Marvelously Helped Until He Was Strong

The story in 2 Chronicles 26 is chilling. Uzziah is King in Judah who originally “set himself to seek God” (2 Ch. 26:5). It says that “God helped him” (2 Ch. 26:7) in many amazing tasks as king. And as “long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper” (2 Ch. 26:5).

But there arose a problem. This next line is one of the most intense phrases in the Bible because it reveals so much concerning our oblivious nature to our true conditions.

It says that “he was marvelously helped until he was strong. But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction” (26:15-16).

That’s the problem with most Christians. We have been marvelously helped, and we continue to be marvelously helped UNTIL we become strong in our own eyes and we think we are somebody. We think we deserve something. We think we truly are significant. We begin to think that we can’t be replaced.

The moment we think we don’t need God is when we need Him most of all.

  • Never forget that all the good we have was received (1 Cor. 4:7).
  • We are mere jars of clay that possess God’s power (2 Cor. 4:7).
  • Even if we did everything commanded of us we are still only able to be called “worthless slaves” (Luke 17:10).
  • We don’t have anything we didn’t receive from heaven (John 3:27).
  • All things come from God (1 Ch. 29:14).
  • Anything good in us or around us comes from God (James 1:17).

God marvelously helps us. And at some point, we forget that truth.

Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple. -Barry Switzer

We begin to think we have arrived.  We deserve what we have.  And we neglect to thank God.  In those times, it is not beyond God to say, “So you think that you don’t need me and you can do it all on your own? Let’s see.  I won’t marvelously help you anymore.”

The tragedy is that most of us never see it. We never realize that God is the only good we have (Ps. 16:2).

And then we maintain a life that is utterly worthless as we try by our pathetic efforts to do something that matters only later to find out that the only time we ever amount to anything is when we are “marvelously helped.”

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. -Proverbs 16:18

Walk carefully.