Be The One
[Week III]

Notes

Then all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah. He was the one who rebuilt Elath and restored it to Judah after Amaziah rested with his ancestors.

We don’t know what is prepared for us, but we do know that our lives, our names, are on God’s mind. God is calling you to be the one now, because you are the one in your family, in your workplace or school, in your circles of influence. The summary of our lives, after it’s all said and done, is usually condensed to a few things in the end. We need to look at what we are prioritizing and how we are using our time, energy, and resources.

In reading the following passages, note that Azariah was his personal name, and Uzziah was his royal name:

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple.

If you knew what God has planned for you, you would never listen to the enemy again. King Uzziah was thrust into leading a nation at sixteen years old. He ruled over Elath, a port town that was at the northern tip of the gulf, in the territory of the Edomites that had broken away from Israel. He rebuilt and restored this port city. By land, Elath was small, but its position made it significant.

The size of your calling does not take away from the significance of what God wants to do in your life. Imagine the bustling commercial and economic advantages this sixteen-year-old king brought to Elath by restoring it as God had called him to do! People will come and go in your life, and perhaps for those who leave God was using you as a port town, a conduit, to be the one in their life. Just because they didn’t stay planted doesn’t take away the significance and blessing you had in your life. Stop focusing on the disappointment and start focusing on the deposit of where God is using you right now.

Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah. He was the one who rebuilt Elath and restored it to Judah after Amaziah rested with his ancestors.
Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-two years. His mother’s name was Jekoliah; she was from Jerusalem. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father Amaziah had done. He sought God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God. As long as he sought the Lord, God gave him success.

But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God, and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.
Azariah the priest with eighty other courageous priests of the Lord followed him in. They confronted King Uzziah and said, “It is not right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord. That is for the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who have been consecrated to burn incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful; and you will not be honored by the Lord God.”
Uzziah, who had a censer in his hand ready to burn incense, became angry. While he was raging at the priests in their presence before the incense altar in the Lord’s temple, leprosy broke out on his forehead. When Azariah the chief priest and all the other priests looked at him, they saw that he had leprosy on his forehead, so they hurried him out. Indeed, he himself was eager to leave, because the Lord had afflicted him.
King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died. He lived in a separate house—leprous, and banned from the temple of the Lord. Jotham his son had charge of the palace and governed the people of the land.
The other events of Uzziah’s reign, from beginning to end, are recorded by the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. Uzziah rested with his ancestors and was buried near them in a cemetery that belonged to the kings, for people said, “He had leprosy.” And Jotham his son succeeded him as king.

One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.

King Uzziah died alone because he forgot that God is the one. The lepers in Luke knew that leprosy did not have to be their legacy. Leprosy does not have to be your legacy, either! God has called you to be the one. Never forget who God is, the promises He has made, or the calling He has placed on your life.

It does not increase God to shrink back from what He has called you to. You are not alone. The enemy will try to tell you that you’re on your own, but as a follower of Jesus you have not only the God of the universe on your side, but also a community of believers to surround yourself with.

Group Questions

• How can we keep our eyes on God’s calling when we don’t know what the future holds?
• What seeds were planted in your life and by who?
• What seeds can you plant in someone else’s life, even if you only know them temporarily?

Prayer

Thank you for giving us purpose and a calling. We don’t want leprosy to be our legacy but instead we want to plant seeds everywhere we go, so that we lead others to you.