Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Hold Fast to God | Historical Books | 2 Kings 18:1-12

Episode Date: November 5, 2025

What made Hezekiah a good king? What does it mean to hold fast to God? What are you holding fast to? In today's episode, Jensen shares how 2 Kings 18:1-12 encourages us to hold fast to God because he holds fast to us. If you're listening on Spotify, tell us about yourself and where you're listening from! Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 2 Kings 18:1-12

Welcome to 10-minute Bible talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. I don't know about you, but 2nd Kings 18 felt like a breath of fresh air. I got so excited as I began reading about the new king over Judah, Hezekiah. You may have already guessed or read why, but Hezekiah, unlike most of the kings we've read about, was a faithful king. Verse 3 tells us, He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord just as his father David had done.

He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones, and cut down the Asherapoles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the Lord and did not stop following him. He kept the

commandments the Lord had given Moses, and the Lord was with him. He was successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. From watchtower to fortified city, he defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory. I mean, this is huge. It makes me excited, after all the evil and failure. Hezekiah did what was right. He tore down the high places that even faithful kings had failed to tear down. He broke the snake that Moses had made, that the people had been falsely worshipping. He opposed Assyria. He kept the commands of Moses. It is so encouraging and exciting to read about a king who's actually faithful, who's compared to David more than anyone else before him or after him. This guy seems to be like really legit. And we learn in verse 7 that

God was with him and made him successful like in the days of David. Judah's military action succeeded. He prospered. Now the verse right before this tells us why this is true of Hezekiah's reign. Yes, he did the right things. He tore down the ashtra poles in the high places. He smashed the snake. But verse 6 says this, he held fast to the Lord and did not stop following him. He kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. Hezekiah held fast to the Lord. He never stopped following him. He did not turn away. He remained close to the Lord. And what flowed out of that was a keeping of his commandments. That phrase held fast is used throughout the book of Deuteronomy in different contexts when God is speaking to his people

and giving them commands for how they are to live as His holy people and the expectations that they could have of Him as their God. Deuteronomy 1020 says, Fear the Lord your God and serve Him. Hold fast to Him and take your oaths in His name. Deuteronomy 1122 says, and if you carefully observe all these commands I am giving to you to follow, to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to hold fast to him. Then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you. Again in chapter 13, verse 4, it is the Lord your God you must follow and him you must revere, keep his commandments and obey him, serve him, and hold fast to him.

And finally in chapter 30, verse 20, as the Israelites were preparing to enter into the promise land. Love the Lord your God. Listen to his voice and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The promises that God made with his people as they entered the promised land, as they became their own nation was that he would be their God and he would be with them. But it always came with the warning not to stray, to not devote themselves to idols like other nations, but to hold fast to God. You can see from these verses and the example of Hezekiah that holding fast included walking with God, drawing near to him, and in turn obeying his commands, living in step with him. See,

God is a holy God. He is to be praised. He is the creator of all things. And so to live in step with him, to follow him, to hold fast to him, demands obedient lives. He cannot uphold evil. He cannot allow injustice. And so his warning holds, if you want to be my people, if you want to flourish, if you want my closeness, my proximity, my protection, you must hold fast to me. You must live within the boundaries of what I have set out as good so that you can flourish. Hezekiah understands this. He understands that the command to obey. isn't from a demanding, abusive controlling God, but a God who wants to draw near his people,

who sets laws to direct and guide as a father guides as children, wanting what is good for them, wanting what will help them flourish. And so he holds fast to God, to what is good, following him closely. In the last part of our passage today, we are retold the story of Israel's fall into exile. It's in stark contrast to Hezekiah.

Hezekiah is under the Lord's blessing as he holds fast. But Israel neither listens nor obeys, and because of this, they fall in their military pursuits and are taken away into exile. We are being given a clear picture. When we draw near to God, we live in his guidance, his goodness, and his blessing. And when we rebel, when we fail to listen and obey,

when we run, we live outside of his commands. We choose to live outside of his guidance, his goodness, and his blessing. And we face the world and its troubles alone. See, King Hazakaya wasn't the only king who was faithful, but he is noted as the most faithful, because he held fast. He never turned away. It makes me think of Solomon, faithful, wise, following God at the beginning of his reign, but in the end he turned away.

1 Kings 11.2, when speaking about Solomon's wives, says this. They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, you must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods. Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. What are you holding fast to? Your career, your family, wealth, success, your reputation, sex, pornography, alcohol, social media, your iPhone.

The lesson we can learn from Solomon was that he held fast to his wives and love. His heart wandered to love what they loved, to seek after what they sought after, to worship what they worshipped. You cannot hold fast to two things at once. In order to hold fast to follow after something, you will veer from the path of the Lord. You will turn from the sanctuary of his presence, and you will live outside of the goodness of his ways.

Will you be known as someone who held fast to God, who never stopped following him or obeying his commands? Or do you spend your day holding fast to things that are poor leaders? Will you be the girl who held fast to her career and got ahead? The guy who held fast to his phone day and night, who held fast to the cycle of abuse, neglect, addiction, greed. Whatever it is, recognize it for what it is, for what it takes from you, for the consequences that come when we hold fast, when we follow,

when we remain in anything other than the life source that we were created to hold fast to. In John 15, Jesus boldly proclaims this to his disciples. I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I and you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. This is to my father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. See, Jesus is God. He is holy. He is good. He was there at the

beginning of all things. He is our life source. And he is calling us to remain in him. As divine, we are the branches. We cannot survive apart from him. We'll shrivel up. We'll fall away. But if we remain, if we abide, if we hold fast to the giver of life, we will flourish, grow, bring him glory, bear fruit, benefit from the good gifts that are freely offered to you as branches of the vine, members of the kingdom, children of the king. Remain in Jesus. Abide in Jesus. Hold fast to your God. never stop following him and live in the glory and the goodness and the blessing his presence today.