“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
2 Timothy 4:7
King Uzziah messed up. He started out strong, doing what was right in the eyes of the LORD (2 Kings 15:3) 2 Chronicles 26:15 tells us that “his fame spread far, for he was marvelously helped, till he was strong.”
How unfortunate that Uzziah’s strength became his very weakness. “But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the LORD his God and entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense” (2 Chronicles 26:16).
Uzziah’s pride led to his downfall. “With a lofty feeling of his power, Uzziah wished to make himself high priest of his kingdom.” 1
Proverbs 16:18 cautions, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling” which is precisely what happened to Uzziah. When he entered the temple to burn incense a role reserved for the priesthood – God struck him with leprosy. Uzziah was driven from the temple and from the palace.
There is grave danger in stepping outside our God-given calling and into a role God has not anointed us to. The moment we do, we run the risk of destroying all we set out to attain.
Like Uzziah, many start out strong but not all finish well. May we humble ourselves before the LORD and keep our focus on our divine calling so that, like Paul, we might say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
1 Keil and Delitzsch OT Commentary, https://biblehub.com/commentaries/kad/2_chronicles/26.htm
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