The Intoxication of Strength Text: 2 Chronicles 26:6-15
Introduction: The Poison in the Blessing
We live in a world that worships at the altar of strength. Success is the great idol of our age, and it does not matter how you get it, only that you do. Our culture is infatuated with the self-made man, the titan of industry, the celebrity, the winner. But the Scriptures have a very different, and far more sober, assessment of human strength. The Bible teaches us to be far more terrified of success than we are of failure. Failure might teach a man humility. Failure might drive a man to his knees. But success, ah, success whispers in a man's ear that he is a god. And that is a lie from the pit of Hell.
The story of King Uzziah is a tale of two acts. The first act, which we have before us today, is a stunning highlight reel of God-given triumph. It is victory after victory, building project after building project, invention after invention. Uzziah is the model king, the man with the Midas touch. Everything he does prospers. But this entire glorious account is written with a sense of tragic foreshadowing. It is the story of a man being lifted up to a great height, and the narrator wants us to hold our breath, because we know that the higher a man climbs, the more devastating the fall.
This passage is a clinical description of what happens when God's blessings are received without the necessary ballast of profound, God-fearing humility. It shows us that God's help is not an end in itself. God's help is a test. What will you do with the strength He gives you? Will you use it to serve Him, to acknowledge Him, to glorify Him? Or will you, like Uzziah, begin to read your own press clippings? Will you start to believe the hype? Will you look at the towers and the armies and the fame and say within your heart, "My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth"? That is the poison in the blessing, and Uzziah drank it down to the dregs.
We must therefore read this account of Uzziah's strength not as a goal to be emulated, but as a warning to be heeded. This is the anatomy of a downfall, and the autopsy begins when the patient is still the picture of health.
The Text
Then he went out and fought against the Philistines, and broke down the wall of Gath and the wall of Jabneh and the wall of Ashdod; and he built cities in the area of Ashdod and among the Philistines. And God helped him against the Philistines, and against the Arabians who lived in Gur-baal, and the Meunites. The Ammonites also gave tribute to Uzziah, and his fame extended to the border of Egypt, for he became very strong. Moreover, Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate and at the Valley Gate and at the corner buttress and strengthened them. He also built towers in the wilderness and hewed many cisterns, for he had much livestock, both in the Shephelah and in the plain. He also had plowmen and vinedressers in the hill country and the fertile fields, for he loved the soil. Moreover, Uzziah had a military force which could wage war, which went out for military duty by divisions according to the number of their muster, prepared by the hand of Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the officer, under the hand of Hananiah, one of the king’s officials. The total number of the heads of the households, of mighty men of valor, was 2,600. And under their hand was a mighty army of 307,500, who could wage war with mighty power, to help the king against the enemy. Moreover, Uzziah prepared for all the army shields, spears, helmets, body armor, bows, and stones for sling. In Jerusalem he also made devices of war devised by skillful designers to be on the towers and on the corners for the purpose of shooting arrows and great stones. Hence his fame spread afar, for he was marvelously helped until he was strong.
(2 Chronicles 26:6-15 LSB)
God's Marvelous Help (vv. 6-8)
The first thing we must establish is the source of all this success. The text is not subtle about it.
"Then he went out and fought against the Philistines... And God helped him... his fame extended to the border of Egypt, for he became very strong." (2 Chronicles 26:6-8)
Uzziah's victories are not attributed to his brilliant military strategy or the courage of his soldiers, though he may have had both. The credit is laid squarely at the feet of God. "And God helped him." This is the engine driving the entire narrative. This is covenantal blessing. The previous verse tells us that "as long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper" (2 Chron. 26:5). This is the Deuteronomic principle in action. When the king is faithful to the covenant, seeking the Lord, God grants him victory over his enemies.
He breaks down the walls of the Philistines, a perennial thorn in Israel's side. He subdues the Arabians and the Meunites. The Ammonites, rather than fighting, simply pay him tribute. His sphere of influence expands all the way to Egypt. He becomes, in the eyes of the world, "very strong." But we, the readers, are let in on the secret. His strength is a borrowed strength. His victories are gifted victories. He is not a self-made man; he is a God-made man.
This is the foundational truth for every Christian. Any strength we have, any success we achieve, any victory we win over sin, is not our own doing. It is the grace of God at work in us. We are all recipients of marvelous help. The moment we forget this, the moment we begin to think that our piety, our wisdom, or our effort is the ultimate cause of our blessing, is the moment we step onto the same path as Uzziah. We start to believe we are strong, when in fact we are simply being helped.
The Edifice of Power (vv. 9-10)
With victory comes the spoils of war and the security of peace. Uzziah immediately puts these resources to work, embarking on a massive building campaign.
"Moreover, Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem... He also built towers in the wilderness and hewed many cisterns... for he loved the soil." (2 Chronicles 26:9-10 LSB)
This is what godly dominion looks like, on the surface. He fortifies Jerusalem, securing the city of God. He builds towers in the wilderness, protecting his people and their economic resources. He digs cisterns, providing water for his vast herds of livestock. He cultivates the land, overseeing plowmen and vinedressers. The text gives us a wonderful detail: "for he loved the soil." This is a picture of a king who is not an abstract ruler, but a man grounded in the stuff of creation. He is a good steward of the land God has given him.
There is nothing inherently sinful here. In fact, this is all commendable. He is building, cultivating, and ordering the kingdom. This is the cultural mandate in action. But these very things, these visible, tangible symbols of his success, become a snare. The prophet Isaiah, who began his ministry in the year Uzziah died, later prophesied against these very things. "For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty... And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall" (Isaiah 2:12, 15). The towers Uzziah built as a sign of God's blessing would become a symbol of Judah's arrogant self-reliance, the very thing God would have to judge.
The good gifts of God can become the most dangerous idols, precisely because they are good. A strong family, a successful business, a thriving church, these are all good things. But they can become towers that we build, fortresses where we place our trust, instead of in the living God who gave them to us.
The Apparatus of Strength (vv. 11-15)
The account of Uzziah's rise culminates in a detailed description of his military machine. The Chronicler wants us to be impressed, and to be concerned.
"Moreover, Uzziah had a military force... a mighty army of 307,500... Uzziah prepared for all the army shields, spears, helmets, body armor, bows, and stones for sling. In Jerusalem he also made devices of war devised by skillful designers..." (2 Chronicles 26:11-15 LSB)
The numbers are staggering. A professional officer corps of 2,600 mighty men of valor, leading an army of 307,500. This is a massive, well-organized, and well-equipped fighting force. Uzziah does not just rely on numbers; he is an innovator. He commissions "skillful designers" to create new weapons, engines of war to be mounted on his new towers to shoot arrows and great stones. He is on the cutting edge of military technology.
And all of this leads to the climax of the section: "Hence his fame spread afar, for he was marvelously helped until he was strong." This last clause is one of the most tragic and insightful phrases in all of Scripture. "He was marvelously helped until he was strong." Think about that. God's help was the scaffolding that built the edifice of Uzziah's strength. But once the building was complete, Uzziah admired the building and forgot all about the scaffolding. He stopped thinking of himself as a man who was "marvelously helped" and started thinking of himself as a man who was "strong."
He made the fatal transfer of trust. He began to trust in the apparatus of strength, in the army of 307,500, in the innovative war machines, in the high towers, instead of in the God who gave it all to him. The gift replaced the Giver in his heart. The feeling of strength is an intoxicating anesthetic. It numbs you to your own creaturely dependence. Uzziah was at his most vulnerable, not when he was weak and facing the Philistines, but when he was strong and admired by the world.
Conclusion: Until He Was Strong
This passage is the "before" picture. The very next verse gives us the "after." "But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction..." (2 Chron. 26:16). His strength led directly to pride, and his pride led directly to his downfall, where he presumed to enter the temple and offer incense, usurping the office of the priests. He confused the strength God gave him in his own sphere with an authority God had not given him in another.
This is the constant temptation of man, and particularly of successful Christian men. We are marvelously helped in our business, so we think we know how to run the church. We are marvelously helped in our parenting, so we think we can disregard the wisdom of our elders. We are marvelously helped in our studies, so we begin to trust our own intellect more than the plain reading of Scripture. We are helped, until we feel strong. And then, in our strength, we overstep. We disregard the boundaries God has established. We think our success in one area gives us a pass in another.
The warning of Moses to Israel as they were about to enter the promised land rings in our ears: "Beware lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.' You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth" (Deuteronomy 8:17-18). Uzziah forgot. He looked at his full hands and forgot the one who filled them.
The gospel provides the only permanent antidote to this poison of pride. The gospel tells us that our ultimate strength is found in an act of ultimate weakness. Our salvation was secured not by a king in his strength, building towers, but by a King in his weakness, hanging on a cross. Jesus Christ, the one who possessed all power and authority, did not grasp it for himself, but emptied himself (Philippians 2:6-8). He is the king who was "marvelously helped" by His Father, even through the agony of the crucifixion, and He never for a moment forgot the source of His strength.
Therefore, our security is not in the towers we build or the armies we muster. Our security is in our union with this humble King. True Christian strength is not the feeling of competence and power. True Christian strength is a constant, moment-by-moment, desperate reliance on the grace of God. It is to know, deep in your bones, that you are not strong, but are merely, and marvelously, helped. May God give us the grace to remember this, especially in those moments when He blesses us with success.