Read chapter in full: www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=2Kings+015
2 Kings Chapter 15 (ESV)
1 In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah the son of Amaziah, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 He was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. 3 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. 4 Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places. 5 And the Lord touched the king, so that he was a leper to the day of his death, and he lived in a separate house. And Jotham the king’s son was over the household, governing the people of the land. 6 Now the rest of the acts of Azariah, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 7 And Azariah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David, and Jotham his son reigned in his place.
REFLECTION:
- Try to read the whole chapter about King Azaiah and the successive kings of the northern kingdom.
- Azariah is also called Uzziah. The revival of Israel’s forturnes under Jeroboam II were matched by prosperity in Judah during Azariah’s long reign of over 50 years. Unfortunately he became proud and in disobedience to the Mosaic Law, and performed functions that God had restricted to the priests (2 Chron. 26:16-21). For this sin God punished him with leprosy (v. 5).
- History teaches us that few people have been able to maintain spiritual vitality and faithfulness when they attain what the world calls success. As with Solomon, Azariah’s early success proved to be his undoing.
- Bob Clinton used Uzziah as example to illustrate one of the barriers for Biblical leaders who did not finish well. What do I think of “Finishing Well”? How will I be able to finish well at the end of my life?
PRAYER:
Spend some time reading the following article on “6 Major Barriers to Finishing Well”
Reflect on the one closest to my situation. Pray for God’s help and deliverance from the barrier.
HYMN:
“I Know Whom I Have Believed” – www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bRV3J4n8cc
