"In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah began to reign." (2 Kings 15:1) Azariah's name is rendered as "Uzziah" by the author of 2 Chronicles and by the authors of some of the books of the prophets. It is only in the book of 2 Kings that I can find anyone referring to him as Azariah and it is for this reason that we will be referring to him as Uzziah.
Uzziah's father, Amaziah, was killed by men who conspired against him. Upon Amaziah's death we find the young Uzziah being placed on the throne of Judah in his place. "Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah." (2 Chronicles 26:1) "He was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-two years. His mother's name was Jekoliah; she was from Jerusalem." (2 Kings 15:2) Uzziah's reign is the second-longest of all the kings of Judah. We will also find him being one of the better kings of Judah.
"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 26:4-5) "He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father Amaziah had done. The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there." (2 Kings 15:13-14) Amaziah did what was right during the first part of his reign but he fell into idolatry during the latter part of his reign. After the Lord gave him great success in putting down the rebellion of the Edomites, Amaziah brought back to Judah the images of the gods of Edom and began to worship those gods himself. His idolatry is what led to his downfall.
Uzziah will begin his reign quite well, other than not removing the high places that were used in the past for the worship of the Lord. The Lord commanded these to be removed now that there is a central location for bringing offerings and sacrifices. The failure of so many kings to remove the high places was a continual temptation for the people to worship the Lord in whatever way seemed best to them. Worshiping on their own and in their own way, separate from the main body of believers, was not good for them. It is not good for us in these modern times either. We need the fellowship of other believers. We need to regularly gather at the house of God to hear the word of God. Left to our own devices, we are in danger of not listening to or reading the word of God. We are in danger of drifting from the Lord and making ourselves easy pickings for our adversary the devil. The less we receive the encouragement of fellow believers, and the less we study and meditate on the word of God, the more likely we are to give in to various temptations.
While Uzziah lives in a way that pleases the Lord, the Lord will give him success. It is only during the latter part of his reign that he will allow himself to be overcome by pride, perhaps forgetting that he owes all his success and prosperity to the Lord. He will sin against the Lord in a way that brings a very public and very shameful judgment upon him. Because of the form this judgment will take, Uzziah will no longer be able to rule over Judah alone. His son, Jotham, will be promoted to the position of co-regent for the remaining eleven years Uzziah's reign. Jotham will take his father's mistake of pride to heart, not making the same mistake himself and being overall a more godly king than Uzziah was.
We will pick back up on our study of King Uzziah on Tuesday. My husband and I are going on a mini-vacation early tomorrow morning and will be returning late on Monday evening. I hope you have a blessed weekend in the Lord.
No comments:
Post a Comment