The Uzziah Syndrome

LOCH A TUATH NEWS June 2002

One of the biblical characters to whom I am drawn is King Uzziah of Judah. Perhaps the most well-known reference to him is in connection with the prophet Isaiah, for it was in the year that Uzziah died that Isaiah saw the vision that made a prophet of him.

Yet the mention of Uzziah's name in the context of Isaiah chapter 6 hides the powerful political legacy which he bequeathed to subsequent generations; and the mention of his death hides the solemn judgement which came upon him at the end of his life.

Uzziah ruled Judah for fifty-two years, longer than any previous king of either the northern or the southern kingdom. Judah flourished under his leadership: new cities were built and old ones fortified, tree planting and cattle raising flourished, the army of his day was equipped with some of the most technologically advanced weapons of the period. He extended the boundaries and influence of Judah to an unparalleled and unprecedented degree, and his government was second to none in the Ancient Near East.

But according to the Bible, at the very end of his life, Uzziah was 'lifted up with pride' at his achievements, and he forgot the God who had made it all possible. The symptom of this pride was to be found in the way Uzziah entered the Temple and attempted to offer incense - in spite of the fact that God's word confined this privilege to the priests, and in spite of the warning of the other priestly staff in the temple at the time. When Uzziah reacted violently against their attempt to stop him, God struck him with leprosy. He had to live the rest of his life in a place apart from the kingdom over which he had held sway, and for which he had done so much.

It is tempting to think that the life of a man like Uzziah is a footnote of history, and is of little relevance to us in this twenty-first century of ours. Yet the Uzziah syndrome is still alive and well: we too have made our advances, and have extended the frontiers of our knowledge. We too have learned to subdue and control and govern. We too have seen our nation making great strides in this jubilee year of the reigning monarch.

Yet we too succumb to the temptation which finally brought Uzziah down: we too can be lifted up with pride. His ruin did not come from the Arabs, or the Philistines, or the Ammonites: it came from feelings of self-importance and self-aggrandisement which he did nothing to subdue. He had governed a kingdom for half a century, but had been unable to govern his own heart.

The same thing happens all around us. Prominent politicians, who were able to govern well, find themselves in prison because they have succumbed to greed or to temptation in one form or another. Clergymen who were prominent and active in parishes and dioceses are exposed as having been gripped by some vice or other. Footballers who can control a ball to perfection cannot control their tongues on the pitch.

It does not happen all the time, of course. But it still remains true that the most difficult power to control is the power of a will that is compromised by sin and fuelled by lust. According to the book of Proverbs, the man who has no control over his own spirit is like a city without walls. Uzziah's tragedy is that while he had fortified Judah throughout all its cities and centres of influence, he had left his own heart unguarded. That is always where sin breaks through. Let's avoid the Uzziah syndrome, and learn to keep our own vineyard that we might all the better keep the vineyard of others.