Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the room of his father Amaziah.
2 He built Eloth, and restored it to Judah, after that the king slept with his fathers.
3 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.
4 And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah did.
5 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.
6 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.
7 And God helped him against the Philistines, and against the Arabians that dwelt in Gurbaal, and the Mehunims.
8 And the Ammonites gave gifts to Uzziah: and his name spread abroad even to the entering in of Egypt; for he strengthened himself exceedingly.
9 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.
10 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.
11 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.
12 The whole number of the chief of the fathers of the mighty men of valour were two thousand and six hundred.
13 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.
14 And Uzziah prepared for them throughout all the host shields, and spears, and helmets, and habergeons, and bows, and slings to cast stones.
15 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.
16 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.
17 And Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him fourscore priests of the Lord, that were valiant men:
18 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.
19 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.
20 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.
21 And Uzziah the king was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house, being a leper; for he was cut off from the house of the Lord: and Jotham his son was over the king’s house, judging the people of the land.
22 Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, did Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, write.
23 So Uzziah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the field of the burial which belonged to the kings; for they said, He is a leper: and Jotham his son reigned in his stead.
This evening if you have your Bibles and will turn with me to 2 Chronicles chapter 26, I want to look at the son of King Amaziah. And he came to power when Amaziah died. So let’s begin by looking at chapter 26 of 2 Chronicles as we look at the reign of Azariah, who is also referred to as Uzziah.
In 2 Chronicles, the author uses the term Uzziah. In 2 Kings, he is referred to as Azariah. It’s the same king, just two different names.
And King Azariah, or Uzziah, was the son of, as I mentioned, King Amaziah. And the thing is, he ruled much like his father. And what’s amazing is, he, like his father, started off fairly well but ended up very badly.
And I just want to take a look at his life and what we can learn from him this evening. Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was 16 years old, and made him king in the room of his father, Amaziah. And 16 years old was Uzziah when he began to reign.
And he reigned 50 and 2 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. And I just want to pause here.
King Uzziah ruled 52 years. He was one of the longest ruling kings. There was a couple others that ruled longer than him.
But he ruled a lot longer than his father. And the thing is, you can have a tremendous impact if you rule for good during those years. But this evening we’re going to see that he did some things that were not right.
So let’s continue to see what the scriptures have to say about this. 16 years old was Uzziah when he began to reign. And he reigned 52 years in Jerusalem.
His mother’s name 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. In other words, notice he didn’t say according to David, but according to his father Amaziah.
And if you remember, Amaziah started out well. And we’re going to see that this man had the same issue that his father had. 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 I’ll just pause here. Remember that his father Amaziah had Zechariah to be there to be his spiritual leader and guide.
This man, this king had a man by the name of Zechariah. It’s not the Zechariah that was recorded as one of the minor prophets in the Old Testament. It’s a different Zechariah.
But he was a prophet of the Lord. He was a man of God. And he gave good direction to King Uzziah.
And it says as long as Zechariah was there, Uzziah did good. But when Zechariah wasn’t there, Uzziah had problems. And it sounds exactly like what his father did.
Because you see, if you don’t seek to walk with the Lord yourself, and don’t seek to ask God to direct your paths on a daily basis, and you have a personal relationship with the Lord, but you’re relying on someone else’s relationship with God to be there to be the director for your life and to give you strength and to give you direction, and when they’re not there, you don’t know what to do or you do what’s wrong, then you need to understand that you’re not seeking the Lord and you’re not walking with God. And there’s a lot of Christians that do that. I remember that there was… We’ve known Christians and we went to some prophecy conferences.
We went for over 25 years to the prophecy conferences they were holding up in Winnipeg. And it was amazing, we met some people up there and they would literally go to prophecy conference after prophecy conference after prophecy conference all over the country. They would travel all over the United States and Canada going to different prophecy conferences.
But the problem is, they were always looking to other teachers and they didn’t have this deep walk with the Lord themselves, but were relying on all of these other men to give them all this information. But what did they do with the information they got? And that’s the problem. Uzziah looked to Zechariah for direction and he asked Zechariah, what does the Lord say? But Uzziah wouldn’t go to the Lord.
And he relied on Zechariah. And we need to understand that our reliance needs to not be on men. God gives us people He brings into our life to help us to grow in the Lord.
Paul came into Timothy’s life and into Titus’ life. But Paul encouraged both of them to grow in the Lord. Remember in Timothy he said that he was to study the Scriptures and he was to use them.
And that they were to be used in his life. The Scriptures were to be his instructor. Paul was there to be his spiritual father, if you would, and his teacher.
But ultimately, God would lead Timothy through the Scriptures and he needed to develop his own walk with the Lord. Because there was going to come the day that Paul would leave. And Paul would be called home to the Lord.
And Timothy would be left. And if he didn’t have a walk with God himself, then he’d be in trouble. That was Uzziah.
And that was his father Amaziah as well. Let’s take a look and continue on. And he went forth and warred against the Philistines and broke down the wall of Gath and the wall of Zabnah and the wall of Ashdod and built cities about Ashdod and among the Philistines.
Now, in case you recognize a few of these names of the Philistine cities, some of those cities are still in Israel today. And if you want to know where these cities are located and where the Philistine territory was at the time of Uzziah and prior to that going all the way back to the time of David, the Philistines, their main settlements is where Gaza is today. And it’s kind of amazing as you look at things change, but they don’t change.
And the very problems that all the kings of Israel had with the Philistines are the same problems that Israel is having with the people of Gaza today. They were the enemies of Israel and they would come against Israel. They were constantly warring against Israel.
And when a king would rise up and be able to defeat them, as Uzziah does, they would go into servitude, if you would, and they would stop warring for a period of time. But when they had the opportunity, they would rise up again and come against them. That’s exactly what we see happening even now.
What happened this last week when Benjamin Netanyahu signed the ceasefire with Hamas. You would think that Hamas had won the war and yet you look at Gaza and it’s in total ruins and most of Hamas has been destroyed, but the people of Gaza were celebrating not because they viewed that Hamas had won the war. That is the Philistines’ mentality.
They had no desire to serve the God of Israel. They had no desire to be with good neighbors, if you would, to Israel. But they wanted to destroy Israel and they were constantly warring with them.
That’s the same philosophy that’s there today in the Middle East. Well he went in, Uzziah went in, and he went to these major cities that were some of the stronger Philistine cities and he defeated them. And then when he defeated them, he built his cities around them so that he could control them.
Let’s go on. And the Ammonites gave gifts to Uzziah and his name spread abroad even to the entering of Egypt, for he strengthened himself exceedingly. He became well known.
Of all the kings of Israel, you see that there’s just a few of them that have this type of notoriety. David was one. The people around David, the other countries around David, honored David.
And remember the king of Tyre sent David. Cedar for Solomon to build a temple. But he made the arrangements with David.
He honored David. We see that other peoples around honored David. Solomon was honored by the nations around him as well.
And they brought gifts to him. And again, the king of Tyre sent the cedar and other elements for the building of the temple and the building of Solomon’s palace or house. And so we see that Uzziah had the same notoriety.
And part of it was he conquered his enemies and his enemies in turn respected who he was. But what happens with Uzziah when this begins to take place? Well, he continues and it says, 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.
Now this would not be the Carmel mountains in the north because that was part of Israel. And Israel and Judah didn’t get along. So if you went to Carmel today, that’s not the Carmel I’m speaking of here.
What I’m speaking of, the term Carmel means a place of abundance or a place where you have a lot of fruit, fruitfulness. And so he had places that the land was blossoming under Uzziah’s rule. And Uzziah loved husbandry.
It’s one of the things that he enjoyed doing was causing the crops to grow and having good crops, vineyards, and that type of sort of thing. So he fortified the cities. He built towers which fortified the country.
And then he caused the cattle and the crops to flourish. Moreover Uzziah had a 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 Uzziah, the ruler, under the hand of Hananiah, one of the king’s captains. And so the whole number of the chief of the fathers of the mighty men of valor were 2,600.
The mighty men of valor would be those that would lead the armies of Uzziah. And so in other words they would be like the officers, if you would, or the ones that would lead the various groups of men into battle and into defense of Israel. And there were 2,600 of these men.
Well, there needed to be that many because in the next verse it says, And under their hand was an army, 300,000 and 7,500, another 370,500, that made war with mighty power to help the king against the enemy. And so he had an outstanding army that was able to defend them. And he had made fortifications and he had caused Israel to become extremely prosperous under his rule.
Uzziah prepared them throughout all the hosts, shields and spears and helmets and habergens, which in the habergen is basically it’s a light metal shield, this metal over leather that you kind of wear as a breast protector to protect your organs. It wasn’t a big, like the Romans, they had regular breastplates that were made out of heavier iron. This would be light metal over leather that you put on that would give you protection.
And they also gave them bows and slings to cast stones. And so he armed his army and gave them protection as well as offensive weapons. And he made in Jerusalem engines.
Now engines would be catapults. And so he made the ability for them to fight battles with the most, this would be the greatest technology in warfare would be the things that he armed his army with. They had catapults and with catapults, you could throw rocks, you could throw fire, you could throw all kinds of things against the enemy’s troops as well as their cities when you attack them.
And so he had these and he made those in Jerusalem. Invented by cunning men to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks to shoot arrows and great stones with all. And his name spread far and abroad for he was marvelously helped till he was strong.
And it’s an interesting statement that it makes there. He was marvelously helped, God blessed him tremendously is what it’s saying until he was strong. And when he became strong, something happened.
Remember going back, it said that as long as Zechariah was around, he looked to the Lord. But when Zechariah wasn’t there, not so much. And when he became strong, oftentimes what happens when you become strong? A lot of times people when they’re struggling and have all kinds of difficulties they’re facing, they’ll spend time calling on the name of the Lord, calling on God, seeking the Lord.
But when things go well and they’re living and there aren’t problems, oftentimes they forget about God. If you look at our own nation, we became very prosperous, but it seemed like the more prosperous we became, the more we forgot about God. If you stop and look at today, some of the things that are big items in our land.
I was just talking to somebody this last week and I was talking to them about their grandchildren. I guess it was two weeks ago, I was talking about their grandchildren. And they’ve got a granddaughter who’s really pretty little yet, I think she’s like eight.
She’s on the traveling hockey team for their hometown and she’s traveling all over the country. They’re up here in Fargo, they’re from down by the cities for a hockey tournament for their eight-year-old granddaughter. And they had been down to Tennessee for a hockey tournament.
And I’m going, what’s wrong with this picture? Yet, are her parents spending that much time investing in her life, taking her to church, getting her involved in Sunday school, getting her involved in learning God’s Word and spending time with the Lord. And then I look at even Christian adults. Where’s our time and our focus spent? Is it on God? Or is it because we’ve got prosperity and money and so we can do things that our parents could never do.
And we do them instead of spending time with the Lord. How many people really make the number one priority coming to church and worshiping God and gathering together with his people and praying and spending time with the Lord? Because when we become prosperous, it’s very easy to forget about God. And it’s very easy to forget who gave us the prosperity, who blessed us.
Many of the things that we’re seeing happen with current administration in our nation are just a blessing of fresh air. But we need to keep our focus on what that means. We need to focus on the Lord and the principles that God wants us to live by.
Not just state and say, yeah, I’m in favor of that, but I need to make that my conviction. I need to make it my conviction, the things that are biblical and that God holds as true. Uzziah walked with God as long as Zechariah was there and as he was growing in his prosperity and fame.
But when he became strong, something happened. And it wasn’t for the good. And I want you to see what happened.
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. Now you’re probably thinking, well, what’s wrong with that? Wasn’t he going to the temple to worship? Well, I want you to understand what the kings of Israel were to do.
If you go all the way back to the book of Numbers and all the way back before that to the book of Exodus, it talks about that when the king, Israel would have kings one day. And when Israel had their kings, this is what the kings were to do. They were to read the scriptures through once a year and copy them down.
Once a year they were to copy the scriptures down themselves. Not give it to a scribe, but they were to do it themselves. Why? So that the word of God would become part of their life.
That the word of God would be impregnated in their mind. But the thing is, you don’t see that hardly any of the kings did that. It doesn’t say that Uzziah did that, and I don’t think he did do that, or he wouldn’t have done what he’s doing.
Because you see, part of the scriptures and in the law, and in what had been given as a sacrificial system to Moses, when he established under the direction of God the tabernacle in the desert, which later became the model for the temple in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount. Moses was given certain things that were the responsibilities of certain people. And there was only certain people that were to offer incense.
Remember when we were studying about, during the, we did the four part series about the birth of Jesus, and in that we looked at the birth of John the Baptist, to give us an overview of when Jesus was actually born, and some of the circumstances surrounding his birth. And you remember in there, it talked about his father, and that when his father, who was a priest, had, was his turn to come and offer incense, but he was a priest. And he was of a certain order of the priests.
Only certain orders of the priests were to offer incense. Other orders of the priests had other responsibilities. But it was the priests.
And if you go back to Lot, it says that God established that the descendants of Aaron, and the descendants of his sons, he had these sons, and their descendants, various sons, would have various responsibilities. Nowhere does it say the king was to offer incense. As a matter of fact, the king was not to do the priestly duties.
And that’s why, when you look at the book of Hebrews, and it says that Jesus was a king after the order of Melchizedek, he’s a different king. Because Melchizedek was a king and a priest. And Jesus is our king and our high priest, but in Israel, there were to be two separate offices.
The king was to have the political power, the priest was to direct the religious power, but in Jesus, these two offices would be combined, but they weren’t to be combined in any man in Israel. Uzziah became strong. And when he became strong, pride entered his heart.
And he thought he could do that which God told him not to do. The same thing that happened to Satan happened to Uzziah. When was iniquity found in Satan’s heart? It says, he lifted himself up and he said, I shall be as the most high.
In other words, I don’t have to listen to God because I am his equal. Uzziah is saying basically the same thing. I don’t have to listen to God because I am the king.
No, you have to listen to God. You’re a mere man who God has placed in this position, but you’re a man and you need to respond to the Lord. Well, Uzziah didn’t.
And he went to the temple to offer incense. And he made it perfectly clear to all who were around what he was about and what he was doing. And Azariah, the priest, went in after him and with him four score priests, that is 80 priests went in along with Azariah.
They were viewing this as a serious offense. 81 men went in after Uzziah to try and stop him. And with him four score 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 honor from the Lord God. In other words, you think that you’re going to bring honor to yourself in front of the Lord by doing this? You’re dishonoring him by violating his word and doing that which you are not to do and leave before God judges. I mean, these were very bold men to do this.
Because Uzziah did have the political power. He had the power of the sword. And these men went in against the king to tell him, This was not your responsibility.
This is what God called you to do. Leave before his judgment comes. What is Uzziah’s response? Well, if you go back, I want to see before we look at Uzziah’s response, I want you to go back and remember what David’s response was.
David was confronted by a man of God after he had committed sin. Uzziah is committing sin. When David was confronted by Nathan the prophet, and Nathan the prophet told him the parable, the account of the man who had the one little sheep, and this man who had all these sheep came and took the little sheep that belonged to this man.
And he told this story, how he took that sheep away from the man. And David became angry because he saw the injustice of what had happened. And then Nathan said, You’re the man.
Because he had taken Bathsheba, even though David had all these wives. And Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah the Hittite, one of David’s mighty men. And then David had made the arrangement to kill Uriah, to cover up his sin because he figured he could keep it from the people.
And God had seen it all. When David was confronted, David was broken. David cried out to the Lord for mercy.
And he made the statement against thee, and thee only have I sinned. And out of that came Psalm 51. And he said, Out of my sin, basically in this psalm he’s saying, Out of my sin may I be able to share with others, and show them the forgiveness and mercy of God, because God is a merciful God, and a gracious God.
But David would not have known of God’s grace and mercy if he hadn’t cried out in repentance, and turned from his sin, acknowledged his sin, realized his sin, and realized, yes, he had killed a man, committed adultery, and sinned against them, and sinned against the whole nation of Israel in doing it, but ultimately his sin was against God. Because he said, I don’t have to follow the rules that God has established. What was Uzziah’s response? Did he follow after David? It says here in verse 19, Then Uzziah was wroth, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense.
Wroth is a term that we don’t use in our English very often today. But wroth is extremely, extremely angry. It wasn’t just that he was a little bit angry.
He was extremely angry. Who do you think you are? You can just hear him saying, Who do you think you are to tell me I’m the king? I’m going to burn this incense. And he takes this incense, and he’s got it, and he’s waving it, and I’m going to burn it.
So he had the incense in his hand, and he doesn’t stop. And he had the censer in his hand to burn the 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. God judged him quickly.
God judged him severely. And God judged him in the face of those that he was not only coming against, that were standing for truth, but judged him where…