Let’s pick up our high-level review of the history of Solomon’s Temple.
Yesterday, we left off discussing the reign of Yoash.
Now, the king who succeeded him was Amaziah.
During Amaziah’s reign, the Temple was ransacked for the second time.
But surprisingly, the attacking party wasn’t a gentile enemy.
It was the new King of Ephraim/Israel named Joash.
He did it as punishment after Amaziah arrogantly provoked a war with him.
Of course, this is a totally different Joash than the other one we were talking about yesterday.
Next, after Amaziah, his son Uzziah took the throne.
He ruled until around the mid 700’s B.C.
In the beginning, Uzziah sought to reign in a godly manner under the guidance of a spiritual advisor named Zechariah.
Zechariah’s connection to Uzziah was similar to the High Priest Jehoiada’s relationship with Y’oash.
Both men served as spiritual advisors to the kings of their time.
Now, don’t confuse this Zechariah with the prophet who wrote the Book Zechariah.
That’s a different person.
So, under this Zechariah’s wise counsel, Uzziah restored Judah to some of its former glory and power in the region.
But as happens to so many rulers, Uzziah let his success go straight to his cranium.
One day, he woke up with the crazy idea that he was gonna go and burn incense on the Altar of Incense inside the Holy Place (HEKAL in Hebrew) inside the Temple.
Obviously, Uzziah didn’t know his Torah very well.
The homie should’ve known that only God’s priests are allowed to enter the HEKAL (holy place).
Well, he decided to defy the Lord’s commands anyway
His sin was not without consequence.
The Lord struck Uzziah with a skin plague.
In Hebrew, this condition is called TZARA’AT.
I remind you that most English Bibles will translate TZARA’AT as leprosy.
They are all wrong.
TZARA’AT is not leprosy in any way, shape, or form.
It’s a term that refers to the variety of skin diseases that could infect a person.
The condition was viewed as a supernatural punishment from God for one’s sin.
The idea was that, by God striking someone with TZARA’AT, one’s inner sinful condition was exposed to the outside world for all to see.
Alrighty, let’s switch over to the takeaway.
It goes back to Uzziah not respecting proper boundaries due to his ignorance of Torah.
In His Word, God has decreed that certain places and positions can only be inhabited by certain people or groups.
And these lines of demarcation have to be respected.
For example…
Only a Levite can be a priest.
Only a priest can enter the Holy Place.
Only the High Priest can enter the Holy of Holies.
Only Israel is God’s chosen nation.
And only Jews (or, to be more accurate, Hebrews) are allowed to possess the land of Israel.
Every false religion, philosophy, or idea that has ever existed has sought to do violence against every one of those Torah precepts I’ve just outlined above.
The worst of these is Replacement Theology, which states the Christian Church has replaced Israel as God’s Chosen People.
That is pure blasphemy.
And such a notion will utterly fail.
Because you can’t break God’s Law without being broken by it as a consequence.
Ya feel me?
Done.
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