Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The King Who Conquered Death | Historical Books | 2 Kings 23:29-30

Episode Date: November 21, 2025

How have you experienced the loss of life? How does the Bible portray death? What made Jesus the best king? In today's episode, Jeff shares how 2 Kings 23:29-30 encourages us to face death without fear because of Jesus. 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 23:29-30

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jeff Parrott. The fabric of every good story is held together by a common thread, a repeated problem that needs to be solved, a recurring desire that needs to be fulfilled. We know this as a motif, a unifying theme that carries the narrative onward. That word motif has roots in medieval lab. and it conveys a sense of movement. The motif of a story is the pattern that prods it along

and keeps us engaged as it progresses. One of the key motifs of the biblical storyline is the constant struggle with a reality that's felt deeply inside the human experience, yet left completely outside of human control. And that is the motif of death. The law of life. It's the most vivid and tragic exhibit of how things are not the way they're supposed to be. Since the first rebellion in the Garden of Eden, death has been a constant presence, a ceaseless enemy. Not just in the biblical story, but in our personal stories. It's the unwanted motif that unravels everything. And of course, this includes physical, literal death. The death is a death. The death of a loved one that's unbearable, even if you see it coming. It's felt in the awful loss of life

when we never get to say goodbye, or the sharp pain of losing a young life where we never even got to say hello. The pattern of death pierces every human heart. Then there are the metaphorical, yet no less real ways that we undergo the loss of life, the death of a marriage, the death of of a job, the death of a dream. Each loss pierces our hearts in its own way. And even when we aren't facing death head on, we live with the haunting fear of it. Death is a shadow. We can't escape on our own. This is the mortim motif, the pattern, the struggle that lingers in the story of the Bible and in every person's story as well. Our passage today covers only two verses in 2nd Kings chapter 23. At first glance, these two verses may seem insignificant,

maybe even odd as a spot to camp out in our journey through the historical books. But these two verses function as a highlighter for the mortum motif of the Bible. These verses emphasize the massive problem of death, yet at the same time, they evoke a massive hope, a longing for the light of life to people. the darkness itself in the shadow of death. Now, as we approach God's word, let's slow down and ask for His grace to move through our time together. Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of life, thank you for the gift of breath, and thank you

for the gift of your word. We bring before you every part of our experiences, our joys and our sorrows, our anxiety and our excitement, our calendars and our contingencies. God, meet us in the space. Jesus help us abide in you as we engage with your truth. Holy Spirit, we ask you to move in and through this time in Second Kings. And God, I specifically pray for any of my friends facing the shadow of death in a particularly painful way as they listen to this.

May they know your peace, may they know your presence in a special way right now. As we read your living word, may it read us and restore us to life with you. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, going into our two verses today, the context surrounding the passage is key. We're considering the good king, Josiah, with his reforms that brought life into the experience of God's people. Verse 25 summarizes the goodness of this season under Josiah's reign. It reads, before him, there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him. Okay, so Josiah is the man. He's a standout ruler. Under his reign, we might be tempted to think that this is it. The kingdom is finally heading in the right direction and maybe it's not going to stop now. But as we round the corner and give him,

get into verses 29 through 30, the mood changes. Let's go ahead and read our two verses. We're in 2nd Kings chapter 23 versus 29 through 30. In his days, Pharaoh Niko, king of Egypt, went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. King Josiah went to meet him and Pharaoh Niko killed him at Magiddo as soon as he saw him. And as his servants carried him dead in a chariot from a giddot and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his tomb. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, and anointed him and made him king in his father's place. Now, when we read over that, when you heard that, did you catch the repeated theme showing up in this final scene of Josiah's reign? The king who ushered in so much life for God's people,

that king of life is now dead. Notice how it's brought up in a multifaceted manner here. Pharaoh killed him. His servants carried him dead. He was buried in his own tomb. The theme of death just keeps coming up. The mortum motif resurfaces as a persistent presence in this story and in the entire biblical story. This is the massive problem highlighted by these two verses.

Even the good reforming King Josiah cannot reign over death. In light of the Bible's honest assessment of death's tragedy, let's pause for just a moment and confront the raw, the real ways that death has impacted our lives up to this point. Maybe for you, it's someone you've loved, yet lost. Maybe you feel it in confronting your own finitude through a tragic, illness or an accident. Or maybe you're experiencing that metaphorical loss of life and the repeated movement of death has cast a big shadow over your job ending, a relationship ending, or your life plans being massively disrupted. No matter where you are or who you are, the motif of death

has a way of intersecting with your life. So how's that happening for you right now? What would it look like for you to take that raw reality to God and just pray over it for a moment. These two verses carry on the pattern of death's shadow. The mortum motif is moving here. This passage agitates the agony of our mortality. But at the same time, it awakens our anticipation for the Messiah, the anointed king, who will do so much more than just reform God's people. he will revive them. This is the massive kernel of hope held within these verses, the hope that the mortim motif will be undone.

And the fruit of this hope is realized in the real historical event of Jesus' own resurrection. He is the key in continuing and fulfilling the Old Testament story. Notice how Peter describes the morton motif's disruption in his Pentecost. sermon. This is Acts chapter 2, verses 23 through 24. He said this, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it. I love that. Get after that, Peter. It was not possible for Jesus to be held by death. So perhaps it's not so much that the mortum motif is undone,

as much as it's overwhelmed, overcome by a bigger motif, a bigger theme, a more relentless pattern. In Jesus's death and resurrection, we see the king that 2nd Kings 23 is making us long for, a king so loving that he would take on the judgment of death in our place. A king so powerful that it was not possible for him to be held by death. His life-creating reign resonates across world history and into our stories here and now. So as powerful as the motif of death is, it's been put to death by the Messiah's motif. His pattern is one of life out of death, light in the darkness, hope into the unknown, love in the midst of fear. Because the Messiah's motif of life is the masterful motif, we can weep and pray as people who have hope.

Because King Jesus holds the whole pattern together, we can face our suffering, face our pain and our loss one day at a time, knowing that a future awaits us where we will experience his life and presence for days without end. Because the Messiah holds the master motif, we can keep moving. We can keep shining his light in the shadows. And we can keep sharing his life and his love because we have received them freely by his grace. Heavenly Father, I pray again for those who are actively experiencing the pain of that final enemy, death. May they know, know the hope of your victory and the goodness of your presence. Jesus, we praise you that you have defeated that final enemy through your death and resurrection. You are the Messiah with the master

motif that holds everything together. Spirit, we ask you to keep moving in us and through us so that the hope of your life creating love can spread into every corner of our lives today. We pray all of this because of your grace, for your glory, within your story. In Jesus' name, amen.