“All the people of Judah took Uzziah,.. and made him king instead of his father Amaziah. He built Eloth and restored it to Judah… Uzziah was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem… And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.
“He went out and made war… and built cities… God helped him against the Philistines and the Arabians… The Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziah, and his fame spread.., for he became very strong… In Jerusalem he made machines, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and the corners, to shoot arrows and great stones. His fame spread far, for he was marvelously helped, till he was strong.
“But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar. Azariah the priest went in after him,.. and withstood King Uzziah and said, ‘It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests… Go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong, and it will bring you no honor from the Lord God.’ Then Uzziah was angry… with the priests, [and] leprosy broke out on his forehead in [their] presence… And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death, and lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the Lord..” 2 Chronicles 26:1-5,6,8,15-19,21
“In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.” Isaiah 6:1
From a line of kings who mostly followed the Lord, Uzziah was a model of faithfulness and godliness for half a century as he led Judah. He fortified her standing and fame by strengthening the military and developing the economy. But pride set in, which bled to defamation of God and anger against the priests who tried to turn him back. Not to be dishonored, the Lord inflicted him with leprosy, and he died an outcast. Into the nation then reeling from this dramatic fall, He called Isaiah to remind them who was really, and still, King.
In the flesh, man can put too much trust in men. The drive to succeed and support the right cause can compel us to rally behind and rely on a person to make things happen. Nations shaken with instability or struggling under prideful, ungodly leaders may look to varied saviors.
But no man is infallible, and God shares His glory with none. Whether in situations of prosperity or difficulty, He wants us to know who is really King. He’s the only One to be trusted and honored in matters great and small. (Isaiah 42:8)
The Lord calls us, like He did Isaiah, to repent of pride and self governance and to make known His supremacy. Are we, or those around us, foolishly looking to anyone but Him to fix our situations and society? How has He, by grace, checked our tendency to exalt self or man at His expense? How will we magnify His authority before others?
Lord, by word and deed, help me proclaim You King.
As the rain and snow 