Take your Bibles with me and turn to the Book of Second Chronicles tonight. We're going to talk about an amazing king that you've probably never heard of.

When you think of the Mount Rushmore of the Kings of Israel, maybe you'd put Saul on there first. He was the first king and despite his terrible end he did a lot to establish Israel as a country.
You've got to put David on there, right? David. The man after God's own heart, the writer of the Psalms, the expander of the kingdom.
And then maybe King Solomon, the writer of Proverbs, the richest man that ever lived.
But who would be the fourth person? I think the fourth person would be the guy that we're studying tonight, King Uzziah.

King Uzziah had a 52-year reign, a long reign, where he was mostly a very faithful man. The country was unbelievably blessed under his leadership. He was so successful, he was such a larger-than-life figure Uzziah, the great prophet, wrote in Isaiah chapter 6:1, "In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord."

Isaiah was impacted by the death of this larger-than-life figure, this great figure named King Uzziah. So that's the life we're going to look at tonight.

King Uzziah is the son of Amaziah, the guy that we talked about last week. Remember Amaziah was a mostly good king but Amaziah fought a battle against Edom and Amaziah took the gods of the Edomites and started worshipping them then Amaziah picked a fight with Israel, who is much stronger than Judah at this point. God allowed Israel to basically wipe out Judah. It was so bad that they took a piece of the wall, a huge section of the wall of Jerusalem. They took all of the treasure out of Jerusalem, out of the Temple.

History says that Amaziah died in a coup. The people from Jerusalem went and killed him, got rid of the king because of his wickedness. They went and found his son Uzziah, who was only 16 years old, and they made Uzziah the next king of Judah.

Let’s go ahead and start reading about Uzziah’s reign here in 2 Chronicles 26.

1 Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the room of his father Amaziah.
2 He built Eloth, and restored it to Judah, after that the king slept with his fathers.
3 Sixteen years old was Uzziah when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Jecoliah of Jerusalem.
4 And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah did.
5 And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper.
6 And he went forth and warred against the Philistines, and brake down the wall of Gath, and the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod, and built cities about Ashdod, and among the Philistines.
7 And God helped him against the Philistines, and against the Arabians that dwelt in Gurbaal, and the Mehunims.
8 And the Ammonites gave gifts to Uzziah: and his name spread abroad even to the entering in of Egypt; for he strengthened himself exceedingly.
9 Moreover Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the corner gate, and at the valley gate, and at the turning of the wall, and fortified them.
10 Also he built towers in the desert, and digged many wells: for he had much cattle, both in the low country, and in the plains: husbandmen also, and vine dressers in the mountains, and in Carmel: for he loved husbandry.
11 Moreover Uzziah had an host of fighting men, that went out to war by bands, according to the number of their account by the hand of Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the ruler, under the hand of Hananiah, one of the king's captains.
12 The whole number of the chief of the fathers of the mighty men of valour were two thousand and six hundred.
13 And under their hand was an army, three hundred thousand and seven thousand and five hundred, that made war with mighty power, to help the king against the enemy.
14 And Uzziah prepared for them throughout all the host shields, and spears, and helmets, and habergeons, and bows, and slings to cast stones.
15 And he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal. And his name spread far abroad; for he was marvellously helped, till he was strong.

1. Uzziah’s incredible reign

This is an unbelievably amazing string of successes here. Uzziah was just stacking success after success in a way that had to have reminded people of King David or King Solomon.

Let's just list some of his successes here:

First there's military successes. Remember his father Amaziah got whooped by Israel. Uzziah, nothing like that happens. Uzziah actually goes and takes over the main cities of the Philistines. Gath and Ashdod? He fights against the Arabians. He becomes so strong that Ammon, who is one of the more powerful people groups in that area, starts paying tribute to the Judeans. Basically they're paying the Judeans a tax so that the Judeans don't wipe them out.

He also had civic successes. He rebuilt Jerusalem. Remember his father had allowed it to be destroyed by the Israelites. He builds defense towers in the desert. He digs wells all around Judah for irrigation.

He builds up the cattle of the country. He builds up the agricultural output of the country. It says that he loves husbandry. He loves the soil.

You know one of the interesting things about Israel as a country is that today it is one of the biggest exporters of fruit and flowers in the world. I think it's the fifth biggest exporter of fruit in the world and the third biggest exporter of flowers in the whole world and you've got to think it's a country like the size of New Hampshire. It's not a very big place and much of it is covered in desert. The way that they are able to do that is with ingenious use of water and irrigation and soil management.

Well King Uzziah is the inventor of those ideas. He's the first to do that. He brings water to the place. He brings health to the soil. Due to his reign Judah just flourishes.

And it doesn't stop there. He builds up the army. He makes the army more professional. Like David before him he sets up a group of mighty men, his special forces, 2,600 guys who you did not want to mess with. And they're the best armed army in the world. He sets up these defensive shields, spears, helmets.

Here's something really interesting about Uzziah. He invents catapults and giant weapons that shoot giant arrows. This is like 200 years before these weapons were found anywhere else in history. Uzziah is the first to employ them and he employs them in Jerusalem.

And he even builds a place called Eloth. Which is this beautiful resort city that's all the way down on the coast of the Red Sea. So that just shows how far the power of Judah expanded underneath this great king, King Uzziah.

52 years of just unbelievable blessing. This had to be like the new golden age of Judah. It had to feel like the second coming of David or Solomon.

So we've talked about the incredible reign of Uzziah. Let's talk about

2. The secret to Uzziah's success.

The scripture tells us what it is. Look at verse 5:

5 And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper.

You want to know the secret to Uzziah's success? He sought the Lord. He listened to the Word of God that was taught him by the preacher, Zechariah.

By the way there's like 30 Zacharias in the Old Testament, very common name but Uzziah listened to the Word of God, Uzziah sought the Word of God, Uzziah loved the Word of God.

And as long as Uzziah sought the Lord, as long as Uzziah walked with the Lord, God made him to prosper.

This reminds me of Joshua 1:8, where God said to Joshua:

8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
Joshua 1:8 (KJV)

If you want to have true success then walk with God. Let His Word direct your life. Trust in Him. Depend on Him.

There's another secret to Uzziah's success that's given to us in this text. We see it in verse 15.

15 And he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal. And his name spread far abroad; for he was marvellously helped, till he was strong.
2 Chronicles 26:15 (KJV)

I love that phrase. It says, "He was marvelously helped." Who was helping him? The Holy Spirit was helping him. The Holy Spirit was empowering him to do all these things that he did for Judah.

Listen I'm not saying you're gonna be Uzziah or I'm gonna be Uzziah. God doesn't have that plan for everybody or for most people. But I am going to tell you this: you can do far more with God than without Him. You will accomplish far more with the help of the Holy Spirit than you ever could trying to do things on your own.

I’m reminded of John 15:5

5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
John 15:5 (KJV)

We're not going to accomplish anything without help from the Lord. Without Him we can do nothing. Nothing that matters at least.

When you think of Uzziah he was obviously a very talented man, a very gifted person, an intelligent person. You don't have to look very far to see other gifted, intelligent leaders that led in the books of 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles. In fact one of them comes to mind: Ahab. Ahab was an incredibly talented king and yet could we look at Ahab and say that Ahab's life was blessed? That Ahab did something for God? Of course not! He was terrible.

You can almost think of your life like a car, right? Like this amazing car. Maybe some of us are a jalopy. Some of us are Ferraris. Your car isn't gonna do anything, though, without gas and the Holy Spirit, the help of God through His Holy Spirit, is the fuel. Without Him we can do nothing.

That's the secret to Uzziah's success but I want you to look at verse 15 one more time because there's actually a really sad phrase at the end of this verse.

15 And he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal. And his name spread far abroad; for he was marvellously helped, till he was strong.
2 Chronicles 26:15 (KJV)

It says he was marvelously helped till he was strong. I don't know about you but I read this chapter and it sure seems like he's strong the whole time. All the things that he accomplished sure seem like the accomplishments of a strong man.

I think what it means is he was strong in himself. He didn't need, or at least in his mind he didn't need, the help of the Lord anymore. He wasn't leaning on help from God anymore. He got lifted up with pride.

So we've talked about the amazing reign of Uzziah and we've talked about the secret of Uzziah's success. Let's look at

3. The downfall of Uzziah

We’ve read up to verse 15. Let’s pick up in verse 16:

16 But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the Lord his God, and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense.

This is exactly what happened to Uzziah's father. Uzziah's father, Amaziah, got filled with pride and his pride was his undoing. His heart was lifted up to his destruction. The same thing that happened to Amaziah's father. Three kings in a row have wonderful successes and then they're undone by sins of the heart.

Uzziah goes into the temple to burn incense on the altar of incense. That might not sound like a big deal. In fact you might be reading this and be like, "That's a good thing! Wow! Great! This man, he's a holy man; he wants to go into the temple!"

But remember, Jews didn't get to go into the temple. They got to go to the court around the temple. That's where the altar of sacrifice was. The actual temple itself, the actual tabernacle itself, was reserved only for the priests. Only priests got to go in there. The sons of Aaron.

And one of those things the priests did was they burned incense on the altar of incense. You want to know how serious this thing is to God? Listen to Numbers 18:7:

7 Therefore thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priest's office for everything of the altar, and within the vail; and ye shall serve: I have given your priest's office unto you as a service of gift: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.
Numbers 18:7 (KJV)

God said that if somebody who is not a priest comes into this holy place, they'll get put to death. If someone who is not a priest tries to do the priest's service, they are to be put to death.

So what's Uzziah thinking? Uzziah is filled with pride. He's thinking, "Man I've got everything. I'm the greatest king in a long time. You know what I need to do? I need to be a priest too." But God hadn't made him a priest. He wasn't a son of Levi.

He was just acting in pride.

Let's read what happens to him.

17 And Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him fourscore priests of the Lord, that were valiant men:
18 And they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him, It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the Lord, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honour from the Lord God.

To their great credit Azariah the priest and 80 other priests stand up to King Uzziah. Remember King Uzziah is a great man. He's a great king. He's a holy king. They say you can't do this. God doesn't want you to do this. This is something that God doesn't want you to do. It's not going to honor the Lord.

And you know what? I think if Uzziah had listened, if it had stopped here, then the rest of Uzziah's story would have been a positive story. But so often pride blinds people. When well-meaning people step in and try to stop them and try to point out their error, even in the most loving way, they bristle up. They get angry in their pride. That's exactly what Uzziah does.

Verse 19.

19 Then Uzziah was wroth, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense: and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord, from beside the incense altar.
20 And Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked upon him, and, behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out from thence; yea, himself hasted also to go out, because the Lord had smitten him.

Uzziah gets angry at this word from the priest and in that anger, only in that anger, God sends judgment. The judgment came in the form of leprosy. He probably saw the leprosy spreading on his forehead. He probably saw the look change on those priests and he knew exactly what was happening. He runs out of the temple because he knows the Lord has smitten him.

Now as we close this out, I want to share a couple of principles that I think we can take from this story.

The first is this.

Pride leads to destruction even when that pride seems well-deserved.

You would think that a man like Uzziah, a man that had led Judah greatly since he was 16 years old, a man whose whole life just reeked of success, deserved a little bit of pride but that pride destroyed him.

Maybe there's somebody in here who's tempted to think, "Well of course I'm proud. Think of how I've served the Lord all these years. Of course I'm proud. Look at how my children and my grandchildren have turned out. Of course I'm proud. I've got a lot to be proud of."

Be careful. Pride comes before destruction. Pride comes before a fall. I'm not going to belabor this because I preached almost completely on this last week but pride is so dangerous.

I've been reading this awesome book this week called Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor. It's the story of Tom Carson, who is the father of famous theologian D.A. Carson. Tom Carson was a pastor in Quebec in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. He was not a very successful pastor. Through most of his ministry he hardly had 30 people coming to his Sunday services. At one point he quit his church in discouragement.

But early in his ministry he somehow ran afoul of T.T. Shields. T.T. Shields was at the end of his ministry and T.T. Shields was probably the most successful pastor ever in the country of Canada. T.T. Shields was in charge of everything that had to do with Baptist life in Canada.

Carson had raised money from lots of churches to buy a building for this little mission work in Quebec. T.T. Shields, for whatever reason, decided that Carson didn't deserve it and held that money back, causing incredible pain and suffering to this young pastor and his little church. And everybody knew what was going on and it was actually the straw that broke the camel's back and ended the Baptist Union in Canada. The seminary that T.T. Shields was in charge of lost 90% of its students because of this.

Crazy story. If anyone had a right to be proud, it would be somebody like Sheilds. But his pride was his downfall.

A second principle that we can take from this story is this:

It doesn't matter how well you run if you don't finish well.

Uzziah had an amazing reign. He deserved to be on the Mount Rushmore of the kings of Judah. But his memory was tainted by this sin. Look at the last three verses of the chapter here.

21 And Uzziah the king was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house, being a leper; for he was cut off from the house of the Lord: and Jotham his son was over the king's house, judging the people of the land.
22 Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, did Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, write.
23 So Uzziah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the field of the burial which belonged to the kings; for they said, He is a leper: and Jotham his son reigned in his stead.

Uzziah ends his days cut off from everybody in a leper's house. And I think this is really sad. I don't know if you noticed this in verse 23 but when they bury him they say this: 'He's a leper.' That's kind of the inscription that goes on his tombstone: Not Uzziah, the greatest king in hundreds of years, Uzziah the leper.

It doesn't matter how well you run if you fumble at the end.

In the Revolutionary War one of the bravest, greatest, and most genius generals that did so much for the cause of the Continental Army was a man named Benedict Arnold. You probably don't know him for that though do ya?

I want to warn the older people in our church: it doesn't matter if you've lived decades in faithfulness; you can still mess it up.

I want you to listen to what Spurgeon had to say on this note:

I have lived long enough to observe that the greatest faults that are ever committed by professedly Christian men are not committed by young people. Most painful it is to me to remember that the worst cases of backsliding and apostasy that I have ever seen in this church have been by old men and middle-aged men. Not by young people. For somehow or other the young people, if they are truly taught of God, know their weakness and they cry to God for help. But it often happens that the more experienced people begin to think that they are not likely to fall into the faults and follies of the young. I care not how old a man may be, even if seven centuries had passed over his head; if he began to trust in himself he would be a fool and soon he would have a grave, a grievous fall! (Spurgeon)

There's one more principle I want you to see in this chapter and we'll close with this:

There is only one prophet, priest, and king.

You see one of the reasons it was so bad what Uzziah did is because he was already the king and he was trying to be a priest too. And in the scripture God wanted those offices to be separate. If you were a king, you were just a king. If you were a priest, you were just a priest. If you were a prophet, you were just a prophet.

And the reason they're to be separate is because there was going to be one who was prophet, priest, and king. That was the Lord Jesus Christ. Uzziah was trying to take glory for himself that belonged to the Lord.

Whatever happens in our life, whatever we do, all the glory belongs to Jesus. If the Lord helps you mightily like he helped Uzziah, then be faithful to point all the glory to Jesus. Let him be the hero of the story not you. Don't be filled with pride. Don't run a great race and stumble and fall at the end.

Learn the lesson of Uzziah. Let's stand and pray.