2 Chronicles · chapter 26 of 36
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2 Chronicles 26 tells the reign of Uzziah of Judah, who prospers while he seeks God: he defeats the Philistines, fortifies Jerusalem and organizes a great army. But when he becomes strong his heart grows proud, he enters the temple to burn incense and, rebuked by the priests, becomes a leper until his death.
After the defeat and death of Amaziah, the people crown his son Uzziah, also called Azariah. His fifty-two-year reign is one of the longest and most prosperous in Judah. The Chronicler shows clearly the cause of the blessing and also the cause of the fall: the favor of God and the pride of the heart.
The people of Judah make Uzziah, sixteen years old, king in place of his father Amaziah. Uzziah rebuilds Eloth and restores it to Judah. He reigns fifty-two years in Jerusalem and does right in the sight of the Lord. He seeks God in the days of Zechariah, who understood the visions of God, and as long as he seeks the Lord, God gives him success.
God helps him against the Philistines, whose city walls he breaks down, and against the Arabs and the Meunites. The Ammonites pay him tribute, and his fame reaches Egypt. He builds towers in Jerusalem and in the wilderness, digs many cisterns, keeps livestock in the plain and loves farming. He organizes an army of more than three hundred thousand men, equipped with shields, spears, helmets, armor, bows and slingstones. He has machines devised by skilled men to shoot arrows and large stones from the towers. His fame spreads far, because he was marvelously helped until he was strong.
But when he becomes strong, his heart grows proud, to his own destruction. He is unfaithful to the Lord and enters the temple to burn incense on the altar of incense. The priest Azariah and eighty brave priests confront him. They tell him this is not for him but for the consecrated priests, and that he should leave the sanctuary, for he has been unfaithful. Uzziah, angry, has the censer in his hand; as he rages, leprosy breaks out on his forehead. The priests see it and hurry him out; he himself hastens to leave, because the Lord has struck him.
King Uzziah is a leper until the day of his death. He lives in a separate house, excluded from the house of the Lord, and his son Jotham runs the palace and judges the people. The prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, writes the rest of his acts. Uzziah is buried near his fathers, in the field of the kings, because they said he was a leper.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
As long as Uzziah sought the Lord, God made him prosper. The line explains the cause of all the success that follows: not just military strength or inventions but God's blessing on a king who sought him.
His fame spread far, because he was marvelously helped until he was strong. The same verse holds the seed of his fall: strength was a gift, and the danger is to forget where it came from.
When he was strong, his heart grew proud to his destruction, and he was unfaithful to the Lord by entering the temple to burn incense. The pride of power led him to take an office God had reserved for the priests.
The priests tell him that burning incense is not for him but for the consecrated priests, and ask him to leave. Even the king is under God's word, and spiritual guides have the responsibility to say so.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: He was sixteen and reigned fifty-two years. — 2 Chronicles 26:3
Answer: God made him prosper. — 2 Chronicles 26:5
Answer: Machines devised by skilled men, placed on the towers and corners to shoot arrows and large stones. — 2 Chronicles 26:15
Answer: His heart grew proud, and he entered the temple to burn incense on the altar of incense. — 2 Chronicles 26:16
Answer: The priest Azariah, with eighty priests of the Lord, men of valor. — 2 Chronicles 26:17
Answer: Leprosy broke out on his forehead, and he lived as a leper in a separate house until his death. — 2 Chronicles 26:19-21
Uzziah shows that success can be more dangerous than hardship. While he depended on God everything prospered; when he became strong he wanted to approach God in his own way. A class can think about which temples we tend to invade when we feel capable: opinions that accept no counsel, roles that are not ours, decisions made without consulting others.
He also teaches us how to receive correction. The priests were brave to confront the king. And Uzziah, instead of repenting in time, grew angry. The humility that receives a warning in time is better than the humility that comes after the punishment. Let us ask the Lord for a heart that gives thanks for his gifts and recognizes its limits.
2 Chronicles 26 ends with a leper king set apart from the house of God and a son, Jotham, ruling in his place. That transition opens chapter 27, where Jotham will be described as a king who, unlike his father, did not enter the temple and ordered his ways before the Lord.
Because the law reserved that task for the priests descended from Aaron, consecrated for it. The king had other responsibilities, but not that office. To enter and do it was to usurp a function God had given to others.
Yes, the king is called Uzziah in Chronicles and Azariah in the book of 2 Kings. He should not be confused with the priest Azariah in this chapter, who confronted him in the temple.
The Chronicler says the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, wrote the rest of Uzziah's acts. The book of Isaiah tells that his vision of the Lord in the temple came in the year King Uzziah died.