Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah. He was the one who rebuilt Elath and restored it to Judah after Amaziah rested with his ancestors.
Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-two years. His mother’s name was Jekoliah; she was from Jerusalem. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father Amaziah had done. He sought God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God. As long as he sought the Lord, God gave him success.
He went to war against the Philistines and broke down the walls of Gath, Jabneh and Ashdod. He then rebuilt towns near Ashdod and elsewhere among the Philistines. God helped him against the Philistines and against the Arabs who lived in Gur Baal and against the Meunites. The Ammonites brought tribute to Uzziah, and his fame spread as far as the border of Egypt, because he had become very powerful.
Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate and at the angle of the wall, and he fortified them. He also built towers in the wilderness and dug many cisterns, because he had much livestock in the foothills and in the plain. He had people working his fields and vineyards in the hills and in the fertile lands, for he loved the soil.
Uzziah had a well-trained army, ready to go out by divisions according to their numbers as mustered by Jeiel the secretary and Maaseiah the officer under the direction of Hananiah, one of the royal officials. The total number of family leaders over the fighting men was 2,600. Under their command was an army of 307,500 men trained for war, a powerful force to support the king against his enemies. Uzziah provided shields, spears, helmets, coats of armor, bows and slingstones for the entire army. In Jerusalem he made devices invented for use on the towers and on the corner defenses so that soldiers could shoot arrows and hurl large stones from the walls. His fame spread far and wide, for he was greatly helped until he became powerful.
But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God, and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.
- 2 Chronicles 26:1-16
King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died. He lived in a separate house—leprous, and banned from the temple of the Lord. Jotham his son had charge of the palace and governed the people of the land.
- 2 Chronicles 26:21
The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
- Isaiah 1:1
In the year that King Uzziahdied, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple.
- Isaiah 6:1
The Boilerplate
My wife took a Bible Study in 2011. (There was a note in the study guide that identified September 2 and that the study was being held on Friday mornings, or I might not have ever figured out what year.) My wife had become a Christian in 2000. She greatly respected the pastor’s wife who was also a pastor. The pastor’s wife spent time as the interim associate pastor, and this Bible study might have been during that time.
My wife passed away in March 2023, and I found this study guide as I was cleaning up. It is a Beth Moore study guide. Most of the questions are close-ended, mostly fill-in-the-blank. But my wife was eager to learn. She wrote her thoughts in the margins, sometimes encouraged to do so by Beth Moore. I will use her comments as I did once before, calling this a “with a little help” series in that my wife contributes. There is more to follow in that she wrote Scriptures and prayers in a notebook. Probably what she found in her personal Bible study, giving her encouragement through the long illness that took her life.
So, instead of writing about a topic at random, I am going to write on my wife’s comments in the Study Guide. It may follow the study guide topics, but it may not.
Discussion on this topic
“Isaiah’s calling came, not coincidentally, right after the death of King Uzziah.”
- Beth Moore, Breaking Free, updated edition
When Beth Moore asked how Isaiah would think, having grown up during the reign of King Uzziah, my wife responded:
“[King Uzziah was] ‘Super’, all powerful, a special force.”
- My wife’s inner thoughts
But then she also wrote:
“God was truly Uzziah’s strength.”
- My wife’s inner thoughts
King Uzziah reigned for 52 years. He was a good king in that he did what was right. But every king has his “moment” it seems. As Beth Moore points out, along with 2 Chronicles 26, Uzziah was a good king until he became powerful.
What did my wife point out as the source of his downfall?
“As long as he sought out God… The word that stood out was ‘cunning’. He became so powerful – power can destroy and corrupt. He thinks he was above the law – man’s and God’s.”
- My wife’s inner thoughts
The root of the problem was pride, one of the fill-in-the-blank answers. Whenever we have done something great, we forget who got us there. And we forget the God who allowed it all to happen and who gave us breath.
I made my mistakes early on. I had a lot of success in my first 5-6 years out of college, but after that point, my successes were stolen by the boss so that he could praise himself. That trend continued for the rest of my career. I did not do what Uzziah did, but it had a similar effect.
Uzziah went into the temple where the incense was kept. The priests told him to leave and not do what he was preparing to do. But he prepared some incense and offered incense to the Lord. His hand became leprous. He had to have his son, Jotham, run the daily duties of being a king. Uzziah lived in a separate house until his death and was not buried in the tomb of the kings, but on property near there, owned by the kings for he had leprosy.
Have you felt that you had leprosy because others considered you less important, but they kept you around due to your skills or knowledge? C. S. Lewis said that we would not mind humiliation as much, if we were humbler. Uzziah had a moment of letting his success go to his head, and he paid dearly for it. But God says throughout the Bible that one of His greatest things to hate is pride. How do we puff ourselves us as if to be worshipped when God created the heavens and the earth? How can we be proud, when God could remove our ability to breathe at any moment?
“We put ourselves first and that goes before God too.”
- My wife’s inner thoughts
Odd, she wrote that, but she told the therapist that she could not put herself in the top ten of her personal priorities. After he said to not return to therapy, she told me, “I flunked out of therapy!”
Her final comments for this lesson were.
“Pray that God keeps us humble and do His will and thank Him for your success for He is the one who gave you that gift.”
- My wife’s inner thoughts
And I agree.
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory
Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley 
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