King Uzziah - The King Who Self-Destructed Series

This was the Temple of the Most High God - this was YHWH's Temple - the Good God of Creation - the One and Only God. YHWH simply could not allow King Uzziah to bring such desecration upon the Temple nor upon himself.

Verse 19 seals King Uzziah's fate. It's one thing to have a single priest like Azariah getting in your way but it's all together different if 80 other priests join in the cause. They reprimanded the king, they pointed out his wrongdoing and they pointed the way towards confession and repentance. All he had to do is to put down the censer, lay aside the incense and back out of the Temple. All would be forgiven. Nothing disastrous would occur. He would be allowed to go back to the palace and regain his position as God's King.

Horribly, that is not what happened. Instead of becoming contrite, King Uzziah became mad. His anger towards God, towards the priests and the situation go the best of him. He refused to back down and as we read in verse 19 the LORD was quick with a stroke of judgment. Leprosy broke out on King Uzziah's forehead.

The Lord put a mark of uncleanness right on King Uzziah's forehead, where he could not hide it. It's interesting that the LORD chose his forehead. Behind our foreheads lies our brain, our seat of reason and intellect. It's part of what makes us who we are. The LORD marked King Uzziah in such a fashion to show that his inner most character had been defiled - he had allowed pride and self-idolatry to take over. He had thought that he could become someone greater and more powerful than God would allow a man.

I don't think that King Uzziah was suppose to affected by leprosy. Even though his sin was premeditated I don't think it was to be a life sentence. Others like Miriam and Naaman had been plagued with leprosy but in both cases they humbled themselves, repented and experienced healing. I have to think that this could have happened with King Uzziah and I believe it is what the LORD truly wanted for this son of David.

After all, when you look at his life and how much he desired to walk in the ways of the LORD you just come to the realization that in time God would heal this man if he changed his ways. However, we have no record of his repentance. All we read is that King Uzziah had to exile himself from his palace, from the Temple and live out the rest of his days in a separate house and his son Jotham took over the royal duties.

It is easy to look at such a life and say what happened to this man could or will never happen to any of us. But for any of us who have lived a few years we know how easy it is to slip into a world of pride, arrogance and self-conceit. The Bible tells us that " Pride goes before destruction, a haughty ( or arrogant) spirit before a fall." Proverbs 16:18.

Thankfully, the Bible gives us some sound advice that can keep this from happening.

1. By always remembering that the God is God

"...Shall the potter be regarded as the clay; that the thing made should say of its maker, 'He did not make me', or the thing formed say of him who formed it, 'He has not understanding?'" - Isaiah 29:16 (ESV)