2 Chronicles 26:16 - Meaning and Application

This is the one stain on King Uzziah’s name, and it is unlike the faults we see in other kings. Some bad kings were marked by sexual sin, murder, oppression, persecution, and especially idolatry, and even good kings had some of those blemishes. David himself was not free from blame, as the matter of Uriah shows. Yet Uzziah is not charged with any of those sins. Still, he sinned against the Lord his God and felt God’s displeasure, not through war or rebellion, but through an incurable disease.

His sin was that he invaded the priest’s office. The right way is narrow, and many wrong paths branch off from it. Earlier kings had sinned by abandoning the temple of the Lord, as in 2 Chronicles 24:18, or by burning incense on idol altars, as in 2 Chronicles 25:14. Uzziah’s error was different, he went into the temple farther than God allowed and tried to burn incense on God’s altar. He may have thought he was showing unusual zeal, but it is easy to avoid one extreme and fall into another.

The root of his sin was pride. Pride destroys more people than any other sin. When Uzziah became strong, and God had wonderfully helped him until then (2 Chronicles 26:15), he grew wealthy, influential, and powerful. Instead of giving God the glory, his heart became proud, and that pride led to his ruin. Prosperity often makes foolish people puffed up and then destroys them. Since he had achieved so much honor, he began to think no task and no office was too great for him, not even the priesthood.

He went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense, likely on a feast day or some other special occasion when he wanted to seek God’s favor. It is hard to say exactly what pushed him into such boldness. No earlier king, good or bad, had tried this. The law was plain, and there was no example to support him. He could not claim necessity, as David once could when he ate the showbread. Perhaps he thought the priests did their work poorly and that he could do it better. Or perhaps he saw that idolatrous kings burned incense before their gods, and he wanted the same kind of honor at the Lord’s altar. But this was still a transgression against the Lord his God. He was not satisfied with the honors God had given him, and he tried to seize what God had forbidden, like Adam and Eve did.

The chief priest and the other priests opposed him, as we read in 2 Chronicles 26:17-18. They were ready to burn incense for him in the proper way, but when he tried to do it himself, they told him plainly that he was taking a duty that did not belong to him. They did not use force, even though they were brave men. Instead, they reasoned with him and showed him two things.

First, it was not lawful for him to burn incense. “It is not for you, Uzziah, but for the priests,” they said, because that was the birthright of Aaron’s sons, who were set apart for that service. Aaron and his sons were appointed by the law to burn incense (Exodus 30:7; Deuteronomy 33:10; 1 Chronicles 23:13). David had blessed the people, and Solomon and Jehoshaphat had prayed with them and taught them. Uzziah could have done that too, and it would have been a credit to him. But burning incense belonged to the priests alone. The law of Moses kept the kingly and priestly offices apart, and they were not to be joined again until the Messiah came. If Uzziah meant to honor God and gain his favor, he still missed the mark, because God accepts worship only when it is offered in the way he has appointed.

Second, it was not safe. The priests’ warning meant more than, “This will not bring you honor from God.” It also meant, “It will bring you shame, and you are risking God’s judgment.” The law clearly warned against anyone who was not a priest coming near that holy duty (Numbers 3:10; Numbers 18:7). Korah and his followers, though Levites, paid dearly for trying to burn incense, since that work belonged to the priests alone (Numbers 16:35). In the same way, our prayers are acceptable only when they are offered in faith through the hands of the Lord Jesus, the great high priest of our confession. Without him, we cannot expect God to receive them (Revelation 8:3).

Uzziah grew angry at the priests who corrected him and kept trying to force his way forward, as we read in 2 Chronicles 26:19. He was furious and would not let go of the censer. He took correction badly and refused to be stopped. We are all drawn toward what is forbidden.

His punishment was an incurable leprosy that broke out on his forehead while he was arguing with the priests. If he had listened, admitted his mistake, and turned back, all might have been well. But when he became angry with the priests and spoke against them, God became angry with him and struck him with leprosy. Josephus says that Uzziah threatened to kill the priests if they kept opposing him, and that then the earth shook, the temple roof split open, and a beam of sunlight shone on his face, where the leprosy appeared at once. Some think this may be the earthquake mentioned in Amos 1:1 and Zechariah 14:5.

This sudden blow settled the matter between Uzziah and the priests. When the leprosy appeared, they became bold enough to drive him out of the temple. In fact, he hurried out himself, because the Lord had struck him with a disease that clearly showed divine displeasure and made him unfit for ordinary company, much less for God’s altar. He would not listen to the priests, so God used a stronger way to make him see his error. If proud people will not learn from God’s spoken warnings, they will learn from his judgments. Yet even in his sin, Uzziah showed some fear of God, because as soon as he knew the Lord was angry with him, he stopped at once and left in haste.

Though Uzziah argued with the priests, he could not argue with his Maker. This became a lasting punishment for his sin. He remained a leper until the day he died, shut up in isolation and cut off from society. He had to leave all his affairs in the hands of his son, Jotham, who managed the kingdom in his place (2 Chronicles 26:21).

In this, God gave a clear example of how he opposes the proud and guards the purity and honor of his own commands. He also warned even great and good men to keep their distance and not force their way into things they have no right to handle. At the same time, he gave Uzziah a strong and continuing call to repent, and a long time to do it, which we have reason to hope he used well. Uzziah had been busy with many earthly matters, but now he was taken away from them and confined to a separate house. That gave him time to think about the life to come and prepare for it.

By punishing the king this way, God also meant to give the people a deep respect for the temple, the priesthood, and other holy things, which they had likely looked down on too much. While Uzziah was a leper, he was as good as dead, dead while still alive and buried before his time. In this way, the law was effectively carried out, that any outsider who came near was to be put to death.

Even after he died, the shame remained. They did not bury him in the tombs of the kings because he was a leper, and that stain outweighed all his other honor. His punishment matched his sin closely, like a face reflected in a mirror. Pride lay at the root of his offense, and so God humbled him and brought shame on him. He tried to take the priests’ place, and God struck him with a disease that put him under the priests’ judgment, since they were the ones responsible for deciding cases of leprosy (Deuteronomy 24:8).

He forced his way into the temple, where only the priests were allowed to enter, and God drove him out of the temple courts. Even the least of his subjects who was ceremonially clean had access there. He stood against the priests who tried to stop him, and for that the leprosy broke out in his forehead. In Miriam’s case, this kind of shame is compared to a father spitting in her face (Numbers 12:14).

He tried to take the honor of the priesthood, which did not belong to him, and for that he was stripped of even his royal honor, which was his by right. Those who chase forbidden honor often lose what they were allowed to have. Adam, by reaching for the tree of knowledge, from which he was not allowed to eat, shut himself out from the tree of life, from which he could have eaten. Let everyone who reads this say, The Lord is righteous.