Then Azariah the priest, along with eighty brave priests of the LORD, went in after him. Sermons
I. A PAINFUL SPECTACLE in the person of a leprous king. In Uzziah the leper we have one who occupied the highest place in the kingdom brought to an estate which the meanest subject in the realm, who had the hue of health in his cheeks, would not have accepted in place of his own; we have one in whose presence it was once an honour to stand, and whose face it was a high privilege to behold, reduced to such a condition that it was a kindness for any one to be with him, a pain for any eye to regard him, a sacrifice and defilement for any one to touch him; we have a man whose presence once brought highest honour to the home the threshold of which he might condescend to cross, now brought so low that no humblest householder in the land could or would permit him to pass his door; we have a man who did stand foremost in every religious privilege, debarred from entering the outer court of the sanctuary; we have one who had spent his manly energies in all forms of happy and useful activity, shut up in a separate house and secluded from affairs; we have an instance of complete humiliation, and we cannot fail to be affected by it if we dwell upon all that it meant to the unhappy subject of it. II. AN APPARENTLY HEAVY SENTENCE FOR ONE OFFENCE. We inquire - Why this terrible visitation? And we find that it was because the king invaded the temple of God and attempted, to do that which was not permitted by law. To any one judging superficially, the sentence may seem severe and indeed excessive. It may seem unjust to visit one day's wrong-doing, one act of guilt, with a heavy penalty for life - a penalty that disabled and disqualified, as leprosy did, for all the duties and all the enjoyments of human life. But we have not to look far to find - III. THE EXPLANATION Or THE SEVERITY. This is twofold. 1. It was of the first importance that the royal power should not presume upon ecclesiastical functions. It was not a mere question between king and priest; that would have been small enough. It was a question whether God should continue to rule, through his chosen officers, over the. nation, or whether the king should set aside the divinely given Law, and practically make himself supreme. To defy and disobey one of the clearest and one of the most emphatic precepts in the Law, and to assume a prerogative which God had strictly confined to the priestly order, was a step that was revolutionary in its character and tendency, that was calculated to overturn the most sacred traditions, and to break up the ancient usage as well as to lessen that sense of the Divine separateness and sanctity which it was the first object of the great Lawgiver to fasten on the mind of the people. It was a daring and a dangerous innovation, which nothing but overgrown presumption would have attempted, and which demanded the most striking and impressive rebuke that could be administered. The sentence was judicial, and was intended to warn all others from acts that were injurious, and from an ambition that was unholy. 2. It was the punishment, not merely of one sinful action, but also of a guilty state of heart. Uzziah would not have done this sacrilegious action if he had not fallen from the humility, which is the first condition of true piety, into a state of condemnable spiritual pride. "His heart was lifted up;" "his heart was haughty, and his eyes were lofty," and therefore he wanted to "exercise himself in things too high for him" (Psalm 131:1). Much success had spoiled him, as it spoils so many in every land and Church. It had made him arrogant, and human arrogance is a moral evil of the first magnitude, displeasing in a very high degree to the Holy One of Israel, utterly unbecoming in any one of the children of men, exposing the soul to other sins, requiring a strong and sometimes even a stern discipline that it may be uprooted from the heart and life. It may be hoped, and perhaps believed, that in the "several house" (ver. 21) in which Uzziah afterwards lived, he learned the lesson which God designed to teach him, humbled his heart before his Maker, and came to bless that pruning hand which dealt so severe a stroke to save the vine from fruitlessness and death. 1. Shrink from intruding where God does not call you. But, more particularly: 2. Recognize the fact that success in any sphere is a "slippery place," and calls for much self-examination and much earnest prayer for humility and simplicity of spirit. - C.
It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the Lord. 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.) (J. Parker, D. D.) Monday Club Sermons. 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.) People Aaron, Amaziah, Ammonites, Amos, Amoz, Arabians, Azariah, Hananiah, Isaiah, Jecholiah, Jecoliah, Jeiel, Jotham, Maaseiah, Maonites, Mehunim, Meunim, Meunites, Uzziah, ZechariahPlaces Angle, Ashdod, Corner Gate, Egypt, Eloth, Gath, Gurbaal, Jabneh, Jerusalem, Shephelah, Valley GateTopics Azariah, Azari'ah, Courageous, Eighty, Entered, Followed, Fourscore, Lord's, Priest, Priests, Sons, Strong, Valiant, Valor, ValourOutline 1. Uzziah succeeding, and reigning well in the days of Zechariah, prospers16. Waxing proud, he invades the priest's office, and is smitten with leprosy 22. He dies, and Jotham succeeds him Dictionary of Bible Themes 2 Chronicles 26:1-23 7735 leaders, political 5925 rashness 1310 God, as judge Library Jabneh. Jamnia. ...Pliny doth dispose the towns here in this order;--"Azotus, the two Jamnes, Joppe."--R. Benjamin, in the order backward, thus,--"Joppah, Jabneh, Azotus." That is Jabneh with this author, that is Jaminia with the other. A remembrance of this place is in 2 Chronicles 26:6: but the chief fame of it is for the Sanhedrim, that was placed there, both before the destruction of Jerusalem and after. Rabban Gamaliel, St. Paul's master, first presided there. Under whom came forth that cursed form of prayer, … John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica The Great Slaughters and Sacrilege that were in Jerusalem. Of Preparation. Obedience Chronicles Links 2 Chronicles 26:17 NIV2 Chronicles 26:17 NLT 2 Chronicles 26:17 ESV 2 Chronicles 26:17 NASB 2 Chronicles 26:17 KJV 2 Chronicles 26:17 Bible Apps 2 Chronicles 26:17 Parallel 2 Chronicles 26:17 Biblia Paralela 2 Chronicles 26:17 Chinese Bible 2 Chronicles 26:17 French Bible 2 Chronicles 26:17 German Bible 2 Chronicles 26:17 Commentaries Bible Hub |
    |