OT11 7 Uzziah the Prideful King

[Music] uzziah the prideful king 2 chronicles 26 2 kings 15. this lesson is about king uzziah of judah when uzziah sought the lord he was very strong and prosperous but when he began to glory in his own accomplishments he became full of pride we will learn that pride is the great enemy of those whom god uses greatly can you think of a famous person that you looked up to and you felt like they were your hero sometimes we look up to sports figures and we want to grow up to be like them sometimes we look up to musicians or actors and make them our heroes have you ever looked up to someone that is a christian leader and made them your hero well from our perspective these people may seem like they always do the right thing but unfortunately that is not always so even our heroes have a sinful nature or desire to do things that are wrong eventually people will disappoint us however when we turn our spotlight on jesus we will never find sin he always did the right thing and acted in a way that pleased his heavenly father he will never disappoint us only god can endure the test of scrutiny only god can receive the true fame that he deserves we can praise him with every ounce of attention because he is worthy in this lesson we are going to learn about king uzziah of judah when uzziah sought the lord he was very strong and prosperous but when he began to glory in his own accomplishments he became full of pride we will learn that pride is the great enemy of those whom god uses greatly the story of king uzziah is found in the books of 2nd kings and 2nd chronicles these books tell the history of the kings of israel and judah it is in the second group of old testament books called the historical books these books begin with joshua and go through esther let's say these books joshua judges ruth first samuel second samuel first kings second kings first chronicles second chronicles ezra nehemiah and esther for over 300 years the nation of israel was divided into two kingdoms ten tribes lived in the northern kingdom of israel while the two tribes of judah and ephraim formed the southern kingdom of judah these were very sad times for this nation who had once been so strong and powerful during the reign of king solomon during the years of the divided kingdom 20 different kings reigned over the northern kingdom of israel all of them were evil and wicked they built idols and worshiped false gods god sent many prophets to warn these kings of their sins and coming judgment among them were elijah and elisha in the southern kingdom of judah there were also 20 different kings most of them were also evil and wicked except for eight good kings the fifth good king of judah was king ahaziah or uzziah as he is called in second chronicles he became king during the 27th year of king jeroboam of his israel's reign he was a king for 52 years and reigned longer than any of the other kings who came before him king uzziah was called by two different names the name uzziah means god is my strength but he also went by the name ahaziah which means god has helped both of these names describe what it was that made usia a great king he was a king who found his strength in the living god and who god himself had made strong king uzziah was made strong because he did what was right in the eyes of the lord just as his father king amaziah had done he also followed the advice of a godly name zachariah who also taught king uzziah about the lord so king uzziah had good heroes to advise him perhaps because king uzziah was like his father amaziah or that he listened to zechariah he was very popular with the people second chronicles says that all the people of judah took uzziah and made him king the people made a good choice because right away began to show himself as a great leader after his father was buried king uzziah built elath and returned it to judah now elath was an important seaport city near the southern region of judah where their enemies the lived king uzziah made that city secure and set it up as a strong military outpost against judah's enemies now the land of judah was better defended and had even more trade everyone began to realize that god's blessing was on king uzziah he was doing what was right according to god and god was making him prosper the only exception was that there were still idols in the high places and there were still some people who were worshiping them king uzziah also battled the philistines who lived on the southwest side of judah his army broke down the walls of gaff and other cities this means that he was able to conquer the cities of the philistines and make them defenseless he even built cities around some of the philistine cities so with god's help he made the people of judah safe from their enemies to the west then king uzziah turned to the arabians and the ammonites these enemies lived to the northeast and the southeast of judah he conquered those people too the ammonites brought him tributes of money and he was known as far as egypt his kingdom was very strong and judah was well protected against their enemies god was making king uzziah strong because he was obeying and worshipping him god also helped king uzziah bring much prosperity to his people king uzziah built towers in jerusalem at the corner gate and valley gate and fortified the city he managed to build towers in the desert and dug a lot of wells for water for his abundant livestock he loved the land and had farmers and vineyards to produce many crops from the soil king uzziah turned out to be a remarkable farmer and rancher king uzziah also had a very large army there were 2 600 chief officers and there were three hundred and seven thousand five hundred soldiers under them that were good soldiers king uzziah made the whole army shields spears helmets body armor bows and slings he even made weapons for the towers to shoot arrows and throw rocks at the enemy so king uzziah's fame spread far and wide in the gentile world under god's blessing king uzziah was well on his way to being one of the greatest kings in all the history of judah but then at the very height of his prosperity his downfall began king uzziah became very prideful his heart began to be lifted up as a result this great king turned into one of the most pitiful stories of all the kings one day king uzziah went to the temple to burn incense now he knew well the law that god had given through moses he knew that god had commanded that only the priestly sons of aaron born from the tribe of the levi were to perform the task of burning incense in the temple he knew that god's word said that the outsider who comes near shall be put to death but even knowing this king uzziah went into the very temple that god's word forbade him to enter he went past the court passed the priests and right up to the altar of incense that only the priests were supposed to approach and there he sought to offer incense before god in utter disobedience to god now king uzziah could have asked one of the 80 priests that were in the temple to lead this worship for him but he didn't king uzziah decided to just do it himself why would he do this the bible says his heart was lifted up or he was proud king uzziah had started thinking that he was the reason for all his success his pride took control of him and as a result he began to act very arrogantly he decided that he could do the work of the priest which was something god had clearly not given him to do in the temple was a priest who was also named azariah the priests confronted king uzziah and said it is not right for you uzziah to burn incense to the lord that is for the priest the descendants of aaron who have been consecrated to burn incense leave the sanctuary for you have been unfaithful and you will not be honored by the lord god uzziah who had a sensor in his hand and was ready to burn incense became angry he began to rage at the priests in their presence before the i am since alder in the lord's temple just at that moment god struck king uzziah with leprosy spots of leprosy broke out on his forehead the priests who were in the temple could not believe what they were seeing they quickly removed the king when they saw the leprosy on his forehead king uzziah himself realized what had happened and he was eager to leave because he knew that the lord had afflicted him because there was no cure for leprosy and it was very contagious king uzziah was forced to live in an isolated place until he died his son jotham had to rule in his place until he died when king uzziah died his body could not even be laid in the tomb of his fathers because he was a leper instead he was buried in a nearby field then king jotham the son of uzziah became the sole ruler of judah in this lesson we learned that king uzziah went from being a king who was made to prosper by god to being a poor lonely isolated leper who was totally cut off from the house of god until he died from him we can see that we can be blessed by god if we are careful to seek him and rely on him to do that we must study god's word every day and pray to him we need to always do what he commands in his word we must always give god the glory for any success that we might have when we do that god can bless us richly it is dangerous to take our eyes off god and become arrogant over the way god has prospered or has used us pride is a very deceiving thing for example this girl thinks she's the prettiest girl ever when we start thinking like that we begin to think that we can do anything we want we stop trusting god and giving him the glory and then we will be disobeying god's word pride is the great enemy of those who want to love and obey god our life's purpose should be to bring glory to god not ourselves here is a boy who is praising himself for winning it's not good when we worry about our position or status and try to make others recognize our accomplishments rather we should humbly obey god our memory verse is first peter 5 5b and 6. god opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble humble yourselves therefore under god's mighty hand that key may lift you up in due time in this verse peter is telling us that pride often keeps us from understanding others we should respect and learn from each other let's say our memory verse again together first peter 5 5b and 6 god opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble humble yourselves therefore under god's mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time uzziah's life began with fame and ended in shame his story would have been different if he had been obedient to god what about you the best ending for any person is to be submissive to god and give him the glory if you have not yet become a believer today is the day of salvation jesus died on the cross for you he was buried and rose again by believing that jesus paid for your sins when he died on the cross god cleanses you and gives you the gift of eternal life the moment you believe that jesus saved you from sins the holy spirit comes into your life and enables you to live a life that pleases god you can begin that new life in christ right now by bowing your head in prayer and asking him to give you the gift of eternal life let's pray dear father in heaven thank you for this lesson about king uzziah who started out well but ended in disaster you used him to accomplish great things for you when he gave you the glory help us to be willing to be used by you and not take the credit for ourselves instead help us to confess our sins to repent and to believe in you as our savior we ask that you give us the holy spirit to guide us in the right path and help us to stay on it by not becoming prideful in jesus name we pray amen remember pride keeps us from praising god [Music] you

Channel: Beverly Wilson

Views: 822

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Free Sunday School Lessons, King Uzziah, Uzziah, Uzziah the Prideful King, Old Testament, Bible Stories, Divided Kingdom, Children's Bible lessons, Water's Edge Youth Ministries, Beverly Wilson, 2 Kings 15, 2 Chronicles 26, Pride, Humility, Humble

Id: ExIIklmIoKY

Length: 23min 0sec (1380 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 22 2020