Until The Last Whistle Blows, 2 Kings 15

Until the Last Whistle Blows

TURN TO 2 Kings 15

Everyone who has ever watched sports, has seen a game in which a team does well in the first part of the game, only to fall apart as time goes on and end up with a loss.

There were reports in the news, yesterday, that NFL QB Tom Brady, after a legendary career, is retiring. Reminded of Super Bowl 51, when Tom Brady’s Patriots faced the Atlanta Falcons. The first half wasn’t much of a game - Atlanta was in full control. Tom Brady’s Patriot offence couldn’t score a single touchdown in the whole half. The second half continued where the first left off - And when Atlanta scored its fourth touchdown, halfway through the third quarter, to go up 28-3, well, the game was clearly over. There is no digging out of that kind of whole with just a quarter and a half to go. Well, somebody forgot to tell the teams that.

Something happened and the Patriots started scoring … the lead was shrinking until 25 straight points were scored, the game went to overtime, where the Patriots scored a touchdown and won. The Patriots were champions and the Falcons had just set a record for the greatest collapse in Super Bowl history. It was a powerful reminder that, in any game, you have to play until the last whistle blows. You can’t let up.

That failure to finish in sports is a great metaphor for so many lives. We’ve seen it in the life of Israel, in our journey through kings. Just in the last few generations, we’ve seen kings who started well, but didn’t finish that way.

We share a common humanity, so if finishing well is a struggle for the men whose lives we are reading about, then you can be sure that finishing life well is going to be a challenge for you too.

In this journey through the reigns of the kings over God’s people, which is the storyline driving the books of Kings, we find ourselves going back and forth between Northern Kingdom of Israel - and Southern Kingdom of Judah.

Chapter 14, that we looked at last week dealt with one king from the south and one from the north. Chapter 15, which is our text for today - is bookended by kings from the southern Kingdom of Judah - father at the beginning, son at the end of the chapter.

And in the middle of the chapter, we have a stream of Kings from the north - 6 in all. We aren’t going to deal with them except to notice how quickly these kings rise and fall: Verse 8 – Zecharaiah – reigns 6 months … assassinated; Verse 13 -Shallum – reigns 1 month … assassinated; Verse 17 Menahem – reigns 10 years – only because he pays off the king of Assyria; Verse 23 – Pekahiah – 2 years – assassinated; Verse 27 – Pekah – 20 years – assassinated. You see what’s going on here – the Northern Kingdom is hurtling faster and faster into destruction.

Chapter 15 begins with Azariah, king of Judah – and this is the character we’re going to focus on.

READ 2 Kings 15:1-7

1 GOLDEN YEARS RECOVERED, vv. 1-7

I only touched on those kings of the north, because they are a contrast to the ONE king of the Southern Kingdom of Judah - King Azariah, who begins the chapter.

Azariah has a long reign - 52 years on the throne. Fifty two years: Think about what a long career that is. Canadian Prime Ministers in that time: Pierre Trudeau; Joe Clark (Joe Who?); John Turner, Brian Mulroney; Kim Campbell, Jean Chretien, Paul Martin, Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau.

In the US - Fifty-two years ago, Richard Nixon was president. My, a lot has happened in the last half-century. That’s how long this king’s career lasts.

Interesting - Azariah doesn’t actually get very much attention in our chapter. No more than 7 verses for a five decade career - and almost all of that is the usual formula given for every other king. Was he good? Verse 3 - “And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD ...”. Did he have a shortcomings? Verse 4, “Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away.”

Where can we get more information? Well, as a matter of fact, as Verse 6 tells us: ‘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?”

Typical stuff - exactly what we would expect in reading about a king in Judah. In fact the ONLY verse that tells us anything really descriptive or unique about this king is v. 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.”

So Azariah reigned a long time, had a stability in the nation while he was on the throne … but somewhere along the line, this king is afflicted with leprosy.

Leprosy, being what it was – highly visible, highly contagious …. the disease that renders you unclean and, in some cases, eats away at body tissue until hands and feet, arms and legs fall off … body-destroying leprosy which was seen as very contagious … well the king couldn’t live in his palace anymore. That’s why v. 5 tells us that he lived in a separate house.

It’s a tragic disease - destroys a body and completely changes a life.

What’s worse ...verse 5 tells us how he became leprous: “And the LORD touched the king, so that he was a leper to the day of his death.” THE LORD gave Azariah leprosy.

Now THAT sounds like a story, doesn’t it? The God of the universe doesn’t just randomly strike his people with diseases for no reason. Something’s going on here.

But the writer of Kings doesn’t tell us what happened. He just lays it out there and then moves on.

And this is where I run into a challenge. We’re journeying through the book of Kings and that’s all this book tells us about Azariah … But 2 Chronicles has a whole chapter devoted to this man … But we aren’t going through 2 Chronicles, we are going through 2 Kings … But Azariah is an important person .... oh, what do we do? Do you see the challenges a preacher faces at a time like this?

Well, here’s what we’re going to do. Azariah’s life has an important lesson for us, so we’re going to spend the rest of our time this morning doing a character study on this king and we will fill in the gaps left in our text here - by looking at the other places where this king is mentioned.

TURN TO 2 CHRONICLES 26 Azariah and Uzziah are just 2 variations on the same name. This Uzziah IS the Azariah from 2 Kings 15 – so just remember that as we go.

READ vv. 1-5.

Of course 52 years on the throne doesn’t mean that there’s anything significant to this king’s reign. You can hold onto a position for a long time without doing anything - except HOLDING ON. The text makes clear Uzziah’s reign was anything BUT marking time. He made an impact in so many ways - beyond longevity.

And it all starts with v. 5: “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.”

“He set himself to seek God ...”. Do not miss that. The pursuit of God, in the fear of the LORD, is the foundation upon which every good thing in his life was built.

And there were many good things he did.

A. MILITARY SUCCESS

The first thing we read about is his military success:

2 Chronicles 26:6-8 “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.”

Uzziah stops playing defense - just trying to hold the borders of a shrinking nation of dwindling influence. He goes on the attack. Takes his army and heads west toward the Mediterranean, where he attacks the Philistines. It’s a success. Why, he kicks down the wall of Gath - the famous hometown of the infamous Giant Goliath. Then Judah’s army does the same in other cities that belong to that traditional enemy of God’s people, then he builds cities for his own people in Philistine territory - a way to flex muscles and exert dominance without the hassle of a full-time military occupation. “Here we are, living in your country .... what are you going to do about it?”

Uzziah deals with other potential threats in the surrounding area .... he even makes his mark to the east. On the eastern side of the Dead Sea is where the Ammonites live. They are bringing tribute to the king in Jerusalem - that’s no charity .... it’s not neighbourliness - that’s taxation for the priviledge of living next door to a nation that you’re afraid of. Judah has its swagger back on the international stage.

v. 8 “(Uzziah’s) fame spread even to the border of Egypt, for he became VERY STRONG.” We haven’t heard this kind of talk since the days of Solomon - generations ago.

B. DOMESTIC IMPROVEMENTS

Uzziah isn’t just a brawny but brainless fighter who wants to fight all the time. He makes his mark on the home front, too.

READ 2 Chronicles 26:9-10. Along the protective walls of the city, he adds more protection by building towers - like an early form of radar to detect incoming enemy forces. Out in the unprotected wilderness, he builds stand-alone towers, to stand sentry - forming a network of early-warning systems to increase the defense of the homeland.

There are also the improvements to agriculture. Uzziah could sing, “Thank God I’m a country boy” - because, as v. 10tells us, he loved the soil. When you love the soil and farming - in an area of the world where you can’t always count on rain …if you want to increase fruitfulness, what do you do? You increase the stability of your water supply - and Uzziah does exactly that. Throughout the country, he has water cisterns dug into limestone and sealed with plaster to catch water during rainstorms. More water, more crops, more prosperity.

C. MILITARY ADVANCES.

Uzziah doesn’t just have success in military battles, he also increases the military’s capabilities. READ vv. 11-16.

He has a massive army of 300k soldiers, has them strategically organized into divisions, with equipment and weapons that the KING himself has prepared and provided. Soldiers had always been expected to bring their own fighting gear. This is something!

And there’s more . Take a look at v. 15again. It’s talking about those towers on Jerusalem’s walls. The text says that ‘he made machines, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and the corners to shoot arrows and great stones.” We’re not sure exactly what these ‘machines’ were - some kind of catapult - some way to fight off attacks by overwhelming them with the ancient equivalent of long range missiles. These are advanced weapon systems that add one more layer of protection - and add prestige as well.

As you walk around Jerusalem in Uzziah’s day, it’s hard to believe that just one generation ago, yours was a cowering country - invaded, with a hole kicked in your city wall and your cities greatest treasures - along with the king .... packed up and taken away by an enemy your were helpless to stop. Under this strong and stable king - you are living in a wealthy, technologically advanced society - that has all been overseen by your king. King Uzziah’s fame is spreading far and wide and the Bible will not let us forget the source of the resurgent nation. As v. 16puts it: “… his fame spread far, for he was marvellously helped.”

Here is Uzziah, prospering - in so many different ways. Verse 5: “… as long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper.”

Uzziah’s life story here is a great object lesson that God’s design is to bless - literally, according to v. 5, “to prosper”, his children who seek Him.

Matthew 6:33 says the same thing - “Seek first the kingdom of God … and His righteousness and ….”

Unfortunately - we’ve seen too many televangelists with big, toothy grins twisting this truth into error by telling you that ‘prosper’ means a big bank account and freedom from sickness. Sometimes prosper means, through pain and days where you don’t know where tomorrow’s mortgage payment is going to come from ....But God is big enough - He will prosper you with joy in Christ, no matter the trial.

Verse 5: “… as long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper.”

2 PRIDE’S DESTRUCTIVENESS, vv.15-22

Something happened when Uzziah had Israel enjoying a renaissance of its former glory. Something happened between the glory and the leprosy. What was it?

Verse 16 tells us exactly what the king’s problem was:

“But when he was strong, he grew proud to his destruction ...”. Uzziah grew proud. Pride is where the downfall comes.

Verse 16 carries on: “For he was unfaithful to the LORD his God and entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense.”

“And, what’s the problem with that? So he wants to worship God with incense - shouldn’t he be applauded for ‘extra’ worship?” Seems a small thing doesn’t it?

Well the problem is that burning incense in God’s temple was a job specifically reserved for the priests. God gave his people a king to look after political, military matters .... and He gave them Priests and Levites to look after the spiritual matters. And He expected both groups to stay in their own lane.

The altar of incense is a symbol of the prayers of God’s people rising continually before Him in heaven (See what God thinks of your desperate please from down here?!). No matter how many rubies king Uzziah has in his crown - he has no right to disobey God’s command and start functioning like God’s appointed priests. Uzziah knows this - but he doesn’t care. He thinks he’s above God’s law.

The priests on duty see the king waltzing into the sanctuary, where he’s not allowed to go. They follow him in.

READ 2 Chronicles 26:17-18.

81 brave priests say, “Hey, king … Where do you think you’re going?! NO WAY!” I love how v. 17 calls them men of valor. They stand up to the commander in chief of the military with 300 thousand troops at his disposal … and they say, “GET OUT - YOU HAVE DONE WRONG”. That IS brave - King Saul killed all the priests at Nob because he was mad at them .... Uzziah has more power than Saul ever did.

Reminds me of the English preacher, Hugh Latimer who once preached before King Henry VIII, only to be warned later that he had offended the monarch with his plain speaking and that, when he preached again the following Sunday, he should apologize. He began his second sermon by addressing himself with these words:

Hugh Latimer, dost thou know before whom thou art this day to speak? To the high and mighty monarch, the king’s most excellent majesty, who can take away thy life if thou offendest; therefore, take heed that thou speakest not a word that may displease; but then consider well, Hugh, dost thou not know from whence thou comest; upon whose message thou art sent? Even by the great and mighty God! who is all-present, and who beholdest all thy ways, and who is able to cast thy soul into hell! Therefore, take care that thou deliverest thy message faithfully.

He then preached the same sermon as before, only, apparently, more energetically.

With that kind of courage, the priests confront their king, Uzziah, and, as they may have anticipated, the king gets angry (v. 19). The king may be angry with the priests but, far more importantly, the Lord is angry with the king. It doesn’t take long before the priestly caution turns into a Divine curse.

The priests call out the king’s wrong behaviour, he has the chance to come to his senses, repent and leave the temple, but he doesn’t.

READ 2 Chronicles 26:19

He gets angry - and as the blood rises and his eyes bulge, white patches of leprosy blossom on his forehead.

Remember what 2 Kings 15 said, that ‘the LORD TOUCHED the king’. Here’s where it happened and don’t miss the fact that God’s anger against Uzziah doesn’t break out until AFTER Uzziah’s anger breaks out against the priests. He was warned, but he won’t listen.

READ Verses 20-21

There’s an audible gasp …The leprosy appears out of nowhere.... and then the priests go on a panicked rush to get the king out of the sacred temple. The king puts up no fight - it’s clear in an instant that this is God’s work. The timing can be no accident.

This is a communicable disease. The king is ritually impure and socially unclean - so not only does he have to leave the Lord’s house - he has to leave his own house … the palace. Verse 21 tells us that for the rest of his life, King Uzziah has to live in exclusion from the temple and exclusion from his family. Oh, what a tragic end to a life going so, so well …

.... ALL BECAUSE OF PRIDE. He reaches for more than what he’s entitled to .... and he ends up with less than he had. His son takes over day to day operations of the throne and Uzziah even pays in his death V. 23, “And Uzziah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the burial field that belonged to the kings, for they said, ‘He is a leper.’”

See the danger of pride. It’s a danger that seems to grow as our wealth and power ‘to control’ our life circumstances grows.

The rich and powerful tend to think that they can do what they like—and very often they can, at least for some time. Tiger Woods, the famous golfer, explained his marital unfaithfulness by saying, ‘I knew my actions were wrong, but I convinced myself that normal rules didn’t apply … I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to.’ But he couldn’t—and neither can Uzziah.

We need to meditate on this today - so many of us are living in a time of great human strength … We are so used to controlling the circumstances of life – we tend to think that we should be able to decide WHAT we need for our happiness – decide our own gender … decide WHAT I NEED to care for myself – without reference to anyone or anything outside myself: Carl Trueman calls it, ‘THE TRIUMPH OF THE THERAPEUTIC” …

I have seen too many people I grew up with – went to church and Sunday School and youth group together – they read the Bible, same as I did …. Made a profession of faith along the way …. But as the years went by – they drifted. Never outright ‘rejected’ Jesus Christ … but ‘took the censer’ in their hand, as it were …

Re-interpreted God’s word by their own experience … and they’ve drifted. And drifted … until they don’t even know what they believe and they have … NO … JOY. At the root – their problem pride.

3 PRIDE’S CURE, ISAIAH 6

“Well I don’t want to be destroyed by my own pride ...”, you say. “I see the seeds of pride within myself and I know the danger - but I can’t just turn it on and off like a light switch. So .... what do I do?”

I want to wrap up our time together, this morning, by answering that very question: “How do I kill pride in my own heart?”

To answer that question, turn with me to Isaiah 6.

If you thought you recognized the name Uzziah from SOMEWHERE, but you weren’t sure where … it’s very likely that this is the place you’ve heard of him before. This is the record of Isaiah’s call to take God’s Word to His people. This is one of the most powerful visions in all the Bible.

Isaiah is one of the most important of OT prophets. He faithfully speaks God’ very words to the people .... warning of judgment, calling to repentance, promising judgment and then HOPE after discipline. Isaiah is God’s man and look where his mission starts: it starts with Isaiah 6:1, “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.”

“In the year that King Uzziah died.”

Imagine yourself here - you are a young person - Your nation has just enjoyed 52 years of stability and more than that - growth, advances in technology, wealth, military strength - the economy is booming. After that long, how easy to put your trust, to rest your hopes for the future In your king.

And now - the king who led through all of these years .... he is dead. It is a time of crisis. deeply concerned with the direction of the world around you. There are dark clouds of uncertainty on the horizon (maybe you don’t need to IMAGINE yourself in a place like that - maybe that’s where you are right now.”

A time much like the Church in North America appears to be in right now - - with our corner of the world pulling further and further away, and the church huffing and puffing to keep up. Concerned to be relevant … concerned not to shrivel up and whither away.

What does Isaiah need? He needs the same thing that Uzziah needed to see - the one thing that would have kept him from the devouring teeth of pride .... the one thing that we need to keep us from the same trap ....

We need to see God. As He Is.

It is in this context, this time of anxious desperation, that God reveals himself, in His holiness, to Isaiah. It means so much. It changed Isaiah, and I pray it changes us as well.

v. 1: “I saw the Lord.” For a brief time – the veil is removed in the temple and Isaiah sees the reality behind the Temple worship practices. There, filling the field of the prophet’s vision - - filling the Temple, in Jerusalem, is God, “The Lord” –The Hebrew word “Adonai” - - the Sovereign One – the One who has control over all of the affairs of everything that exists outside of Himself.

Uzziah may be dead. Assyria, with is hideous, blood-stained knuckles may be fiercely knocking at the door of the Kingdom - - but instantly, in the Temple here, all of the crises of the world stage shrivel up like an autumn leaf and blow away in insignificance. Isaiah is in the one throne-room that counts. This is where the Sovereign, All-Powerful God sits. READ vv. 2-6

The prophet tries to describe for us, in Isaiah 6, what he sees - - He attempts to describe the appearance of God. He gets to the hem of God’s robe, but no further. “I saw the Lord, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled….”

He can’t even get past the hem at the bottom of God’s garments, before the Temple is completely filled and the rest is just too much even to attempt to put into human language.

He casts his gaze up and notices another group of beings, surrounding the throne. They called Seraphim - Seraphs, which means ‘fiery ones.’ They are a class of angelic being, which is mentioned only here in the entire OT. The very name seraphim means ‘burning ones’ - - burning with purity as they must be to serve before God’s throne.

Notice the stance of these angels: They encircle the throne, in the air. And it tells us, here in verse 2, that each of them has 6 wings:

2 wings they use to fly. Okay, we get that, but why do they need any more than that?

With 2 wings they cover their eyes. Why? They may be angelic beings, given the privilege of day and night surrounding the throne of God - - but the glorious majesty of the Almighty is too much even for them to look at - - they must shield their eyes.

With 2 more wings, the seraphs cover their feet. Now these are not men with ‘feet of clay’ - - These are glorious beings – who, when they appear to humans, often have the humans on their faces in cowering fear – dazzled to fear by the sight of these angels. But these magnificent angels are in the presence of an eternal, uncreated holy God – they cover their eyes and cover their feet.

Notice also their Song: They call to one another in v. 3. Isaiah’s body vibrates with a thunderous sound. It is the song of the seraphim - - They are calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.”

Holy, holy, holy – word often used, lightly used . .. . what does it mean?

Many of us, when we hear the word ‘holy’, think of purity, moral perfection – something that is clean in a moral sense. That’s part of the idea here. In the OT, when objects used in the temple for the worship of God, were set apart as holy - - they had to be carefully cleansed - - including the priests themselves.

Holiness means that God is pure, He is without sin. He isn’t measured by some standard of what purity is - - - He IS the standard. If you want to know – at any time - what is pure? What is Good? - - look at God.

But there is more to holiness than only purity. Word ‘Holy’ comes from the Hebrew root: ‘to cut’. To cut something apart. It means ‘to separate’. In God’s case – it means that He is utterly set apart from everything else that exists. It refers to the fact of His transcendence. That He is an infinite ‘cut above’ all of His creation.

Isaiah sees the amazing vision of this glorious God: the thresholds shaking, smoke billowing to the ceiling – eyes filling with stinging tears. Don’t miss his response. It’s NOT, “Hallelujah, God is here.” Let’s celebrate today!! He doesn’t break into uncontrolled laughter. He doesn’t start roaring like a lion – or say – “There you are God - - Hey, I thought you were going to make me rich and healthy – where’s my money and why am I still sick?”

Isaiah cries out, “Woe to me! I am ruined! I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.

I am “RUINED” he cries out. The Hebrew word here literally means, “I am destroyed.” - - - Always in the Bible, it means to come to an end, violently.

I like the way the KJV puts it, “I am undone.” All the strings that together make up who I am. All those strings that I have spent a lifetime winding and twisting and tying neatly together, the education, the career, the marriage the family, all the effort I have put into cultivating my image so that I appear to have it all together - - - It’s all for nothing, “I am DIS- integrating. I am . . . undone.”

Do you see what’s happening here? Isaiah has finally had the veil over his eyes removed. He has seen God in all the glory of his holiness and the brightness of that vision has illumined his true character. He sees that the gap between God’s holiness and all of his best effort is an infinite gap.

Can you imagine how a psychologist would evaluate this prophet? “I have seen God – I am undone!” What would the professional say? “Insane! Something is mentally wrong -- - You need to see yourself with dignity – get more self-esteem.”

Isaiah hasn’t gone insane. In fact, for the first time in his life, he is truly in his right mind. It is when we see the one, living, true, infinite God in his holiness that we see ourselves truly for the first time. If only Uzziah would have seen this vision himself!

And it is when we see ourselves as we are before God’s holiness - - we recognize that it is NOT okay to be less than absolutely holy before Him.

O, how easy it is for me to comfort myself with my own goodness. All I need to do is open the morning paper, you turn on the evening news or look at social media – see the depravity of the human race on display - and I can feel pretty good about myself. If God graded on the bell-curve, then I’ve got nothing to worry about. But that’s not how God works.

Need to see a God so loving that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to rescue you by grace alone, through faith .... alone. There is nothing I can do to earn His love, but trust.

But we also need to see a God so HOLY that to rescue us - He had to lay YOUR sins on His Son’s shoulders. Our debt must be paid. Our sin MUST be atoned for.

Holy, Holy, Holy - Holy Love and Holy Justice … when you spend your time gazing at a God like that - there is no place for pride to take root. There’s only room for awe and wonder to grow!