Doing Your Own Thing

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© God’s Breath Publications

 

We all have an internal desire to do our own thing. We want to choose the job we will work at for most of our life. We want to choose the person we will marry. We want to pursue hobbies, interests and recreational experiences that bring us pleasure. We want to have friends with whom we can have fun. We want to read books, view movies and listen to music that stimulate us. But we also realize there are limits as to what we can pursue when we want to do our own thing. Laws restrict our behavior and protect us and others as well. Social etiquette restricts our behavior when we are in public. Regulations limit how fast we drive, fly and bike as well as how we control the vehicles used in these activities.

 

These laws, regulations and limitations are set down to provide safe ways we can do what we want to do without hurting others or ourselves. When we break these laws and regulations there are penalties that must be paid. These punishments are meant to be a deterrent to breaking laws and to establish a respect for what common sense and experience shows to be wise and prudent.

 

We know that God laid down guidelines in scripture for proper godly behavior. In the Old Testament the ten commandments were given as a basic guideline for how to behave towards God and others. The Old Testament, in general, records God’s instructions to people in many situations as to how to live appropriately. It also records the consequences for disobeying God and failing to observe His commandments and instructions.

 

One example of specific instructions and commandments that God gave to His chosen people was the way that He was to be worshipped. These were not meaningless guidelines for the keeping of rituals. They were symbolic, truthful and meaningful instructions for the specific manner in which worship and praise of God should take place. God is pure and holy and the worship that was to be offered to Him was to be done by specific anointed priests and in a specific manner. In the Old Testament you were not allowed to “do your own thing” when worshipping the Lord because of who God was, what He deemed proper worship and whom He set down as those who were to offer worship. In 2 Chronicles we find a situation where someone decided to “do his own thing” and it brought some pretty tough consequences.

 

It states in 2 Chronicles 26, “Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-two years. His mother’s name was Jekoliah; she was from Jerusalem. He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Amaziah had done. He sought God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fearof God. As long as he sought the LORD, God gave him success.”

 

Sixteen is a rather young age to be appointed king over a nation, but God worked through King Uzziah because he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord due to the fact that he sought the Lord and feared Him. This chapter in 2 Chronicles continues with how God used Uzziah because he was dedicated to God. It says concerning King Uzziah,

 

“He went to war against the Philistines and broke down the walls of Gath, Jabneh and Ashdod. He then rebuilt towns near Ashdod and elsewhere among the Philistines. God helped him against the Philistines and against the Arabs who lived in Gur Baal and against the Meunites. The Ammonites brought tribute to Uzziah, and his fame spread as far as the border of Egypt, because he had become very powerful.”

 

So God gave King Uzziah victory in battle as well as fame because his power rested in his close relationship with the Lord. King Uzziah was achieving power and prominence because he placed God’s council and guidance first. He loved the Lord and sought to do what was right in the eyes of the Lord. 2 Chronicles continues with more successes of King Uzziah when it says,

 

“Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate and at the angle of the wall, and he fortified them. He also built towers in the wilderness and dug many cisterns, because he had much livestock in the foothills and in the plain. He had people working his fields and vineyards in the hills and in the fertile lands, for he loved the soil.”

 

Here we see that King Uzziah pursued many building projects to benefit not only himself but also those he ruled over. These pursuits protected the people of the land but also promoted agriculture and the raising of animals which provided food. He loved the country and what it could produce and pursued developing it for his own benefit and the benefit of others. It shows that God will bless you when you are obedient to His instructions and listen to His guidance. Sometimes this blessing will be in a physical or material way. As this chapter in Chronicles continues we see that the power of King Uzziah’s army expanded as well.

 

“Uzziah had a well-trained army, ready to go out by divisions according to their numbers as mustered by Jeiel the secretary and Maaseiah the officer under the direction of Hananiah, one of the royal officials. The total number of family leaders over the fighting men was 2,600. Under their command was an army of 307,500 men trained for war, a powerful force to support the king against his enemies. Uzziah provided shields, spears, helmets, coats of armor, bows and slingstones for the entire army. In Jerusalem he made devices invented for use on the towers and on the corner defenses so that soldiers could shoot arrows and hurl large stones from the walls. His fame spread far and wide, for he was greatly helped until he became powerful.”

 

God blesses King Uzziah with protection and power because of his close walk with the Lord and his trust in his Heavenly Father. King Uzziah honored God by obeying His instructions. But despite King Uzziah’s track record something went amiss. There is a saying, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” King Uzziah became drunk with his power and popularity and this led to the third “P” that can destroy anyone, “Pride.” In his pride he decided he was no longer bound by the rules and regulations for the worship of the Lord. He was going to “do his own thing” and worship God how he wanted and dishonor the manner that God had instructed worship of Him to take place.

 

“But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the LORD his God, and entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense. Azariah the priest with eighty other courageous priests of the LORD followed him in. They confronted King Uzziah and said, ‘It is not right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD. That is for the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who have been consecrated to burn incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful; and you will not be honored by the LORD God.’ Uzziah, who had a censer in his hand ready to burn incense, became angry.”

 

Anger is often a behavior we exhibit when we don’t get to do what we want to do, when we can’t do our own thing, and King Uzziah was very, very angry. Usually we lash out at innocent individuals who are simply trying to correct us or guide us in proper behavior. They wish to protect us from the consequences of our selfish thoughts and actions, but often their advice goes unheeded. King Uzziah was to reap a penalty for his prideful attitude and actions as 2 Chronicles describes in the next few verses.

 

“While he was raging at the priests in their presence before the incense altar in the LORD’s temple, leprosy broke out on his forehead. When Azariah the chief priest and all the other priests looked at him, they saw that he had leprosy on his forehead, so they hurried him out. Indeed, he himself was eager to leave, because the LORD had afflicted him.”

 

Because King Uzziah broke the rules God had laid down for worship, a penalty must be paid and in this case King Uzziah was cursed with leprosy. 2 Chronicles continues with a description of King Uzziah’s life after this act of rebellious sin.

 

“King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died. He lived in a separate house—leprous, and banned from the temple of the LORD. Jotham his son had charge of the palace and governed the people of the land.”

 

Possibly you are thinking, How sad for such a thing to happen. King Uzziah had served God for many years and been blessed for so long, why would God punish him so severely and for so long? The answers are several. First, God is so pure and holy that He must be worshipped in a specific manner. When this form of worship was violated it was a most serious disrespect for the holiness of God and demanded a very harsh punishment. This demonstrates to us today just how holy God is and possibly how inadequate our perceptions are of His purity. While we are no longer living under a structure where only specific priests can worship the Lord (Hebrews 9), do we come flippantly to church on Sunday to worship God? Do we come on Sundays with a deep sense of awe and respect to our worship services to give glory to God? Do we come to offer God our praise and worship with humble enthusiasm and spiritual desire or do we come to be entertained by the worship team? Secondly, God demands respect for His instruction and when this is rebelled against there are consequences. This again establishes the importance of our obedience to God’s Word and its instruction as well as our necessity to listen to counsel from the Holy Spirit and wise Christians. Thirdly, we do not know if King Uzziah was repentant. We see no account that he repented of his actions and possibly this was the reason he continued to be afflicted with leprosy. Possibly he resented God for the chastisement and was bitter towards God the rest of his life. We do know that Proverbs 16:18 states that “pride goes before destruction” and this is exactly what happened in Uzziah’s case. This also serves to point out to us the necessity for repentance when we have disobeyed the Lord. It is bad when we go against God’s Word, but it is even worse when in our pride we refuse to repent and ask for forgiveness for our sins against Him.

 

While we live under grace now because of the work of Jesus Christ, we still benefit from the laws and instructions of the Old Testament for Jesus did not come to do away with the law but to fulfill it. The laws of the Old Testament were meant to convict us of our sin because we can never completely obey all of them perfectly. The examples of men and women recorded in the Old Testament serve as examples of how God deals with people and are helpful in our Christian life to encourage us to honor and obey God all through our life in all situations. In many ways, Jesus set a higher standard for living a godly life because while the law focused mostly on outward behaviors, Jesus went deeper and addressed the internal thoughts and attitudes behind our outward actions (Matthew 5, 15).

 

If there is one lesson we must learn from King Uzziah’s experience in the temple it would be to respect the holiness of God and worship Him in the manner He wishes to be worshipped. What is that you might ask? In John 4:24 Jesus says that we need to worship God in spirit and in truth. This means we must be about the business of obeying God through the week, staying in close fellowship with Him and keeping short accounts of our sins with our Savior. Then we can come to church and worship Him in spirit and in truth. We should come to worship on Sunday with a submissive heart desiring to praise God, honor Him for all that He has done for us through the week and respect His holiness by offering Him our lives that are a sacrifice of praise to Him (Romans 12:1). Even if we have a relationship issue with someone we are to resolve that before we come to worship God (Matthew 5:23-24) for this dysfunction can taint our praise of our Heavenly Father. Let us worship God in spirit and truth in a pure and holy fashion. He not only deserves it, He demands it.

 

“Let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”

Hebrews 12:28-29