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the gift of limitations

2 Chronicles 26:1-23

2 Chronicles 26:1 All the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.
2 Chronicles 26:2 After Amaziah the king rested with his fathers, Uzziah rebuilt Eloth and restored it to Judah.
2 Chronicles 26:3 Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecoliah; she was from Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 26:4 He did what was right in Yahveh’s sight just as his father Amaziah had done.
2 Chronicles 26:5 He sought God throughout the lifetime of Zechariah, the teacher of the fear of God. During the time that he sought Yahveh, God gave him success.
2 Chronicles 26:6 Uzziah went out to wage war against the Philistines, and he tore down the wall of Gath, the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod. Then he built cities in the vicinity of Ashdod and among the Philistines.
2 Chronicles 26:7 God helped him against the Philistines, the Arabs that live in Gur-baal, and the Meunites.
2 Chronicles 26:8 The Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziah, and his fame spread as far as the entrance of Egypt, for God made him very powerful.
2 Chronicles 26:9 Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, the Valley Gate, and the corner buttress, and he fortified them.
2 Chronicles 26:10 Since he had many cattle both in the Judean foothills and the plain, he built towers in the desert and dug many wells. And since he was a lover of the soil, he had farmers and vinedressers in the hills and in the fertile lands.
2 Chronicles 26:11 Uzziah had an army equipped for combat that went out to war by division according to their assignments, as recorded by Jeiel the court secretary and Maaseiah the officer under the authority of Hananiah, one of the king’s commanders.
2 Chronicles 26:12 The total number of family heads was 2,600 valiant warriors.
2 Chronicles 26:13 Under their authority was an army of 307,500 equipped for combat, a powerful force to help the king against the enemy.
2 Chronicles 26:14 Uzziah provided the entire army with shields, spears, helmets, armor, bows, and slingstones.
2 Chronicles 26:15 He made skilfully designed devices in Jerusalem to shoot arrows and catapult large stones for use on the towers and on the corners. So, his fame spread even to distant places, for he was wondrously helped until he became strong.
2 Chronicles 26:16 But when he became strong, he grew arrogant, and it led to his own destruction. He acted unfaithfully against Yahveh his God by going into Yahveh’s sanctuary to burn incense on the incense altar.
2 Chronicles 26:17 The priest Azariah, along with eighty brave priests of Yahveh, went in after him.
2 Chronicles 26:18 They took their stand against King Uzziah and said, “Uzziah, you have no right to offer incense to Yahveh– only the consecrated priests, the descendants of Aaron, have the right to offer incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have acted unfaithfully! You will not receive honor from Yahveh God.”
2 Chronicles 26:19 Uzziah, with a firepan in his hand to offer incense, was enraged. But when he became enraged with the priests, in the presence of the priests in Yahveh’s temple beside the altar of incense, a skin disease broke out on his forehead.
2 Chronicles 26:20 Then Azariah the chief priest and all the priests turned to him and saw that he was diseased on his forehead. They rushed him out of there. He himself also hurried to get out because Yahveh had afflicted him.
2 Chronicles 26:21 So King Uzziah was diseased to the time of his death. He lived in quarantine with a serious skin disease and was excluded from access to Yahveh’s temple, while his son Jotham was over the king’s household governing the people of the land.
2 Chronicles 26:22 Now the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz wrote about the rest of the events of Uzziah’s reign, from beginning to end.
2 Chronicles 26:23 Uzziah rested with his fathers, and he was buried with his fathers in the burial ground of the kings’ cemetery, for they said, “He has a skin disease.” His son Jotham became king in his place.

the gift of limitations

Uzziah was a great man and a good king, because “he was marvelously helped, till he was strong” (15). Then he got too big for his breeches. He usurped the right of the temple priests, and went into the sanctuary to burn incense. When 81 courageous priests withstood him, he became angry, and leprosy broke out on his forehead. He was excluded from the house of the LORD for the rest of his life. Even the greatest among us must learn to live with limitations. They are a gift from God to keep us humbly dependent upon him and each other.

LORD, grant us wisdom to live within the limits you set for our lives.