The record now turns from Judah to Israel and to Jeroboam II who had the longest reign of any of Israel’s kings, forty-one years. He was not a good king when it came to spiritual matters, but he brought prosperity to the nation and delivered it from its enemies. Even back in those ancient days, the average citizen didn’t care about the character of the nation’s leaders so long as the people had food on their tables, money in their purses, and no fear of being invaded by their enemies.
Thanks to Assyria’s victories over Syria, both Israel and Judah were finally relieved of the bondage of that persistent enemy and both had opportunity to use their wealth and manpower for building instead of battling. Israel was able to drive the Syrians out of the border outposts and Jeroboam also recovered the territory that had been lost to Syria. The kingdom of Israel reached the dimensions achieved in the days of Solomon (vv. 25 and 28; 1 Kings 8:65). The Lord permitted these victories, not because the people or their king deserved them, but because He had pity on His people who were suffering under the rule of Syria (14:26; see Ex. 2:23–25).
The prosperity of Israel was only a veneer that covered sins and crimes that were an abomination in the sight of the Lord. The prophets Amos (1:1) and Hosea (1:1) ministered during Jeroboam’s reign and warned that judgment was coming. Judgment did come in 722 BC, when the Assyrians invaded Israel, deported many of the Jewish people, and imported Gen-tiles from other conquered nations to mix with the Israelites. This policy eventually produced a mixed race, part Jew and part Gentile, as well as a hybrid religion with its own temple and priesthood on Mount Gerizim (John 4:20–22). After the Babylonian captivity, the orthodox Jews who returned to Judah would have nothing to do with the Samaritans (Ezra 4:1–4; Neh. 2:19–20; see John 4:9).
What were the sins of this prosperous kingdom? For one thing, the rich were getting richer at the expense of the poor, who were exploited and abused. The wealthy landowners barely cared for their slaves, and the courts disobeyed the law and decided cases in favor of the rich and not in fairness to the poor. In the midst of this corruption, the leaders practiced their “religion,” attended services, and brought their sacrifices (Amos 2:1–8; 4:1–5). While the wealthy men and their wives lived in luxury, the poor were downtrodden and robbed of their civil rights (Amos 6:1–7; Hos. 12:8). The “religious” crowd longed for “the day of the Lord” to come, thinking that this momentous event would bring even greater glory to Israel (Amos 5:18–27). The people didn’t realize that “the day of the Lord” actually meant divine judgment on the nation, for God’s judgment begins with His own people (1 Peter 4:17). Israel was given to idolatry, which led to moral decay and worldly corruption (Hos. 6:4; 7:8; 9:9; 11:7; 13:2). Jeroboam II ruled from 793 to 753, and in 722 BC the Assyrians invaded Israel and brought to an end the nation of Israel.
British poet and playwright Oliver Goldsmith said it perfectly in his poem The Deserted Village: Ill fares the land, to hast’ning ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay.
Uzziah (Azariah), an illustrious king (15:1–7; 2 Chron. 26) His given name was Azariah, which means “Jehovah has helped,” but when he became king of Judah at age sixteen, he took the “throne name” Uzziah, which means “Jehovah is strength.” The people made him king when his father Azariah was taken to Samaria after his foolish war against Jehoash, king of Israel (2 Kings 14:13).
During his father’s fifteen years of captivity in Samaria, Uzziah ruled Judah and sought to do the will of God. After his father’s death, Uzziah continued on the throne until he foolishly attempted to become a priest and God judged him by making him a leper. At that time, his son Jotham became coregent with his father. The record declares that Uzziah was king of Judah fifty-two years (2 Chron. 26:3), including his coregencies with his father Azariah (fifteen years) and also with his son Jotham (possibly ten years).
From the very beginning of his reign, Uzziah showed himself to be a faithful worshipper of Jehovah, even though he didn’t try to eliminate the “high places,” the hill shrines where the Jewish people worshipped. They were supposed to go to the temple with their gifts and sacrifices for the Lord, but it was more convenient to visit a local shrine. Some of the high places were still devoted to pagan deities, such as Baal (2 Chron. 27:2), and it wasn’t until the reigns of Hezekiah and Josiah that the high places were removed (2 Chron. 31:1; 2 Kings 23).
Uzziah’s accomplishments (2 Kings 14:22; 2 Chron. 26:2, 6–15). He was very successful in his military exploits. He recovered from Edom the city of Elath, although later it was lost to Syria and Israel (2 Kings 16:5–6; 2 Chron. 28:17). Their possessing Elath gave Judah access to the sea, and this helped in their trade with other nations. Uzziah had Zechariah as his counselor and sought to know and please the Lord. “As long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper” (26:5).
God prospered his armies and helped them to conquer the Philistines, the Arabians, and the Ammonites. After defeating the Philistines, he destroyed the walls of their key cities. This victory gave him additional access to the sea. To keep control over this newly acquired territory, Uzziah built cities in Philistia and settled them with Jewish soldiers and officers. After conquering the Ammonites, Uzziah’s fame increased even more. But these victories on foreign soil didn’t deter him from strengthening things at home. He built towers on the walls of Jerusalem and repaired the damage that was done by the army of Israel (2 Kings 14:13). He had a well-trained army and provided them with the weapons and armor they needed, and he also encouraged the building of “war machines” that shot arrows and threw stones (26:11–15).
But Uzziah wasn’t just a gifted soldier and a careful builder; he was also a farmer at heart. He sought to develop the land by building cisterns and putting the people to work with the flocks and herds as well as the fields and vineyards. He built towers in the fields where the guards could watch for invaders and protect the people. “Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God,” wrote Thomas Jefferson in his Notes on the State of Virginia. Though a soldier, a builder, and a monarch, Uzziah was a man of the soil. He would have agreed with Booker T. Washington who said, “[T]here is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.”
Uzziah’s arrogance (15:5; 26:16–21). Unfortunately, Uzziah imitated his father and allowed his accomplishments to swell his head. Amaziah wanted to be known as a great general, but Uzziah wanted to serve as both king and priest. In the Old Testament economy, the Lord separated the kings and priests, and while a priest could become a prophet (Ezekiel, Zechariah, John the Baptist), no prophet or king could become a priest. Only in Jesus Christ do we find the offices of prophet, priest, and king combined, and His priesthood is “after the order of Melchizedek” (Ps. 110:4; Gen. 14:18–20; Heb. 5—7). For Uzziah to covet the priesthood was ignorance, for he knew the law of Moses, and for him to try to seize it by force was arrogance, for he knew what happened to others who had attempted to claim what wasn’t rightfully theirs. (See Lev. 10; Num. 12, 16.)
“But when he became strong, his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly” (26: nasb). There’s no question that Uzziah was an illustrious king whose name was known far and wide (26:15), but what the Lord did for him should have produced humility and not pride. Uzziah should have said with David, “Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house that You have brought me thus far?” (2 Sam. 7: nkjv). Instead, he convinced himself that he deserved to be a priest as well as a king. He knew that the high priest burned the holy incense on the golden altar each morning and evening (Ex. 30:7–8), so he procured a censer and went into the temple precincts where only the priests were allowed to go (Num. 16:40; 18:7).
Azariah the high priest, along with eighty other priests, stood in his way and refused to allow him passage. It took a great deal of courage for them to oppose such a popular king, but their first allegiance was to the Lord. They could have compromised and perhaps won favors from the king, but they had but one desire, and that was to obey and glorify the Lord. The king became angry, refused to retreat, and raged at the priests for their interference. The Hebrew word translated “angry” in 26: implies “raging like a storm.”
Had the king immediately left the temple and sincerely repented of his sins, the Lord would have forgiven him, but Uzziah stood his ground and insisted on his way. It was then that the Lord intervened and put the leprosy on his forehead where the priests could clearly see it. They knew that lepers belonged outside the camp, not inside the temple (Lev. 13:45–46), and they hurriedly forced the king out of the holy precincts. King Uzziah couldn’t see the leprosy on his forehead, so perhaps it began to appear on other parts of his body so that he knew for certain that he was infected. The law demanded that those who intruded into the holy temple were to be put to death (Num. 18:7), but God graciously spared the king’s life and gave him leprosy, a “living death.”
Being a leper, the king couldn’t appear in public or even live in the palace. He was quarantined in an isolated house while his son Jotham ruled the land as coregent. When Uzziah died, he was buried in the royal cemetery, but apparently not in the tombs of the kings. He had a wonderful beginning but a tragic ending, and this is a warning to us that we be on guard and pray that the Lord will help us to end well. A good beginning is no guarantee of a successful ending, and the sin of unholy ambition has ruined more than one servant of the Lord. Uzziah the soldier was defeated by his pride; Uzziah the builder destroyed his own ministry and testimony; and Uzziah the farmer reaped the painful harvest of what he had sown. He is a warning to all who nurture unholy ambitions to intrude into that which God hasn’t appointed for them. (See Ps. 131.)