Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Hold Fast to Hope | Historical Books | 2 Kings 15:27-38

Episode Date: October 29, 2025

Why does God bring judgment? Why was Israel sent into exile? Will God give up on his people? In today's episode, Jensen shares how 2 Kings 15:27-38 encourages us to hold fast to God because he is trustworthy. 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 15:27-38

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. You've probably noticed if you've been reading along in the books of first and second kings with us, that things have been devolving for a long, long time. And we shouldn't be surprised. The author of these books has a point to make. He's following a theme, and he wants his readers to recognize who the real king is. And not just that God is the true.

true king, but that this fact is good news for all people, that God is the true and better king. We learn this as we watch king after king fail his people, fall further into idolatry and lead his people further into disaster. We watch the nations of Israel and Judah fall into disarray and their people struggle. And now in today's passage we see the beginnings of their downfall. 2 Kings 15 verses 27 to 31 focus on Israel's king, Pekaw, and 2nd Kings 15 versus 32 and 38, tell us about Judas King, Jotham. Now, in today's passage, we learn about the status of the faithfulness of both kings. Pekah did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and Jotham followed his father Uzziah and actually

did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. He even rebuilt part of the temple gates. but he still failed to remove the high places of worship, and so his people continued to worship foreign gods during his reign. Now, both kings begin reigning within a year or so of each other, which we learn is in the year of Uzziah, Jotham's father's death. Now, I'm interested in the timing of these kings' ascension to the throne, because in Isaiah 6, the passage where Isaiah, a prophet of the Lord, is commissioned in a service, he specifically references the year of the death of King Uzziah as the year

that he receives a life-changing vision from God. Let's take a look. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Now, in this vision, Isaiah is before God, and he sees angels and seraphim singing, holy, holy, Holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory. And as they worship God, the temple shakes and fills with smoke, and Isaiah recognizes that he's unworthy to be where he is before a holy God, and he cries out, woe to me, I cried. I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the king, the Lord Almighty. But rather than cast him out, one of the seraphim actually comes and touches his mouth with a hot coal and says,

See, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. So God is gracious and merciful to Isaiah despite his sin and brokenness. He shows him grace, and then he calls out for someone to go and speak his word. And Isaiah volunteers. and the Lord delivers to Isaiah the message that he is to proclaim to the people of Israel and Judah. Now remember, these people are the people of God who are alive at the time of our passage in Second Kings today. This message is for King Pekaw, for King Jotham at the beginning of their reigns. This is what God has to say to them, and it isn't uplifting.

He begins by telling Isaiah that although he will speak the true word of the Lord to the people of God, rather than causing them to turn to the Lord, it will cause their hearts to grow even more calloused and angry. They will not repent. They will further devolve into sin. And so Isaiah asks for how long? And the Lord says this, until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the Lord has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken. And though a tenth remains in the land, and it will again be laid waste. But, as the tarabint and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.

In the year that Uzziah dies, as these new kings are taking the throne, the Lord begins to enact judgment on his people for the sins that they've committed, and he's going to use Isaiah to proclaim it. You hear the judgment, right? The cities will lie ruined, empty, deserted, ravaged. The Lord will send away his people,

into exile defeated the land forsaken. Some will remain, but the land will remain in waste. It's a bleak picture of judgment. This message that God has for his people reminds us that God is good and holy and just, and he does not let evil go unpunished. He is to be taken seriously. There are consequences for sin. If you've been reading along, you know that for years and years and years, God has been patient, steadfast with his people, interceding on their behalf even in the face of evil and injustice. And right now is the turning point. God will bring justice. He will send his people into exile, but not to cast them away forever, not to forsake them, but to cleanse them, to rid them of the evil that has ensnared them, to show them grace. Think about how right before

God delivers this message to Isaiah. Think about how he cleanses Isaiah. Remember, Isaiah knows he's unworthy. He knows he's one of the Israelites who has sinned against God, who is guilty. He's part of an unclean people. And God offers him grace through a live coal touch to his mouth to cleanse him. God doesn't say, eh, forget about your sin, Isaiah. No big deal. You're good. Come give him this message. Now, he knows Isaiah is unworthy, unclean. He also says, he also. doesn't just wave his hand and say, all is forgiven. No, he has one of his seraphim use a live coal, a burning coal that would have burned upon touching his lips to cleanse him. He pronounces judgment and what comes isn't painless, but it is through the cleansing of sin, sometimes painful

that Isaiah is able to now stand before God. It's a picture of God's grace, of his justice, of his mercy. It's a small picture of God's plan for all of God. creation. And it comes right before his message to his people. Maybe you already notice when we read it through, but the last verse of Isaiah chapter six says this, but as the tarabint and oak leaves stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land. But even as when you cut down a tree, a stump remains, so will a holy seed remain the land. This holy seed is God's imagery of his holy remnant, a faithful people who will remain after exile, who will be set apart by God made holy by the same grace that cleansed Isaiah and brought him into God's

family as heirs of his kingdom. To the people that God is speaking this message to in real time, the means of his grace would be a mystery. They didn't know exactly what it would look like, but they knew that even as exile came, even as the land was forsaken, the cities ravaged, people taken away that God was still the same king he had always been. He would remain faithful to his promise to redeem his people. Which brings us back to Second Kings. As Piccah reigns, we learn in verse 29 that the king of Assyria comes in and begins the first stages of exile, taking over large swaths of land, removing people deporting them, setting them away from the promised land, and eventually killing their king and replacing him with their own vassal king, Hoshaya.

Now, the southern kingdom of Judah has slightly more time before their exile would come. But God's judgment is beginning to be pronounced and executed on his own people. And we will continue to see the prophecies of Isaiah come true in the following passages. The people of Israel and of Judah are facing a time of profound devastation. But if they trust the word of the Lord, if they listen to his promises, if they hear the words of Isaiah, they will know that even in the midst of exile, there's hope. We can know the same thing. In 1-Peter, Peter and Apostle of Jesus is writing to believers who are spread out in provinces and cities of the Roman Empire. They are not at home. They face trials and

persecution, and yet Peter writes to them, calling them chosen exiles, and reminding them of what is true for them because of their identity in Christ. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all of this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

This is the message of the gospel that is being spoken over you today. It is true for you today. Even as the Israelites went into exile, God was faithful to his holy remnant, and from the holy seed sprouted the one to come, Jesus, the child who would conquer evil, bring justice and reign on the throne of David forever. It is through him, through his fulfillment of the promises made all the way back in Isaiah.

spoken to the people alive during the times of King Baccah and King Jotham, that you and I can read Peter's words and have hope even though we face trials now. We have an inheritance that is kept for us. Shielded by God's power, it can never perish, spoil, or fade. We are heirs of the goodness of God, the mercy of God, the grace of God. We are kept, secure, and welcomed into His kingdom in the last time. In God's great mercy, he has made a way for resurrection, and because of the hope that we have as Heirs of Christ, we can rejoice greatly.

Though we look around and see trials, though we face exile, though the land may look desolate, forsaken, and laid waste, though the world may look nothing like the promised land, we know that God will be faithful to build and establish his kingdom and welcome as in his heirs. rejoice greatly today people of god trust in his promises today the word of the lord is true it is steadfast it is trustworthy and it is life-changing hold fast to hope amen