Isaiah 6:1 talks about the death of King Uzziah. Read 2 Chronicles 26 and then answer this question: What is the significance of King Uzziah’s death?
 Different perspectives can be given regarding the death of this king.
 1. Although Uzziah’s reign was long and prosperous, “when he had become strong he grew proud, to his destruction” (2 Chron. 26:16, NRSV) and attempted to offer incense in the temple. When the priests rightly stopped him because he was not authorized as a priestly descendant of Aaron (2 Chron. 26:18), the king became angry. At this moment, when the king refused reproof, the Lord immediately struck him with leprosy, which he had “to the day of his death, and being leprous lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the LORD” (2 Chron. 26:21, NRSV). How ironic that Isaiah saw a vision of the pure, immortal, divine King in His house/temple in the very year the impure human king died!
 2. There is a striking contrast between Uzziah and Isaiah. Uzziah reached for holiness presumptuously, for the wrong reason (pride), and instead became ritually impure, so that he was cut off from holiness. Isaiah, on the other hand, allowed God’s holiness to reach him. He humbly admitted his weakness and yearned for moral purity, which he received (Isa. 6:5-7, NRSV). Like the tax collector in Jesus’ parable, he went away justified: “for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted” (Luke 18:14, NRSV).
 3. There is a striking similarity between Uzziah's leprous body and the moral condition of his people: “ ... there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and bleeding wounds” (Isa. 1:6, NRSV).
 4. The death of Uzziah in about 740 B.C. marks a major crisis in the leadership of God’s people. The death of any absolute ruler makes his/her country vulnerable during a transition of power. But Judah was in special danger, because Tiglath-Pileser III had ascended the throne of Assyria a few years before, in 745 B.C., and immediately went on the warpath that made his nation an invincible superpower that threatened the independent existence of all nations in the Near East. In this time of crisis, God encouraged Isaiah by showing the prophet that He was still in control.
 Read carefully 2 Chronicles 26:16. In what ways does each one of us face that potential for the same thing? How can dwelling on the Cross protect us from that pitfall?