There are lessons that we can glean from a certain Old Testament character in history, and that would be King Uzziah. Not many people are probably familiar with King Uzziah and the particulars of his life. It is not easy once you get past Saul, David, and then Solomon, and then we start to kind of maybe lose track of some of the names. Then the kingdom was split with Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, and Israel to the north had ten tribes and Judah and Benjamin were to the south.
There were different kings running simultaneously through a lot of this Old Testament history, but have you ever thought to yourself, “How can I learn things?” Well, we can go to books and we do—we are back to school now in September. A lot of us are either in school or went to school and however many years that you did, you can remember that there are a lot of things to gain from books.
When we look at the Bible, we can understand a whole lot. In this particular instance today, our study is going to be focused on lessons from a person’s life—King Uzziah. A couple of things happened with him and if we can learn from these things, we will just be better off.
I remember when I was back in college in a particular class; it was either a psychology class or a philosophy class. We had a topic that we had to pick and write about. We had to do a long essay. It was the question, “What is wisdom?” It was interesting, “What is wisdom?” This was a regular public college. There was no religious emphasis to it at all. I remember what I wrote. I had to pick a thesis or a theme phrase or sentence. Mine was, “Wisdom is someone who learns from the mistakes of others and does not repeat them himself.”
Why would that be wisdom? Well, back then when I was in college, I thought that if I did not repeat my mistakes, I would be better off. For instance, let us take an easy one. If someone smokes their whole life and let us say that it is your grandfather in your family, so he dies of lung cancer. It is a very difficult death at the end of his life, as he suffers with emphysema and lung cancer, and he finally dies. You might learn from this and say, “Well, I am not going to smoke then.” You will avoid the consequence of lung cancer, most likely.
So you see the benefit of learning from others’ mistakes and not repeating them yourself. But how many of us do this? Do not so many of us have to learn through “the school of hard knocks,” as they call it? We have to do it ourselves. Then we learn, finally, “Okay, my mom and dad were right the whole time, but I had to learn the hard way. I had to do it myself.”
The problem with this way of learning is that we suffer consequences because of it, just like someone else. Why go through all of it? We are living in a superior vantage point in history today. We can look back on what others have done that has been wrong, as well as those things that have worked out and have been good—hence the reason to take a particular look and emphasis this morning on King Uzziah, because there were a lot of good things that happened in this king’s life.
There were wonderful things that happened in his life, yet there were a couple of things that messed things up. These are very salient lessons, I believe, for people, for us here today, to learn. Let us take a peek at a little piece of his life. We read in 2 Chronicles 26:1-15:
Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the room of his father Amaziah. He built Eloth, and restored it to Judah, after that the king slept with his fathers. Sixteen years old was Uzziah when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah did. And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper. And he went forth and warred against the Philistines, and brake down the wall of Gath, and the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod, and built cities about Ashdod, and among the Philistines. And God helped him against the Philistines, and against the Arabians that dwelt in Gurbaal, and the Mehunims. And the Ammonites gave gifts to Uzziah: and his name spread abroad even to the entering in of Egypt; for he strengthened himself exceedingly. Moreover Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the corner gate, and at the valley gate, and at the turning of the wall, and fortified them. Also he built towers in the desert, and digged many wells: for he had much cattle, both in the low country, and in the plains: husbandmen also, and vine dressers in the mountains, and in Carmel: for he loved husbandry.
For someone who does not know what the word “husbandry” means, it means “farming.”
Moreover Uzziah had an host of fighting men, that went out to war by bands, according to the number of their account by the hand of Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the ruler, under the hand of Hananiah, one of the king’s captains. The whole number of the chief of the fathers of the mighty men of valour were two thousand and six hundred. And under their hand was an army, three hundred thousand and seven thousand and five hundred, that made war with mighty power, to help the king against the enemy. And Uzziah prepared for them throughout all the host shields, and spears, and helmets, and habergeons, and bows, and slings to cast stones. And he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal. And his name spread far abroad; for he was marvellously helped, till he was strong.
So far, it sounds like I have read wonderful things about Uzziah, have I not? Fifty-two years is a long reign for a king or a president. That is a long, long time, but he started young, at age 16. But there are some very specific verses here, and here is the lesson that we want to learn, because my whole point today is that there are lessons to be gleaned from King Uzziah’s life that can help you and me. When I go back into the world tomorrow or when I go back home this afternoon, I can immediately begin to apply them.
Here is where we are going to pick up some particular verses that teach us a huge lesson. It is an elementary lesson but it is a strong one, because it applies throughout the human race. I think whether you are in the Lord and you are strong and a faithful believer or whether you are someone who is not even saved, there are incredible lessons here that apply to both.
Let us start in 2 Chronicles 26:5. The Bible says here, as we read earlier, and this is about Uzziah:
And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper.
What is the simple lesson here? It is a pretty easy one. If you do “A,” “B” will result. What is the “A”? He put God first—“as long as he sought the LORD.” What does seeking the Lord mean?
(Someone from the congregation responds, “To find Him.”)
You hope to find Him, but seeking Him means that you are studying about God. You are seeking after Him through prayer. You are asking for mercy. You are asking for understanding. You are reading the Bible. You are studying the Bible, because this is how you find out about God.
Are you going to find out more about God by a dream at night that you might have? No, this is not how it is going to happen. We understand how things come today concerning knowledge about God. It is through the Word. It is all here between the front and the back cover of the Bible.
So here with Uzziah, “as long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper.” What was the condition on this prospering? This was a conditional prosperity. This was not just going to happen all of the time because he was a good-looking man or something. Why? It is right here in the verse. “As long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper.” He was only going to prosper “as long as he sought the LORD” and tried to walk in His ways.
Do you see this? This is a big one. This is a big point to gain from this, because the issue is that as long as I am seeking the Lord, I am following the Lord, I am pursuing godliness through studying the Scriptures and trying to apply them to my life, there is going to be prosperity. This is not necessarily physically, though it could be. It could be material prosperity. It may not be, but I am certainly going to prosper spiritually. There is no doubt about this.
You could be someone in jail or in a nursing home and you could be the happiest person in your neighborhood. Have you ever seen someone in one of these two places that are joyful and happy? You wonder to yourself, “How can they be?” It is because they are prospering, at least emotionally, spiritually—one would expect or hope. You see, this is what it means here. Well, if I say that we have to learn from the example of others, in this case, this is a positive takeaway.
The Bible says this a lot in the Scriptures—as long as you do “X,” “Y” will result. As long as you follow the Lord and as long as you obey Him, you will prosper. God gives this promise over and over again, even in Deuteronomy to the Israelites as a nation. But here, it particularly talks about Uzziah.
Does anyone know the story of Uzziah? Did this continue? Remember, he was sixteen when he took the throne, and then he reigned for 52 years.
(Paul from the congregation responds and talks about some of the egregious errors that Uzziah made.)
I will call it “protocol” that was set up in the Law of Moses about who was supposed to do what in the temple of God. So, yes, he did not stay the course, fully, when he should have known better. He did not have fifty-two full years of just wonderful bliss. This was because of what we see in 2 Chronicles 26:5:
…as long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper.
Let us see here. When you are strong and filled with good—let us say that you have plenty to eat every day, you have lots of money and a good job, you have health, you have physically good looks, a “fair countenance” as the Bible calls it, and everything is going for you—what is the common trap for human beings? What happens when you get like this? Pride—pride can build in. What else comes of this? Pay attention, especially young people, pay attention here. What happens?
Once that pride begins to build, you start to think, “Boy, I am so good-looking.” “I am so successful at work or school.” “I am at the top of my class and I get A’s all of the time.” “I am the captain of my team, whatever it might be.” “I have an excellent talent in music or in some other hobby.”
(Gary from the congregation responds.)
Well, conceit follows pride—yes, because conceit means that now we think that we had something to do with it. I do not really know; honor is maybe something that is bestowed upon you by others. But I think that the real trap is when you are filled and when you have plenty, what happens is that you typically then not only have pride and get conceited (and it is easy to happen), but then you start to forget God. Yes, you forget God, because then you think that you are the one who is in charge of it.
“I work out three, four, five days a week and this is why I am so strong or pretty or handsome,” whatever the case may be. “I am so smart at work and this is why I have nice things.” “I have a nice home.” “I have a nice wife or a nice husband.” “I have beautiful children.” Whatever the case may be, I start to think that I am the one in charge of it.
Unfortunately, Uzziah had this happen to him, because he was only sixteen years old and all of this great stuff was happening. Guess what? The hardest thing when you are on the top of the mountain, whether it is in sports or in life, what happens? The hardest thing when you reach the top is to stay there, because typically then, you are right Gary, you start to go down. It is a lot easier to fall than it is to stay on top.
How many people in professional sports, let us say, can stay at the top of their game for year after year after year, whether it is a team or an individual? It is not easy. This does not happen that often, because pride sets in. Pride sets in and a lot of times we start to forget what got us there, which is humility and trusting God. It may have been hard work. Maybe you kind of give up on some of this, but what did the Bible say about Uzziah?
…as long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper.
What is some of the hard work that he could have put in? Maybe he was seeking the Lord through the priests, as they understood the Word of God…the Levites…the Word of God itself…reading it…studying it…asking for more and more lessons.
Jehoshaphat was a great king who told the priestly line to go throughout the whole land of Judah and teach the people the Word of God—just keep teaching the Word of God. What an excellent mandate from a king! There is a king who had the right idea.
Uzziah was sixteen and things were going great. God had made all of these beautiful things happen, as we began to read in 2 Chronicles 26. But then, it started to slip away—a little bit and a little bit and a little bit—because of what I am going to call pride, conceit, and forgetting God, which means that he was not seeking God.
Do you know the easiest way to start slipping up in your own life? Do not read the Word every day.
How many of you go a whole day and fast without food—anyone done one of those lately? Okay, one person. Alright, well congratulations for the health benefits that you get from doing this. But it is very uncommon for us.
However with the Word of God, how many of you, in the last seven days of the prior week, since Labor Day, have not missed a day of reading the Bible? Hopefully everyone, but I have a guess, if I had to, that there are going to be five or ten people, maybe fifteen in the audience perhaps, maybe from those listening, who maybe on Thursday or Friday did not open the Word of God. Maybe three days in a row, you did not open up the Word of God. This is a problem because if you are not opening up the Word of God every day, you are not seeking the Lord and you are not going to prosper, spiritually, most particularly.
Let us look at 2 Chronicles 26:16 to see what happens:
But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the LORD his God, and went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense upon the altar of incense.
What did he do here? We see that “his heart was lifted up,” because “when he was strong” and he had all of this adulation from people, those subject to him in the nation of Judah, what happened? He got strong and he got lifted up. Then he thought, “Well, is it only for the priest to burn incense? After all, I am the king and even those priests are subject to me, so what is wrong with me burning incense, too?”
This was pride. He did not think that he needed to follow God’s Law to the very letter, to the very letter! Is that not the problem in society today? Yes—situation ethics, situation morality.
If God’s Word says “X,” then I want to do “X.” I do not want to do “X” minus anything, yet this is what we see today. This is what we see, over and over. Society wants to do away with…you are called a “Bible thumper” or a “fundamentalist,” if you believe in every precept, law, commandment, and statute of the Lord, and this is the tough part.
Let me go to the book of Hosea and show this same theme popping up again in the Scriptures, to learn this lesson a little bit more. Hosea is right after Daniel. In Hosea 13:5-6, we read:
I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted…
Did you see that? I stopped here. What happened? “They were filled.” They had beautiful food and livestock. Their houses were probably plush. But as soon as that happened, what happened here? It continues:
…their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.
You see, here is the trap. When things are going well, the house is well, my wife is well, my husband is well, the kids are well, the food store and my ability to bring in all kinds of wonderful creative new dishes during the week and these great luscious foods, and again, my body, my health, my exercise, whatever it might be, the money from my job, everything is well. This is the trap that you have to be wary of, because:
…their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.
Do you see this in Hosea 13:6? Therefore, they forgot God.
What did God do? We read in Hosea 13:7-8:
Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them: I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps...
This is not pleasant language. I mean I am frightened enough walking home from the train everyday because of this huge dog that sometimes is chained up and sometimes is not chained up in one of the houses along the road that I pass. When he barks a loud bark, I jump. Even though I go by him every day, it still shocks me.
Imagine a bear meeting you that has been robbed of her young. This is what God says here. Do you know what is going to happen? If you forget God, this is what God is going to do to you. This is how God is going to be to you. No longer is He going to be the One prospering you, making all things well. Now, all of a sudden, there are going to be a lot of problems. There is going to be the wrath of God turned on you.
How about another example of the same theme? Things are good, you get lifted up, and you forget God. Then all of a sudden, it turns upside down and you have problems. In the book of Proverbs, we think that Solomon wrote every Proverb, but Proverbs 30 and Proverbs 31 have different authors, unless “Agur the son of Jakeh” is another name for Solomon. I looked at a lot of different things here. Some commentaries think that he was a sage back in Israel’s day. Maybe some people think that it was another name for Solomon, but I do not know myself. Either way, Agur says in some great verses here in Proverbs 30:7-9:
Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die…
Here are the two things:
…remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me…
Here is the why:
…lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.
You might remember that here on the east coast, just a week or two ago—this was, of course, in the news and if you work with a lot of people, I am sure that this was a big story—this lottery was up to like, I do not know, 300 million dollars or something. Do you know what the problem is with people winning this? Let us say that you won 240 million dollars. Aside from the fact that this is not the right thing to do, I will not get into this, but just the fact that you were given 240 million dollars, however which way you slice it, this is what Agur says here. What happens?
Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD?...
Is this not very common? Wealthy people, typically they are trapped with wealth. This does not mean that if you are wealthy, you can not be a child of God, but the trap with wealth is that you do not feel that you need God. You think that it is all of you. This is the trouble with it, so do not let this ever get carried away in your own life and in your own mind.
This is a great lesson here. This is why Agur said to not give him poverty nor riches either, to just give him food that was convenient for him. Just enough is all he needed because he knew that if he had too much, he would likely forget about God. He was wise enough, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to say these wonderful words, because what happens? What happens is that it backfires.
Look at Proverbs 18:12:
Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility.
This is what we see over and over again. When we have all of this good and plenty, we get haughty and we get proud and we get lifted up and conceited, but destruction happens. This is always the case:
Before destruction the heart of man is haughty…
I will give you a personal example in my life. When I was a kid, if you remember in boxing, Mohammed Ali, formerly Cassius Clay, he was the boxing champion. He is probably regarded as maybe the best boxer of all time. What was he known for, other than being a great boxer? (Tom got it right.) He had quite a mouth on him. He was very conceited, but he was very eloquent. When he talked about himself, wow, he made himself sound great. His famous line was, “I am the greatest of all time.” If you remember this in his day, you heard this over and over again.
A lot of people liked this for whatever reason, but what happened? He is alive today, but we have not heard from him in at least fifteen years. What is wrong? He has Parkinson’s disease. God struck him. As far as being in the public eye, he was very proud. He was very proud and God struck him.
When you have Parkinson’s disease, what happens? You shake and you can not talk. It is unfortunate when you see him in public today, he is shaking so hard that he can barely walk, and it is sad.
Before destruction the heart of man is haughty…
Do you see the lesson? This is what happened with Uzziah. He got lifted up. All of this great stuff was happening, and he began to think that it was because of himself. So he thought that he could then go and burn incense himself instead of obeying God’s Law which stipulated that it was only for the priests to do. Do you see what happened? He then had a lot of problems because God turned on him.
Let us go back to Hosea where we were earlier. Actually, let us go back to 2 Chronicles 26, because we want to pick up Uzziah and what happened with him. We know what happened with the Israelites when they turned. Remember, God said that he was going to be like a bear robbed of her whelps. He turned His wrath on them in Hosea, but let us pick up what happened to Uzziah. 2 Chronicles 26:16 said:
But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the LORD his God, and went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense upon the altar of incense.
Then it says in 2 Chronicles 26:17-19:
And Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him fourscore priests of the LORD, that were valiant men: and they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him, It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the LORD, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honour from the LORD God. Then Uzziah was…
Was he repentant? No! His heart was still lifted up. Then we read in 2 Chronicles 26:19-20:
Then Uzziah was wroth, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense: and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the LORD, from beside the incense altar. And Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked upon him, and, behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out from thence; yea, himself hasted also to go out, because the LORD had smitten him.
Do you see what happened? Here is the lesson. When things are well, when you are strong and you are filled and everything is going great, the trap is that you can fall into believing that it is because of you and that you do not need the Lord. You stop reading the Word every day and you stop seeking the Lord on a regular basis. You are not humble before Him, and all of a sudden, God turns on you. With Uzziah, He struck him with leprosy. This is because in Numbers 4 and 16, we see the Law that only the priests were to burn incense, so this was the problem. God did not take this lightly at all.
Now let me turn this to someone who is spiritually walking with the Lord, someone who is fervently an ambassador of God. Here is the trap that can happen with them. I talked about the physical stuff earlier, but here is the spiritual takeaway.
What is the trap that I can fall into if I am the—I will just use this phrase, not that this exists—but I am the number one missionary and soldier for Jesus Christ in my area? Let us say that, at least, I think I am. What is the trap that I can fall into if I have this attitude? I am out there. I pass tracts out. I share the Gospel with everybody that I meet. I talk about God all the time with my family and with people that I meet on the street and with people that I work with.
What happens is that I can become judgmental. I begin to judge others. I can look around and say that so and so is not as good as I am. I am so strong in the Lord. What is wrong with Gary over here? How come he can not keep up with me in my missionary work or in my abilities to be a faithful ambassador and servant for Jesus Christ?
This is an easy trap to fall into and this is why I want us to learn the spiritual takeaway, as well as physically what can happen with prosperity. If I am doing great spiritually and I forget that it is God who gave me the strength to do this, the voice to speak it to my friends and family and neighbors, the wherewithal to be a missionary, whatever I am doing for God, whatever I am giving to others, my money, whatever it is, I might get lifted up and think, “You know what? It is because of me.” Then I start judging other people and wondering why they can not do the things that I can do. The attitude is, “It is too bad that you are not like me.”
Guess what is going to happen to you if you are in that boat—the same thing. God is going to turn on you, just like we read here with Uzziah. I mean, it was a pretty minor infraction. He just burned some incense on an altar. It was seemingly minor.
You see? This is what I want you to take away today. Humility, we have to remain humble. We all have to remain humble, no matter how strong or weak we are. If we think that we are saved, we need to be compassionate towards everyone else and be patient with everyone else—in our families or with those that we are neighbors with or our own friends that we are in fellowship with.
Let us finish this lesson with another spiritual takeaway. Uzziah particularly had the transgression with burning incense. What is incense a picture of in the Bible? It is a picture of prayer. Let us turn to Psalm 141 to prove this. I do not want to just say this without having proof for it. Psalm 141:1-2 says:
LORD, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee. Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense…
You see, David’s prayer was like incense, so incense is a picture that typifies prayer. Who was supposed to offer the incense in the book of Numbers where we see these laws? The priests were supposed to. They are the ones who offered the incense. Spiritually, if the incense is prayer, who is spiritually the High Priest who needs to offer the prayer? It is Jesus Christ. Let me prove this.
I am very eager to prove points, as we go bit-by-bit, because I had a call this past week from someone in Texas who had listened to a message of mine. He pointed out something that I thought was pretty minor that I had said on a particular Bible study, and he was right on. I was like, “Wow!” I was so grateful for his call. It made me go back to the study and I had to do a little more digging because I said something a couple of months ago. He needed to prove it and I had not proved it. I said that it existed but I did not prove it, so it is going to be a future lesson. This is why I am very eager here to prove this point. I just do not want to say it is so. We read in Hebrews 9:11:
But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come…
Here it is. You see, Jesus Christ came as “an high priest of good things to come.” So we have validity here in saying that Jesus Christ is the High Priest.
So let us go back to another lesson, a takeaway here, and a final one from King Uzziah. What is the takeaway? The High Priest here is Jesus Christ. As far as the burning of incense, Uzziah thought that he could do it. But how am I to approach God? The only prayers that are good to God the Father are through Jesus Christ.
You might think to yourself that you can pray to God, and yes, you can pray to God. But in what manner do you pray? In what manner do you pray? Are you coming before God because of your own goodness in your own merit? “I mean, I am really faithful, God. I need this blessing. Really, I have to have this.” Or, “Lord, You have been so good to me and I am continuing to follow You. I am faithful to You, so continue to bless me.”
These are wrong attitudes. You have to go to God through One Person and One Person only and it is through Jesus Christ, meaning that you recognize that God only looks at Christ and His righteousness and He sees you through this. You are nothing. You are nobody. You are absolutely nobody. I am nobody. I will use a scriptural verse. I am “less than nothing,” as the Bible says.
This is the humble spirit that we need to have, because 1 Timothy 2:5 tells us that there is only one way to approach God. You are probably familiar with this verse. 1 Timothy 2:5 is a good one to be familiar with:
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
We need a Mediator. It is not okay for me to just go to God myself, in my own self, in my own spirit-being, saying, “God, here I am. Here I am. Thank you for saving me,” and continue on with no acknowledgement that Jesus Christ is the only reason that God is even listening to me. It has nothing to do with the good stuff that I did during the last three months, whatever that might be—nothing at all.
Can you see the pride that can step in, even in prayer? I can go to God presumptuously and not realize that I am just as dastardly as the harlot in Center City, Philadelphia. I am just as bad—just as bad. There is only one reason why God is looking at me. It is not because I passed out 100 tracts yesterday or last week or two months ago, but because of Jesus Christ and His righteousness. This is why God looks at me. If He does at all favorably, this is the only reason that He will.
Here is our takeaway today. Here is the lesson. We were trying to learn from the mistakes of Uzziah. What were they? Well, he was lifted up. Things went well. Things were prosperous in his own nation of Judah, and his heart got lifted up. He thought that he could take the incense and burn it, and God turned on him and gave him leprosy.
What a picture of wrath and judgment! Things might go well for me physically, in my family, the money, all of the things that I have in my life—watch out! Watch out because what can happen so easily? I can get lifted up and think that I do not need to seek God anymore.
As long as Uzziah sought the Lord, He made him to prosper. Spiritually, I might think that I am somebody before God. I have been saved for a lot of years, I think. Therefore, I am pretty confident in approaching God—be careful! Be careful!
You have to go humbly, through Jesus Christ and His righteousness only, when you approach God in prayer. This is the only way to go. The only reason that He is going to listen to you is because of Christ, not because of anything good that you have done for His Kingdom in the last two months or two years or twenty years.
May God give each and every one of us the wisdom to discern the lessons from King Uzziah. May we apply them to our own lives so that we can at least be ready and not be caught off-guard like he was. The utter wrath that came upon him because of this is also going to come upon you and me, if we repeat the same mistake. Amen.