Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20040418.htm

1 AND 2 KINGS: ENJOYING GOD'S BLESSINGS IN AN APOSTATE ERA
Part LI: Blessing By CONSISTENTLY Relying On GOD'S Help
(2 Kings 15:1-7 with 2 Chronicles 26:1-23)
  1. Introduction
    1. We all need God's help to survive the demands of this life that the angelic conflict, the inner sin nature and the enemy of the world set up against us! (cf. 1 John 2:15-17; Eph. 6:12-18 and Romans 7:15-25)
    2. However, when we begin to trust the Lord and find His help coming to us, a great danger exists in a tendency to forget how VULNERABLE we are to defeat if we FAIL to keep relying on God's help!
    3. 2 Kings 15:1-7 in light of its companion passage in 2 Chronicles 26:1-23 illustrates this fact so well:
  2. Blessing By CONSISTENTLY Relying On GOD'S Help, 2 Kings 15:1-7 with 2 Chronicles 26:1-23.
    1. When king Uzziah (Azariah) was born, he was graciously given a MOTHER by the name of Jecholiah, a name meaning "Jawheh has been able," 2 Kings 15:1-2; B.D.B., Heb. and Engl. Lex. of the O.T., p. 408. This meant he came from a background that highlighted the importance of looking to God for help!
    2. Hence, he started his reign as king of Judah by doing God's will to enjoy God's blessing, 2 Kings 15:3-4.
    3. However, quite abruptly, the 2 Kings 15:5 account claims God struck him with leprosy so that he was leprous to the day of his death and that he consequently lived in quarantine!
    4. Since Uzziah was subject to the Law, he would have drastically sinned to have received such a severe judgment, cf. Deuteronomy 28:15, 21; when we view the companion passage of 2 Chronicles 26:1-23, we see he FAILED to KEEP relying on GOD for blessing, and so badly SINNED with awful results:
      1. Uzziah began his reign by trusting God, so the Lord greatly "helped" him, 2 Chronicles 26:1-15:
        1. Since he started off relying on God, the meaning of his mother's name, Uzziah was given 52 years to rule, the longest reign to date of any king in Israel or Judah, 26:3; Bib. Know. Com., O.T., p. 566.
        2. Also, he sought God's advice in his rule, and as long as he did, God greatly "helped" him, 26:4,5.
        3. This "help" is extensively described in 2 Chronicles 26:6-15: (a) Twice, the passage mentions or implies that God helped Uzziah, all in keeping with the lesson in his mother's name, 26:7, 15b. (b) Such divine help included victories in war against the Philistines (26:6-7a), the Arabians and the Meunim, 26:7b. (c) This help included God's causing the Ammonites and Egyptians to respect him in accord with Deuteronomy 28:10 as Uzziah mightily strengthened Judah in the realm of national defense, 2 Chr. 26:8. (d) God also helped him in his building towers for national defense both in Jerusalem and in the wilderness (26:9); (e) God helped him bolster his livestock in building many wells (26:10a) (f) and God supplied him agricultural bounty (26:10b) together with (e) a huge, detailed equipping of his infantry and its capacity to wage war with war engines (26:11-15a).
        4. Thus, 2 Chronicles 26:15b with 26:7a reveals his reputation spread, for God greatly helped him.
      2. However, when he became powerful and famous, Uzziah failed to keep trusting God, forgetting it was God Who had made him great, and that led to his sin and his downfall, 2 Chronicles 26:16a, 16b-23:
        1. Uzziah transgressed God's Law by trying to burn incense in the temple when God had stated this ministry was for the priests, not for him as king, 2 Chronicles 26:16b with Numbers 18:1-7.
        2. When some courageous priests followed the High Priest to warn the mighty Uzziah that he was usurping their ministry, and that his action would not bring him honor, Uzziah began to get very angry with them, 2 Chronicles 26:17-18, 19a.
        3. Accordingly, God instantly struck him with leprosy on his forehead, and the priests immediately hurried him out of the temple; he then dwelt as a leper in quarantine until his death, 26:19b, 20-21.
        4. In fact, Uzziah was not buried honorably in the graveyard of the kings since he had been a leper; he was buried in the property owned by the kings, but not with the kings, 2 Chron. 26:23, Ibid., p. 640.
Lesson: When Uzziah followed God's instruction given to him even in his own mother's NAME -- that he was to rely on HIM for help, God GREATLY helped him; however, Uzziah switched his trust from God to the blessings he had, becoming self-sufficient, and lost his sense of accountability to God to where he sinned greatly and incurred God's resulting, severe punishment.

Application: May we NOT forget we are ALWAYS open to failure without God's help so that we NEVER rely on OURSELVES, but sense our ACCOUNTABILITY to God so as to trust and obey Him!