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. He built great towers and walls, and giant gates to fortify Jerusalem.
Uzziah had 2, mighty men of valor, plus a powerful army of , 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! His people loved him and his enemies feared him! Then one day everything changed. Uzziah got too proud and did something terribly wrong. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here.
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Share Goodmorning, The challenge today was just for me. My sons are John and Ethan. Keep them in your prayers. Veronica Dorsey Reply. Leave a Reply Want to join the discussion? Feel free to contribute! Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Privacy Policy OK. Cookie and Privacy Settings. How we use cookies. Essential Website Cookies. Check to enable permanent hiding of message bar and refuse all cookies if you do not opt in.
We need 2 cookies to store this setting. Otherwise you will be prompted again when opening a new browser window or new a tab. Google Analytics Cookies. Other external services. There was the show of outward material prosperity. There was the reality of much inward corruption. The king who had profaned the holiness of the Temple had either just died or was dragging out the dregs of his leprous life in seclusion 2Chronicles The question, What was to be the future of his people?
The earthquake that had terrified Jerusalem had left on his mind a vague sense of impending judgment. See Introduction. I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne. He had seen the incense-clouds rising from the censer of the priest, and had heard the hymns and hallelujahs of the Levites. Suddenly he passes, as St.
Paul afterwards passed, under the influence of like surroundings Acts , into a state of ecstatic trance, and as though the veil of the Temple was withdrawn, he saw the vision of the glory of the Lord, as Moses Exodus and Micaiah of old had seen it 1Kings , as in more recent times it had appeared to Amos The King of kings was seated on His throne, and on the right hand and on the left were the angel-armies of the host of heaven, chanting their hymns of praise.
His train filled the temple. Psalm ; Psalm ; Habakkuk It is noticeable 1 that the versions LXX. John this was a vision of the glory of the Christ John Uzziah had reigned for fifty-two years, during the greater part of which he and his people had been brilliantly prosperous.
Victorious in war, he was also successful in the arts of peaceful industry. The later years of his life were clouded, but on the whole the reign had been a time of great well-being. His son and successor was a young man of five-and-twenty; and when he came to the throne ominous war-clouds were gathering in the North, and threatening to drift to Judah. No wonder that the prophet, like other thoughtful patriots, was asking himself what was to come in these anxious days, when the helm was in new hands, which, perhaps, were not strong enough to hold it.
Like a wise man, he took his thoughts into the sanctuary; and there he understood. As he brooded, this great vision was disclosed to his inward eye. It tells us not only the when , but the why , of the vision.
The earthly king was laid in the grave; but the prophet saw that the true King of Israel was neither the dead Uzziah nor the young Jotham, but the Lord of hosts. And, seeing that, fears and forebodings and anxieties and the sense of loss, all vanished; and new strength came to Isaiah.
Our eyes have seen the King in as true a reality, and in better fashion, than ever Isaiah did amid the sanctities of the Temple. And the eyes that have seen only the near foreground, the cultivated valleys, and the homes of men, are raised, and lo! Who will look at the valleys when the Himalayas stand out, and the veil is drawn aside?
Let me say a word or two about the ministration of loss and sorrow in preparing for the vision. And so it is with all our losses, with all our sorrows, with all our disappointments, with all our pains; they have a mission to reveal to us the throned God.
The possession of the things that are taken away from us, the joys which our sorrows smite into dust, have the same mission, and the highest purpose of every good, of every blessing, of every possession, of every gladness, of all love-the highest mission is to lead us to Him.
But, just as men will frost a window, so that the light may come in but the sight cannot go out, so by our own fault and misuse of the good things which are meant to lead us up to, and to show us, God, we frost and darken the window so that we cannot see what it is meant to show us.
When the gifts that we have misused are withdrawn, we can see the heaven that they too often hide from us. When the leaves drop there is a wider prospect. When the great tree is fallen there is opened a view of the blue above. When the night falls the stars sparkle. When other props are struck away we can lean our whole weight upon God.
When Uzziah dies the King becomes visible. Is that what our sorrows, our pains, losses, disappointments do for us? Well for those to whom loss is gain, because it puts them in possession of the enduring riches!
Hide not Thy face far from me. They absorb us sometimes with vain regrets. They jaundice and embitter us sometimes with rebellious thoughts.
They often break the springs of activity and of interest in others, and of sympathy with others. Let me suggest how our text shows us the compensation that is given for all losses.
The vision took the special shape that the moment required. It was because the earthly king was dead that the living, heavenly King was revealed. That infinite fulness is of such a nature as that it will assume any form for which the weakness and the need of the dependent creature call. Like the one force which scientists now are beginning to think underlies all the various manifestations of energy in nature, whether they be named light, heat, motion, electricity, chemical action, or gravitation, the one same vision of the throned God, manifest in Jesus Christ, is protean.
Here it flames as light, there burns as heat, there flashes as electricity; here as gravitation holds the atoms together, there as chemical energy separated and decomposes them; here results in motion, there in rest; but is the one force.
And so the one God will become everything and anything that every man, and each man, requires. He shapes himself according to our need. The water of life does not disdain to take the form imposed upon it by the vessel into which it is poured. The Jews used to say that the manna in the wilderness tasted to each man as each man desired. And the God, who comes to us all, comes to us each in the shape that we need; just as He came to Isaiah in the manifestation of His kingly power, because the throne of Judah was vacated.
When losses come to us He draws near, as durable riches and righteousness. In all our pains He is our anodyne, and in all our griefs He brings the comfort; He is all in all, and each withdrawn gift is compensated, or will be compensated, to each in Him. He empties them that He may fill them with Himself. He means that, when Uzziah dies, our hearts shall see the King. Jesus Christ shows us God.
Jesus Christ is the King of Glory. If we will go to Him, and fix our eyes and hearts on Him, then losses may come, and we shall be none the poorer; death may unclasp our hands from dear hands, but He will close a dearer one round the hand that is groping for a stay; and nothing can betaken away but He will more than fill the gap it leaves by His own sweet presence.
But this perhaps may not be so: for Isaiah is said, in the general title of his prophecies, to have prophesied in the time of Uzziah, whose acts, first and last, he wrote, 2 Chronicles , and the phrase, in the year when Uzziah died, probably means, after the death of Uzziah; as the same phrase, Isaiah , means, after the death of Ahaz. The place of this vision is supposed to be the temple, from which the particular scenery of it is taken.
The Divine Majesty is represented as seated upon a throne, high and lifted up — Probably above the ark in the most holy place, where the glory appeared above the cherubim, surrounded by his attendant ministers. The Lord upon the throne, according to St. John, John , was Christ, and the vision related to his future kingdom; when the veil of separation was to be removed, and the whole earth was to be filled with the glory of God, revealed to all mankind.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary In this figurative vision, the temple is thrown open to view, even to the most holy place. The prophet, standing outside the temple, sees the Divine Presence seated on the mercy-seat, raised over the ark of the covenant, between the cherubim and seraphim, and the Divine glory filled the whole temple.
See God upon his throne. This vision is explained, Joh , that Isaiah now saw Christ's glory, and spake of Him, which is a full proof that our Saviour is God.
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