In Second Kings, chapter fifteen, verse one, Azariah, also called Uzziah in Second Chronicles twenty-six, was King of Judah for fifty-two years. When the son of Amariah died, God commissioned the prophet Isaiah as a messenger to Judah and Israel. However, Azariah was struck with leprosy because he disobeyed God by assuming the function of the priesthood, and in pride, he refused to repent of his presumptuous sin.
After an interim of twelve years in the kingdom of Judah, either through the prevalency of the faction that cut off Amaziah and kept the son out of his kingdom because Azariah was very young, it is possibly only four years of age, when his father got killed by assassins and the people were not agreed to restore him till he was in his sixteenth year.
The character of his reign was very active and eventful, as related in Second Chronicles twenty-six, verses one through twenty-three. Elated by the possession of great power and presumptuously arrogating to himself, as did the heathen kings, the functions both of the genuine and priestly offices, he was punished with leprosy, which, as the offense was capital, was equivalent to death, for this disease excluded him from all society. While Jotham, his son, as his viceroy, administered the affairs being about fifteen years of age, he had to dwell in a place apart from others. After a long reign, he died and was buried in the royal burying field, though not in the royal cemetery of “the city of David” as in Second Chronicles twenty-six, verse twenty-three.
Azariah had the potential to do things right in the sight of God but elected not, and during those fifty-two years, he suffered from leprosy. Disobedience can change lives and set back lives on any level. No matter what our position is, obedience is better than sacrifice.