King Uzziah

This article is not remotely a critique of any or a lack of appreciation for the great pastoral/evangelical works of the distant or recent past.  But as King Uzziah died … a renewed Prophet of God emerged. So …

Isaiah[6:1]  In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

Tozer wrote of his vision of a new prophet that will be very different from the norm.

“If Christianity is to receive a rejuvenation, it must be by other means than any now being used. If the Church in the second half of this century is to recover from the injuries she suffered in the first half, there must appear a new type of preacher. The proper, ruler-of-the-synagogue type will never do. Neither will the priestly type of man who carries out his duties, takes his pay and asks no questions, nor the smooth-talking pastoral type who knows how to make the Christian religion acceptable to everyone. All these have been tried and found wanting.

Another kind of religious leader must arise among us. He must be of the old prophet type, a man who has seen visions of God and has heard a voice from the Throne. When he comes (and I pray God there will be not one but many), he will stand in flat contradiction to everything our smirking, smooth civilization holds dear. He will contradict, denounce and protest in the name of God and will earn the hatred and opposition of a large segment of Christendom. Such a man is likely to be lean, rugged, blunt-spoken and a little bit angry with the world. He will love Christ and the souls of men to the point of willingness to die for the glory of the One and the salvation of the other. But he will fear nothing that breathes with mortal breath.

This is only to say that we need to have the gifts of the Spirit restored again to the Church. And it is my belief that the one gift we need most now is the gift of prophecy. “Of the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, their chiefs were two hundred” – 1 Chr 12:32. A prophet is one who knows his times and what God is trying to say to the people of his times….  Today we need prophetic preachers; not preachers of prophecy merely, but preachers with a gift of prophecy. The word of wisdom is missing. We need the gift of discernment again in our pulpits. It is not ability to predict that we need, but the anointed eye, the power of spiritual penetration and interpretation, the ability to appraise the religious scene as viewed from God’s position, and to tell us what is actually going on….

Where is the man who can see through the ticker tape and confetti to discover which way the parade is headed, why it started in the first place and, particularly, who is riding up front in the seat of honor?…What is needed desperately today is prophetic insight. Scholars can interpret the past; it takes prophets to interpret the present. Learning will enable a man to pass judgment on our yesterdays, but it requires a gift of clear seeing to pass sentence on our own day….”

Perhaps Tozer speaks of you…If you will let God truly reign…and let the dead King Uzziah remain buried.   Reflect on what a deceased King Uzziah could represent.  The fallen icons of Wall St, the dethroned pillars of  modern capitalism and disgraced princes, the leprous financial institutions, failures of promising well-meaning ambitions and legitimate dreams, exposed religious bigotry etc.  The death of Uzziah did not only serve to punish his errant habits. Perhaps when we cease mourning or analysing Uzziah’s death and look up to God, we will see differently and move forward.  The greatest value that was realised from ending Uzziah’s already leprous reign was not to correct Uzziah’s excesses but to enable Isaiah to enter His new call … i.e. recognising first his depravity and then the sin of the people, calling for repentance and prophesying of the coming salvation in the Messiah - Jesus Christ.   Reflect on this.  Jesus Christ is indeed coming back soon.   Who is the Prophet now freed to alert us of sin, identify and clean our stains by His blood, iron out the wrinkles on the bridal gown with the “hot” press of His word and thus make us fully ready for the coming Marriage?

Indeed in the more recent past, several tough social and ethical issues have been raised, debated and tackled but King Uzziah (though leprous) vowed to uphold his unassailable fortress and positions – and few dared an open challenge.  With King Uzziah dead – who will risk cosy mission field assignments, a sound reputation of a preacher, a promising future ministry career or a revered leadership position or place of influence only to be derided and isolated as a foolish ranting religious lunatic (not fanatic)?  Who will cause conviction by the Holy Spirit that the best of man today is as a foul rebel…thus demolishing all of King Uzziah’s previous strongholds? Who will lead us to confess as Isaiah did “Woe is me for I am undone”?

Lord, we pray for that gift of prophetic insight. Move us beyond the knowledge You’ve enabled us to gain through education, reading, and study. We  pray that we might lead as one who has seen visions of God and has heard a voice from the throne.  Amen.

Our God reigns – God bless you.

Bode

(Also see (side bar) two other recent previous posts related to King Uzziah)

Isaiah 6 [1] in the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

Luke 18[15] And they brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them: but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them. [16]  But Jesus called them unto him , and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. [17]  Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.

Isaiah at last received the touch he needed after being hindered by His vision of King Uzziah. Eventually King Uzziah died and Isaiah also saw the Lord and received a divine touch. He is now well commissioned and no more hindered.

In Luke 18, we see children being brought to receive a divine touch also hindered by Disciples who were not spirit filled. The Disciples were zealous followers of Jesus who were yet to be commissioned to go for Him.

Christ then declares to the adults that the Kingdom is a kingdom of children i.e. for those born-again in the spirit and warned that they also be as infants – filled with the spirit to enter. Otherwise, just like Isaiah before God’s commissioning, the Lord cannot fully reign in them and they (adult mentors) will only pollute the children’s destiny -  teaching with unclean lips as Isaiah confessed in  Isaiah 6[5]  Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips…

Who is the King Uzziah hindering the touch of God on our children? I mentioned a few of his manifestations in my previous post.  They include Focus on Human intellect and civil perfection that enthrones man and not God.  Also with Subtle deviations to God’s complete word – Man and no more the Holy Spirit – is enthroned in scripture interpretation and revisions of the Bible abound.

Whatever is on the throne reserved for God is King Uzziah.

Today the educational system is designed to fulfil what the world wants.  Teachers even in Christian schools may not be spirit-filled but rather well trained. Every age including the present post-modern age has defined its own ideal of society whether in terms of social, political and educational ideals.  The current Western world-view focuses on protecting the rights of the child first, government /society comes next and then the distrusted disenfranchised parent is left bewildered.  See example in article on Protests from parents.  God is also not in the reckoning and the Christian supernatural experience is derided as fables and openly discredited - replaced by a fascination with repackaged “friendly and entertaining” occultism. We are told our children are now being taught to be neutral until they can grow and chose their preferred channel to God, gender preference and almost everything else. But they really are being mind-washed to see God as irrelevant. This is the so called progress of the modern age.

The Christian Theo centric view is very different .  It focuses first (as in all things) on God, then the parent has a major role in educating children – before the child’s perspective. The government hardly features in the Bible equation.   See article on Principal bans Bible.

As a further illustration, in the Judaism/Islamic view, very early education is deliberately intensive in doctrine and character.  The result is that you do not need to tell a Muslim or Jewish bride to dress appropriately and cover herself well irrespective of latest more creative fashion trends. It is also unlikely that, in these cultures, the stranger social habits and fashions of today  (though not necessarily absent) will gain the sort of open ground as witnessed in the Western view.

I Corinthians 15:31, The Apostle Paul said “… I die daily”…. This means Paul is an infant everyday…by the help of the Holy Spirit…his spiritual age is under 1 day…a baby indeed – but a Spiritual titan…a true citizen of the Kingdom.  This is only how we can be infants – by daily dying to the flesh and its strongest ally – the world’s enlightened view.

Are our children being hindered by disciples who are at best zealots unable to cope with King Uzziah alive and finding it hard to see God?  Their virtuous words and wise admonitions can only be hindrances – their lips like Isaiah’s, can only be unclean.   Isaiah could not kill King Uzziah but God helped to bring his reign to a shameful end…God will help us.

Times of Recession, like in other times of shakings, are times to carefully examine the foundations.  What are children being taught about finances and debt? How do they learn contentment and living within the boundaries of God’s ethical and moral laws? How do we teach them they cannot and need not borrow to have what they cannot afford?

I spoke this morning to a group of teachers at a Christian school’s early devotion  – on the need to intercede more for education and the children not just in Nigeria but all over the world. Our prayer was for the  Lord Jesus once again to address every hindrance and obstruction in the way of children receiving His touch as He has done before.

Our God reigns.

Read more in Wealth out of Ashes. Also, for more reflections and related articles and free subscription to articles by the author please click icon below.

Bode

Isaiah 6 [1]  In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

I dare confess to my more spiritual mentors that I thoroughly enjoyed recently watching “One Night with the King” featuring great actors like Omar Sharif and Peter O’Toole.  One Night With the King is an epic motion picture set in an ancient and exotic world of gripping adventure, intrigue and romance, that follows a young beautiful Jewish orphan who rises from peasant to Queen of Persia only to face the annihilation of her people. The film had it all – beauty, morality, lavish wealth, fantastic dreams coming true, exciting and witty conversation, suspense, wisdom and intellect, joys and thrills, honour, courage, valour, music, art …and Queen Esther had it all. Can we not have it all ?… Read on. 

The most important part of the plot was when she suddenly found herself facing the loss of all her dreams and her life suddenly threatened by the unmatchable intrigue of Haman the Agagite. Her response was to risk it all for God. She breached a protocol that demanded her very life. Mordecai informs Esther that the Jews only hope is for her to risk her life and go before the King unsummoned (a crime punishable by death) to intercede for her people. It is then that Esther utters those fateful words that have rung through the centuries, “If I perish, I perish,” as she races off with one last chance to save her people.

Esther saw her “King Uzziah” dead as she obeyed God. This did not just save her from a tragic end, but ushered a greater wealth and eternal honour in the annals of the history of her people. The greatest lesson was not her achievement to emerge as royalty but her short speech ending in “…If I perish I perish”.  The perishing of “I” in Christ… is the end of Uzziah and the beginning of divine wealth…the treasured secret of all those who will see God’s Heaven.

The Apostle Paul said in I Corinthians 15:31(amp) [31] I assure you by the pride which I have in you in your  fellowship and union with Christ Jesus our Lord, that I die daily  – I face death every day and die to self.

King Uzziah will not be ignored and Isaiah could not help but see him and certainly could not kill him. The Lord will not reign in our finances or indeed in anything else until He has helped us to dethrone Uzziah. The end of Uzziah is the beginning of eternal and limitless possibilities in all spheres for God. Only a few categories are listed as follows – they all tend to revolve around “self” in different ways. Uzziah was a king who came to the throne at the age of 16…started well but ended badly. What are the manifestations of Uzziah – the bewitching attractions of the modern era?   

1. Human intellect and civil perfection producing great and “humble” well meaning performance imagined as pleasing to God. Humanism and traditions enslave the mind through corrupted education and media brainwashing. These are mental comforts that mask hidden ambitions and corruptions to enthrone man in all spheres even in the religious church and more so in the new so called post-church “free” movements now apparently emerging with new internet gurus.
2. Subtle deviations to God’s complete word – propagating new and more palliative truths, beliefs and thought bondage supernaturally supervised and upheld by invisible overpowering hierarchies of spiritual wickedness.  Man is enthroned in scripture interpretation and revisions abound to serve different thirsts and evil agenda.
3. Negative self promotion (thinking mankind is too bad for God‘s mercy and restoration) also enthrones man…opens channels for self-condemnation and Pharisaic accusation and silences divine compassion and intercession for revival.

Favour from men can be a bewitching culprit.  Ask another Queen, Ann Boleyn – one of the six wives of King Henry VIII described as “ a giddy woman of no stability of character, her success turned her head and caused her to behave with insolence and impropriety”  She did not have the help to say “if I perish I  perish” but nevertheless died a very involuntary and wicked death on Tower Green, her head being struck off with a sword by the executioner of Calais brought to England for the purpose.

The Holy Spirit is our helper and He helps us die daily. Without Uzziah’s death, Isaiah may have prophesied many things but not fulfilled his destiny. If Esther was not helped to see the dethronement of her dreams she would have surely ended up butchered sooner or later by the wicked schemes of Haman – not very different from Anne Boleyn.  If we do not go to the word of God and seek help from the Holy Spirit to die daily…wealth will become an executioner’s sword that studies all our passions and knows when best to strike.  With the help of the Holy Spirit, God helps us to die and then can freely give us what we can have…knowing it is for keeps…and He can very well decide not to…reserving a better resurrection.

As Esther lived the life of a peasant orphan, a queen in the palace and God’s heroine for all time.  Our life can also be seen in 3 segments.  First, before we knew Christ. Second, invitation into royalty as we surrender to Him and ultimately maturing into a life of daily death in Him. 

Let me end with a famous quote from my missionary friend, Sam Kputu. “The real danger of drifting from Christ and Biblical Christianity is not that we will struggle to come back; the real danger is that we end up creating new “truths”, new values, new targets and new pivots for our lives. And we even begin to celebrate and propagate them. “Read your Bible and pray every day, if you want to grow…” Remember that Sunday School rhyme?”

And another local saying from a speech by another Nigerian friend – Pat Utomi  - speaking on the difference between leadership and management and the inevitable outcomes of bad leadership or absence of leadership in any nation… I found a link to face book for the article…

“The King that was enthroned and the city flourished, we know him – while, the king that was enthroned and the city diminished, we also know him” Nigerian proverb.

I am a poor politician to suggest that we let the Holy Spirit lead. In Recession or in the best of times we can stop managing ourselves … and soon we will surely see the difference.

Read more in Wealth out of Ashes. Also, for more reflections and related articles and free subscription to articles by the author please click icon below.

Bode