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Prophets and Kings
life of service could be pleaded as an excuse for the presumptuous sin
by which he marred the closing years of his reign, and brought upon
himself the judgment of Heaven.
God is no respecter of persons. “The soul that doeth aught pre-
sumptuously, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same
reproacheth the Lord; and that soul shall be cut off from among his
people.”
Numbers 15:30
.
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The judgment that befell Uzziah seemed to have a restraining
influence on his son. Jotham bore heavy responsibilities during the
later years of his father’s reign and succeeded to the throne after
Uzziah’s death. Of Jotham it is written: “He did that which was right
in the sight of the Lord: he did according to all that his father Uzziah
had done. Howbeit the high places were not removed: the people
sacrificed and burned incense still in the high places.”
2 Kings 15:34,
35
.
The reign of Uzziah was drawing to a close, and Jotham was
already bearing many of the burdens of state, when Isaiah, of the royal
line, was called, while yet a young man, to the prophetic mission.
The times in which Isaiah was to labor were fraught with peculiar
peril to the people of God. The prophet was to witness the invasion
of Judah by the combined armies of northern Israel and of Syria; he
was to behold the Assyrian hosts encamped before the chief cities of
the kingdom. During his lifetime, Samaria was to fall, and the ten
tribes of Israel were to be scattered among the nations. Judah was
again and again to be invaded by the Assyrian armies, and Jerusalem
was to suffer a siege that would have resulted in her downfall had not
God miraculously interposed. Already grave perils were threatening
the peace of the southern kingdom. The divine protection was being
removed, and the Assyrian forces were about to overspread the land
of Judah.
But the dangers from without, overwhelming though they seemed,
were not so serious as the dangers from within. It was the perversity
of his people that brought to the Lord’s servant the greatest perplexity
and the deepest depression. By their apostasy and rebellion those who
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should have been standing as light bearers among the nations were
inviting the judgments of God. Many of the evils which were hastening
the swift destruction of the northern kingdom, and which had recently