There are plenty of age milestones that we look forward to in life. New parents often chart their infants’ ages by weeks and months. As kids, we celebrate half-birthdays. We look forward to becoming teenagers, then turning 16, 18, 21 … even the sometimes-dreaded 30 (and every decade after that). One age I really looked forward to was 35, because then I could run for President.

I read a story in the Old Testament this week about a man named Uzziah who became king of Judah at the ripe old age of 16, and he held that post for 52 years. (Fun fact: That would make Uzziah about the same age finishing his reign as Ronald Reagan was when he was elected President.) Under the tutelage of the prophet Zechariah, Uzziah was very successful and sought to please God as king (2 Chronicles 26). He amassed a strong army and had a victorious war record. He was famous among other cultures as a formidable foe, and he protected Jerusalem’s walls with advanced weaponry and defense mechanisms like catapults.

Uzziah let his success go to his head, however. One day, he decided to just stroll right into the temple to burn incense on the altar. Well, everyone who was anyone knew that from the earliest days of Moses & Aaron, only priests were allowed into that part of the temple. Uzziah was way out of line, and 2 Chronicles 26:17-18 (NIV) tells us that the chief priest “with eighty other courageous priests of the Lord followed him in” to confront him and tell him to leave.

Uzziah became angry that they would have the gall to defy him and stormed into a rage (v. 19). God intervened and caused leprosy to break out on Uzziah’s forehead. At that point, he was all the more willing to leave the temple, because he realized what God had done to him.

Uzziah’s leprosy caused him to be banished from the temple for the rest of his life; his son had to take over his ruling duties and eventually succeeded him as king when Uzziah died. (Something else interesting happened the year that king Uzziah died, which we’ll talk about next week.) But, for now, let’s reflect on the courageous priests who stood up to a powerful king in order to fulfill their mission from God. They knew that God would not be pleased by Uzziah’s actions in the temple, and yet, they could have faced serious repercussions for trying to stop him. God honored their bravery and made Uzziah face his mistake. The priests may not have considered themselves heroes, but what they did was pretty heroic, in my book.