Has your heart become hard and impenetrable? Have you allowed it to grow natural fruit that might have grown before you trusted the Lord? Has your life become about you, rather than being about the Saviour? Are you willing to allow the word of God to break up your fallow ground?
Uzziah was a great king and was greatly blessed of the Lord. At the peak of his strength, he began to trust in himself. His strength led to his fall. It is often in times of perceived strength that saints of God become most vulnerable.
We are to care for our brothers and sisters in the Lord. No man is an island (Romans 14:7). We are to bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2). Certainly, we are not to take financial advantage of other in their times of need.
These chapters look prophetically to the day of the Lord. This will be a day when God will come in wrath and will judge the wicked. However, all is not lost. Those who fear the Lord will be remembered and will be spared. To them, the Sun of righteousness will rise will healing and will care for them as calves that are brought up in the stall. In closing, they are told to look backward to the law of Moses and forward to the coming of Elijah as the herald of the day of the Lord and the Messianic Kingdom to follow.
A need broke the heart of Nehemiah. Others saw the problem, but he sought a solution from God with all his heart. Because of his broken heart and because of his willingness to be a part of the solution, the Lord sent him to bring about the solution. We have much to learn from this lesson.
