Fencing Churches and the Sin of King Uzziah

Police in Canada erected a metal fencing around GraceLife Church in Edmonton “that’s led by a pastor who was jailed for holding worship services that violated provincial lockdown rules.” The church was ordered to be “shut it down until it ‘can demonstrate the ability to comply’ with the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions. To show their disdain for the worshippers, additional fencing was erected around GraceLife Church. (Source)

On Sunday (April 11, 2021), some of those in the crowd tore down some of the barricade and were met by a force of nearly 200 police in riot gear. It’s difficult to determine if those who tore down the fence were church members. Ezra Levant wrote, “This is China stuff, Iran stuff. But it’s happening in Canada.”

In my opinion, the Canadian government of Edmonton will claim that fencing off the church doesn’t have anything to do with religion. It’s all about health. Steve Deace and I agree: “This isn’t really about Covid, this is really about how the spirit of the age … wants to treat the church.”

This is the new tactic of the fascists. The State is everything. Italy’s fascist leader Benito Mussolini’s edict is the most lasting definition of modern totalitarianism and it is operating in Canada and in some of our states. “Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State.”

This reminds me of a biblical event important enough to be included in the Bible.

King Uzziah crossed the boundary between the jurisdictional separation between church and state in a seemingly minor way but was judged harshly. God is serious about jurisdictional church-state separation. The king is said to have been “proud” (2 Chron. 26:16). His pride led him to go beyond his legitimate civil jurisdiction and move into the ecclesiastical area. While he was “chief of State,” being the king in Judah, he was not a priest.

King Uzziah could not assume the role of a priest and perform the most basic ecclesiastical duties. He had no jurisdictional authority to serve in the Temple, the Old Testament equivalent of the New Testament Church. Uzziah ignored God’s law and “acted corruptly, and he was unfaithful to the LORD his God, for he entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense” (2 Chron. 26:16).

The king was struck with the most feared disease in all Israel: leprosy! “And king Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death; and he lived in a separate house, being a leper, for he was cut off from the house of the LORD” (v. 21). He lost access to the Temple, was isolated from the general population, and lost his kingdom to his son, Jotham, who “was over the king’s house judging the people of the land” (v. 21).

Azariah the priest was not passive in this incident. He knew the limitations of the king’s power. He, along with “eighty priests of the LORD” (v. 17), took action against the king. They “opposed Uzziah the king” (v. 18), making it clear that “it is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron who are consecrated to burn incense” (v. 18). The priests commanded Uzziah to “get out of the sanctuary” (v. 18).

These “ecclesiastical officials” are called “valiant men” (v. 17) because they acted with great risk. While there were eighty of them, the king still commanded an army. He could have put them to death. There was a precedent for this when Ahimelech the priest helped David against King Saul (1 Sam. 21–22). Saul called on Doeg the Edomite to attack the priests after the king’s own servants refused: “And Doeg the Edomite turned around and attacked the priests, and he killed that day eighty-five who wore the linen ephod” (1 Sam. 22:18). Doeg the Edomite had no qualms about killing the priests.

King Uzziah had Saul’s hate in his eye: “Uzziah, with a censer in his hand for burning incense, was enraged” (2 Chron. 26:19). The rage of the Canadian government is on full display.

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