A Little Korah in Uzziah

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.

A reading from 2 Chronicles 26. And all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was 16 years old, and made him king instead of his father, Amaziah. He built Eilath and restored it to Judah. After the king slept with his fathers, Uzziah was 16 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 52 years in Jerusalem.

His mother's name was Jechaliah of Jerusalem, and he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord according to all that his father Amaziah had done. He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought Yahweh, God made him prosper.

And his fame spread far, for he was marvelously helped till he was strong. But when he was strong, he grew proud to his own destruction, for he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of Yahweh to burn incense on the altar of incense.

But Azariah the priest went in after him, with 80 priests of the Lord who were men of valor, and they withstood king Uzziah, and they said to him, It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to Yahweh, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense.

Go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong, and it will bring you no honor from the Lord God. Then Uzziah was angry. Now he had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and when he became angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of Yahweh by the altar of incense.

And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he was leprous on his forehead, and they rushed him out quickly, and he himself hurried to go out because the Lord had struck him.

And king Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death, and being a leper lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of Yahweh. And Jotham his son was over the king's household, governing the people of the land.

Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, from the first to the last, Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, wrote,. And Uzziah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the burial field that belonged to the kings, for they said, He is a leper.

And Jotham his son reigned in his place. O Lord, have mercy on us. In the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Jude’s Three Archetypes of Heretics

All right, so when we read the epistle of Jude, Jesus' half-brother, yes, Jesus had half-brothers, that whole Semper Virgo thing is a sham. But all that being said, Jude writes that there are kind of three major archetypes of heretics, all right?

And let me explain what they are. So you first have Cain. Cain is your first archetype. He's the guy with religious activity, right? But zero faith. And then without faith, it's impossible to please God.

And so people like to have this kind of religion. At least some people do. The second is Balaam, the prophet for profit. And you'll note that he was more of a soothsayer than anything. He wasn't really even really a prophet.

Except that God did give him a prophecy. But prior to that, he was very sketchy in his practices. And after God had him prophesy to the kings of Moab who wanted the children of Israel cursed, he went back to his old ways.

And then the third is Korah. A lot of people don't pay attention to Korah. But you've got to pay attention to Korah. Now, here's why this is important. Because it says in Scripture, in 2 Timothy 4, that in the last days, people will not endure sound doctrine, but they will gather to themselves teachers who will tell them what their itching ears want to hear.

And so it's important for us to understand that these three archetypes of heretics, the reason why these heretics are able to get an audience and to succeed and to thrive is because we sinners just love them.

Korah’s Rebellion and the Priesthood of Aaron

That's the problem. And Korah's rebellion here is in play. Think of it this way. King Uzziah, he's got a pretty bad case of Korah going on right now. At least this is how I diagnose him. And if you're not sure how Korah's rebellion went down, you go back into the Torah and we read about Korah.

He was a chieftain of one of the clans of Israel. And he convinced the other chieftains of some of the other clans to basically grumble and complain against Aaron and Moses and here was their beef. You have to put it in its context.

Their beef was that God had established the Levitical priesthood and Aaron, the high priest, have you seen his uniform? Holy guacamole. That thing is elaborate, it's beautiful, and it shines like the sun.

And so here's the thing, is that in Korah's way of thinking, what Aaron and Moses have done is they have exalted themselves above the people and Korah's complaint was all the people are holy and you have exalted yourself above everybody else.

Of course, when Korah makes his complaint, Korah is basically acting on his own intuition and his improper understanding of what's really going on here. Remember, God is the one who established the Levitical priesthood.

God is the one who chose the uniforms and Aaron and Moses were not exalting themselves. In fact, if you remember, when God commissioned Moses, Moses said, please send somebody else. And so you'll note this was not some kind of exaltation on his part but what happens is that human beings, they look at the pastoral office or the priestly office and they take a look at what's going on.

I get this from time to time and they say, well, you pastors, what is it with you exalting yourself above everybody in the congregation? Why are you wearing that stole and why are you wearing that white uniform?

It's to draw attention to yourself, isn't it? And as a result of it, there is a tendency within us sinful human beings to buck against the actual offices and the men who God has placed within those offices within the church.

And that's what Korah did. So he and the other chieftains, a whole bunch of other chieftains, made their complaint, accused Moses and Aaron of exalting themselves. Of course, Moses and Aaron, they fell on their faces.

I think they were trying to avoid getting hit by the lightning that they thought was gonna be coming as a result of this. And God said, so let's do this, Korah. You go ahead and present yourself with some censers before me at the tent of meeting tomorrow and we'll see, we'll show you who I have chosen.

And so Korah and his buddies actually showed up and they had censers, actual incense censers in their hands as an act of worship in obedience to Yahweh because after all, the whole people are holy. And Korah and his buddies, they died in kind of a way that invokes, if you would, for us, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

The reason being is at the end of it, God showed up and their censers kind of exploded in their faces and they died a horrific death. And afterwards, God commanded that the censers, because holy fire had gone out to consume them, that the censers themselves were now holy and had to be gathered up.

What'd they do with their corpses? They just chucked them in graves and got rid of them. But the censers were holy, they were not, and so thus perished Korah. And so here's this idea, is that oftentimes we think we know how things ought to operate in Christ's church, in God's church, and every time we think we understand how we can improve upon it and stuff like this, we are oftentimes guilty of sinning in much the same way that Korah sinned, in much the way that Uzziah sinned.

Uzziah’s Pride and the Warning Against Unauthorized Worship

You'll note that in our text tonight, Uzziah started off very well, right? It says about him that he built Alof, he restored it to Judah, and Uzziah was 16 years old when he began to reign. I guess that's a good time to learn how to reign over a kingdom.

That's when I learned how to drive. You know, I got my driver's license, I might as well be a monarch at the same time when you're 16, right? And so he reigned for 52 years. His mother's name was Jecholiah of Jerusalem.

He did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh according to all that his father Amaziah had done, and he set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah. All very good. And Zechariah instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought Yahweh, God made him prosper.

But here's what happens. When God makes you prosper, sometimes you get the mistaken notion, well, the reason why I'm prospering is because I'm so holy, right? And that is called pride, and pride comes before a fall.

Scripture's very clear in this regard. The one who exalts himself will be humbled. The one who humbles himself will be exalted. It's a great transition, but we're not quite to the part where we can talk about Jesus yet.

If you haven't figured it out, all of these texts are about Jesus, right? Just want to make sure that we got that worked out, okay? So here's what it says then that Uzziah's fame spread far. He was marvelously helped until he was strong, but when he was strong, he grew proud to his own destruction.

And what was it that he was going to do? Well, Scripture describes it as something that was unfaithful to Yahweh, his God. He decided that he was going to enter the temple of Yahweh and burn incense on the altar of incense.

That is not his prerogative. And the reason being is that you'll note that not just anybody can enter the temple of the Lord. In fact, God made it very clear that of the 12 tribes of Israel, one was chosen specifically for the purpose of serving in the tabernacle then which would become the temple.

And each and every priest had to be consecrated. And have you looked at the rigmarole that was necessary to consecrate each and every one of these priests? And they had to be put into that office and they had duties, they had rotations, and there was very much, there was a lot of work that had to be done and it had to be done exactly the way Yahweh commanded it.

And you'll note that the very first two Levitical priests after Aaron was established as the high priest, Nadab and Abihu, they perished in a similar way to Korah when they offered strange fire before God.

Now I want you to think this out because today's people will think like this. Well, I have faith, I believe in Jesus, and I'm holy so I can do whatever I want and I can praise God if I want to with a kazoo.

I can praise God with twirling ribbons and things like this and we can do a chancel prance and all this kind of stuff, right? You'll note that here's the idea is that this isn't your church to just make it, to do whatever it is that you feel like you can do.

And oftentimes those decisions get people in a lot of trouble. Let me give something a little bit more practical. When you see standing in a pulpit inside of a Christian church a woman wearing an alb and a stole and a clerical collar and preaching a sermon, she is engaging in Korah's rebellion.

She is suffering from the same disease that Uzziah suffered from before he had leprosy. This belief that we can just do whatever we want, I mean, after all, we're all holy, we're all Christians, and because before God there's neither male nor female, there's neither Jew nor Greek, that means we can just do whatever we want and just forget what the commands are regarding who is qualified to hold the pastoral office and who isn't.

And so here you'll note that only the Levites were allowed to do this and people from Issachar were not allowed to do this, people from the tribe of Benjamin were not allowed to serve in the temple, people from the tribe of Judah were not permitted to serve in the temple.

So Azariah, the priest, when he saw that Uzziah had entered the temple with an incense censer for the purpose of offering incense up to God, he, Scripture describes him and all 80 priests who opposed the king as men of valor, which you got to think about, this takes guts.

We're going to oppose the king. Throughout human history, men who opposed the king usually become shorter by about this much, right? That's usually how this goes down. So Scripture absolutely commends these fellow and calls them men of valor for standing up to Uzziah and said, it is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to Yahweh, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense, go out of the sanctuary for you have done wrong and it will bring you no honor from Yahweh Elohim.

And Uzziah was angry, right? I'm holy, I believe in God, I've been seeking after Him. God has caused me to prosper. How dare you tell me I can't come in here and offer my worship to God by burning incense on the incense altar.

You could just hear his tirade, right? But you got to note here, this thinking comes from sin. This does not come from true holiness or sanctification. Scripture's clear that Uzziah was unfaithful to God because he was directly opposing, contradicting, and disobeying very clear commands written in Scripture that he should have known and followed and observed.

So he was angry. He had a censer in his hand to burn incense and when he became angry with the priests, leprosy then broke out on his forehead. God wasted no time. He blurts out in anger and next thing you know, they're all looking at his forehead and he's got a big case of leprosy and it's getting bigger and it's growing.

And what did they do with him? They rushed him out of the temple and the Scripture said that God struck him down. The one who exalts himself will be humbled and that's exactly what God did for Uzziah's sake.

He struck him. He gave him leprosy. They hurried him out and Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death. And note here that by him becoming a leper, that legitimately on that day brought an end to his reign, brought an end to his ability to worship God in public.

It brought an end legitimately to his marriages that he had and he then has to get business done through other people and Jotham, his son, effectively becomes the guy who's the reigning king even though Uzziah is still alive.

God indeed humbled him, struck him in order to teach him a lesson but also to maintain the purity of the Levitical priesthood. God has chosen that only the Levites are to serve in the temple and kings of Judah, even if they're good kings, even if they're faithful believing kings, they are not permitted.

There are no exceptions. God is to be obeyed. So the rest of the Acts of Uzziah from first to last, Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz wrote, and then Uzziah slept with his fathers. They buried him with his fathers.

And you're going to note in Isaiah 6, we get that great passage. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up the robe of his train and filled the temple. And he heard the kadosh, kadosh, kadosh, the triple holy.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Sabbath. So here he dies. They buried him in a field. Although it's a king's burial plot, he was not buried with the rest of the kings and they basically gave him his epitheth and he's a leper.

Christ the Humble King and Great High Priest

Now the question is, in the types and shadows then, how then does this relate to Christ? Because you'll note, Scripture's not about you, not about me. These are ultimately about Jesus. And I think by contrast here, we can kind of see how some of these themes work out.

Now Jesus Christ, according to Scripture, is God in human flesh. He's the second person of the Trinity, God the Son in human flesh. And it says of Christ in the book of Philippians 2, that we are to have the same mind as Christ, that though he was by nature God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

Instead, he emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant and being in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

And you'll note that unlike Uzziah, Christ did not act in pride. In fact, Christ from the time that he left heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, he humbled himself. And during Christ's earthly reign, do we ever have a single account of Christ, King of kings, Lord of lords, God of God, light of light, very God of very God, entering into the temple and saying to the Levites, move over, I'm here.

Not even once. That would have been absolute faithlessness and disobedience to the commands of God that God gave to Moses. Instead, Jesus never once entered the temple, never assumed or presupposed anything that was not there in Scripture for him to follow.

And as a result of it, he was the sinless, spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And so Christ succeeds where Uzziah fails. The one who exalts himself will be humbled. But note the other end of that.

The one who humbles himself will be exalted. Therefore, because of Christ's humbling of himself and being obedient even to the point of death, death on the cross, God has exalted, the Father has exalted Christ and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, including the name of Uzziah.

So that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. But then this kind of leads to the next big picture idea, if you would.

And that is that you sit there and go, but wait, pastor. Isn't it true that Jesus is prophet, priest, and king? Yes, absolutely true. Jesus is all three of those. But we're going to note, then, that when we look at the book of Hebrews, which, by the way, is the best commentary on the Old Testament ever written.

If you want to learn how to read the Old Testament, study and read out the book of Hebrews. By doing so, it'll give you the interpretive key to unlocking what's going on in the Old Testament. So that being said, you'll note that Hebrews speaks extensively about Christ's priesthood and makes a very important point that Christ truly is our great high priest.

And not only is he our high priest, he is our high priest forever. But he's not a priest in the order of Levi. He is not a Levitical priest. In fact, if you were to search through Scripture, do a little bit of research on priests, you kind of have three types.

You have the Levitical priests, which we've been talking about, and only the Levites can serve in that. You have pagan priests, which are, well, they're idolaters. But then you got this one standout, and his name is Melchizedek.

Very interesting fellow. If you know your Old Testament, there in the book of Genesis, kind of early on, you have the account of, well, these ten kings who go to war with these other kings, and it just so happens the kings they go to war with will include the king of Sodom and the king of Gomorrah.

And if you remember, Abram had a nephew named Lot, and where was his tent set up? Near Sodom and Gomorrah, which doesn't make any sense. That's like trying to live in San Francisco. It's not going to be a good idea, right?

So taxes are high, immorality high. You don't want to be there. But he was there, and he got swept up in all of this, and he was taken off with his family as booty, as stuff that you get as a result of war, and Abram heard about it, that he had been taken captive, and he took 300 of his men, made a nighttime march, attacked the northern kings when they didn't expect it, defeated them, and rescued everybody.

Then he takes all the loot, puts it in a big pile, and then this guy shows up out of nowhere. Melchizedek. What a name, by the way. Melchizedek, the king of righteousness. What a name, right? King of righteousness.

And he comes out of nowhere. And what is he carrying with him? Bread and wine. Huh. I'm detecting a theophany here. A pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, right? This is what is going down here.

And what does Abram do? He offers to him 10%, a tithe of all the booty from the battle. He gives it to Melchizedek, and Melchizedek blesses Abram. And, of course, Melchizedek is described as priest of God Most High.

And do we ever hear from him again?

Nope.

Until we get to our psalm from tonight. You know, I strategically chose this psalm because it worked really well with what we were doing. Listen to the words of our psalm. Psalm 110, verse 4. The Lord has sworn, and he will not change his mind, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Well, who is swearing and who's going to be a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek?

Jesus.

And that's the point that the author of Hebrews is making. So in Hebrews 6, starting at verse 19, love these words. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul. Now, I just have to comment on this great description here.

You'll note that false doctrine is described as winds and waves that blow people this way and that way, right? Whereas the true gospel and sound biblical teaching anchors the soul and makes it sure and steadfast.

It's like, oh, Christ is this anchor. So we have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Jesus is not a Levitical priest. He is a priest just like that guy who showed up out of nowhere, Melchizedek. And then it goes on. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, king of Salem, Melchishalom, right?

By the way, think of the name of Jerusalem properly here, Yerushalayim, right? You hear the word shalom in the word Jerusalem. You see, Jerusalem is the city of peace. This is probably where he's king of, hinting at his eschatological reign when he returns in glory to judge the living and the dead.

So for this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, he met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and he blessed him. And to him, Abraham apportioned a tenth of everything.

He is first, Melchizedek is first by a translation of his name, king of righteousness. And then he is also king of Salem, king of shalom, of peace. That is, the king of peace. He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, he continues as a priest forever.

Hmm, we now know who Melchizedek is, not was, is. See how great this man was to whom Abraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth of the spoils. And those descendants of Levi who received the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is, from their brothers, though these also are descended from Abraham.

But this man, Melchizedek, who does not have his descent from them, received tithes from Abraham, and he blessed him who had the promises. So it is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior.

In the one case, tithes are received by mortal men, but in the other case, by one of whom it is testified that he lives. One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes to Abraham, for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him.

Hmm, it's an interesting way of looking at things. Our ancestors, our predecessors, are now inside of us in our loins. Gird up your loins, men. This is how humanity unfolds. Now, if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law, what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek rather than one named after the order of Aaron?

Now, you're going to note right now, how many Levites are currently serving in the temple as priests?

Zero.

God brought that enterprise to an end in 70 AD. And you'll note that the Jews to this day still hope to be able to have another temple built in Jerusalem, and they hope to be able to fire up the Levitical priesthood, and so they've kept track of who the Levites are.

They've kept track.

The big indicator is something actually quite simple. If you know any Jewish people with the last name of Cohen, they are Levites. Cohen is the Hebrew word for priest. Kind of interesting, right? But note here, the author of Hebrews is making a very different point, not regarding the re-firing up of the Levitical priesthood, but instead pointing to a completely different priesthood altogether, the one that Jesus holds.

For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. For the one whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar.

Listen to those words from verse 13. From which no one has ever served at the altar. That wouldn't have been true if Uzziah had been permitted to burn his incense in the temple. But God wanted this fact to remain, and he protected his priesthood so that he can make this very clear that only the Levites, and no one from Judah has ever served at the altar.

For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe, Moses said nothing about priests, except for they can't be, right? So this becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life.

For it is witnessed of him, Psalm 110, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. For on the one hand, a former commandment then is set aside because of its weakness and its uselessness.

For the law made nothing perfect. And by the way, the law continues to make nothing perfect. That's not the purpose of the law. The purpose of the law is to show you your sin. The law made nothing perfect.

But on the other hand, a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to God. And it was not without an oath. For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath. But this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him, the Lord has sworn, and he will not change his mind, you are a priest forever.

So this makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. Let those words sink in. Jesus is the guarantor of a better covenant. A better covenant than the Mosaic Covenant because the Mosaic Covenant made nothing perfect.

The former priests, by the way, were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office. And by the way, that's also true of pastors. Have you noticed that pastors are kind of a dime a dozen?

Yeah, I'm not really part of an exclusive small group. There's been a lot of pastors, and you know why? Because we die, right? And we, you get the idea. We're a weak lot, and we cannot continue in office for very long because our bodies don't continue on for very long.

So you'll know, pastors still have this same problem. But he, Christ, holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. Consequently, Jesus is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him.

Oh, let those words sink in. Sometimes I have the lamentable job of having to speak to somebody who is wavering in their faith. They'll say things like, Pastor, if you knew what I had done, you would realize that if I could potentially even be saved, it's gonna be by the skin of my teeth.

Balogna, that's not how this works.

It says this.

He, Christ, is able to save you to the uttermost. I love that phrase, uttermost. You're not barely getting in, right? He's saved you top to bottom,.

Head to toes,.

Everything in between, all the way down to the molecular,.

Cellular level.

You get the whole point. He's saved you to the uttermost. All who draw near to God through him are saved in this same way, and since he always lives to make intercession for them. Do not fear, brothers and sisters.

Even if I were to never pray for you here at the altar, Christ prays for you daily, hourly, minute by minute if necessary. That's what high priests do. And so you'll note, here it talks about Christ's great intercessory work as a high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

This isn't just some kind of honorary title. Jesus holds the priesthood of Melchizedek, right? And he holds the land of Northumbria and things like that. This is not an honorary title. This is an actual office that he fills and fulfills the duties of for us daily.

See, it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest. Holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens. He has no need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.

Ah, there's the other bit here. So Jesus is the temple. We've talked about that. Jesus is our high priest. He's also the sacrifice. And Jesus' altar for the sacrifice of your sins and mine is the cross itself.

Good stuff. The law appoints men in their weaknesses as high priests, but the word of the oath which came later, the word of oath we heard in Psalm 110, came later than the law. It appoints a son who has been made perfect forever.

Now the point that we are saying is this.

We have currently now.

Such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. And here's where it's important for us to recognize this.

I don't know why people are so keen on this idea of rebuilding a temple in Jerusalem because the temple that was there was never the real one anyway. The tabernacle that was built.

In the wilderness,.