Uzziah's Pride

A king strides into the holy place of the temple, a golden incense burner in his hand. Behind him, eighty priests come rushing in. And one of them steps right in front of the king and says: you must not do this.

Uzziah was only sixteen when the people of Judah made him king. He would reign in Jerusalem for fifty-two years, one of the longest reigns of any king of Judah. And he started well. He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD. He sought God in the days of Zechariah, a man who taught him to understand the things of God. And the Bible gives us a simple sentence that explains everything that followed. As long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper.

And how he prospered. God helped him against the Philistines, and against the Arabs, and the Meunites. The Ammonites sent him gifts. His fame spread as far as the border of Egypt. He built towers in Jerusalem, at the Corner Gate and the Valley Gate, and made them strong. He built towers in the wilderness, and dug many wells, because he had huge herds of cattle in the lowlands and the plains. He had farmers and vinedressers in the hills and in the fertile land, because, the Bible says, he loved the soil. And he had an army of more than three hundred thousand trained soldiers, with shields, spears, helmets, armour, bows and slingstones. In Jerusalem he had machines made, designed by skilled inventors, set on the towers to shoot arrows and hurl great stones. His name spread far and wide. For he was marvellously helped, until he was strong.

Until he was strong. Those words are a warning. Because when he was strong, his heart became proud, and it led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the LORD his God. He went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense. Now, God's law was clear. Only the priests, the descendants of Aaron, set apart for this work, were to burn incense in the holy place. Not a king. Not anyone else. Uzziah had everything. But it was not enough. He wanted this too. So Azariah the chief priest went in after him, with eighty brave priests of the LORD. And they stood up to the king. It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD, they said, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to do it. Leave the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful, and it will bring you no honour from the LORD God.

Uzziah was furious. There he stood, the censer in his hand, raging at the priests. And as he raged, right there in front of them, beside the altar of incense, a skin disease broke out on his forehead. The priests saw it, and they hurried him out. And Uzziah himself hurried to leave, because the LORD had struck him. King Uzziah had the skin disease until the day he died. He lived in a separate house, cut off from the temple of the LORD, while his son Jotham ran the palace and governed the people. The prophet Isaiah wrote down the rest of his story. And when Uzziah died, he was buried in a field near the royal tombs, not in them, because people said: he had a skin disease. A gifted king, greatly helped by God, who forgot who had made him strong.

In 1931, a stone plaque was identified in a Jerusalem collection, written in Aramaic and dating from many centuries after Uzziah lived. It reads: Here were brought the bones of Uzziah, king of Judah. Do not open. It seems his remains were moved to a new resting place long after his death. The plaque is now displayed in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

Uzziah's pride. You'll find this story in Second Chronicles chapter twenty-six. A king who prospered while he sought God, and who fell when he grew proud of his strength. The prophet Isaiah later wrote that in the year King Uzziah died, he saw the Lord, high and lifted up. So here is a question to carry with you. When things go well for you, how can you remember who gave you your strength?