Why Do Bad Things Happen to Bad People?

INTRODUCTION

I did a double take when I saw this Sermon Title

We touched on the question of Why Bad things Happen to Good People

Cancer

Dementia and Parkinson

Senseless acts of others

This message does dovetail into our lives though

King Uzziah

1. Uzziah’s Character

2 Chronicles 26:3–4 ESV

Uzziah 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. And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done.

What a great resume!

10th King of Judah

800 years before the birth of Christ

2. Uzziah’s Blessings

2 Chronicles 26:6–8 ESV

He went out and made war against the Philistines and broke through the wall of Gath and the wall of Jabneh and the wall of Ashdod, and he built cities in the territory of Ashdod and elsewhere among the Philistines. God helped him against the Philistines and against the Arabians who lived in Gurbaal and against the Meunites. The Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziah, and his fame spread even to the border of Egypt, for he became very strong.

He built towers

Enlisted soldiers

He prepared the armament for his troops

2 Chronicles 26:15 ESV

In Jerusalem he made machines, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and the corners, to shoot arrows and great stones. And his fame spread far, for he was marvelously helped, till he was strong.

2 Chronicles 26:5 ESV

He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.

3. Uzziah’s Trangression

2 Chronicles 26:16 ESV

But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.

Proverbs 16:18 ESV

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

You protected the people

You made sure you had a well-prepared army

You provided farmland

You served the Lord - WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO NOW!

2 Chronicles 26:17–18 ESV

But Azariah the priest went in after him, with eighty priests of the Lord who were men of valor, and they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong, and it will bring you no honor from the Lord God.”

2 Chronicles 26:19 ESV

Then Uzziah was angry. Now he had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and when he became angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of the Lord, by the altar of incense.

2 Chronicles 26:20 ESV

And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead! And they rushed him out quickly, and he himself hurried to go out, because the Lord had struck him.

2 Chronicles 26:21 ESV

And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death, and being a leper lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the Lord. And Jotham his son was over the king’s household, governing the people of the land.

FATHER: Amaziah - And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet not with a whole heart. (2 Chron 25:2)

SON: Jotham - And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord according to all that his father Uzziah had done, except he did not enter the temple of the Lord. But the people still followed corrupt practices.

GRANDSON: Ahaz - ...And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done, 2.  but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even made metal images for the Baals,