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King Uzziah
Who was King Uzziah in the Bible?
King Uzziah in the Bible was
one of the good kings of Judah.
His father was King Amaziah,
and his mother was a woman named Jecoliah, from Jerusalem.
Uzziah was the father of King
Jotham.
Ministering during Uzziah’s
reign were the prophets Hosea, Isaiah, Amos, and Jonah.
The kings in the northern
kingdom of Israel during his time were Jeroboam II, Zechariah, Shallum,
Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, and Hoshea.
Uzziah is also called Azariah
in 2 Kings 14:21.
King Uzziah was sixteen years
old when he began to reign, and he reigned for 52 years in Judah from
approximately 790 to 739 BC.
He “did
what was right in the eyes of the Lord” as his father Amaziah had
done (2 Chronicles 26:4).
King
Uzziah sought the Lord “during the days of Zechariah, who instructed
him in the fear of God.”
This Zechariah is most likely
a godly prophet to whom Uzziah listened.
As long as Uzziah made a point
to seek God, God made him prosperous (2 Chronicles 26:5).
Unfortunately, after Zechariah
died, Uzziah made some mistakes later in his life.
King Uzziah in the Bible is
shown as a wonderfully intelligent and innovative king, under whom the state of
Judah prospered (2 Chronicles
26:6–15).
He was used by God to defeat
the Philistines and Arabs (verse 7), he built fortified towers and strengthened the armies of
Judah (verses 9
and 14), and
he commissioned skilled men to create devices that could shoot arrows and large
stones at enemies from the city walls (verse 15).
He also
built up the land, and the Bible says he “loved the soil” (verse 10).
The Ammonites paid tribute to
King Uzziah, and his fame spread all over the ancient world, as far as the
border of Egypt (verses 8 and 15).
Unfortunately, King Uzziah’s
fame and strength led him to become proud, and this led to his downfall (2 Chronicles 26:16).
He committed an unfaithful act
by entering the temple of God to burn incense on the altar.
Burning incense on the altar
was something only the priests could do.
By attempting to do this
himself, Uzziah was basically saying he was above following the Law.
It was
not a humble thing to do.
Eighty
courageous priests, led by Azariah, tried to stop the king: “It is
not right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord. That is for the
priests, the descendants of Aaron, who have been consecrated to burn incense.
Leave the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful; and you will not be honored
by the Lord God” (2 Chronicles 26:18).
Uzziah became angry with the
priests who dared confront him.
But, “while
he was raging at the priests in their presence before the incense altar in the
Lord’s temple, leprosy broke out on his forehead” (verse 19).
Uzziah ran from the temple in
fear, because God had struck him (verse 20).
From that day to the day of
his death, King Uzziah was a leper.
He lived in a separate palace
and was not allowed to enter the temple of the Lord. His son, Jotham, governed
the people in his place.
King Uzziah is also mentioned
in the book of Matthew as one of the ancestors of Joseph, Jesus’ legal
father (Matthew 1:8–9).
Children's Bible Story -A King Becomes a Leper (2 Chronicles)
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A priest inspects a man for skin disease.
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