Bible teaching on Kings Amaziah and Uzziah from 2 Chronicles 25–26
A sermon from Latimer Church working through 2 Chronicles 25 and 26, examining the reigns of Kings Amaziah and Uzziah.
Summary
James de Costobadie, Senior Pastor at Latimer Church, preaches through 2 Chronicles 25 and 26, examining the reigns of Kings Amaziah and Uzziah. Both kings began well, doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but both ultimately fell into unfaithfulness through pride. Costa argues that pride is the central enemy of perseverance for God's people, because it causes people to stop fearing God and stop listening to his word. He draws a striking counterintuitive conclusion: that success and comfort are spiritually more dangerous than suffering and struggle, because suffering breeds the humility that keeps believers faithful, while success breeds the pride that destroys them. The sermon closes by pointing to Jesus as the one king who did persevere faithfully to the end, whose humility and faithfulness provide what no human king could.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Introduction and Prayer
James de Costobadie: We are going to be looking at 2 Chronicles 25, but also 2 Chronicles 26. We didn't read both of them — that was a lot of text. Well done, Josh; it's not an easy reading with all those names in there. But we're going to look at both those chapters today: King Amaziah and the king in chapter 26, who's called King Uzziah. Before we do that, I'm going to pray.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, for your word, the Bible. Thank you that it is not just a history book. It is so much more than that. It is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. It is the words of life that we desperately need. As we look at it now, I pray — Lord, if we're distracted or tired, please help us to focus. Help us to listen carefully to what you are saying. Help us to have soft hearts which are quick to be changed by it, so we can be transformed more into the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray in his name. Amen.
The Rest is History — and Why Chronicles Matters
I'm not sure if you're a podcasts person. I have not been a podcast person. I feel like it's just a bit too cultured for me, and I feel like people who listen to podcasts are a little bit snobby — you know, they talk about, "I listen to podcasts. I was listening to a podcast this morning and it made me really smart." But I've got sucked in by one. Enough people recommended The Rest is History to me that I got pulled into it. Any Rest is History buffs? Yeah, there are a few of you who know what I'm talking about. It's fantastic. They've got something like 600-plus episodes now, and they just go through history and look at different periods of time. There's one on Elizabeth I and the Catholics, and the storytelling is epic. A guy called Tom Holland and a guy called Dominic Sandbrook, who are experts, just present it so well, and it's fascinating.
I do wish they would cover 2 Chronicles. Maybe I should write them a letter and ask them if they'd do it. Because it's really interesting stuff, and it's not just what we get in 2 Chronicles itself. The history around this — if you look at Kings and the Prophets and all the discoveries we've made outside of the Bible about the history there — it's just fascinating. It's really good reading, and we're going to look at it this morning.
I'm afraid I'm not quite as entertaining as Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook. But the good news is God's word is awesome, and it makes up for what's lacking in me. It's God's living and active word, and so it'll do its work.
King Amaziah — 2 Chronicles 25
So first up, King Amaziah from chapter 25, and we're introduced to him in verses 1 to 4. Have a look down if you've got your Bible open.
"Amaziah was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem 29 years. His mother's name was Jehoadan, and she was from Jerusalem. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly. After the kingdom was firmly in his control, he executed the officials who had murdered his father the king. Yet he did not put their children to death, but acted in accordance with what is written in the law, the book of Moses, where the Lord commanded: 'Parents shall not be put to death for their children, nor children be put to death for their parents. Each will die for their own sin.'"
If you were here last week, you might remember we looked at King Joash, who is Amaziah's father. He was a great king up until the time when his mentor Jehoiada died, and then he completely lost the plot. He went way off the rails, and in the end he was murdered by a group of his own officials — that's how unpopular he got.
Well, Amaziah's first act when he becomes king is to kill those officials. You kill my father, I kill you. But he keeps it controlled and restrained within what the law of God allowed, and he didn't go after their families.
Amaziah's Military Campaign and the Mercenaries
Once that's taken care of, he gets on with business and starts counting his army, because he has military ambitions. But when he musters them all, he realises it's a bit on the small side — only 300,000 men, which seems huge to me. But if you go back a little bit further in 2 Chronicles, one of the kings had an army 1.1 million strong, so I guess it does seem small. And so he hires some mercenaries — 100,000 mercenaries from Israel — for the absolute bargain of three and a half tonnes of silver, which seems like a lot of money. But he's got a big army.
But God steps in at this point and gives much-needed wisdom. He sends a man to Amaziah and says: you must not fight with the Israelite mercenaries, or you will lose every battle that you enter, no matter how bravely you fight, because I am not with the Israelites. And if you fight with them, I will not be with you either.
God says the deciding factor for any battle for Judah will not be courage or numbers, but whether or not the Lord is with them.
Now, to his credit, Amaziah takes this on board, but he does have an issue. He's like, what about my money? If he backs out now, he loses his deposit — a non-refundable deposit of three and a half tonnes of silver, which is a huge amount. But God's response is extremely educational for us, isn't it? Look at what he says in verse 9: "The Lord can give you much more than that."
How helpful is that for us? Never make decisions based on the financial pluses and minuses. To God, what matters is doing right before him. He says, I know what you need, and I have unlimited resources to meet those needs. What he wants from us is to trust him and do right.
When I was looking at this, I found it very compelling. It's one of the wonderful things about Chronicles — you get these little nuggets all the way through that are just particularly striking. Generosity can be hard, can't it? Especially when things are tight and you do your budget and you're like, there's barely enough to cover expenses. I can't possibly give some money to God. I can't possibly be generous to that person because the money's just not there. But God says to me: Simon, the Lord can give you much more than that. He just tells me to do what he has told me to do — be generous, and he will look after me. Isn't that a great little lesson just tucked in there? One little line.
Well, to Amaziah's credit, he trusts God. He says goodbye to his mercenaries and he says goodbye to his three and a half tonnes of silver. But that infuriates the troops. They leave in an absolute rage because they are missing out on their plunder. It was the soldiers' lot after battle to go and raid all the bodies and raid the local towns and get lots of plunder, and they're missing out on all of that.
But Amaziah is unconcerned. He takes his mini-army into battle against the Edomites and wins a resounding victory. We're told they killed 10,000 enemy soldiers in battle and took another 10,000 captive. And then we have this odd, brutal little moment where they march all 10,000 captives all the way up a hill, only to throw them off a cliff to their deaths. You're like, what? It's like a sick, twisted version of the Grand Old Duke of York, isn't it? You know the Grand Old Duke of York — he had 10,000 men, he marched them up to the top of the hill, and then he threw them off a cliff to their deaths. That's not how it goes. You're supposed to march them back down again.
Now, to civilised 21st-century minds like ours, it's completely barbaric and out of order. But the chronicler actually keeps strangely quiet about it. He simply records that it happened. And he does that because he's much more interested in what comes next.
Amaziah's Idolatry and Downfall
Because Amaziah does something even more bizarre. He captures the gods of the Edomites — the gods who have clearly let the Edomites down, the gods who are weaker than his own God, clearly — and then he takes them home to Jerusalem, sets them up, and worships them. Like, what? How stupid are you? It's just a weird thing to do. What is he thinking?
And God is angry. His anger, we're told, burns against Amaziah. And yet, his kindness is still there, and kindly he gives Amaziah a chance to repent. He sends him a prophet with a word of warning. Have a look at verse 15. The prophet comes and says:
"Why do you consult this people's gods, which could not save their own people from your hand?"
It's the obvious, isn't it? The stupidity of idolatry and sin. But Amaziah doesn't want to hear it.
"The king said to him, 'Have we appointed you an advisor to the king? Stop! Why be struck down?' So the prophet stopped but said, 'I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my counsel.'"
And sure enough, that's what happens. After being unfaithful to God and ignoring his gracious warning, Amaziah goes and listens to other counsel and decides he's going to get even with Israel for what those mercenaries did. When they left in a huff, they didn't just go home — they ransacked and rampaged their way through the north of Judah. They killed 3,000 men and got their plunder and a whole lot more. It was brutal. And so Amaziah says, I'm going to get revenge. I want to fight.
So he sends a message to Jehoash telling him that. And Jehoash sends him a message back basically telling him to cease and desist or he's going to get crushed like a little thistle — quite belittling. But he shrewdly diagnoses Amaziah's problem. He says, God gave you the victory over Edom and now you've gotten all proud and arrogant. And it's Amaziah's pride which is his undoing.
Proverbs 16:18 says, "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall," and sure enough, Amaziah falls hard. He's defeated by Jehoash, taken prisoner to Samaria along with his treasures and a whole load of other hostages. His city is broken down, his temple is ransacked. And his reign ends with him being hunted down by his own people and assassinated. It's not a great end to a good start. But that is the end of Amaziah, king of Judah, and he was buried with his ancestors.
King Uzziah — 2 Chronicles 26
So that's Amaziah. Next comes Uzziah. That's the chapter we didn't read — chapter 26. Uzziah is his son, and he takes over the throne from Amaziah. In fact, he probably takes it over while Amaziah is a captive, so he runs the country while his father is in captivity, which is why he takes it over when he is 16. And we're introduced to him in verses 3 to 5, but he has a slightly worrying introduction.
"Uzziah was 16 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem 52 years. His mother's name was Jechaliah; she was from Jerusalem. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord" — but, oh, here it comes — "just as his father Amaziah had done."
That doesn't bode well, does it?
"He sought God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God. As long as he sought the Lord, God gave him success."
Now, you may not know it, but Uzziah was one of the most successful kings in Judah's history. Under his rule, the kingdom reached heights of fame and wealth and power that it hadn't seen since the days of Solomon and David. And that's actually hinted at in verse 2. Have a look at verse 2 of chapter 26. It's a weird little verse. It says: "He was the one who rebuilt Elath and restored it to Judah after Amaziah rested with his ancestors."
Now, what's so special about Elath? I had no idea. I had to search it up, and apparently it's mentioned back in 2 Chronicles 8:17 — and you'll all know this — but that is when Solomon took possession of it and used it for his global expeditions. It was a port city. He built it up, got a whole load of ships from King Hiram, and sent them out across the world, and they brought back ludicrous amounts of money and resources for Solomon. Elath was a symbol of Solomon's reach and wealth and power. And now Uzziah has taken possession of it back from the Edomites and is setting it up again.
Not only that, he's extended the borders of Judah all over the place. He's beaten the Philistines all the way back. He's beaten the Arabs. He's extended the borders all the way down to Egypt and all the way across. He's repaired and rebuilt cities and towns everywhere. He has huge agricultural operations. And all of that is so similar to the reign of Solomon — incredible levels of wealth and success. This was a new golden age for Judah. Three times we're told how powerful Uzziah had become, and twice we are told of his great fame.
Uzziah's Pride and Downfall
But like his father before him, Uzziah's success and fame were his downfall. Have a look at verses 15 and 16, halfway through verse 15:
"His fame spread far and wide, for he was greatly helped until he became powerful. But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall."
Those are chilling words. You know what's coming. Uzziah had sought God and God had blessed him massively, but once again, with success comes the danger of pride, and inevitably with pride comes unfaithfulness and failure.
Uzziah goes into the temple, we're told, and he offers incense — something forbidden for anybody but the priest. Not even the king could do that. And once again, in his kindness, God warns him to stop. Azariah, his priest, along with 80 others, courageously confront the king and say, you cannot be here, you cannot do this. But in his pride, he refuses to be told what to do, and he flies into an absolute rage. You can imagine it, can't you? This guy with the incense on the censer, swinging it around and going crazy. It's like King Denethor in Lord of the Rings — I don't know if you've read the books or seen the movies, but King Denethor loses it, doesn't he? Absolutely loses the plot. His pride and his arrogance are so great that when anybody dares to challenge him, he absolutely loses it. And that's what you get with Uzziah here — unhinged pride raging at those who dare to oppose him.
And so God steps in directly. Leprosy, that feared ancient disease, appears on his forehead. The priests see it and they rush him out of the temple. He's desperate to get out by this point as well, but it's all too little, too late. And the glorious rule of Uzziah ends in shame and isolation. Even his burial is one of humiliation, because we're told he was buried near his fathers, but not with them — lest they catch the leprosy after death, I guess.
What a pitiful epitaph he has. Here lies the great Uzziah, king of Judah. He had leprosy. Not: he built all these cities. Not: he drove back the Philistines. Not: he set up that port city and sent ships out. He had leprosy. Thus ended the glorious reign of King Uzziah.
The Central Warning: Pride Is the Enemy of Perseverance
Amaziah and Uzziah — both great kings who started so well, but neither persevered faithfully to the end because of their pride. And it's a really clear warning in these chapters about the dangers of success and the accompanying pride. The Bible has repeated warnings against pride over and over again. The book of Proverbs is full of it, but it comes up everywhere. God opposes the proud, gives grace to the humble. He lifts up the humble but he crushes down the proud. Constantly we're warned against pride, but there's something very powerful here about seeing the destructiveness of pride acted out by these kings. You see it in their lives. They served the Lord — both did what was right in the eyes of the Lord — and yet both stumbled and were unfaithful in the end because of pride.
And they teach us a very valuable lesson. They teach us that pride is the enemy of perseverance for the people of God.
We see the way that works with two things with these kings.
First, pride refuses to fear God. You see it with both Amaziah and Uzziah. When the Lord makes them successful, they get proud, and in their pride they don't fear God, and then they're unfaithful to him. In verse 10, Amaziah feared God enough to give up three and a half tonnes of silver just to have God with him rather than against him. And yet after his success, his pride so impacts him that he no longer fears God and he worships these idols instead. And Uzziah, in his pride and arrogance, disobeys God's laws directly, knowing what he was doing, even when he was warned, showing absolutely no fear of desecrating God's house.
And it's very telling with Uzziah what had kept him in check up to this point, because he was successful for a long time. Have a look at chapter 26, verse 5: "He sought God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God." He had a really good friend called Zechariah. We don't know anything else about this Zechariah — I think there are 26 Zechariahs in the Old Testament. We don't know anything else about this one, except that he was a really good friend to Uzziah because he instructed him in the fear of the Lord. And yet what happened when Zechariah died? Uzziah stopped listening to Zechariah and started listening to his pride, and he no longer feared God.
See, pride tells me I don't need God. Pride tells me I don't need to fear God or what he will do. Pride tells me I don't need to follow God's rules. Pride tells me my sin is in control and it's no big deal. Pride tells me sin doesn't really have consequences. Pride tells me I'm entitled to do whatever I want to do and no one can tell me otherwise. And pride leads me to being unfaithful to God. Behind our sin and our unfaithfulness to God lurks a lack of fear of God. And behind that lack of fear lurks pride.
Second, pride refuses to listen to God. With both these kings, God graciously sends a word of warning — for Amaziah, through a prophet; for Uzziah, through the priest. But the response of both of them is quite enlightening. You can see what pride does. They get angry at the messenger and they ignore God's word, because they don't want to hear it and they're not interested in listening to God.
And it's the same pattern we see right back at the very beginning in the Fall. Satan stokes Adam and Eve's pride, telling them that if they eat this fruit they'll be like God — and they kind of stand up straight: oh yeah. And then what happens? The pride means they don't fear God. They don't fear the consequences of disobeying God, they don't trust his word, they don't listen to him, and they fall.
See, humility tells me to listen to God. Humility tells me I need God's word. Pride tells me I do not. Pride tells me to ignore it and listen to other people's counsel.
I wonder if this gives us some clue as to why we're so slow to get out our Bibles and so quick to get out our phones. I wonder if it's less to do with laziness and distraction and more to do with our pride — I don't need to listen to God's wisdom; I'm going to choose who I listen to and what I listen to. You can be sure a humble Christian is a Bible-hungry Christian.
Pride is so dangerous. It's the enemy of perseverance for God's people because it teaches us not to fear God and it teaches us to refuse to listen to him.
Success Breeds Pride — A Warning and a Counterintuitive Call
There's one more lesson we learn from these men. We learn what it was that took them from seeking God and doing right to proudly rejecting him. What was it? Success.
It's weird, isn't it? Both kings started so well. Both were doing right in the eyes of the Lord. But then God gave them both success, and that success bred pride in their hearts. And it's that peculiar pattern we see in the Christian life. It doesn't really make sense. When is it easier to humbly trust God — when life is good and we're successful, or when it's hard and we're struggling and we're failing? Well, it's counterintuitive, but we tend to be more urgent on our knees in prayer and deeper in our Bibles when life is hard, and not so much when life is good.
We hate suffering and struggle, don't we? It's not pleasant — I mean, it's suffering, it's not supposed to be pleasant. It's a sign of a broken and cursed world. But as bad as suffering is, it is a powerful tool in the hands of our divine heart surgeon. Moses tells us that in Deuteronomy 8. He says that God used Israel's hunger and their struggle in the wilderness for 40 years to humble them and to teach them to depend on him. That's what he was doing. And he uses our suffering and our struggle in life to teach us the same thing. And what a kindness that is, because our hearts so quickly lean towards pride and arrogance when we are successful and comfortable.
And pride is the enemy of perseverance for the people of God. So we naturally fear struggle and suffering, and we crave success and comfort. But perhaps we'd be better off flipping those two around. Perhaps on this earth, while we still struggle with pride and sin, we should instead fear success and comfort, and crave suffering and struggle. Because the pattern we see repeated in Scripture is that suffering and struggle breed humility, and success and comfort breed pride.
Which is a warning to us. If you are comfortable and successful right now, beware — oh, beware — because you are in danger. Success breeds pride and pride is the enemy of perseverance for the Christian. But if life is hard and a struggle at the moment, be encouraged. Let it work its purpose in you and breed humility in you — humility which needs God and listens to him.
That's what Paul tells us in Romans 5:3 when he says, "Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings" — why? — "because we know that suffering produces perseverance." James 1:2–3 says, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance."
If you want to avoid the errors of these two kings, if you want to be faithful and stay faithful, persevering to the end to get your crown, do not despise suffering, but glory and rejoice in your trials. Because it is teaching us humble dependence on God and it will help us persevere to the end.
A Word to Parents
And parents — as a youth pastor, just for a moment, can I? Be very careful what you wish for for your children. Be wary when your children are succeeding at sport or music or academics. There's nothing wrong with succeeding in those things, but they carry the inherent danger of pride — a pride which teaches young people to stop fearing God and stop being faithful to him, a pride which tells them to stop listening to God and stop spending time with his people.
In your children's success, be as urgent on your knees and as hungry in your Bibles as you are in your suffering. And praise and thank God. Because Deuteronomy 8 — which I recommend you go away and read — is super educational on pride and humility and success and failure. Moses' advice to Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 8 for how to combat pride is this: "When you eat and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for what he has given you." Thank him. The whole Bible commands thankfulness. It's the antidote to pride in the face of success. Send the praise for your success upwards where it's deserved, not inwards where it's going to destroy.
The One King Who Did Persevere
Both of these kings sadly stumbled and fell before the end. They didn't persevere. Because in their success, they didn't praise God, but they grew proud. And in their pride, they stopped fearing God and stopped listening to him.
That's the sad story all the way through 2 Chronicles, isn't it? King after king after king after king. You kind of get weary — I don't know if anybody else is weary of 2 Chronicles, but I'm getting there. Because king after king just falls flat on his face. And even the ones who are good, like King David, they still fall. And even though he gets back up again, he then dies and leaves the kingdom to another king who comes along and stuffs everything up. It's the tale over and over again.
Which leaves us thanking God there was one more king to come. One more king who did persevere to the end, who humbled himself to being faithful to death, even suffering death on a cross. He was humble. He was faithful to his Father to the very end. He never stopped listening to his Father's word. And so where Amaziah and Uzziah in their pride were humbled, this king in his humility has been exalted. And he doesn't die. He sits on his throne forever. He will not leave it and put another muppet in charge. The good king is on his throne, and he's not going anywhere.
And we're about to humbly celebrate the Lord's Supper, which is great timing. Because when we celebrate the Lord's Supper, we humbly remember our king who persevered all the way to the end, even to the point of death, for us, his people. We remember that and we celebrate that, and it teaches us humility in the process, and it teaches us thanks and praise in the process. It teaches us that we don't stand before God based on what we have done, but what he has done already. And that is humbling — but man, do we need to remember it. Because pride will stop us persevering. But humility will keep us to the end.