Azariah Reigns in Judah

                                                                         2 Kings 15:1-7

 

October 21, 2021

 

 

Azariah Reigns in Judah

In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah the son of Amaziah, king of Judah, began to reign.   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.   And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done.   Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places.   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.   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?   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.

 

It is hard for one to put their mind around a 16-year-old being over a nation.  In the world I grew up in I was checking groceries at H.E.B. and going to school, not ready to handle running anything, and most of the people I knew were in the same boat.  Today the majority of 16 years olds have never worked and believe they could run a nation, but have no clue what a nation is.

 

Have you noticed how often a mother's name is mentioned when it talks about these young kings?  Mothers have a major impact on the training of a child, for good or bad.  

 

Azariah reigned for fifty-two years in Jerusalem and he did as his father had done.  We are not given the reason God gave him leprosy in these verses.  
As you study you will find that this king had two names, Azariah and Uzziah.  Some reference books say that Uzziah was his official name and Azariah was his given name.  What a shame that a good king disobeyed God and brought this on himself.  You will find the account in 2 Chronicles 26:10-21,  Uzziah, who had a censer in his hand ready to burn incense, became angry. While he was raging at the priests in their presence before the incense altar in the Lord’s temple, leprosy broke out on his forehead.  When Azariah the chief priest and all the other priests looked at him, they saw that he had leprosy on his forehead, so they hurried him out. Indeed, he himself was eager to leave, because the Lord had afflicted him.

King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died. He lived in a separate house—leprous and banned from the temple of the Lord. Jotham, his son, had charge of the palace and governed the people of the land.

Disobedience brings about punishment and obedience brings blessing.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice