As I was reading the account of King Uzziah earlier today, I was reminded of this quote, "God permits what He hates in order to accomplish what He loves. I'm not sure who to give credit to for this quote, but I think I heard it from Charles Stanley. Now, you may be wondering, what or which account of Uzziah?
It's from 2 Chronicles 26, where Uzziah decides he's going to burn incense on the altar of incense. If you're not familiar with this story, it has some great instruction for us. To summarize, Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king and he did right in the sight of the LORD according to all that his father Amaziah had done. (per 2 Chr 26:3,4) However, after many years of success, he forgot his allegiance to his LORD. He forgot that God is the ultimate King, not him. This reminds me of King Nebuchadnezzar, also, although he wasn't a believer in the Most High before God humbled him to eating grass for seven years. He was afterward, though!
2 Chronicles 26 goes on in verse 16 to say, "But when he became strong, his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly, and he was unfaithful to the LORD his God, for he entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense." Long story short, because of this brazen act, Uzziah was struck with leprosy. Well, guess Who struck him with leprosy? The King he was subject to, but had forgotten he was subject to! You may think this is a rather severe punishment for an act you consider no big deal. Well, it was a big deal to God! He had previously set aside this act ONLY for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who were consecrated to burn incense. (per 2 Chr 26:18) Verse 21 tells us, 'King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death; and he lived in a separate house, being a leper, for he was cut off from the house of the LORD.' Now it's not recorded whether King Uzziah repented or not, but, we ALWAYS have those two choices when God disciplines us...we can repent and humble ourselves before Him or we can become bitter and blame Him for our act of rebellion, angry at Him for the consequences we have to suffer for our sin.
This reminds me of my mother. She had polio in her left arm as a child. She told me the doctor gave her a little red rubber ball to squeeze in order to regain strength and muscle tone in that arm. She told me, "But I didn't do it," with a sneer, like she was so smart to do other than what the doctor told her to do. Well, as an adult, guess who she blamed for having a left arm that was thinner and weaker than her right arm? You guessed it! She blamed the Lord! I told her one time that the Lord loved her and her response was, 'Then why did He give me THIS?' (referring to her left arm) She never took accountability for her own failure to follow the instruction the doctor gave her.
All this to say that God disciplines us for our own good, that we may repent and turn our heart humbly back to Him to be molded by His loving hand into what He designed us to be before the foundation of the world. So, the next time you think He is being harsh with you or another, remember the saying I quoted at the beginning: God permits what He hates in order to accomplish what He loves. And, you might ask yourself, 'Who is on the throne of my heart? Him? Or me?'
I've been reading Job lately and this fits into that as well. Although Job was not being disciplined, God did allow what he hated in that situation too.
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