2 Chronicles 26:3
Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-two years. His mother's name was Jecoliah; she was from Jerusalem.
Sermons
Premature Responsibility, EtcW. Clarkson 2 Chronicles 26:1-5
Uzziah the ProsperousT. Whitelaw 2 Chronicles 26:1-15














In these verses we have a picture or a suggestion of -

I. PREMATURE RESPONSIBILITY. "All the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king." They all agreed to set a lad upon the throne. Events seem to have justified their course; and if Zechariah the prophet, or, what is more likely, some prominent "prince of Judah," acted as prime minister or protector, he may have succeeded even in the earlier years of his administration. But it is a very great mistake to devolve large responsibilities upon the young.

1. It is bad for the estate they have to administer, whatever that may be. "Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child," is a curse which has a wide application. The very young, with minds that must be immature, judge without knowledge, are swayed by persons rather than governed by principles, fall into serious and often into disastrous mistakes.

2. It is bad for themselves. It exposes them to several temptations which it is not right they should encounter, and it loads them with a weight of duty and difficulty they are not strong enough to carry. In most cases they break down, in some direction, under their burden. Responsibility is not for youth; it is for prime and for the ripe experience of later life.

II. THE INEQUALITIES OF CONDITION WHICH THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD ASSIGNS US. Uzziah "reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem." To him God gave more than half a century of power and wealth and their attendant advantages. To others he denies these larger gratifications altogether, and grants very limited comforts, and these for a very brief hour. How do we account for this? All is plain if we consider:

1. That neither justice nor kindness requires that God should give to one man as large a heritage as he has given to another; it is no injury to me to whom he has given one talent that it has pleased him to bestow ten talents on my neighbour. I had no claim to that one talent which, of his pure goodness, he has conferred upon me.

2. That the chief value of human life depends neither upon its surroundings nor upon its duration, but upon its moral and spiritual characteristics.

3. That if there be any inequalities that, in the cause of righteousness, require adjustment, there remains the long future for redress.

III. THE INFLUENCE OF MOTHERHOOD ON OUR CHARACTER AND OUR COURSE. It is not without meaning that we have the record, "his mother's name was Jecoliah." To much too large a degree in the East all that the mother contributes is maternity. But "woman, beloved of God in old Jerusalem," gave much more than this. She was not a cipher in the home; she was an intelligent, active sharer in the thought and history of her country and her time. Jesus Christ owed much to her truer appreciation, and to her more faithful ministry. It is likely that Uzziah owed as much to his mother as to his father in the way of godly training and good home influence. A very considerable number of the great and good men who have rendered conspicuous services to their race became what they were because they grew up in the atmosphere of a mother's gentle and beautiful life. "No mother knows who or what she has in her cradle," or can tell how great a share she may have, by the training of the little child that is slumbering there, in the enrichment or the reformation of the world.

IV. THE INFLUENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY ON OUR CHARACTER AND COURSE. "He sought God in the days of Zechariah" (ver. 5). No doubt this seeking of the Lord was very largely due to the prophet's influence over him. The true Christian minister is, like the Hebrew prophet, "one that speaks for God" to men. And he who speaks for his Divine Master with faithfulness, with earnestness of spirit, in true and pure affection, speaking "the whole counsel of God" as he is able to learn and utter it, has a work to do and an influence to exert second to none in the hearts and lives of men. From the court to the cottage-home the gracious power of such ministry is felt in the land.

V. THE PROSPERITY OF PIETY. "As long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper" (ver. 5). (See homily on 2 Chronicles 25:15," The folly of irreligion.")

1. There is no prosperity worthy of the name, or worthy of our ambition and pursuit, outside the fear and the favour of God. "Who hath hardened himself against him and prospered?" Many have seemed to do so, and have imagined that they did. But, in the light of Divine wisdom, they have miserably failed.

2. There can be no failure in the faithful service of the Supreme. What looks like it, there may be, there often is; but not the thing itself. For he who walks with God, and is the friend of Jesus Christ, must be what is right and good; must stand where he is secure from harm; must be witnessing for the truth of God; must be moving on towards deeper wisdom, purer joy, and a glorious estate beyond. - C.

Then Uzziah was wroth.
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.).

People
Aaron, Amaziah, Ammonites, Amos, Amoz, Arabians, Azariah, Hananiah, Isaiah, Jecholiah, Jecoliah, Jeiel, Jotham, Maaseiah, Maonites, Mehunim, Meunim, Meunites, Uzziah, Zechariah
Places
Angle, Ashdod, Corner Gate, Egypt, Eloth, Gath, Gurbaal, Jabneh, Jerusalem, Shephelah, Valley Gate
Topics
Fifty, Fifty-two, Jechiliah, Jecholiah, Jecoliah, Jecoli'ah, Jerusalem, Mother's, Reign, Reigned, Reigning, Ruling, Sixteen, Uzziah, Uzzi'ah
Outline
1. Uzziah succeeding, and reigning well in the days of Zechariah, prospers
16. 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 26:3

     7240   Jerusalem, history

2 Chronicles 26:1-23

     5366   king

2 Chronicles 26:3-5

     5302   education
     8351   teachableness

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.
1. Accordingly Simon would not suffer Matthias, by whose means he got possession of the city, to go off without torment. This Matthias was the son of Boethus, and was one of the high priests, one that had been very faithful to the people, and in great esteem with them; he, when the multitude were distressed by the zealots, among whom John was numbered, persuaded the people to admit this Simon to come in to assist them, while he had made no terms with him, nor expected any thing that was evil from
Flavius Josephus—The Wars of the Jews or History of the Destruction of Jerusalem

Of Preparation.
That a Christian ought necessarily to prepare himself before he presume to be a partaker of the holy communion, may evidently appear by five reasons:-- First, Because it is God's commandment; for if he commanded, under the pain of death, that none uncircumcised should eat the paschal lamb (Exod. xii. 48), nor any circumcised under four days preparation, how much greater preparation does he require of him that comes to receive the sacrament of his body and blood? which, as it succeeds, so doth it
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Obedience
Take heed, and hearken, O Israel; this day thou art become the people of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt therefore obey the voice of the Lord thy God, and do his commandments.' Deut 27: 9, 10. What is the duty which God requireth of man? Obedience to his revealed will. It is not enough to hear God's voice, but we must obey. Obedience is a part of the honour we owe to God. If then I be a Father, where is my honour?' Mal 1: 6. Obedience carries in it the life-blood of religion. Obey the voice of the Lord
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

Chronicles
The comparative indifference with which Chronicles is regarded in modern times by all but professional scholars seems to have been shared by the ancient Jewish church. Though written by the same hand as wrote Ezra-Nehemiah, and forming, together with these books, a continuous history of Judah, it is placed after them in the Hebrew Bible, of which it forms the concluding book; and this no doubt points to the fact that it attained canonical distinction later than they. Nor is this unnatural. The book
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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