Spiritual Pride Strikes Again

Spiritual pride is such a common trap that many devoted Christians fall into it, and Josiah was no exception, as II Chronicles 35:20-25 describes.  “After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Charchemish by Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him.  But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war: for God commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not.  Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.

And the archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away; for I am sore wounded.  His servants therefore took him out of that chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had; and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in one of the sepulchres of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.  And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations.”

Pharaoh Necho had no quarrel with Josiah or Judah.  His only interest was in preventing the Assyrians from invading Egypt.  In his zeal to destroy all the false religions around them, Josiah attacked the Egyptians.  Though the Egyptians did not follow the Jewish religion, it was not Josiah’s place to try to force them to change, and God spoke through Necho to warn him not to interfere.  Josiah did not listen and as a result was fatally wounded. 

While Josiah had a responsibility as king of Judah to teach the Jews to serve God, he had not been given the job of converting other countries.  Far too often, our success in the field God has given us tempts us to try to expand our ministry.  In Romans 11:13-14, Paul said, “For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.”  Instead of trying to expand his ministry, he was talking about making sure he fulfilled every part of his ministry, almost as if he was using a magnifying glass to make sure he didn’t miss anything God expected him to do.   His goal was to get those he reached to take a similar approach, to emulate him, with the result some Gentiles might be saved. 

In II Corinthians 10:14-16, Paul talks about not reaching beyond what God has given us to do or taking credit for what someone else has done.  2co 10:13 But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you.  For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached not unto you: for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ: Not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men's labours; but having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly, To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man's line of things made ready to our hand.  But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” 

As he points out we are not to take pride in our accomplishments, but to give God the glory.  After all, any accomplishments are his, not ours.   In our day, there is a great deal of talk about winning souls, but as John 6:44 states, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”  We don’t win them, we just lift up Christ so that they can see him and as he said in John 12:32, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” 

It is not even about our skilled presentation of the gospel, as Paul makes clear in I Corinthians 2:1-5.  “And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.   For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.  And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.  And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”  When we focus on our or some evangelist’s skill, we may actually hinder people from actually getting saved, despite our good intentions.   God may find it necessary to stop us in order to accomplish his will, just as he did Josiah.