The Scenic Route Through The Book of Isaiah, Part 1King Uzziah

Welcome to the Something To Gnaw On Podcast, a podcast for the Christian with a short attention span, designed to give you something to spiritually and mentally gnaw on throughout your day… And I’m your host, Nate Vainio.   We’ve been in a series called A Crash Course Through The Old Testament, where we’re breaking the Old Testament down, section by section, book by book, to make it a little less intimidating, and easier for you to process on your own.       

And now it’s time for us to slow the pace down.  And for an unknown number of week’s we are going to take what I am going to call The Scenic Route Through The Book Of Isaiah.    I have been blasting through the Old Testament so far, and now I think it’s time we slow it down and take the scenic route exit and enjoy the depth and beauty of Isaiah.   

I can’t say how long we’ll be here at this point, but we certainly need to take what we’ve learned so far, and put it into practice – use it for the context that it is, to understand the 5th Gospel…. As some refer to it.  I would add that I am NOT going to be doing an exhaustive deep dive, verse by verse, through the book.  I will simply be doing some drive-by bible studies that will dig into some of the elements that weave their way through the book, but not a full on deep dive….we’re going to come out somewhere in between… which should give you plenty of scripture to gnaw on in your own time…. So, please dig into this on your own as well, it’s both rich and rewarding.

This episode is simply entitled: King Uzziah.  We are going to look at one of the most influential kings that Isaiah served under…. His name leads the list in Isaiah 1:1, and it show’s up in a few other sketchy places too.   When the dust settles on this episode I am sure you will be gnawing on this for a while!

Teddy Roosevelt said, “Speak softly and carry a big stick, you’ll go far.”

Ronald Regan said “Peace through Strength”

“Peace through superior firepower” was the motto of a weapons dealer in the Star Trek Next Generation Series.

And what would Al Capone say on the issue of peace and security??  You can go a long way with a smile. You can go a lot farther with a smile and a gun. You can get further with a kind word and a gun, than you can with just a kind word”.  

Whatever the case may be, we have a tendency to find peace and rest in our military might. For Reagan it was the Star Wars Defense Initiative…  and it brought the Soviet Union to the Peace table and it was the “BIG STICK”, and the cold war came to an end, without a single shot being fired.

When we get to looking into the historical setting of Isaiah we find that he lived in an epic time of peace and prosperity for Judah and Jerusalem, or at least began his ministry in such an epic legacy.

If you are old enough to remember 1972, imagine that from that day till now, you had one president, or prime minister, or king.  Imagine the potential prosperity and peace that comes from living under one successful King like Uzziah.

He has rebuilt breaches in the walls, he has rebuilt entire cities, and established garrisons within them in the outlying areas.  He built cisterns, and culverts to move water and irrigate the land, he was a farmer and a rancher with a massive operation.  You’ll find this account in the history books we plowed through… go back and read 2 Chronicles 26 and 2 Kings 15 for more of this background.

In rebuilding the wall, he built towers in the corners.  The historian Josephus states that these towers were about 220 feet tall.  And inventions of war were made and on display for use, that would hurl arrows and sling stones on their enemies from these towers.  It is generally believed that the Greeks invented the catapult, and you will find that in most internet sources, but that would have been 400BC, nearly 300 years after Uzziah.  That’s an argument for another time, but you can see that Uzziah was the kind of king who walked in a life of simplicity in that he was a farmer and a rancher, and at the same time he was a protector by strength and ingenuity.   And still yet, he was an architect, civil-engineer, and inventor… not to mention warrior general.      

One might be able to make the argument that as a result of this, he walked softly and carried a big stick, or that the nation of Judah had peace through strength, because of King Uzziah.  Some have noted that the nation hadn’t known this state of peace and wealth since King Solomon…  you might call his reign a bit of a renaissance, or revival.  For as 2 Chronicles states in verse 5 “… as long as the king sought guidance from the Lord, God gave him success.” And again in verse 15 it says “His fame spread far and wide, for the Lord gave him marvelous help, and he became very powerful.”

To get an idea on how historically significant Uzziah’s military might is, let me just read the assessment of his military in 2 Chronicles 26… just in words alone, the writer uses 4 times the words to describe the military under his command, as opposed to any other king except David or Solomon.  It is really quite impressive.   Here it is, starting in verse 11:  

·         11 Uzziah had an army of well-trained warriors, ready to march into battle, unit by unit. This army had been mustered and organized by Jeiel, the secretary of the army, and his assistant, Maaseiah. They were under the direction of Hananiah, one of the king’s officials. 12 These regiments of mighty warriors were commanded by 2,600 clan leaders. 13 The army consisted of 307,500 men, all elite troops. They were prepared to assist the king against any enemy.

·         14 Uzziah provided the entire army with shields, spears, helmets, coats of mail, bows, and sling stones. 15 And he built structures on the walls of Jerusalem, designed by experts to protect those who shot arrows and hurled large stones[f] from the towers and the corners of the wall. His fame spread far and wide, for the Lord gave him marvelous help, and he became very powerful.

The level of his ingenuity is off the known chart of the day.  It’s almost like having a warrior/general type George Washington, coupled with the civil engineering leadership of Herbert Hoover, and maybe the diplomacy and long term military planning of Reagan… and he had a habit of hiring a bunch of Elon Musk types.  Try to imagine all that being wrapped up into one president, or king, with a 52 year reign…. It’s hard for me to understand because I’ve lived through 8 presidents in as many years…  It’s really hard to fathom what that would look like for Judah.  But it’s easy to see how there would be a sense of peace and security in this situation.

As we look through the life of Uzziah, and that of Isaiah, I want to take a quick moment to do something I have mentioned in the earlier parts of the Crash Course study, and that is to see what the other books have to say about the same topic.  You might call it “cross-referencing”.   Isaiah is saying he served under King Uzziah, and aside from Kings and Chronicles, there are only two other books that mention Uzziah by name, lets take a quick look at what they had to say.

First, the minor prophet Amos, in 1:1 writes this “This message was given to Amos, a shepherd from the town of Tekoa in Judah (so he’s from the same area as Isaiah, but not from a priestly line…. Continuing on)  He received this message in visions two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeraboam II, the son of Jehoash, was king of Israel. (And now we see that he was a contemporary of Isaiah, but also, what’s up with this earthquake reference?   There is nothing about it in the 2 kings or 2 chronicles text.   Let’s put a bookmark here, and come back to it in a moment, let’s check out Zechariah.

The second reference to Uzziah is covered by the minor prophet of Zechariah.  Zechariah is not a contemporary of Isaiah, and his time of service is about 250 years after the death of Uzziah.  If you remember the study that we did over Ezra and Nehemiah, that is the timeframe that he serves in, when the exiles from Babylon return to Jerusalem.  But he makes a peculiar comment in his final prophecy, lets take a minute to read the reference, and keep in mind that he is making a reference to a future judgment that will be epic…. And to illustrate just how epic it would be, says this “you will flee through this valley, for it will reach across to Azal.  Yes, you will flee as you did from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah.  Then the Lord my God will come, and all His holy ones with him.”  That’s chapter 14:6.

As I read this I wondered why there is no reference to the earthquake by the writers of Kings and Chronicles.   And there is a good answer to that, but did it really happen, and what’s the story behind it?

I will post a link in the show notes so if you are inclined to read further you may do so at your leisure, but There is such a thing as is referred to as Amos’s Earthquake.  Archaeological scholars researching the issue state that they can date the earthquake quite specifically (plus or minus a couple of years), and that based on what they refer to as piles of evidence, (and how they can do this after the fact, I have no idea… read the article, but they say that it was somewhere between a magnitude 7.8 and an 8.2 earthquake).  This was no minor jolt.  They go on to add that there was no way this quake was any less than 90 seconds.  This was catastrophic, and, according to the Armstrong Institute for Biblical Archaeology, it happened in the ballpark of 760 BC… which would be the middle to end of King Uzziah’s reign.

I previously mentioned that verse from 2 Chronicles 26:15 15 it says “His fame spread far and wide, for the Lord gave him marvelous help, and he became very powerful.” And it is certainly true.   However, the next verse takes us down an unfortunate path in Uzziah’s journey….. and I think it’s fair that we call it the earthquake…. Although it’s not mentioned in the text… hang with me on this one…. And keep in mind that Isaiah is young in his ministry during this episode, and being from a priestly heritage, he probably has a front row seat to what is about to unfold.   

Verse 16 says “But when he had become powerful, he also became proud, which led to his downfall.  He sinned against the Lord his God by entering the Lord’s Temple and personally burning incense on the incense altar.  Azariah the high priest went in after him with 80 other priests of the Lord, all brave men.  They confronted King Uzziah and said, ‘it is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord.  That is the work of the Priests alone, the descendants of Aaron who are set apart for this work. Get out of the sanctuary for you have sinned.  The Lord God will not honor you for this!  (((Do you remember me mentioning that during the time of the kings there is this system of checks and balances in place where the king is most certainly governing the nation, and while he has input and impact on the spiritual direction of the nation, there is always a priest or prophet that helps keep the king and the nation on the spiritual straight and narrow….. well this time the ‘check n balance’ system is  almost like watching a civil war erupt.  The executive branch of government, in all its historical success, has seen fit to step into the work of the church, grossly overstepping its bounds…. And the Priests won’t be intimidated, they stand their ground…. Thank God for Brave Men!!!   I think that there is a prophetic bell here that needs to be re-rung, a reminder that we’re only a panic away from this happening again:  The government doesn’t dictate or interfere with the operation of the church.   And in case you missed out on how quickly some government entities would try to pull a Uzziah in a time of panic and pandemic, just look at how quick the Government pulled rank during Covid, and how many priests let it happen without protest and push-back. And while we ponder this, keep in mind there is a prophet watching this potential civil war unfold between the King he’s most likely idolized, or at least a king who is responsible for Isaiah’s peace, security, and economic well-being, Priests got to be ready!!!  Priests got to be brave!))))  Back to the text….            

Uzziah, who was holding the incense burner, became furious.  But as he was standing there raging at the priests before the incense altar in the Lord’s Temple, leprosy suddenly broke out on his forehead.   When Azariah the high priest and all the other priests saw the leprosy, they rushed him out.  And the king himself was eager to get out because the Lord had struck him.  So King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died.   He lived in isolation in a separate house, for he was excluded from the temple of the Lord.  His son Jotham was put in charge of the royal palace.”    And here ends our reading of the text, but not our study of it.  

And this is a good place to take a quick break, as always, if you need to press pause here and come back later, by all means do so, and if you want to just plow right on through…. Hammer away!!!

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Ok, lets get back to Isaiah and Uzziah.

There’s a good reason that the text doesn’t mention the earthquake.  Not many things spoke louder in the days of Kings or Chronicles of God’s judgment than leprosy, especially the sudden onset in a moment of disobedience or rebellion.  In fact, you see Uzziah’s demeanor change immediately when he feels the leprosy… it’s as if he gives up the fight and walks out….  He knows that God has levied judgment on him.  

Remember, Kings & Chronicles are written by priests, prophets, and scribes, to a Jewish audience. So, it stands to reason that leprosy, as covered by the writers of Kings and Chronicles, would communicate the rejection and judgment by God.  But when you dig into Josephus’ account, we find some interesting details that fill in a few of the gaps, and connect a few more dots.  And keep in mind that Josephus’ audience was the Ceasars, the romans, gentiles…. And to these unbelievers, a God that can cause an earthquake is more respectable than one who can cause a skin disease…. And to be sure everyone should understand that Jehovah can do both.

In Antiquities of the Jews, Book 9, chapter 10, verse 4, Josephus restates the Chronicles story nearly verbatim, but with a couple additional details.   First, while Uzziah was raging, and threatening to have the priests killed, a giant earthquake…. Not just an earthquake, but a Giant earthquake happened and it rent a crack in the temple wall where the sun shone through, hitting Uzziah in the face… it is at this moment that the leprosy appears. It is absolutely epic!

And secondly, to highlight the severity of the earthquake, Josephus mentions a particularly large rock that breaks loose from the mount and travels downhill about half a mile, destroying the king’s gardens in the process.  It is believed that the path this giant rock cut, along with the shifting earth in the quake, is the path that Zechariah is speaking of in 14:6.

Uzziah’s pride and arrogance trigger the earthquake and leprosy, which leads to about 10 years of isolation, and his son, Jotham, becoming a puppet king till Uzziah’s eventual passing.

Uzziah had brought a peace and prosperity to Jerusalem that they hadn’t seen since the times of Solomon.  Uzziah’s death wasn’t just the end of an era, it was the end of an absolutely epic era of peace through strength and military might, not to mention the architecture and inventions of the day giving a bit of a superiority complex to the king.

And at the same time, as you might expect, Uzziah’s death brings an equal amount of uncertainty.

The emotional angst of the end of an era like this is often characterized by a complex mix of feelings such as nostalgia (reliving the glory-days), seasoned with a bit of obvious sadness, and stirred by the uncertainty regarding the transition of power.  The predictability of life under a 52 year political administration is over.   And lets not lose sight of the fact that most people living in Jerusalem, and Judah, at the time had never lived through a transition of power, an election campaign.  The nerves of not knowing what to expect might set some on edge.  And lets not forget the many neighboring enemies who might be nursing a grudge, and what they might be thinking and planning.

I said it at the opening, It would be like having the same, wildly prosperous president or prime minister, since 1972…..  52 years.   I honestly don’t have any idea what that would look like, I am 50 and I’ve seen 7 presidents…. I can’t fathom it being just one for that period of time. And every transition of power has had hiccups and speedbumps, I cannot imagine a transition with 52 years worth of pent up hiccups & speedbumps!

And now, the high’s and low’s of King Uzziah’s life takes us to Isaiah 6. If you are unaware of this passage, it is truly one of the most epic passages in the book! 

let’s read Isaiah 6:1-8

It was in the year King Uzziah died[a] that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. 2 Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 They were calling out to each other,

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies!
     The whole earth is filled with his glory!”

4 Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke.

5 Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”

6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7 He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.”

8 Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?”

I said, “Here I am. Send me.”

I have read this many times.  I’ve heard many sermon’s on this chapter.  Many of them have had to do with the tail end of the interaction where Isaiah say’s “SEND ME” and it evolves into a missions or ministry sermon.

I’ve heard it preached as a sermon of confession, calling us to confess our sins like Isaiah confesses “I am a man of unclean lips”

I’ve heard it preached as a message on worship, where the angels are crying out holy, holy, holy, and the presence of the Lord consumes the temple to the point of smoke and glory and even the earth shaking….

And I wouldn’t consider any one of those sermons to be inaccurate, especially when they are bundled together, but I would just take one more step backwards and highlight that this little phrase “In the year that king Uzziah died”.  And I would say that foundationally, this phrase isn’t just a date in time, it’s a defining moment in the ministry and life of Isaiah.

A moment when Isaiah’s life is in turmoil. It’s the end of the Uzziah’s reign, the last years were corrupted by scandal, yet there was peace, there was ease, but who know’s what this new king is going to do.  With Uzziah’s passing there is a loss of predictability which brings uncertainty to everything, especially the economics of life.  Notwithstanding the fact that there are some sin issues that have been brewing for a while – creeping into the priesthood if you can believe that.   

In a recent sermon titled “A STORM IS COMING TO AMERICA”  Tim Dilena from Times Square Church, highlighted 7 stages of the downfall of a civilization…  quickly… here they are…… and we’ve discussed the sin cycle before so this shouldn’t be a surprise, but check this out:

 Downfall of a civilization:

·         From bondage to spiritual faith

·         Then to courage

·         Then to liberty

·         Then to abundance

·         ……………………..

·         Then to selfishness

·         Then to complacency

·         Then to apathy

·         Then back to bondage

I would submit to you that In the year that king Uzziah died, Isaiah came to the stark realization that they were at the latter end of the list rather than the first…. And this begins when he realizes his sin, a filthy mouth, a sign that maybe Jewish society is in the  selfish, complacent, or apathetic stage…. ‘what does it matter if drop an “f-bomb” occasionally… who cares!  what’s the matter with an occasional ‘off-color’ joke? Who cares!   I’d bet he’s looking at the negative side of a don’t care attitude amongst his peers…. Which is that apathetic precursor to being led back into bondage.  

I love this story.  There is so much in this story that we don’t have time for, but as I wrap it up today, let me leave you with a few observations and challenges from the titanic disaster of Uzziah and Isaiah’s moment in Chapter 6.

Observation (or Application #1):  We live in a culture that will beat the drum of being hurt by the church, or seeing hypocrisy in the church and consequently reject any combination of a relationship with God and participating church activities.  And it is clearly what the devil wants to do.  The Church is the Bride of Christ, and in his hatred for God, the devil goes after the Church with murderous intent, like Uzziah.   But be an Isaiah.   Be in church.  Be in the place where God has historically showed up in power.  Sure God can show up in  power in other places…  But he loves doing so with His church.   Don’t abandon the church because of men and their pride.   God can and will redeem the place…  the question is really will you be there when He does?

Obserrvation (or Application #2):  No matter your age, no matter your experience, no matter your title in Christendom, always be ready to confess your sin.    Even if you are one of those who has been hurt, and someone else out there has greiveously sinned against you.    Your job is to forgive them, and at the same time that you are dealing with how it is that you have been sinned against, you still have to be like Isaiah and deal responsibly with your own personal sin….  Be ready to confess whatever God reveals!  Isaiah had a front row seat to one of the most brutal power play’s of all time, and when God show’s up he doesn’t throw Uzziah under the bus, he doesn’t play the victim card…  all he can see is that somehow, in the mix of it all, he has developed a potty mouth, and no matter how much hurt has been levied against him, what God holds him accountable for…. His foul mouth! 

Jesus says in John 3, as He’s talking to Nicodemus, after He’s delivered one of the most famous line’s in scripture ‘john 3:16’, he say’s … and I am slightly paraphrasing from the message….   Here’s the problem, light has come into the world and men loved darkness,  they are addicted to denial and illusion, so they hide from the painful exposure that light brings.   

Listen to me carefully, you cannot desire for God show up in an Isaiah 6 way and think that there won’t be things that are exposed…. Things that have to be confessed.  It’s not about shame, it’s about holiness, it’s the fact that God has a knack for showing us   what it is that is standing in the way of Him moving in might and power.   Remember the essence of the book,  it portrays both the holiness of the Lord and the Love of the Lord.  His presence will reveal stuff….. and all I am saying is  to make up your mind now to confess as Isaiah did! Don’t cover up and hide. Or play distracting victim cards.

Observation (or Application #3):  Before Isaiah saw the Lord, Uzziah had to die.  The question for us today is, metaphorically speaking, what Uzziah’s in our lives need to die?)”  Do we have any things in our lives that cause us to have undue confidence in our flesh, or a control of our life… such that we are not dependent on God?   Are we walking in the shadow of people who have disrespected God, but still manage to somehow live in blessing outwardly? Do we lean so much on things in our lives so much so, that we fail to lean on God, that we fail to live by faith?”  Do we trust in dreams, or democracies, or derelict leaders? Whatever it is that we are demoralized about, depressed over, disinterested in, dissatisfied with, feel disqualified from, or dependent on (other than God)…. Those things are Uzziah’s and they need to die…. For you to see the Lord!

The phrase “in the year that King Uzziah died…” isn’t just a way of dating the text.  It is a poetic way for Isaiah to say “ in the chaos of my life, in our confusion as a country, in the hurt, in the loss, in the instability of kings, and in the uncertainty of prophecies …… in the midst of all this, God showed up and revealed Himself to me….  And it changed my life forever!

This wasn’t a date to remember, it was a defining moment.   And I am praying that you have that opportunity as well.  That whatever your situation, whatever the confusion or chaos, whatever it is that God has already shown you…. In the midst of life right now, that you would be able to say that “YOUR UZZIAH HAS DIED, AND YOU SAW THE LORD, you encountered the Almighty, you confessed whatever you needed to, and are ready to say “HERE AM I, SEND ME, USE ME”….  That this would be your defining moment.

Until next week

God Bless

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRN27cgOqUU

https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/ant-9.html