King Uzziah was a great man, and a great king of Judah during the time of Isaiah the prophet. He was a shepherd boy who loved the outdoors. Even though Uzziah was only 16 years old when he became king, he was raised by a godly father and mother who taught him right from wrong. Uzziah obeyed God and God blessed him for it.
King Uzziah may not have even known it at the time, but the young king had someone very important watching him.
Isaiah the prophet was younger than King Uzziah, and he looked up to the godly king. Soon the two would become good friends.
Sometimes Isaiah would even go to the castle to stay with King Uzziah. Together, they would go to the temple and pray, and ask the will of the Lord for their people. They both knew that they were special people, who were chosen by God to lead the people of Judah.
Because of their faith, God helped Uzziah build up his kingdom and defeat his enemies.
He built great towers and walls, and giant gates to fortify Jerusalem. Uzziah had 2,600 mighty men of valor, plus a powerful army of 307,500 men to help fight against their enemies. Uzziah's fighting men had shields, spears, helmets, armor, bows, and slings to throw stones. The Bible even tells us that Uzziah had "engines" that were invented by "cunning" men. They were placed on the towers and walls of the city, to shoot arrows and huge stones down on their attackers!
King Uzziah’s fame spread all over the land. His people loved him and his enemies feared him!
Then one day everything changed. Uzziah got too proud and did something terribly wrong. Uzziah knew that God loved him, and he knew that God was with him, but he got proud and tried to take the place of a priest. Uzziah was a king, not a priest! But he did what God only wanted the priests doing; he burned incense in the temple.
God immediately struck Uzziah down with the dreaded disease, leprosy. God loved Uzziah, but His law was that only a priest should burn incense in the temple. Not even the good king of Judah is above God's law, and so Uzziah would soon die with the horrible disease.
This taught God's prophet, Isaiah, a valuable lesson. He knew that Uzziah was a great, great man, but because he got out of his place, God had to take him away.
It drove the prophet to the temple, to pray. There, he saw a vision of the real King. He saw God lifted up, high above all the heavens. God said, "Look up this way, I am your Example."
From that time on, the prophet Isaiah knew what God wanted him to do. He was to serve God and only God! It was a valuable lesson that we can all learn from. Always look to God, and serve Him with all of your heart. If you do that, God will be able to use you in great and wonderful ways!
We want to always keep godly influences in our lives, and to be godly influences for others to see, but like Isaiah we must always remember to look to God and His Word for our main Example.
“And Uzziah become a--a hero to Isaiah. You see, because of his--his stand for God, he became a hero in the eyes of the righteous. And there might not been too many righteous. See? But the thing we want to do, is make our life count for God. Somebody is watching you.” 62-1013