2 Chronicles 26:15-21 (// 2 Kings 15:1-7)
King Uzziah’s 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 of incense. But Azariah the priest went in after him, with eighty priests of the LORD who were men of valor, and they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. 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. Now he had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and when he became angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of the LORD, by the altar of incense. …And they rushed him out quickly, and he himself hurried to go out, because the LORD had struck him. And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death, and being a leper lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the LORD. And Jotham, his son was over the king's household, governing the people of the land.
Isaiah 6:1-5
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. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
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Around the middle of the 8th century B.C., two kings reigned in the Holy Land, Jeroboam II in the northern kingdom of Israel, and Uzziah (Azariah) in the southern kingdom of Judah. Both kings enjoyed lengthy stays on the thrones of their respective kingdoms: 41 years for Jeroboam and 52 for Uzziah. By the secular measure of their day, they were considered successful monarchs. In strong economies, military strength, with splendor and polish, theirs was a true gilded age. In reality, these good times were aided by the rise of an insidious military juggernaut taking shape in the form of Assyria to the east. This growing shadow constrained perennial enemies, like the Syrians, who were preoccupied with this growing threat. In the meantime, Jeroboam and Uzziah played, unhindered by the usual external threats.
However, God didn’t see these good times in Israel and Judah as good, but rather not good. In a word: unfaithful. This lack of fidelity came to a head with Uzziah on the fateful day when he “entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense” (2 Chron. 26:16). He was so puffed up as to forget that this priestly proffering was not his prerogative. King and Priest were always distinct in function and authority, each with unique roles— the king to steward the faithfulness of the people; and the priests as stewards to the means of faithfulness.
The first century Jewish historian, Josephus, reporting on Uzziah’s infamous visit to the Temple in his Antiquities of the Jews, wrote, “While Uzziah was in this state… he was corrupted in his mind by pride, and became insolent… he put on the holy garment, and went into the Temple to offer incense to God upon the golden altar… In the meantime, a great earthquake shook the ground and a rent was made in the Temple, and the bright rays of the sun shone through it, and fell upon the king’s face, insomuch that the leprosy seized upon him immediately.” The problem is, neither 2 Kings 15 nor 2 Chronicles 26 mentions an earthquake in connection to Uzziah. However, both prophetic books of Amos (1:1) and Zechariah (14:5) identify a great earthquake that devastated Israel and Judah somewhere in the mid 8th century B.C. during Uzziah’s reign.
At this time, the people of God, both north and south, were growing more lax in their relationship with God, and in response, He was beginning to raise up the so-called “writing prophets” to address this twin nation crises. Amos, Hosea and Micah all prophesied during the reigns of Jeroboam II and Uzziah, and the animus behind their exhortations and condemnations appears to have been spurred on by the faithlessness of the two kings. From a rabbinic perspective, the concentration of multiple prophetic voices crammed into this period is unprecedented: a major crises invoking God’s attention. The book of Amos is especially trenchant in calling out the kings, with their names identified in the firstline of the book: “The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake[!]” (Emphasis mine.)
As those three prophets go to town calling for conviction and repentance north and south, a fourth prophet rises over the ashes of idolatry and hubris. That would be Isaiah. Prior to his call, he records a scathing “song” about the unfruitfulness of God’s “vineyard” (cf. 5:1-30). In the backdrop to the song, the unfettered prosperity of Jeroboam and Uzziah. Immediately following the “song,” Isaiah’s formal inauguration seems to come forth amid the great earthquake (6:3-4): “‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’ And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.” God appears in great glory and calls Isaiah to preach.
This earthquake— Holy Quake— symbolizes God’s prospective, imminent judgment on the two nations. Although Uzziah and Jeroboam will not hear or respond to the prophetic words, Isaiah’s oracles will endure to the dawn of the New Testament, where they find definitive fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ— the Son of David— the King who will be faithful.
For his part, King Uzziah’s reign will be devastated by the great quake. According to the rabbis, Isaiah’s prophetic call was inaugurated during that earthquake, which they also maintain was the traumatic occasion of Uzziah’s leprosy (so Josephus, as well). Isaiah 6:1 opens deliciously, “In the year that King Uzziah died.” The king’s death described is not thought to be his physical death, but the “death” of being a pariah, and relegated to the isolation of exile until his physical death.
Uzziah’s regnal notation records a 52-year-reign. However, historically, we know leprosy cut his reign short by 25 years. His son, Jotham ruled in his stead as co-regent. Traditionally, it is said that Uzziah lived out his days inside a dank burial cave just outside the gates of the city (pictured inset). These downer digs were known as the "Freedom House," because from that day forward, Uzziah was "free" from the concerns of ruling the nation. As with lore of this sort, the Holy Land is profuse. Did the king live there? Who knows? (But I see the sad, disgraced king there on the balcony in my mind’s eye each time I stand in the shadow of that haunting stone edifice.)
In these chapters of Kings (2 Kings 13-15) Israel and Judah are in the tractor-beam of an irreversible slouch to Exile. God’s promises to and longing for his people will never fail— but his people will fail. I think here of a passage in 1 Corinthians where Paul uses the Exodus generation as a negative example for the Church. That generation all fell in the wilderness and did not make it to the Promised Land. Paul writes, “We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.” (1 Cor. 10:9-12).
It’s kind of sobering that the prophets still speak to us today with words of exhortation and conviction. Jesus is our unfailing, faithful King. But will we be found faithful? Or will we be Uzziah-ed?
Inset Picture: The Tomb of the Sons of Hezir (to the left with columns) and the Tomb of Zechariah (to the right with pyramid shaped capital) located in the Kidron Valley between the Mount of Olives and Temple Mount in Jerusalem. A longstanding tradition maintains that King Uzziah lived out his last 25 years residing as a pariah in the Tomb of the Sons of Hezir. Can you picture the King sitting in a rocking chair on the balcony between the columns, looking wistfully up towards the Temple?
