Беседа 5. На слова пророка Исаии: «В год смерти царя Озии видел я Господа» , и доказательство того, что справедливо наказан был проказой Озия, недостойно кадивший, что позволительно не царям, а священникам

1. Today we will finish talking about Uzziah and conclude our speech, so that we will not be ridiculed, like the man mentioned in the Gospel who decided to build a tower and could not, lest someone passing by would say about us: “This man began to build and was not able to finish” (Luke 14:30). But in order for what has been said to be clearer for you, it is necessary to repeat a little of what was said before, so that our conversation does not emerge as a spiritual spectacle without a head, but so that, having assumed its form, it will be recognized by the audience. This will be a reminder for those who have already heard, and an instruction for those who have not heard. So, before we talked about how pious Uzziah was, how he became bad, why and to what extent he fell into pride; and today it is necessary to tell how he entered the sanctuary, how he decided to burn incense, how the priest did not allow it, how he did not listen, how he incurred the wrath of God, how he ended his life in leprosy, and why the prophet, having left the days of his life, mentioned death, saying this: “In the year of the death of King Uzziah.” That's why we told the whole event from the beginning. Listen with attention. “But when he became strong,” says the Scripture, “his heart was lifted up to his destruction, and he became a transgressor before the Lord his God.” How did you offend? “For he entered,” he says, “into the church of the Lord to burn incense” (2 Chronicles 26:16). Oh, impudence! Oh, shamelessness! He dared to enter the innermost sanctuary, invaded the Holy of Holies, which was a place inaccessible to anyone except the high priest, and decided to desecrate it. Such is the soul infected with pride. Once she leaves the care of her salvation, she never stops going crazy, but, having handed over the reins of her salvation to crazy wishes, she rushes everywhere. Just as an unbridled horse, throwing off the bridle from its lips and throwing its rider from its ridge, rushes faster than any wind and becomes unapproachable to those it meets, when everyone runs away and no one dares to hold it, so the soul, rejecting the fear of God that bridles it and throwing away the reason that controls it, runs through the countries of wickedness until, rushing into the abyss of destruction, it overthrows its own salvation into the abyss. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly restrain her and, as if with some kind of bridle, to curb her insane desire with pious thoughts; Uzziah did not do this, but decided to commit a crime against the highest power of all, because the priesthood is more important than the royal power itself and is the highest power. Do not speak to me about the scarlet robe, the diadem, and the golden garments; all this is a shadow and less important than spring flowers. “All the glory of man,” says the prophet, “is like the flower of grass” (Is. 40:6), even if you point to the royal glory itself. Don't tell me about it; but if you want to see the difference between the priest and the king, examine the measure of power given to each of them, and you will see that the priest sits much higher than the king. Although the royal throne seems important to us because of the stones attached to it and the gold that envelops it, the king received the power to manage earthly affairs and has nothing more than this power, and the throne of the priesthood is established in heaven, and the priest is entrusted with organizing affairs there. Who says this? The King of heaven himself. “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven,” He says, “and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18:18). What can compare with such an honor? Heaven receives the beginning of judgment from earth. The Judge sits on the ground, and the Master follows the slave; and what the latter awards below, He affirms the mountain. The priest stands as a mediator between God and the human race, bringing down good deeds to us from there and raising our petitions there, reconciling the angry God and us, who angered Him, with the whole nature, delivering us from His hands. Therefore, God bows the very royal head under the hands of the priest, teaching us that the latter is greater in power than the former: the lesser is blessed by the better. However, we will talk about the priesthood and how great this dignity is at another time; Now let’s see how great was the lawlessness of Uzziah the king, or better yet the tyrant. He entered the church of the Lord; The priest Azariah followed him in. Was it in vain that I said that the priest is greater than the king? Intending to drive him out, not as a king, but as a fugitive and an ungrateful servant, the priest entered with determination, just as a noble dog attacks an unclean beast in order to drive him out of his master's house. 2. Do you see the soul of the priest, filled with great boldness and lofty thoughts? He did not look at the greatness of power, did not think how dangerous it is to stop a soul obsessed with passion, did not heed the words of Solomon: “The wrath of a king is like the roar of a lion” (Proverbs 19:12); but looking at the true King of heaven, imagining that judgment and those rewards and protecting himself with these thoughts, he thus turned to the tyrant. He knew, truly knew, that the threat of the king is like the wrath of a lion for those whose eyes are fixed on the earth; and for a man who has heaven in mind and is ready to lay his soul inside the sanctuary rather than calmly look at the insult of sacred laws, he is of little importance than any dog. Truly, there is nothing more powerless than that which transgresses the Divine laws, just as there is nothing stronger than that which defends the Divine laws. “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin” (John 8:34), even if he has countless crowns on his head; and he who does justice is more royal than the king himself, even if he were the last of all. So thinking within himself, this noble man approached the king. Let us also go in with him, if you like, to hear what he says to the king. It's possible; and it is not a little useful to see how the king is exposed by the priest. What does the priest say? “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord” (2 Chronicles 26:18). He didn’t call him king, didn’t call him by the name of power, because he had previously deprived himself of honor. Do you see the priest's boldness? Now look at his meekness. We need not only boldness when we intend to reprove, but even more meekness than boldness, because sinners do not disgust and hate any person so much as the one who intends to reprove them; they try to find an excuse - to evade and avoid exposure; therefore, one must restrain them with meekness and forbearance. The accuser is intolerable to sinners not only when they hear his voice, but also when they first see him. “It’s hard for us,” they say, “to look at him” (Wis. 2:15); therefore, one must show them great meekness. For this reason, the prophetic word presented to us both the sinner and the one who intends to correct him. So wise doctors, intending to cut off rotten members or remove stones that have formed in the passages, or correct some other natural defect, do this without taking the patient to a corner, but placing him in the middle of the square, and, making a spectacle of those passing by, thus carry out the cutting. They do this not to expose human misfortunes to shame, but so that everyone has great concern for their own health. This is what Scripture does. When it takes one of the sinners, it loudly puts him on display not in the middle of the square, but in the middle of the whole earth, and, having made a spectacle of the universe, thus applies medicine, teaching us to be more concerned about our own salvation. Let's see how the priest then began to correct the king. He did not say: “Oh, wicked and impious, you have brought everything down and into disorder, you have reached the extreme degree of wickedness”; and did not spread in lengthy reproofs, but just as those who cut off try to do it quickly in order to reduce the feeling of pain with the speed of the cut, so he stopped the king’s anger with a brevity of reproof. Indeed, what is cutting off for the sick, is reproof for sinners. He showed us his meekness, among other things, through the brevity of his speech. And if you want to see the cross-section in his words, and where he hid the iron, listen. “It is not for you, Uzziah,” he said, “to burn incense for the Lord; this is the work of the priests, the sons of Aaron, ordained to burn incense” (2 Chronicles 26:18). With this he struck; I'll tell you how. Why didn’t he simply say: “to the priests,” but also mentioned Aaron? Aaron was the first high priest, and in his time the same impudence was done. Dathan, Korah and Abiron, together with some others, rebelled against him and wanted to become priests themselves; but some of them were swallowed up by the parted earth, others were burned by fire descending from heaven (Num. 16; Ps. 105:17–18). So, wanting to remind the king of this event, the priest reminded him of Aaron, who was insulted then, in order to turn his thoughts to the misfortune of those who insulted him. However, there was no success from this, not through the fault of the priest, but due to the insolence of the king. One should praise the priest and express gratitude for his advice; and he, says Scripture, “was angry” and made his wound more serious (2 Chronicles 26:19). Sin is not such a great evil as shamelessness after sin. But David did not do that, but how? Having been rebuked by Nathan for Bathsheba, he said: “I have sinned before the Lord” (2 Samuel 12:13). 3. Do you see a broken heart? Do you see a humble soul? Do you see how the falls of the saints themselves are glorious? Just as beautiful bodies even in their illness show us many traces of beauty, so the souls of saints in their very falls bear signs of their virtue. Moreover, David was denounced by the prophet in the midst of the royal palace, in the presence of many; but this one received chastisement inside the sanctuary without witnesses, and yet did not endure the chastisement. So what? Left without healing? No, according to God’s love for mankind; but as about the demoniac, when the disciples could not cast the demon out of him, Christ said: “Bring him here to Me” (Matthew 17:17), so here, when the priest could not drive away the disease, worse than any demon, i.e. sin, then finally God himself takes on the sick person. And what does He do? It strikes him with leprosy on his forehead. “And when he was angry with the priests,” says the Scripture, “leprosy appeared on his forehead, in the presence of the priests, in the house of the Lord, at the altar of incense” (2 Chronicles 26:19), and he went out, just as those who are led away to death have a rope on their lips, a sign of condemnation, so he, having a sign of dishonor on his forehead; but it was not the executioners who were dragging him, but leprosy itself, instead of the executioners, was pushing him to the head. He entered to take the priesthood, but he also lost the kingdom; entered to become more respectable, but became the most despised; as unclean, he became lower than any commoner. Such is the evil of not remaining within the limits assigned to us by God, both in relation to honor and in relation to knowledge. Don't you see how this sea can be insurmountable during a storm, how it rises in waves? But, having risen to a great height and rushing with great fury, when it reaches the limit assigned to it by God, then, turning the waves into foam, it again takes on its former appearance. Meanwhile, what could be weaker than sand? However, it is not the sand that poses an obstacle to him, but the fear of Him who has set limits for him. If this example does not enlighten you, then let the event with Uzziah, now described by us, teach you. But since we have already seen the wrath of God and worthy reward, now we will show both His love for mankind and His great condescension. It is necessary to speak not only about anger, but also about the goodness of God, so as not to lead the listeners either to despair or carelessness. This is what Paul does, using both in exhortation: “You see the goodness and severity of God” (Rom. 11:22), he says, so that through both fear and good hopes he can restore the fallen. Do you see the severity of God? Look also at His goodness. How can we see this goodness? If we find out what Uzziah was worthy of. What was he worthy of? As soon as he entered the sacred vestibule with such shamelessness, he became worthy of a thousand lightning bolts and extreme punishment and torment. If those who had previously dared to do the same, the accomplices of Dathan, Korah and Abiron, were subjected to such punishment, then he should have been much more subjected to the same punishment, not being enlightened by their misfortune. But God did not do this, but in advance, through the priest, offered him an admonition filled with great condescension, and as Christ commanded people to do when they sinned against each other, so God did with this man. “If,” he says, “your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone” (Matthew 18:15). Thus God rebuked this king. Christ continues: “if he does not listen..., then let him be to you as a pagan and a publican” (Matthew 18:16–17). But God, in his love for mankind, exceeding his own laws, did not strike him then, did not reject him, who disobeyed and was indignant, but again turned to him and taught him in a way that served more for correction than for punishment. He did not send lightning from above, did not burn the shameless head, but only enlightened him with leprosy. So it was with Uzziah; but I’ll just add one more thing and finish the word. What exactly? What we asked above, at the beginning: why, while in external affairs and in prophecies everything usually means the time of the life of kings, here the prophet, omitting this, mentioned the time of the death of Uzziah, saying this: “In the year of the death of King Uzziah”? While it was possible to indicate the time of the then reigning sovereign, as was the custom of all prophets, he did not do this. Why didn't he do it? There was an ancient law - to expel a leper from the city, so that those living in the city would become better, and he himself would not be the subject of jokes and ridicule for those who wanted to insult him, but so that, remaining outside the city, he would have privacy under the veil of misfortune. This king also had to undergo the same thing after his leprosy; but he did not suffer, since the inhabitants of the city were afraid of him because of his power, but lived secretly in his house. This angered God and stopped the prophecies, as happened under Elijah: “The word of the Lord was rare in those days, visions were not frequent” (1 Samuel 3:1). But look here at God’s love for mankind. He did not destroy the city and did not destroy the inhabitants, but just as friends act with their equals, remaining silent when they have the right to reproach them for something, so God did with the people who deserved greater punishment and torment. I, He says, drove him out of the sanctuary, but you did not drive him out of the city; I, having bound him with leprosy, made him a private person, and even then you were not encouraged, but you did not dare to drive the one condemned by Me out of the city. What king could calmly endure this, and would not destroy the city to the ground, seeing that the one who was ordered to move outside the borders remains in the city? But God did not do this, because He is God, not a man. When the king died, then with his life God stopped his anger against them, opened the doors of prophecy, and it returned to them again. But from this method of reconciliation, see God’s love for mankind. If anyone begins to examine the matter fairly, it turns out that he should not have been reconciled then. Why? Because it was not their merit that the expulsion of Uzziah was done. It was not they who took him and drove him out, but death, which came according to the law of nature, then threw him out of the city. But God is not demanding of us to such an extent, but wants only one thing - to be reconciled with us. For all this, let us thank Him and glorify ineffably His love for mankind, of which may we all prove worthy, by the grace and generosity of His Only Begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, with the Holy Spirit, be glory, power, honor, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. You might be interested in: