2 Chronicles 26:17-18

It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the Lord.

We must abide within our limitation

The great temptation of some natures is to try to do the very things for which they are least qualified. There is a marvellous irony in human genius in this matter. It would seem to be an inscrutable mystery that men will persist in attempting to do the thing which they cannot do, and which they were obviously never meant to do. Whenever a man is out of place he is guilty of wasting strength. A man can only work well within his own limit. No man should strain himself at his labour, be he poet, or musician, or divine, be he prophet or merchantman; he should keep easily within the circle he was appointed to occupy, for all stretching is weakening, all effort that is above the line of nature tends to destruction, both to the worker and of the influence which he ought to exert. Know your own place, and keep it. (J. Parker, D. D.)

The folly of self-will

God has sacred places, God has allotted specific duties to men; every man will be wise in proportion as he sees his own calling, and makes his calling and election sure. Reward lies along that line. Leave your native heath, take your life into your own hands, say you will create a sphere for yourself and do as you please, and you shall be stung with disappointments as with a cloud of insects. Say you will insist upon having your own way in the world, and every rock you strike will but injure the hand that smites it. But live and move and have your being in God. Say, “Lord, not my will, but Thine be done; make me door-keeper, or lamp-lighter, or hewer of wood or drawer of water, or a Zechariah having learning in Thy visions and power of reading all the apocalypse of Thy providence: what Thou wilt, as Thou wilt, as long as Thou wilt: Thy will is heaven.” It is towards this end that all Christian education must tend. (J. Parker, D. D.)

Uzziah’s pride punished

I. His reign as king. This was pre-eminently successful. The Arab hordes on his south-east borders were subdued, and the Ammonites were reduced to tribute. He was no less vigorous in defensive than offensive operations. He paid as great attention to the arts of peace as of war. He was the special patron of agriculture; he dug wells, built towers in the wilderness for the protection of the flocks, and cultivated rich vineyards.

II. Uzziah’s sin. Uzziah was ambitious; he was not willing that any in his realm should enjoy prerogatives denied to him.

III. Uzziah’s punishment. Henceforth the most menial subject would not exchange places with the leprous king. As lessons taught by this narrative we learn--

1. Prosperity is dangerous. The record of Uzziah does not stand alone. Prosperity seldom draws men to God. Gratitude does not increase in proportion as God’s favours multiply. A man’s piety is not usually increased by his becoming rich. It is seldom men are more religious in health than in sickness. “Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept Thy Word.”

2. God is to be approached reverently. Uzziah seems to have thought that by being a king, successful and famous, he had earned the right to enter the holy place and offer sacred incense. It is often expected that God will accept worship if the display of wealth mingle with it largely. Does not the ability to offer such choice incense gain for one the right to lift the sacred veil and stand where God hath said His Priests only should enter, and “the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death?” Uzziah thought that God would not exclude a favoured king from that sacred presence. Men often think that it is possible to find some incense wafted from a worldly censer which shall ascend as fragrance to the unseen holy. But what had Uzziah’s kingdom to do toward fitting him to perform a priestly act? Man’s approach to God is through Christ. In the Old Testament dispensation, not even a symbol of His person or work could be accepted or admitted into the holy place, other than that which God had appointed.

3. Sin, though in high places, must be rebuked. It seemed a bold act for the priests to say to Judah’s king, “Go out of the sanctuary, for thou hast trespassed.” They were the humble ministers of religion, and he the proud and pampered king of a victorious people. He had transcended his limit, and must be rebuked, though he be a king. Such invasions of religion are not rare. The world is always ready to take religious duties into her own hands, to tell how God is to be worshipped, what doctrines are to be preached, what duties prescribed, what faults are to be rebuked, and what allowed. She enters with a regal tread, and speaks with imperious voice. What shall be done? Does and will the Church stand firm in her antagonism to wrong and sin, though they stand in kingly pride to offer polluted incense on her sacred altars?

4. Men may be blinded to sin, till they see its consequences. It is not probable that Uzziah realised his guilt till the “leprosy rose up in his forehead.” Then he hasted to go out of the sanctuary. Perhaps he feared other and severer judgments would follow. Had God stayed His retributive hand, and the king been suffered, with no leprous spots, to leave the altar as proud and ambitious as he entered, his guilt would have been as great. The smitten forehead, like a detective, laid the offender under arrest, and thus exposed him; but it did not create or increase his sin. Many, guilty of the most grievous wrongs, think themselves respectable, and claim the confidence of others, till some providence uncovers their evil deeds. It is a mistake to suppose that all the criminals are in prison. A bad men is as bad on one side of iron bars as on the other. (Monday Club Sermons.)