Azariah had become king in the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam II, and he reigned fifty-two years, and he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, but he did not remove the high places and the people still worshiped there (v1-4). He is also known as Uzziah (see v13, 2 Chronicles and Isaiah) and is mostly know for his good. He came to the throne at the age of sixteen years during a difficult time. His father Amaziah had been assassinated, part of the walls of Jerusalem had been torn down, the temple and place had been emptied of its treasures and some inhabitants taken to Israel as hostages.
More of his reign is mentioned in 2 Chronicles 26. He had the prophet Zechariah to give him God’s words, and he defeated the Philistines, taking some of their cities, and kept the Ammonites in subservience by paying him tributes. He was a strong king, an ambitious builder and took care of the soil. Sadly, there continued the compromise which led to the people worshiping in the high places.
However, he had a tragic end (2 Chronicles 26) gives us more details). He was struck down with leprosy which meant he had to go into isolation. His pride led to his downfall. 2 Chronicles 26:15 tells us that he “was marvellously helped until he was strong”. This led to him going in the temple to burn incense on the altar (v16). It was against God’s law for him to do this and the priests, whose duty it was, tried to stop him. His pride wouldn’t allow it, and he was struck with leprosy in his forehead, right where it could be seen. He couldn’t hide it. He entered the temple as a great king but left as a leper in great humiliation.
A king was not permitted by God to be a priest, hence God’s judgment upon Azariah for usurping the role of priest in the temple. This was so until the Lord Jesus who was prophet, priest and king.
When Azariah died he was buried in the city of David and his son Jotham became king. Whilst was alive but leprous, he had dwelt in isolation, it is thought that Jotham became a sort of puppet ruler.
Azariah’s death had a positive outcome – in Isaiah 6 we read that his death brought about a calling of Isaiah – “In the year king Uzziah died I saw the LORD ….” We are not told what about his death struck Isaiah, but maybe we can conjecture. Things like, his life, after all he had been on the whole a good king, his downfall and death, his pride and arrogance before God and God’s response and judgment. All these may have played a part in his conviction. God is not to be toyed with, we must hold Him in awe and reverence, we must recognise who He is and fall down before Him. We also see that God wants to use us mere humans to bring glory to him. We don’t have to be a king or a person of high position. In Acts of the Apostles 6 we read of the apostles appointing men to wait on tables, or to use a modern phrase, run the food bank, but those men had to be full of the Holy Spirit to do this. We often think that it is only the preachers or leaders who need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, but we all need to be if we are going to serve Him, even the most mundane tasks.
Instability continued and even escalated among the kings, and we have the account of five kings over Israel in a relatively short time, in the following verses. It is thought that there was a period of eleven years from the death of Jeroboam II to his son Zechariah becoming king of Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Azariah king of Judah. Zechariah reigned only six months in Samaria. He did evil and followed the sins of Jeroboam I who caused Israel to sin. Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired and killed him in front of the people and reigned in his place. Zechariah seemed to be so despised that his execution could be done in public. The rest of his acts are recorded in the kings of Israel’s chronicles. It was a fulfilment of the prophecy to Jehu that his descendants would reign until the fourth generation (v8-12).
After the death of Zechariah and the end of Jehu’s dynasty, there seemed to be anarchy and violence against the rulers so that of the next six kings only one died naturally. The fulfilment of Hosea’s prophecy (Hosea 1:4) came to pass.
In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah (Uzziah) king of Judah, Shallum had become king of Israel and lasted one month only. Just as he had assassinated Zechariah, he too was dealt with likewise by Menahem the son Gadi coming up from Tirzah and killed him in Samaria. All Shallum’s acts including his conspiracy were recorded in the chronicles of the kings of Israel. Menahem then attacked Tiphsah and all who were there because they refused to surrender. He brutally ripped open pregnant women (v13-16). This was a practice inflicted on Israel by foreign nations – Aram (2 Kings 8:12), Ammon (Amos 1:13) and Assyria (Hosea 13:8). Menahem became king and reigned ten years in Samaria, he became king in the thirty-ninth year of Azariah king of Judah. Menahem did evil and continued in the sins of Jeroboam I.
Pul the king of Assyria came against the land and Menahem gave him a thousand talents of silver which took from the wealthy by force, fifty shekels each. The money given to Pul was enough to persuade him to leave off the land and he returned to Assyria (17-22). Menahem died and his son Pekahiah succeeded him in the fiftieth year of Azariah (Uzziah) king of Judah, and he reigned as king of Israel for two years in Samaria (v22). He also continued in the same sins as his father.
The money obtained by Menahem was from the rich which they had obtained by dubious means. We are told about this in Amos 4, 5 and 8 and Micah 2 and 6. Therefore they wouldn’t get much sympathy. Micah 6:10-12 tells us that they had obtained it by giving short measures and deceit, and 2:2 and taking fields by oppression and violence. Similarly, Amos warned them about their oppression of the poor by exacting taxes, and they would not get benefit from it.
Not surprisingly another conspiracy arose – Pekah the son of Remaliah, one of his officers, with Argob and Arieh and fifty men from Gilead killed Pekahiah in the citadel of his own house (v23-26).
Pekah took over as king Israel in the fifty-second year of Azariah and reigned twenty years doing evil as his predecessors had done (v27,28).
During the reign of Pekah, Tiglath-Pileser (another name for Pul) king of Assyria returned and took land of israel including Gilead and Galilee, as well as all Naphtali, and took captives (v29). This was some of the best land of Israel including most of northern Israel. One commentator says that it almost brought Israel to extinction. In 1 Chronicles 5:26 we read that Pul and Tiglath-Pileser were possibly two separate kings, and they had taken into captivity the tribes of Reuben, Gad and half tribe of Manasseh, the part of Israel on the east side of the Jordan, and Israel was reduced to a tiny kingdom, thirty miles wide and forty miles long. Assyria’s policy was to take captives when they conquered a land, usually the best and brightest. Babylon did the same, as we read in Daniel, where he and his three friends were taken into captivity and rose to prominence.
There was more unrest in Israel, and another conspiracy took place led by Hoshea the son of Elah. He killed Pekah and reigned in his place during the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah (v30). Jotham had begun his reign in the second year of Pekah. He was twenty-five years old when he became king of Judah and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother was Jerusha the daughter of Zadok, and he did right in God’s eyes following in the footsteps of Uzziah (v32-34). He still did not remove the high places where the people worshiped, but he did rebuild the Upper Gate of the LORD’s house (v35). As with all these kings, the chronicles of the kings contained their acts (v36).
2 Chronicles 27:6 says that Jotham was mighty because he prepared his way before the LORD. It was his communion with God that caused him to succeed.
Permit me to digress a little here, although I believe it is very relevant. There are lessons for families, particularly fathers and sons, but mothers and daughters are not exempt. We often read of kings following in the ways of their fathers. The phrase, ‘like father, like son’ comes to mind. How we must be very careful how we bring up and train our children. Jotham did as his father had done. Uzziah evidently had a big impression on his son and been a great influence. We read of others who did evil as their fathers had done. The repeated phrase of doing evil as – ‘Jeroboam the son of Nebat who caused all Israel to sin’ occurs many times. The two are named together. Whether it is simply to identify the Jeroboam, I’m not sure, but I think it goes deeper than that. Had Nebat failed to discipline Jeroboam, maybe, he was involved in his sins? It was bad enough for Jeroboam to be stated down history as causing all Israel to sin, but Nebat is always included (see 1 Kings 12), in what one commentator refers to as state-sponsored idolatry.
How we, parents, need to be very careful in training our children. It is not just having children but training them. Proverbs tells us that we should ‘train up a child’. When a young person commits a crime or goes off the rails in some way, we often examine their upbringing to see if there’s a cause. Having spent all my working life in the courts and most of my retirement in prisons leading men in Bible studies, one is often led to think about their upbringing. It is very likely that they are living out their sad and difficult home life, although there are exceptions where an offender is a one-off, coming from a good home, but have rebelled. When a prisoner is released after sentence, the big problem is where they are going out to. Many tell us that they don’t want to go back to the influences which may have caused them to offend, and they want to make a fresh start. The Christian church can play a huge part in their rehabilitation, as we have seen in many cases.
The LORD began to send Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the king of Israel against Judah in those days (v37). Jotham died and rested with his fathers in the city of David and Ahaz succeeded him as king (v38).
This is a remarkable phrase saying that the LORD sent these heathen kings against Judah. We must ask the question why? Didn’t they have enough trouble of their own particularly the northern kingdom of Israel with their wicked kings? Now the LORD sends the enemy against Judah who had some generally good kings like Uzziah and Jotham.
The LORD began to chasten them for their lack of total commitment to Him.
