But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the LORD his God, and went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense upon the altar of incense. And Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him fourscore priests of the LORD, that were valiant men: And they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him, It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the LORD, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honour from the LORD God. Then Uzziah was wroth, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense: and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the LORD, from beside the incense altar. And Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked upon him, and, behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out from thence; yea, himself hasted also to go out, because the LORD had smitten him. And Uzziah the king was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house, being a leper; for he was cut off from the house of the LORD: and Jotham his son was over the king’s house, judging the people of the land.
(2 Chronicles 26:16-21) KJV
A meteorite barreling down from the skies on collision course with the Earth would make us get down on our knees to pray. Evidently it caused Uzziah to run panic-stricken into the temple and try to avert the judgment of God.
Unfortunately he wasn’t sanctified to do this but the priests were required to be. They tried to warn him but he was furious with them and while he was pitching a fit, leprosy afflicted him. He brought swift judgment on himself and spent the rest of his days as a leper. The meteorite impact caused the earthquake which left Judah in the ruins that Isaiah describes in his first chapter. This is as good a reason as we can imagine why an otherwise good king would do something so ill-advised.
When you attempt to construct a timeline for the succession of Kings in Judah and Israel you find what appears to be a glitch in this section of time. The way that we piece together the timeline is by constructing the succession in Judah and the succession in Israel in parallel because one bookmarks the other, for instance:
In the twenty and seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel began Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah to reign. Sixteen years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned two and fifty years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jecholiah of Jerusalem.
(2 Kings 15:1-2) NKJV
Azariah is another name for Uzziah. This can be confusing but it’s really not a problem. The data for Israel helps us to align and calibrate the data for Judah and vice versa. We find what looks like a glitch in the account of Jotham son of Uzziah who was 25 years old when he began to reign in Judah, and who reigned for 16 years. The glitch is when we’re also told that Hoshea began to rule in Israel in the 20th year of Jotham. How long did Jotham rule: 16 years or 20? This is resolved because Uzziah was a leper for the last 16 years of his reign and Jotham was co-regent. Jotham’s 16 years was the time when he ruled independently after the death of Uzziah.
Matty (Headwind) 