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2
Chronicles Chapter Twenty-six
2 Chronicles 26
Chapter Contents
Uzziah's good reign in Judah. (1-15) Uzziah's attempt to
burn incense. (16-23)
Commentary on 2 Chronicles 26:1-15
(Read 2 Chronicles 26:1-15)
As long as Uzziah sought the Lord, and minded religion,
God made him to prosper. Those only prosper whom God makes to prosper; for
prosperity is his gift. Many have owned, that as long as they sought the Lord,
and kept close to their duty, they prospered; but when they forsook God, every
thing went cross. God never continues either to bless the indolent or to
withhold his blessing from the diligent. He will never suffer any to seek his
face in vain. Uzziah's name was famed throughout all the neighbouring
countries. A name with God and good people makes truly honourable. He did not
delight in war, nor addict himself to sports, but delighted in husbandry.
Commentary on 2 Chronicles 26:16-23
(Read 2 Chronicles 26:16-23)
The transgression of the kings before Uzziah was,
forsaking the temple of the Lord, and burning incense upon idolatrous altars.
But his transgression was, going into the holy place, and attempting to burn
incense upon the altar of God. See how hard it is to avoid one extreme, and not
run into another. Pride of heart was at the bottom of his sin; a lust that
ruins many. Instead of lifting up the name God in gratitude to him who had done
so much for him, his heart was lifted up to his hurt. Men's pretending to
forbidden knowledge, and seeking things too high for them, are owing to pride
of heart. The incense of our prayers must be, by faith, put into the hands of
our Lord Jesus, the great High Priest of our profession, else we cannot expect
it to be accepted by God, Revelation 8:3. Though Uzziah strove with the
priests, he would not strive with his Maker. But he was punished for his
transgression; he continued a leper to his death, shut out from society. The
punishment answered the sin as face to face in a glass. Pride was at the bottom
of his transgression, and thus God humbled him, and put dishonour upon him.
Those that covet forbidden honours, forfeit allowed ones. Adam, by catching at
the tree of knowledge which he might not eat of, debarred himself of the tree
of life which he might have eaten of. Let all that read say, The Lord is
righteous. And when the Lord sees good to throw prosperous and useful men
aside, as broken vessels, if he raises up others to fill their places, they may
rejoice to renounce all worldly concerns, and employ their remaining days in
preparation for death.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on 2 Chronicles》
2 Chronicles 26
Verse 10
[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.
Towers — To guard his cattle from the inroads which the
Arabians were accustomed to make: and to give notice of the approach of any
enemy.
Verse 16
[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.
Into Jerusalem — Into the holy place, where the
altar of incense stood, and into which none but the priests might enter, much
less offer incense.
Verse 18
[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.
Withstood — Heb. stood up against Uzziah, not
by force, or laying hands upon him to restrain him, for in the next verse you
still find the censer in his hand; but only by admonition and reproof, which
follows.
Neither, … — Expect that God will punish thee,
or put some brand of infamy upon thee for this presumption. But this they
express modestly, because they considered that he to whom they spake, though an
offender, was their sovereign.
Verse 19
[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.
His forehead — So that he could not hide his
shame: though it is probable it was also in the rest of his body.
From beside — By a stroke from an invisible
hand coming from the altar; that he might be assured this was the effect of
God's displeasure.
Verse 20
[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.
Thrust — Not by force, which needed not, for he voluntarily
hasted away, as it follows; but by vehement persuasions and denunciations of
God's farther judgments upon him, if he did not depart.
Verse 21
[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.
His death — God would have this leprosy to be
incurable, as a lasting monument of his anger against such presumptuous
invaders of the priest's office.
Dwelt, … — As he was obliged to do by law, which he durst not now
resist, being under the hand of God, and under the fear of worse plagues, if he
did not so.
For — He dwelt in a several house, because he might not come
into the temple or courts, nor consequently into any publick assembly. So the
punishment answered the sin, as face does to face in a glass. He thrust himself
into the temple of God, whether the priests only had admission: and for that
was thrust out of the very courts of the temple, into which the meanest of, his
subjects might enter. He invaded the dignity of the priesthood, to which he had
no right, and is for that deprived of the royal dignity, to which he had an
undoubted right.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on 2 Chronicles》
26 Chapter 26
Verses 1-23
Verse 5
And as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper.
Soul prosperity
I. The seekers of
the Lord.
1. Every real seeker of the Lord must be a heaven-born soul (John 3:8). This involves the bestowment
of a Divine existence, the creating of a new nature (2 Peter 1:4). This is the nature
that habitually seeks after God.
2. Seeking the Lord includes--
II. Their
experience of prosperity. If you ask a worldling what constitutes prosperity he
will say, “Many excellent bargains, good customers, ready money, quick returns,
the accumulation of property, health, friends, extended connections, and the
like.” But what is Christian prosperity?
1. Spiritual growth.
2. Triumphant victories. The life of a Christian is the life of a
conqueror.
3. The taking of spoils from the vanquished foe. The most valuable
lessons are often learnt from the heaviest calamities.
III. The extension
of prosperity: “As long as he sought the Lord.” (Joseph Irons.)
The secret of strength and its perils
I. We have the
marvellous help which Jehovah gives to a rightly-purposed man, and its
consequences. No one can suppose that Judah was very prosperous before the
accession of that king. For, not only had it been humbled at the battle of
Beth-Shemesh, but Jerusalem itself had been ravaged and partially dismantled.
And, considering the extreme youth of the king, only sixteen years of age when
he came to the throne, one would naturally have expected to read of the gradual
increase of the disorders of the kingdom through the contests of opposing
factions, and of its gradual diminution and enthralment through the successes of its
enemies. But, on the contrary, the first thing recorded of Uzziah is that “he
built Eloth and restored it to Judah”; and thenceforward, throughout the
greater part of his reign, the story of no single disaster or defeat interrupts
the current of prosperity. First of all the Philistines, and then the Arabs,
the Mehunim, and the Ammonites were compelled to restore to Judah the cities
they had before appropriated, were, indeed, in some instances reduced to the
condition of tributary nations. And the internal administration of the country was not
less fortunate than its external relationships. Jerusalem was refortified, and
for the first time in Biblical history we read of “engines, invented by cunning
men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great
stones withal.” And “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 vinedressers in the mountains and in Carmel; for he loved husbandry.”
Everything shows that the kingdom reached a condition of prosperity such as it
had not known since the days of Solomon. And the explanation of it all is the
marvellous help of the Almighty. You may see it in almost all aspects and
exigencies of life--the wonderful help of God making s Christian prosperous and
strong. It is quite true that we sometimes trouble ourselves, as Uzziah must
have often in those difficult years troubled himself, with the thought that we
have no inherent ability for the work which God gives us to do, whether it be
work of service or of sanctification. But in that imagination we are altogether
wrong, and therefore wrong in letting ourselves be depressed and unnerved by
it. For the Scriptural doctrine always is that it is the marvellous help of God
that makes a man strong, that no man is or can become strong, in any religious
sense of that word, apart from such help. “Work out your own salvation, for it
is God that worketh in you.” There can be no other explanation of the
prosperity of Uzziah, his conquest of difficulties greater than ours, his
faithfulness under burdens heavier than ours, than simply that God, because of
his faith in God, helped him. And in all times, when duty, sorrow,
responsibility, or doubt presses upon ourselves, we can adopt a course that has
never failed, and resolve, “I will seek unto God, and unto God will I commit my
cause, which doeth great things, and unsearchable, marvellous things without
number . . . to set up on high those that be low, that those which mourn may be
exalted to safety.”
II. The peril of
prosperity, which was too great a peril for uzziah. His splendid career elated
him, and “his heart was lifted up to his destruction.” Instead of reverent
praise to God for having helped him so marvellously, he began to flatter himself with the thought
that his success had been achieved by his own wisdom and skill, and “he transgressed
against the Lord, and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the
altar of incense.” It is easy to find excuses for Uzziah, which are sufficient
to protect him from our blame, but not sufficient to reduce the heinousness of
his sin in the sight of God. It might, for instance, be said that his old godly
counsellor Zechariah had lately died. Or it might be said that he was but
imitating the conduct of his father, of Jeroboam, of the idolatrous kings
around him. But, whatever our charity may dispose us to urge in palliation, the
fact remains that he showed his gratitude to God for the marvellous help he had
received by setting at nought the express commandment of God. For when Korah,
Dathan, and Abiram were destroyed, their brazen censers were made into broad
plates for a covering of the altar “to be a memorial unto the children of
Israel” (so runs the law) “that no stranger, which is not of the seed of Aaron,
come near to offer incense before the Lord.” Nor can Uzziah have forgotten that
law. It was, indeed, when he became wrath with the faithful priests who
reminded him of it, and pressed forward with his censer, that that moment “the
leprosy rose up to his forehead,” and, conscience-smitten, he hastened out of the
temple. Just think of the contrast which that sin caused between the earlier
and the later parts of Uzziah’s reign. There is another place in the Old
Testament where that warning is embedded in associations of even greater
interest than these--the song of Moses in the thirty-second chapter of
Deuteronomy. The marvellous works which God had wrought for Israel are
enumerated first. Then follow the ungrateful exaltation of Israel in their own
eyes, their desertion of God, and the wrath they thereby brought quickly upon
themselves. It is just a type of the process that takes place in many hearts.
First of all, God blesses us, enables us to do what otherwise we could not
possibly have done, makes us great in control over ourselves, and perhaps,
also, in influence over others. We, in some crisis of temptation, listen to the
whisper that it was our own hand that made us strong; self-complacency begets
presumption; until at last conscience smites us; we know ourselves to be
leprous in spirit in the sight of God, and the self-built fabric of prosperity
crumbles in a moment. Blessed for us if the Lord gives us what He gave
Uzziah--seven quiet years for penitence, thought, and humbler service. It may
be well to linger a little upon the different stages of this process, which
sometimes leads a godly man from strength to leprosy. Obviously pride was at’
the bottom of Uzziah’s sin. Uzziah seems to have thought, “Philistines and
Ammonites, it’s I have defeated them, and my name which they applaud and fear
even to the entering in of Egypt. My father left the kingdom circumscribed, so
reduced that he had to give hostages to Joash; I have made it great and free.”
And still whenever by the help of God we have done any useful work, we are
liable to a similar temptation, to attribute to ourselves the credit of having
done it, and in our self-complacency to forget and to dishonour God. There is
nothing but sin, failure, and ruin to be found in yielding to that temptation.
For the immediate and necessary consequence of pride is presumption, which,
though it may not take the exact form it took in the case of Uzziah, may take
an equally sinful form. One form it often assumes now, in the case of men whose
real knowledge of God is very defective, is that of patronising the Gospel. But
much as that habit of thought requires to be guarded against, it is probably in
other directions that most of us are more apt to err. The remembrance of what
we have done by the help of God prompts us to attempt what we have to do apart
from His help, with confidence in ourselves as sufficient for it, with a
neglect of Divine aid as more or less unnecessary and superfluous. Any particle
of the pride which leads us to attribute to ourselves the success of the past,
whatever the particular form or particular associations of that pride, is a
mistake even according to human judgment, an element of weakness which will
grievously impede us, and a sin in the sight of God. And, whilst that principle
teaches us what is forbidden, it teaches us also what is enjoined. Pride always
means folly and failure. And therefore trust in God, the more perfect and
supreme the better, means wisdom and success. It was whilst Uzziah “looked unto
God” that he was marvellously helped and made strong. And it will be in
proportion as we trust in Jehovah that we shall have vigour to finish and
patience to bear whatever He gives us to endure or to do. (R. W.
Moss.)
Destroyed by prosperity
I. Uzziah’s
prosperous career. “He was marvellously helped till he was strong.” His good
fortune, as the world would call it, dated from his seventeenth year. It was a
trying position for a mere boy to be placed in; for the cares and
responsibilities, as well as the temptations and luxuries, of a royal palace
demand a ripe wisdom and strength of moral purpose rarely found at so early an
age. But God’s grace could qualify even so young a man for the task; and I am
struck with the fact, that almost every one of the good kings of Judah was
quite a youth when he succeeded to the throne. There is no reason why the
season of young manhood should be given up to passion and frivolity. It was a
great advantage to the young Uzziah that he had the loyal attachment and
confidence of his people. But what mainly guarded him from the dangers around
him, and kept him steady on his throne, was a sincere piety. Never forget the
quarter from whence all true prosperity must come. Success does not depend on
yourselves alone. Still less does it come from chance. Take God with you into
all the affairs of life. Look to Him to bless your business. Ask His help in
every fresh enterprise you undertake.
II. His marvellous
presumption. “But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his
destruction.” It requires special grace to keep a man right when he has had a
career of unbroken prosperity. One day, when the celebrated George Whitfield
was about to commence
the service, an intimation was read out from the desk below: “The prayers of
the congregation are desired for a young man who has become heir to an immense
fortune, and who feels he has much need of grace to keep him humble in the
midst of his riches.” Nothing tries a man so much as the favour of fortune and
the flattery of the world.
III. The note of
warning. As there are many kinds of prosperity, so there are many kinds of
presumption. A man may be “lifted up to his destruction,” for example--
1. By the pride of money. It does not take a large fortune to make
some people “purse-proud “--and very disagreeable people these are.
2. The pride of intellect. I wish to put you on your guard against a
current which is running very strong in our day. I mean the tendency to set up
the reason against religion. Perhaps I might mention--
3. Pride of wit. Now I go in for a sunny, cheerful religion. God has,
put within us a faculty of mirthfulness, which He did not mean us to suppress.
There is no necessary connection between dulness and piety, between a long face
and a new heart. True, but there are some men who are hardly ever serious. (J.
T. Davidson, D. D.)
The rise and the fall
To be successful or prosperous, to get on in the world, or to be
strong, is what every one, be his position what it may, longs for and struggles
after. Prosperity is a relative term. A king is prosperous or strong when from
strength of character and purity of life he has secured the confidence and love
of his people, and the respect of neighbouring sovereigns and nations. A
merchant is prosperous when his dealings are followed by remunerative gains. A
minister of Jesus Christ is prosperous when he benefits souls and instructs
men’s minds, and leads them to think of something higher and more lasting than
the passing show of the world. To be prosperous, to be strong, is in one word
to get on in one’s own department, and at one’s peculiar work. Whatever success
be ours we ought to acknowledge that God has been with us. It is just here that
men are so often thoughtless and ungrateful, and have their heart lifted up to
destruction. We see this often in the case--
1. Of individuals.
2. Of families.
3. Of Churches.
4. Of nations. (W. Mackintosh Arthur, M.A.)
Uzziah-his sin and punishment
Rightly to apprehend Uzziah’s sin, we must remember through what
barriers he had to break before he could resolve to do this thing. He had to
disregard the direct command of Jehovah that the priests alone should burn
incense on His altar. He had to despise the history of his people, to reject
the solemn lessons that he had learned from childhood. He was defiling his own
sacred things; the Jewish history was the history of his own people, the
charter of his own blessings; the temple and the priesthood were the solemn
ordinances of his own worship. He was impiously defying the holy name by which
he himself was called.
I. Prosperity and
pride. “Uzziah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to
all that his father Amaziah did. 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.” The results of godly training and holy companionship
are often seen in the prudence, and diligence, and sobriety which command
success and reputation. The modes of life which the influence of the gospel
forms, which are the tradition of Christian households, are just those which
conduce to happiness and honour. Mere worldly prosperity is often the prelude
to daring impiety. It is a perpetual question how to “remove” the “hireling”
spirit out of the Church. Men whose ships bring them wealth, whose plans in
business succeed, come to fancy themselves fit for any place of responsibility
in the Church. Churches love to pay honour to men of wealth; choose for places
of special service, not those of pure heart, and fervent faith, and lowly
self-denial, but those who have succeeded in business, and whose plans, it is
therefore thought, must needs be followed. Uzziah was a good king, but he was a
bad priest; he was not the priest whom God had chosen. Men whose godliness, and
integrity, and Christian conduct have won them respect are most valuable helps
in all Christian activities. But mere worldly success is a poor standard by
which to measure these things, and ought never to be allowed to secure to any
voice and direction in Church affairs. “It appertains not to these to burn
incense unto the Lord.” It is a matter of personal experience how prosperity lifts
up the heart, and lures us to destruction. “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
II. Pride and
punishment. “Here now,” you may be ready to say, “is something in the story
which is simply Jewish, quite foreign to the life of to-day. Do you mean to say
that God visits men with judgments now? Is there anything here to come home to
the hearts of Englishmen?” I do say that God is judging us; the same God who
judged His people of old. There is in this very part of the narrative something
to set us thinking on the mysteries of our daily life, and to help in their
interpretation. Suppose, now, a physician had given us a purely medical report
of this incident. Suppose he had told us that there was in Uzziah an
unsuspected taint of leprosy: a taint which, if he had been careful of himself,
especially avoiding strong passionate excitements, might never have developed
into actual symptoms of disease. Hereditary or constitutional disease may often
lurk for a lifetime unsuspected, till some circumstance favours its
development, and instantaneously it works itself out in all its power. Of all
such favouring circumstances, strong passionate excitement is the surest; in
the heat of pride the seeds of sickness are frequently quickened. What stories
are more impressive or more common than those of men suddenly stricken down on
the eve of the gratification of their pride, in the first thrill of triumph, in
the very fever of unbridled ambition? A man has been all his lifetime amassing
wealth; satisfied at length, he builds himself a lordly mansion, that he may
rank with the nobles of the land. He builds, but he never enjoys it--he is
found some morning smitten with impotence; and the palsied speech-muscles
refuse to articulate a word. A statesmen is summoned to the royal
presence-chamber; at the council-table the blood-stain at his lips declares
that honours and life will soon be laid together in the dust. A student is
called to preside over some learned body; his brain gives way, and the asylum is
henceforth his home. Instead of leprosy, read paralysis or haemorrhage, or
softening of the brain, and it is
just a narrative from our daily press. Say what we will, this is true, that
pride and passion, unregulated ambition and impious recklessness, do terribly
punish those whom they enslave. The Jewish story interprets the English life.
If Englishman trace these things to natural causes, and go no further, while
the Jew says,
“God has smitten him,” the Jew is right and the Englishman is wrong. It is a sign
of unbelief and folly to refuse to trace God’s hands, save in events that are
utterly unintelligible. God’s great work is to reveal, not to hide Himself. It
is part of His order of nature that bodily pains should often reveal and rebuke
the workings of an ungodly soul. The hour of pride is often, too, an hour of
terrible revelation of hidden spiritual taints; which of us has not found
secret sine leaping to light in the heats of unbridled passion? We flattered
ourselves that God made us to prosper because we sought Him. Our seeking of Him
became a tradition of the past, a memory; we thought we had overcome our
temptations, laid aside our easily besetting sin; and, even while we boasted,
we fell before God and men. We have thanked God we were not as other men;
suddenly we have had
to change our boasting, we have known ourselves the chief of sinners. As long
as we seek God, He will make us to prosper; but only so long. Keep we ever near Him, ever
following Him, ever obeying and trusting Him, and we shall be “marvellously
helped and be strong.”
III. Punishment and
shame. Hope concerning Uzziah is given in the record of his hasting to go out
of the temple. His proud heart was broken; he was smitten with shame. There
needed not “the priests, the valiant men,” to thrust him out: “Yea, himself
hasted also to go out, because the Lord had smitten him.” It may have been mere
terror that drove him forth, the force of circumstances, and not a convicted,
penitent heart. His self-abasement may have been as godless as was his
exaltation. It may have been so; but it may have been far otherwise. Assuredly
God intended it to be otherwise. Of the seven years that he spent in the
“several house” we know nothing; of this we may be sure, that during all those
years God was seeking to restore and save his soul. In solitude, while his son
was over his kingdom, and regents were doing the work God had taken from his
hands, he might have learnt many a lesson he had not learnt upon the throne.
The dignity and service forfeited through pride may be never regained. A stain
may cling to the name; the reputation long held honourable, and lost through a
shameful fall, may not even after
death be recovered. Sons may blush more over the dishonourable
grave and the one terrible sin of their fathers than they triumph in the glory
of a whole life. Impiety is a fearful thing, and has a fearful curse. (A.
Mackennal, B.A.)
The religious element necessary in commonwealths
We need more than animals to make a commonwealth worth preserving;
we need more than bodies, and more than what is usually, but too narrowly,
denominated practical substance; we need the religious element, the spiritual
force, that marvellous telescopic faculty that looks away beyond the visible
into that which is unseen. We need to have ghostly men among us; men who see
the metaphysical in the literal; men who know that nothing is true that is not
metaphysically true; men who insist that we see nothing with the naked eye, and
that vision is a heart-gift, an inward faculty, a sublime treasure entrusted to
men of God. Thus the Church will always have an important part to play in the
upbuilding of the State, in the government of kings, in the direction of great
affairs. (J. Parker, D.D.)
Verse 10-11
For he loved husbandry.
We cannot always follow the pursuits we love
Is there anything more distressing than to be compelled to do the
thing we have no heart for? Many a man in the city would leave his occupation
to-morrow if he could find bread in the thing he really loves. And many men are
in positions that look lofty, and that are amply rewarded, for which they care
nothing; they would rather be at home attending to the garden, watching the bees,
reading noble books. But we cannot do what we would like to do. Herein is part
of our discipline, which is part of our education. We must have the will broken
somewhere. No man can
reach the full stature of his manhood, and realise all that is sweetest in
life, until his will has been cut right in two. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Verse 15
For he was marvellously helped till he was strong.
Marvellously helped till strong
Two kinds of help, natural and supernatural.
1. A time when we cannot help ourselves. Infancy.
2. A time of growth, when we can help ourselves. Youth, manhood.
3. When thus strong the supernatural help ceases.
Not less provision made on that account. There is joy and
co-operation with God. As an earthly father requires to be obeyed and served,
beholds strength and disposition to co-operate, so the heavenly Father, etc.
(G. Matheson.)
Prosperity
I. Uzziah’s
prosperity.
1. The particulars of his prosperity.
2. The author of his prosperity. This was God (Uzziah signifies
“strength from Jehovah.”) “He was marvellously helped.” God helped him against
his enemies, and in all he undertook. It might have been otherwise. Instead of
victory he might have experienced defeat. His building and agricultural schemes
might have proved unsuccessful. It is always well to set the Lord at our right
hand. We may plough and plant, but He only can cause the seed to germinate, and
grow, and fructify. We may contrive and work, but He only can bless our endeavours.
3. The secret of Uzziah’s prosperity. It is distinctly set forth in
the fifth verse of this (26) chapter, “He sought God in the days of Zechariah,
who had understanding in the visions of God: and so long as he sought the Lord
God made him to prosper.” What is there that God cannot do for a man who takes
Him into his counsels? He can help him “marvellously.” He can exalt valleys and
level mountains, make crooked places straight and rough places plain. He can
bring clients into the office and ready-money customers into the shop. He has
the hearts of all men in His hands, and all the forces of the universe; and He
can do whatsoever
He will.
II. Uzziah’s pride.
1. His prosperity made him proud. “His heart was lifted up.” A great
change for the worse was wrought in him. Whether it was brought about suddenly
or gradually we are not told. We assume that Uzziah did not become proud all at
once. He who had formerly recognised God as the prime cause of his splendid
achievements became wilfully blind, and we shall soon see what effect this had
upon his conduct.
2. His pride led him into presumption. The tendency of pride is to
make men giddy, and as the result their vision is beclouded, their judgment is
perverted.
III. Uzziah’s
punishment.
1. He was resisted in his attempt to do that which was unlawful;
resisted by the proper guardians of the temple. Azariah, the high priest,
seeing what he was about to do, went in after him, and with him fourscore
priests of the Lord, who were valiant men. No time was lost (verse. 18).
2. He was smitten with leprosy. “The leprosy rose up in his forehead
before the priests in the house of the Lord.” There was the bright scaly spot
which told its own terrible tale--the mark of God’s disapprobation, and it was
on his brow, where all could see it.
3. He was thrust out of the temple as unclean. It was not necessary,
however, to use force; conscious that God had smitten him, he hurried out,
self-condemned, probably shrieking out his woe, and cursing his folly.
4. He was separated from society (Leviticus 13:46).
5. He, being a leper, was buried alone. Josephus tells us that he
“was buried by himself in his own garden.” In all likelihood his resting-place
was a field or garden adjoining the usual burial-place of the kings.
Lessons:
1. God is the giver of prosperity.
2. Prosperous men are in danger of becoming proud.
3. Pride is often followed by presumption.
4. Presumption is sure of punishment. (J. Baker Norton.)
Verse 17-18
It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the
Lord.
We must abide within our limitation
The great temptation of some natures is to try to do the very
things for which they are least qualified. There is a marvellous irony in human
genius in this matter. It would seem to be an inscrutable mystery that men will
persist in attempting to do the thing which they cannot do, and which they were
obviously never meant to do. Whenever a man is out of place he is guilty of wasting strength. A
man can only work well within his own limit. No man should strain himself at
his labour, be he poet, or musician, or divine, be he prophet or merchantman;
he should keep easily within the circle he was appointed to occupy, for all
stretching is weakening, all effort that is above the line of nature tends to
destruction, both to the worker and of the influence which he ought to exert.
Know your own place, and keep it. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The folly of self-will
God has sacred places, God has allotted specific duties to men;
every man will be wise in proportion as he sees his own calling, and makes his
calling and election sure. Reward lies along that line. Leave your native
heath, take your life into your own hands, say you will create a sphere for
yourself and do as you please, and you shall be stung with disappointments as
with a cloud of insects. Say you will insist upon having your own way in the
world, and every rock you strike will but injure the hand that smites it. But
live and move and have your being in God. Say, “Lord, not my will, but Thine be
done; make me door-keeper, or lamp-lighter, or hewer of wood or drawer of
water, or a Zechariah having learning in Thy visions and power of reading all
the apocalypse of Thy providence: what Thou wilt, as Thou wilt, as long as Thou
wilt: Thy will is heaven.” It is towards this end that all Christian education
must tend. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Uzziah’s pride punished
I. His reign as
king. This was pre-eminently successful. The Arab hordes on his south-east
borders were subdued, and the Ammonites were reduced to tribute. He was no less
vigorous in defensive than offensive operations. He paid as great attention to
the arts of peace as of war. He was the special patron of agriculture; he dug
wells, built towers in the wilderness for the protection of the flocks, and
cultivated rich vineyards.
II. Uzziah’s sin.
Uzziah was ambitious; he was not willing that any in his realm should enjoy
prerogatives denied to him.
III. Uzziah’s
punishment. Henceforth the most menial subject would not exchange places with
the leprous king. As lessons taught by this narrative we learn--
1. Prosperity is dangerous. The record of Uzziah does not stand
alone. Prosperity seldom draws men to God. Gratitude does not increase in
proportion as God’s favours multiply. A man’s piety is not usually increased by
his becoming rich. It is seldom men are more religious in health than in
sickness. “Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept Thy Word.”
2. God is to be approached reverently. Uzziah seems to have thought
that by being a king, successful and famous, he had earned the right to enter
the holy place and offer sacred incense. It is often expected that God will
accept worship if the display of wealth mingle with it largely. Does not the
ability to offer such choice incense gain for one the right to lift the sacred
veil and stand where God hath said His Priests only should enter, and “the
stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death?” Uzziah thought that God would
not exclude a favoured king from that sacred presence. Men often think that it
is possible to find some incense wafted from a worldly censer which shall ascend
as fragrance to the unseen holy. But what had Uzziah’s kingdom to do toward
fitting him to perform a priestly act? Man’s approach to God is through Christ.
In the Old Testament dispensation, not even a symbol of His person or work
could be accepted or admitted into the holy place, other than that which God
had appointed.
3. Sin, though in high places, must be rebuked. It seemed a bold act
for the priests to say to Judah’s king, “Go out of the sanctuary, for thou hast
trespassed.” They were the humble ministers of religion, and he the proud and
pampered king of a victorious people. He had transcended his limit, and must be
rebuked, though he be a king. Such invasions of religion are not rare. The
world is always ready to take religious duties into her own hands, to tell how
God is to be worshipped, what doctrines are to be preached, what duties
prescribed, what faults are to be rebuked, and what allowed. She enters with a
regal tread, and speaks with imperious voice. What shall be done? Does and will
the Church stand firm in her antagonism to wrong and sin, though they stand in
kingly pride to offer polluted incense on her sacred altars?
4. Men may be blinded to sin, till they see its consequences. It is
not probable that Uzziah realised his guilt till the “leprosy rose up in his
forehead.” Then he hasted to go out of the sanctuary. Perhaps he feared other
and severer judgments would follow. Had God stayed His retributive hand, and
the king been suffered, with no leprous spots, to leave the altar as proud and
ambitious as he entered, his guilt would have been as great. The smitten
forehead, like a detective, laid the offender under arrest, and thus exposed
him; but it did not create or increase his sin. Many, guilty of the most
grievous wrongs, think themselves respectable, and claim the confidence of
others, till some providence uncovers their evil deeds. It is a mistake to
suppose that all the criminals are in prison. A bad men is as bad on one side
of iron bars as on the other. (Monday Club Sermons.)
Verse 19
Then Uzziah was wroth.
Impatience of reproof
How often is the sinner only provoked to greater wickedness
by the obstacles which Divine grace opposes to his wrong-doing! How few men
will tolerate the suggestion that their intentions are cruel, selfish, or
dishonourable! Remonstrance is an insult, an offence against their personal
dignity; they feel that their self-respect demands that they should persevere
in their purpose, and that they should resent and punish any one who has tried
to thwart them. The most dramatic feature of this episode, the sudden frost of
leprosy in the king’s forehead, is not without its spiritual antitype. Men’s anger
at well-merited reproof has often blighted their lives once for all with
ineradicable moral leprosy. In the madness of passion they have broken bonds
which have hitherto restrained them and committed themselves beyond recall to
evil pursuits and fatal friendships. (W. H. Bennett, M.A.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》