Daily Lift – August 13, 2019

Grace unto the Humble

Second Chronicles Twenty-Six tells us of the fifty-two-year reign of Uzziah, tenth king of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. But a boy of sixteen years of age when he ascended to the throne, he, like his father Amaziah before him, did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. As long as Uzziah sought the Lord, God made him to prosper. Eventually, however, Uzziah seems to have become conceited in his strength and success and took it upon himself to burn incense at the altar in the place of the priests. When Azariah and eighty other priests withstood the king for his trespass, he reacted angrily and was smitten of the Lord with leprosy. Uzziah died a leper, having been forced by his disease to turn the throne over to his son, Jotham. Peter and James concur that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Written by David Hayes Prophater