{"id":64106,"date":"2019-10-06T15:57:25","date_gmt":"2019-10-06T12:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=64106"},"modified":"2023-05-04T09:24:01","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T06:24:01","slug":"it-takes-a-king-to-serve-a-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/it-takes-a-king-to-serve-a-king\/","title":{"rendered":"It Takes A King To Serve A King?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[533,755,631],"acf":{"old_id":"64106","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33692,"related_cahpter":"324","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"But a king should know his limits\r\n\r\n","content":"

Uzziah’s story takes a startling turn when he is stricken with leprosy. In Kings, this event is left unexplained, but Chronicles offers a more detailed account:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he was strong, he grew arrogant [lit., his heart was lifted up] to the point of destruction. He trespassed against the Lord, his God, and entered the Temple of the Lord to offer incense on the incense altar. The priest Azariah, with eighty other brave priests of the Lord, followed him in, and confronting King Uzziah, said to him: “It is not for you, Uzziah, to offer incense to the Lord, but for the Aaronite priests who have been consecrated to offer incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have trespassed; there will be no honor in it for you from the Lord God.”
\nUzziah got angry as he held the censer and made ready to burn the incense, and as he became enraged with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in front of all the priests in the house of the Lord beside the incense altar…. So they rushed him out of there; he too made haste to get out, for the Lord had struck him with a plague. Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death; he lived in isolated quarters as a leper, for he was banned from the house of the Lord. (II Chr. 26:16-21)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why did Uzziah offer incense in the Temple? And why was he punished by leprosy (tzaraat<\/em>) in particular? Chronicles pinpoints Uzziah’s arrogance or overblown pride: his “heart was lifted up.\u201d If we place Uzziah’s formidable accomplishments in context, his hubris is quite understandable. Uzziah had inherited a humiliated and destitute kingdom. His two forebears \u2014 Joash and Ahaziah \u2014 both suffered disastrous military campaigns, leaving their kingdom impoverished and weak, and both kings were assassinated by their courtiers. Uzziah generated a spectacular turnaround both domestically and internationally. Possibly it was precisely this eminence that generated the idea:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne day [Uzziah] came to the beit midrash<\/em>. He asked them: What are you discussing? They replied: The law that “any outsider who encroaches shall be put to death” (Num. 1:51). Said Uzziah: God is a King, and I am a king. It is appropriate that the king serve the King by offering incense before Him. Immediately, \u2018He entered the Temple of the Lord to offer incense.\u2019” (Midrash Tanhuma, Noah 13)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Uzziah views himself as citizen number one, as the figure most fitting to represent the nation before God. He can approach God because he, like God, embodies sovereignty, and as such, is the appropriate designate to encounter God!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Alex Israel, II Kings: In a Whirlwind,<\/em> Maggid Books, 2019, The Best of Times: Jeroboam II and Uzziah\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":63310,"id":63310,"title":"Alex Israel - 2_kings_cover","filename":"Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-hairy-prophet\/alex-israel-2_kings_cover\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"alex-israel-2_kings_cover","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":63117,"date":"2019-09-23 13:43:41","modified":"2019-09-23 13:53:01","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1711,"height":1821,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-282x300.jpg","medium-width":282,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-768x817.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":817,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-962x1024.jpg","large-width":962,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover.jpg","1536x1536-width":1443,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover.jpg","2048x2048-width":1711,"2048x2048-height":1821,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-1128x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1128,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-395x420.jpg","home_baner-width":395,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Excerpts from: II Kings - 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