Uzziah II Chronicles 26

II Chronicles 26:1 "Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the room of his father Amaziah." "He built Eloth, and restored it to Judah, after that the king slept with his fathers." v2

It almost seemed like the author was opening and closing king Uzziah's life in two verses but he goes on in verse 3.

We are going through what I would describe some minor kings of Judah with some peaks here and there after David and Solomon. They are drifting toward the captivity. Israel has already turned to idols but Judah has been preserved because of God's promise to David that he would not let his kingly line fail.

v3 "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. v4 "And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah did."

It should be noted that the Bible is particular about pointing out the mother of these kings. I believe we will find that the line of David was preserved through the mothers. We will have to study further on that.

v5 "And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding int he visions of God: and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper."

'As long as he sought the LORD' is a good phrase to remember. It has been the key phrase in the nation Israels problems from the beginning. When they turned from the LORD, the enemy was victorious. When they were true to the LORD, the kingdom prospered.

Uzziah made war and was successful. He was a builder also and was successful in that. But he had a bit of an ego problem them.

v16 "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."

He was quickly reproved by the priest who told him it was not for him to burn incense but for the priest of Aaron. v17-18. It made Uzziah mad when the priest told him that and he raised a hand toward the priest with a censor in it.

v19 "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."

Uzziah was run out of the house of the LORD because of the leprosy and dwelt in another house instead of the king's house. Neither could he enter the house of the LORD. His son Jotham took care of his business at the king's house and Uzziah never recovered and died a leper king. So after he died Jotham ruled in his place.

It is not good to be lifted up in our own eyes.

Proverbs 4:23 "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life."

Uzziah, a good king, is brought down by his own ego.