2 Chronicles 26:23

New International Version (NIV)

Uzziah rested with his ancestors and was buried near them in a cemetery that belonged to the kings, for people said, “He had leprosy.”

For meditation

This week, I sat through a heartbreaking story that made me reflect on the end of my life. As I viewed the eighty-one-year-old Dr. Bill Cosby, one of the most popular and respected TV personalities, tagged with his prison number that would identify him forever, I wondered what the epithet on his grave will be: “Dr. Bill Cosby, America’s TV Dad” or “Dr. Bill Cosby, Inmate NN7687?” The question recalls the end of Israel’s King Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26:1-23). It raises some questions I want us to reflect on today.

1. If you should die today, what will be the epithet on your grave?
2. What will people remember you for, when you pass on from this world?
3. Will they remember you for the great things you did or by one prominent sin that destroyed it all for you?
4. Do you remember how King Uzziah prospered in all he did, “as long as he sought the Lord” (5-15)?
5. Do you remember how “his fame spread far and wide … until he became powerful” (15b)?
6. Do you notice the turning point in the story of this illustrious king of Judah – “until he became powerful”?
7. Is there not a great lesson to learn from this commentary? Can you read on one more verse?
8. “But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall” (16).
9. A sad commentary that is; but, is that not a common tendency for us when God blesses us with success?
10. Does it not sound like Bill Cosby’s story?
11. So, do you see how destructive pride is?
12. Do you realize how it can twist a person’s mind to believe that they can bend the rules at will and get away with it?
13. What was King Uzziah thinking when he “entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense at the altar of incense,” a sole prerogative of priests (16b, 18)?
14. Can you carefully read the sad commentary at the end of Uzziah’s life: “King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died” (25)?
15. Like Bill Cosby’s prison number, is that not a sad commentary to the end of King Uzziah?
16. What will be the prevailing commentary about your life when you die?

Remember: “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov. 16:18).

Shalom