Cross-Reference



2 Kings 15:1-7
1 In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah the son of Amaziah, king of Judah, began to reign.
2 He was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem.
3 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done.
4 Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places.
5 And the Lord touched the king, so that he was a leper to the day of his death, and he lived in a separate house. And Jotham the king’s son was over the household, governing the people of the land.
6 Now the rest of the acts of Azariah, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
7 And Azariah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David, and Jotham his son reigned in his place.

As we have discussed in the past, the books of Kings and Chronicles walk side by side. They both tell the same stories with different details. When doing historical study, that can be extremely helpful! Without the corresponding reading from 2 Chronicles, today’s reading can be a little confusing. If you click the link below, you can go and have some of the details from the reign of Azariah (also known as Uzziah – He probably took up the new name when he went from being the “child-king” to taking on the job for himself as an adult) filled in and expanded.

http://www.esvbible.org/2 Chronicles 26:7-22

If you read the 2 Chronicles passage, you can see that Azariah’s (Uzziah’s) reign was largely successful. He followed in the ways of God, and the nation was at peace with her neighbors. Judah’s main enemy, Assyria, was in a state of decline and had their own problems to deal with, so as a result attacks from Assyria had basically disappeared. Politically, things were fairly calm between Judah and Israel as well, so that threat had fall away as well. It was almost 50 years of peace and prosperity. The people were affluent and times were good.

But two things went wrong for Azariah. First, he neglected to remove the idol worship from the “high places” and he took the liberty of acting as a priest, both of which displeased God. Usurping the power of the priest angered God so much that He struck Azariah with leprosy and he was banned from the temple for the rest of his life. He also was banned from the court and lived off by himself, ruling through his son who became the face of the monarchy. Once again we are handed a lesson in full commitment. Allowing his people to continue worshipping idols was not in keeping with the ways of God. While he was a great leader in terms of finance and peace, he did his people no service in terms of leading them toward God. He allowed a weak, superficial faith to consume the people. Had he looked back to the life of Saul, he would have realized that God does not look kindly upon our pride causing us to take up roles that do not belong to us. Both Saul and now Azariah pay a heavy price for that choice. While I don’t believe that God still strikes us with disease in 2012, He certainly may allow things to happen in our lives that draw our attention back to Him. If we are keeping our eye on the Lord all the time anyway, that shouldn’t be a problem, right?

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