Azariah, the son of Amaziah was 16 years when he became
king. He ruled for 52 years. He did what
was right before God but he did not abolish idolatry. He sought after God throughout
the days of Zechariah, and as long as he sought God, God prospered him. He fought
against the philistines, the Arabians and he succeeded. Even the ammonites
brought tributes to him, he was famous and powerful. He had a great army,
armoury and great inventions. However he became proud and took up the duty of
the priest. When Azariah and the other priests tried to stop him, he became
angry and was adamant and he became a leper and his son Jotham managed the
kingdom on his behalf.
LESSONS
a) As leaders, whatever needs to be done to cleanse our
organization should be done. We should not allow evil to continue. Azariah must
have been aware of the continuous idolatry among his people but he did nothing
drastic to arrest it. God will hold us accountable for evil happening under our
nose if we are in position to stop it and we fail to do so.
b) Leaders can do exploits for God if they will totally
follow him and rely on him. The successes recorded by Uziah were because of his
devotion to God. Eyes have not seen what can do through ordinary people who
rely on him.
c) Pride goes before a fall, leaders should be aware of presumptuous
sins. They should always remember that their success comes from God, they
should never allow success to get in to their heads by claiming glory for it or
acting beyond their God given mandate. Uziah though powerful and famous went
above board and he fell flat. This is an area where every leader must be extra
careful. People will hail you and flatter you when you are making progress, but
when it is allowed to get into the head of a leader, it becomes a snare that
can cause the downfall. The antidote is to keep the eye of Jesus always. Do not
be deceived by flattery or discouraged by censure.
