8) Uzziah - the king who became proud

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(2 Chronicles 26)

Uzziah, the son of Amaziah, was crowned king after his father’s assassination:

Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for fifty-two years. His mother’s name was Jekoliah; she was from Jerusalem. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father Amaziah had done. 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. (2 Chronicles 26:3-5)

Zechariah, mentioned here, was a prophet who taught the young king how to fear God and do what was right as the leader of Judah. (Zechariah was a common name and this person is different from the one after whom the Old Testament letter is named).

restoration

Following this instruction, Uzziah began to put right the ransacking of Jerusalem which had occurred during his father’s reign. His success was a sign that God was with him and blessing his endeavours. Perhaps a pointer to the fact that he had found contentment in spiritual things, was his love of agriculture:

Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate and at the angle of the wall, and he fortified them. He also built towers in the wilderness and dug many cisterns, because he had much livestock in the foothills and in the plain. He had people working his fields and vineyards in the hills and in the fertile lands, for he loved the soil. (2 Chronicles 26:9-10)

After the military failures of his father, he also attended to restoring the protection of Jerusalem and the strength of his army:

Uzziah provided shields, spears, helmets, coats of armour, bows and slingstones for the entire army. In Jerusalem he made devices invented for use on the towers and on the corner defences so that soldiers could shoot arrows and hurl large stones from the walls. His fame spread far and wide, for he was greatly helped until he became powerful.
(2 Chronicles 26:14-15)

We have come to expect a falling away after a good start. This seems especially so when the kings were young and needed the wisdom and influence of godly people. Sadly, Uzziah’s success went to his head and he manifested the same egotism which destroyed his father:

But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God, and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. Azariah the priest with eighty other courageous priests of the Lord followed him in. They confronted King Uzziah and said, ‘It is not right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord. (2 Chronicles 26:16-18)

It sounds as though Uzziah had become quite a powerful and intimidating leader if so many priests had to go to confront him. As we know, that can be a feature of poor leadership: instead of inspiring loyalty and commitment, people are intimidated into compliance.

excluded

In fact Uzziah had become even more corrupt than his father judged by the seriousness with which he provoked the Lord to act:

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. (2 Chronicles 26:19)

Leprosy is usually viewed as a judgment in the Old Testament. This is a complicated matter for us now, not least because it can be cured with very simple drugs. Jesus too healed many lepers. But in another case in the bible of arrogant leadership, judgment came in the form of leprosy:

Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses … ‘Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?’ they asked. ‘Hasn’t he also spoken through us?’ And the Lord heard this. The anger of the Lord burned against them, and he left them. When the cloud lifted from above the tent, Miriam’s skin was leprous – it became as white as snow.
(Numbers 12:1-10)

Miriam was eventually healed after the prayers of Moses.

Uzziah remained a leper for the rest of his life:

King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died. He lived in a separate house – leprous, and excluded from the temple of the Lord. Jotham his son had charge of the palace and governed the people of the land. (2 Chronicles 26:21)

His son became the ruling Regent in his place. Uzziah's pride had separated him from the presence and blessings of the Temple in Jerusalem. It’s a sober lesson for us and an encouragement to see that leadership should be the domain of the servant-hearted. The proud, the arrogant and the domineering are pitting themselves against the purposes of God and risking a judgment which exiles them from God’s presence and blessing.

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An aspect of Uzziah’s reign which is not dealt with in the historical books of the bible is the earthquake which occurred during his reign:

The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa – the vision he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah (Amos 1:1)

This earthquake was also mentioned in the book of Zechariah:

"And you shall flee by the valley of the LORD's mountain, for the valley between the mountains shall reach to the Azal; and you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of king Uzziah of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him." (Zechariah 14:5)

It was a significant historical marker (remember that they did not have a calendar as we do, but history was located relative to rulers and unusual events). What is interesting is that the Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, details the earthquake and in fact relates it to that act of sacrilege. The account of Uzziah in Josephus's book, 'Antiquities of the Jews', makes a connection between the earthquake and Uzziah being struck down with leprosy after he offered a sacrifice in the temple. We do not know where he obtained all these details or whether or not they are entirely accurate, however, I include them here out of interest:

Josephus: Antiquities of the Jews 9:10:4

While Uzziah was in this state and making preparations (for futurity), he was corrupted in his mind by pride, and became insolent, and this on account of that abundance which he had of things that will soon perish, and despised that power which is of eternal duration (which consisted in piety towards God, and in the observation of his laws); so he fell by occasion of the good success of his affairs, and was carried headlong into those sins of his father, which the splendour of that prosperity he enjoyed, and the glorious actions he had done, led him into, while he was not able to govern himself well about them. Accordingly, when a remarkable day was come, and a general festival was to be celebrated, he put on the holy garment, and went into the temple to offer incense to God upon the golden altar, which he was prohibited to do by Azariah the high priest, who had fourscore priests with him, and who told him that it was not lawful for him to offer sacrifice, and that "none besides the posterity of Aaron were permitted so to do." And when they cried out, that he must go out of the temple, and not transgress against God, he was wrath at them, and threatened to kill them, unless they would hold their peace. In the meantime, a great earthquake shook the ground, and a rent was made in the temple, and the bright rays of the sun shone through it, and fell upon the king's face, insomuch that the leprosy seized upon him immediately; and before the city, at a place called Eroge, half the mountain broke off from the rest on the west, and rolled itself four furlongs, and stood still at the east mountain, till the roads, as well as the king's garden, were spoiled by the obstruction. Now as soon as the priest saw that the king's face was infected with the leprosy, they told him of the calamity he was under, and commanded that he should go out of the city as a polluted person. Hereupon he was so confounded at the sad distemper, and sensible that he was not at liberty to contradict, that he did as he was commanded, and underwent this miserable and terrible punishment for an intention beyond what befitted a man to have, and for that impiety against God which was implied therein. So he abode out of the city for some time, and lived a private life, while his son Jotham took the government; after which he died with grief and anxiety at what had happened to him, when he had lived sixty-eight years, and reigned of them fifty-two; and was buried by himself in his own gardens.

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