head and this carries great significance in its symbolism for it reveals a
deeper rooted issue and that is that the ‘head’ or covering is affected and at
this point Uzziyahu no longer submitted under the Headship/leading of Elohim
but rather pride caused him to do his own thing and he paid the price for no
longer walking humbly before Elohim. He was a leper until he died and was cut
off from the House of יהוה, and when he
died they buried him in the field of
the burial place which belonged to the sovereigns and so was not buried in the burial place and is a clear
picture of how sin not confessed and dealt with will cut one off from the House
of יהוה, and the sinners and the unclean are outside!
Sadly he was so full of pride
that he never humbled himself as Ḥizqiyahu did:
Diḇre haYamim Bět/2
Chronicles 32:26 “Then
Ḥizqiyahu humbled himself for the pride of his heart, he and the
inhabitants of Yerushalayim, so that the wrath of יהוה did not come
upon them in the days of Ḥizqiyahu.”
Holding on to humility is critical in our walk of
faith and what we must clearly understand is that humility is not a carrying of
a low estimation of one’s self, nor is it the thinking that one is
insignificant. In fact truly humble people are often the most assertive people
on the planet – you just have to look no further than Mosheh who was very
humble, more than all the men who were on the face of the earth (Bemidbar/Numbers 12:3) – and he was
certainly no pushover!!!
Humility refers to a knowledge, recognition and
acceptance that we are lower than Elohim; and therefore our humility is best
expressed by a state of voluntarily submitting to His will. In fact humility
will always be measured by our belief and submission to יהוה’s good and well-pleasing and perfect desire which we can
do only when we renew our minds daily through His Perfect Word and not be
conformed to this world (Romiyim/Romans
12:2), and our clearest indicator of true humility is in our obedience to
Elohim. The truly humble person lovingly, willingly and honestly obeys יהוה; unlike the Pharisees who make an outward show of seeming
obedience yet clearly omit the importance of the Torah!
This is exactly what Uzziyahu did
– he put on a show instead of following the clear instructions of drawing near
to Elohim and decided he would approach יהוה on
his own terms – the same sad mistake most people make today as they err in
neglecting to follow the Torah, revealing a lack of humility as expressed
through proper obedience but rather being exposed for being full of pride and
selfishness!
PRIDE says, “I’ll
do it my way”, even if it
means ‘staying away’ and sulking
because things have not gone your way due to compromised worship!!! Many today,
when going through some tough trials, may say things like, “I
will deal with it on my own” or
“that is how I deal with it” and
then neglect to engage in living out Torah in a practical way through community
living and support and edification for one another and this simply is another
form of pride!
Pride will lead to bitterness and
resentment toward others, while harbouring a critical spirit and become very
sceptical – and this we are to guard against by holding on to humility – that
is to remain obedient and submissive to the Truth!
HUMILITY says ‘I’ll
submit to יהוה’s way’, no matter the cost and this results in trusting יהוה despite the circumstances we find ourselves in – whether
good or bad, as pride is not a respecter of circumstances for which we must
always be on our guard against!
Humility seeks to build and says
‘what can I bring/give’;
whereas pride seeks to take and says ‘what can I get out of this’. Pride carries an attitude of independence that will
not submit to or receive the instruction or advice of another; whereas humility
reveals total dependency and reliance upon יהוה.
Sadly what we saw happening in the life of Uzziyahu was that his confidence did
not remain in יהוה, but rather
in his own overconfidence in the victories, humility became replaced with pride
– a clear danger that we all face each and every day of our lives:
Deḇarim/Deuteronomy 8:11-14 “Be on guard, lest you forget יהוה your Elohim by not guarding His commands,
and His right-rulings, and His laws which I command you today, 12 lest you eat and shall be satisfied, and
build lovely houses and shall dwell in them, 13 and
your herds and your flocks increase, and your silver and your gold are
increased, and all that you have is increased, 14
that your heart then becomes lifted up, and you forget יהוה your Elohim who brought you out of the
land of Mitsrayim, from the house of bondage.”
In pride Uzziyahu became more ‘religious’ in a false form and this is exactly what we see today as
many denominations claiming to worship the Elohim of all creation are
‘religiously’ bringing their own fire holders with strange fire in an attempt
at worship for which we, as יהוה’s
royal priesthood must boldly speak out against and help restore the obedience
of walking humbly before Elohim! But before we are able to ‘speak up’ bravely we
must be sure to be walking humbly with Elohim, lest we find ourselves telling
others of the splinter in their eye when there is a plank in our own!
Pride is simply the disgrace and
demise of the wicked man who does not seek יהוה!
Tehillim/Psalms 10:4-6 “In the pride of his face the wrongdoer does not seek Him, In
all his thoughts there is no Elohim! 5 His
ways are always prosperous! Your right-rulings are on high, out of his sight!
He snorts at all his adversaries! 6 He has said in his heart, “I shall not be
moved; From generation to generation, never be in evil!”
The one full of pride does not see that he walks in
evil, whereas the humble draws near to Elohim, confesses and washes himself in
obedient submission to the will of Elohim:
Ya’aqoḇ/James 4: 8-10 “Draw
near to Elohim and He shall draw near to you. Cleanse hands, sinners. And
cleanse the hearts, you double-minded! 9 Lament
and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to
dejection. 10 Humble
yourselves in the sight of the Master, and He shall lift you up.”
Those who do not guard to do the commands of Elohim
are walking in pride, for love for Elohim is to obey His commands and expresses
true humility:
Tehillim/Psalm 31:23 “Love יהוה, all you His kind ones! For יהוה guards the trustworthy ones, and exceedingly repays the doer of
pride.”
Just as humility is an action – that being those
who are doers of the Word and not hearers only; so is pride an action – the ‘doer’ of pride will be exceedingly
repaid – and boy was Uzziyahu repaid - exceedingly!!!
Mishlĕ/Proverbs 8:13 “The
fear of יהוה is to hate
evil. I have hated pride and arrogance, and the evil way, and the perverse
mouth.”
Pride and arrogance is the evil way and sadly so
often when we are walking in obedience and standing for the Truth, as did the
priests in our passage tonight, we are often regarded by the proud and lawless
as being the arrogant ones – ironic isn’t it – that the arrogant and proud, who
claim that the Torah is of no effect, call the humble and obedient ones
arrogant, when clearly obedience to the Torah of יהוה and
staying in Messiah can never be arrogance!!!
Pride is an abomination to יהוה:
Mishlĕ/Proverbs 16:5 “Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to יהוה; Hand to hand: he goes not unpunished.”
Mishlĕ/Proverbs 13:10 “By pride comes only strife, But
wisdom is with those who take advice.”
Uzziyahu refused advice as he
strengthened himself through pride and as a result faced the consequences of
strife brought on by his own pride:
Mishlĕ/Proverbs 16:18 “Before destruction comes pride, and before a fall a haughty
spirit!”
A classic example of this verse being practically explained is seen in
the events of Uzziyahu – he got angry when he was confronted and exposed for
his error in worship and instead of humbling himself he remained stubbornly
proud – a very true picture of so many people who willfully refuse to heed correction
through the instructions of יהוה and
bring their own fire holders of twisted traditions that will sadly only see
them cast out if they do not repent!
After Uzziyahu died,
Yeshayahu/Isaiah saw יהוה:
Yeshayahu/Isaiah 6:1 “In the year that Sovereign Uzziyahu died, I saw יהוה sitting on a throne, high and lifted up,
and the train of His robe filled the Hěḵal.”
Why I mention this here is that this carries a really great lesson for
us as we know the events that happened when Yeshayahu saw יהוה and recognised his own uncleanness that his lips were
touched by a coal from the altar of יהוה, and
he made the famous declaration often repeated by so many, “Here I am send me!”
The timing of this is very
significant as it pictures for us that pride must die before we can truly see יהוה and fully be able to be commissioned to speak to a
people who will not see and will not hear!!!
Uzziyahu was full of pride and
full of himself, while the Heavenly Temple was filled with the presence of יהוה – we are the Dwelling Place of the Most High and we can
either find ourselves full of His presence as we walk humble before Him and
prosper in all that we do; or be full of selfishness and pride which, as we
know has no happy ending!!!
Yoḥanan Aleph/1 John 2:16-17 “Because all that is in the world –
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – is not of
the Father but is of the world. 17
And the world passes away, and the lust of it, but the one doing the desire of
Elohim remains forever.”
In a time where pride is rife, we
as a set-apart royal priesthood are to be found holding on to humility as we
walk humbly before Elohim doing His desire, with the assurance that we shall
remain forever!
What struggles have you been
facing lately? And if so, have you taken advice and sought fellowship with true
humble believers? Or have you tried to deal with it on your own? Or have you
had great victories of late due to your diligent seeking of יהוה? In victory or defeat have you found yourself neglecting
to seek יהוה, as the battle of pride rages in
your flesh? Let us take heed to the events of the life of king Uzziyahu who at
first was strengthened by Yah yet
later strengthened himself to the pitiful point of selfish pride thinking he
can do things his own way and still be acceptable before the Father, only to be
cast out forever!
All good efforts can be destroyed
in one hour! All the good of the 52 years was destroyed in a single moment, as humility
flew out and pride set in.
Qoheleth/Ecclesiastes 10:1 “Dead flies make the perfumer’s
ointment stink, ferment; a little folly outweighs wisdom, esteem.”
It just takes a little folly and
all that you have worked diligently hard at in seeking Elohim can be outweighed
by the folly of pride!
Our duty is to walk humbly before
Elohim and to walk as He walked – doing the will of Elohim. Let us be found to
always be holding on to humility and destroy all pride and be strong and brave
like those priests who stood firm for the truth, so that when He comes for us
He shall find active humble faith, aměn!
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