Day 189 (2 Kings 15, 2 Chronicles 26) - Year 4
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Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. If you didn't have a chance to look this up, it might have been a bit confusing to you. But today we have another nickname type situation happening with King Azariah of Judah. He also goes by the name Uzziah.

When we read about him in 2 Kings, he's Azariah, but when we read about him in 2 Chronicles, he's Uzziah. He's just taken over after his father's death, and we don't hear much about him except that he's a pretty good king, high places notwithstanding, because they're still standing. But then things take a turn. After his people maybe invent the catapult and a series of military victories make him rich and famous, Azariah grows prideful.

He decides he wants to burn incense in the temple in Jerusalem, which is a big no-no unless you're a priest.

When the text describes this by saying, he was unfaithful to the Lord his God, it uses the same word that is often used for marital unfaithfulness. The actual priests are aghast, and 81 of them, including one who shares the name Azariah, rush in to rebuke him. But he's unrepentant. And when he grows angry with the priests, God strikes him with leprosy.

What's interesting to me about this text is that it seems to indicate he never actually lights the censer to burn the incense. They stop him before he can. And if that's true, then even though he doesn't physically commit the sin here, his heart is still set on it. So when God strikes him with leprosy, it really seems like the motives of his heart are what's being judged here.

He has to leave the temple immediately to prevent defiling it. And after this, he lives in a separate house because of the cleanliness laws we read about in Leviticus 13. He likely either stopped performing the roles of king when he became ill or co-reigned with his son Jotham until Jotham officially took over for him. Jotham was considered to be a good king, mostly walking in God's ways, but you guessed it, those high places in Judah are still as untouched as ever.

Meanwhile in Israel, we quickly move through five kings, most of whom kill the previous king. These short-lived kings and the way their reigns end show us how the kingdom of Israel is really on the decline. This shouldn't surprise us though for two reasons. First, not only do we know that God's promise is connected to the other kingdom, the southern kingdom of Judah, the line of David, but we also got a little heads up from God that there was a deadline for the northern kingdom of Israel.

We read a reminder of this today in 1512, but we first read it a few days ago in 2 Kings 10 30, when God said to Jehu, Because you have done well in carrying out what is right in my eyes, and have done to the house of Ahab according to all that was in my heart, your sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.

So now we have all these short-term wicked kings cropping up, and it's become really evident that we've crossed that fourth generation threshold. And the northern kingdom seems to be unraveling. Today, my God shot came from the incident in the temple where God struck Azariah Uzziah with leprosy. The first thing that struck me was God's holiness. He refused to let the king defile his temple.

The second thing I realized about this was how efficiently and thoroughly God handled that situation. He punished Azariah Uzziah's rebellion while effectively stopping him from lighting the incense and ensuring that he had to leave the premises and not return. And he toppled him as king without even killing him, which is also merciful. So many of God's attributes are on display in this one scene. Not to mention the kind of wisdom it takes to come up with something that works on so many levels.

Righteous, efficient, thorough, merciful, wise, wow! He's where the joy is. Tomorrow we'll be starting the book of Isaiah. It's 66 chapters long. We're linking to a short video overview in the show notes that covers the first part of Isaiah, and we'll link to the second video on day 206 before we begin the second part of Isaiah. The video is eight minutes long, so check it out if you have some time to spare.

Okay, Bible readers, it's time for our weekly check-in. How's it going? No matter when you're listening to this, even if you're quote-unquote behind in the plan, I believe you're right on time. And no matter where you are in the plan, even here in the Old Testament, I want to remind you of something super important. Always be looking for Jesus. In John 5, Jesus says the Old Testament is all about Him.

He doesn't just show up in a manger in Matthew. He's been here all along, even since Genesis 1. So keep looking for him, for prophecies of him, for pictures of him, and even for some surprise visits he makes to earth in advance of his birth. The Bible Recap is brought to you by DGroup, discipleship and Bible study groups that meet in homes and churches around the world each week.