God’s Word for You
2 Chronicles 26:16-20 ’Tis pride that pulls the country down
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, May 9, 2025
16 But after Uzziah had become strong his heart grew proud and led to his destruction, for he had become unfaithful to the LORD his God. He entered the temple of the LORD to make an offering on the altar of incense. 17 Azariah the priest went in after him, along with eighty priests of the LORD, brave men. 18 They confronted King Uzziah and said to him, “It is not right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD. That is for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful. This will bring you no honor from the LORD God.” 19 Then Uzziah became angry. He had a censer in his hand to make the offering, and when he became angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead, there in the presence of the priests in the house of the LORD, beside the altar of incense. 20 When Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, saw him, they saw that he had become leprous on his forehead. They hurried him out, and he himself hurried to get out, because the LORD had struck him.
When the Israelites were about to enter the Promised Land, Moses warned them: “When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God… Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 8:11-14), and to this he added: “Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 8:20). This is precisely what Uzziah had done. It is a subtle but slippery slope, and I have seen it happen with my own eyes. I’ve been a guest in a home and been asked to lead the table prayer, and after thanking the Lord for what we received, a woman in the group decided to change the prayer by saying something like, “But thank you even more to the cook, who did all the real work and made this meal possible!” And I have noticed what has happened to the faith of that woman over the years. As soon as we begin to congratulate ourselves for what we achieve, we belittle God or otherwise diminish the roll of God in what we do. We have removed God from his throne like a spoiled and arrogant child driving his father out of his father’s house.
Uzziah’s sin echoes two other similar actions in the Scriptures. First, there was the incident when Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu burned unauthorized fire in the tabernacle. It was the same day that they had been ordained as Israel’s priests, but they worshiped in a way forbidden by God (probably by going behind the curtain into the Most Holy Place). “Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord” (Leviticus 10:2).
The other case was the downfall of King Saul. He had been commanded to wait for the prophet Samuel who would offer sacrifices before an important battle (1 Samuel 10:8). Then, when the battle finally came, Saul did not wait for Samuel and offered the sacrifices himself (1 Samuel 13:10). His excuse? “I had a bad text.”
The point of all of these sins is that whether king, prophet, or priest, no one is to act or function independently from God, from God’s law, or from his messengers. Uzziah thought that after he had done so much for the nation, he could walk into the temple of Solomon and do as he pleased. His proud heart was his downfall. “When pride comes, then comes disgrace” (Proverbs 11:2); and “Pride goes before destruction” (Proverbs 16:18). Many others have said the same thing: “In pride there is ruin and great confusion” (Tobit 4:13); “Behold their pride and send your wrath down upon their heads” (Judith 9:9); “The beginning of man’s pride is to depart from the Lord” (Sirach 10:12); “Do not be proud, for pride leads to murder” (Didache 3:2); and even: “ ’Tis pride that pulls the country down” (Othello II:3).
When the high priest stood up to King Uzziah, the king broke out in anger, and leprosy broke out on his forehead. Leprosy was a general term for contagious skin diseases (including modern forms of leprosy such as Hanson’s disease) that cause ceremonial uncleanness. No one who was ceremonially unclean could approach anyone who was clean, let alone the Lord in his temple. He had to be removed from the city, just as Miriam had to be removed from the camp of Israel (Numbers 12:15).
The Lord struck Uzziah because of his sin. We will discuss his leprosy more in the passage that follows, but we must see first of all that the disease—no matter what it was—was brought down on him on account of his sin. It was not an accident. Like the truth regarding the ballistas on the walls of the city, this is a matter of accepting the Word of God as the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15). To correctly handle the true word, we must first of all accept it as true, otherwise we fumble the text, dismiss the Holy Spirit as the author, and end up with nothing more than a fantasy that can be applied any old way that a preacher wants. This is not the will of God. This is not the way to handle the Word of God, otherwise we are no better than Saul, fumbling and stammering before the furious prophet Samuel and trying to claim that he had a bad copy of the text. To reject the Word of God as the holy will of God is to invite God’s wrath. To embrace the Word of God as the true and holy message of God to his people is to pray for God’s blessing. If we are persecuted or ridiculed for treating the Bible as the truth, then we know that God is with us. Jesus said: “Blessed are you whenever people hate you, and whenever they exclude and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy because of this: Your reward is great in heaven! The fact is, their fathers constantly did the same things to the prophets” (Luke 6:22-23). May we always embrace his word as the truth, pray for his blessing, and pass his word along to the next generation.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.