Fatal Flaw

Pride personified: from Byron's Curse

How soon we forget.

Uzziah was sixteen when he became king of Judah (2 Chronicles 26:1). At an age when most people think they know everything, the young king was wise enough to know that such a responsibility needed better prepared heads than his. It is written that: "He sought God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God. As long as he sought the Lord, God gave him success" (26:5, NIV).

And he was successful. He enjoyed a fifty-two year reign. His enemies were defeated. He was wealthy and built up the wealth of the land. He was famous and became powerful.

Then these ominous words: "But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God…" (26:16, NIV). He desecrated the temple by assuming the role of a priest and burning incense on the altar. The priests rebuked him. At that point he should have repented. Instead, Uzziah got angry because of the rebuke. His pride got in the way.

The result?

"Uzziah, who had a censer in his hand ready to burn incense, became angry. 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…King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died. He lived in a separate house—leprous, and banned from the temple of the Lord" (26:19, 21, NIV).

The Catholic Church defines the seven deadly, or capital sins, as: anger, greed, laziness, pride, lust, envy and gluttony. That just about covers everything that trips us up in daily life, no matter how tastefully they might be disguised or how successful we are at justifying them.

Uzziah forgot the teachings of his youth. He forgot to fear God. He forgot that his success came from his relationship with God, from seeking God. He thought he didn't need God any longer and that he could break the rules with impunity and God couldn't touch him.

He made himself God.

Very bad move.

Pride can be a very subtle sin, sneaking up on us, and slowly tainting our lives. Perhaps that subtlety was the reason why David asked: "Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalm 139:23, 24, NIV).

We might not see the seeds of pride rooting themselves in our lives, but God will. To pray David's prayer is an excellent beginning if we want to prevent Uzziah's fatal flaw from appearing in our lives.