Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Value of Obedience | Historical Books | 2 Kings 23:1-28

Episode Date: November 20, 2025

Who was King Josiah? What made him so faithful? Is God's justice unfair? In today's episode, Patrick shares how 2 Kings 23:1-28 reminds us that the value of obedience is not in what it earns, but in who it draws you near to. 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 23:1-28

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 Patrick Miller. There are few passages in the Bible which haunt me quite like Second King's 23. In the previous chapter, we meet the wicked king Manassas' son. His name is Josiah. And in that chapter, Josiah discovers the book of the covenant. It's probably the same book that we call Deuteronomy today. Now, this fact on its own, is remarkable. The Bible was a lot. lost for a time. Deuteronomy was lost. It had to be rediscovered. That just tells you about the state of Judah and what's happening inside of the nation. Now when Josiah finds it, he reads it. And when he

reads it, he tears his robes, he repents of his sins and the sins of the people. And inside of Deuteronomy, he actually finds a template for how to renew the covenant with God after the covenant's been broken. So that's exactly what he does. He gathers people together for a covenant renewal ceremony. and this happens in 2 Kings 23. Let's pick up in verse 1. Then the king called altogether the elders of Judah. He went up to the temple of the Lord with the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets, all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing the words of the book of the covenant. Again, he reads the book of Deuteronomy out loud the king does to the gathering of basically everyone who lives in Judah. Let's continue. He

read out loud the words of the book of the covenant which had been found in the temple of the Lord. The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord. To follow the Lord and keep his commands, statutes, and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant. When we read this, we should really just marvel at God's mercy. He allows the people to repent. He forgives them for losing the Bible. He forgives them for all of their idolatry. He renews his covenant with them and he makes them his own. I think we're also meant to marvel at Josiah, the king. He's doing what the king is supposed to do. And yet he's doing the thing which

no king before him really did with his whole heart. He calls the people to worship and obey Yahweh alone. He does what his grandfather, Hezekiah, an ancient forebears, Solomon, and even David, never quite a accomplished. He guides the people back to God. The next 22 verses after this covenant renewal ceremony go on to describe how Josiah destroyed every idolatrous altar, every Asherapole, all the high places in Judah, every single one. And he doesn't just destroy them. He burns them. He grinds them to grist. Then he desecrates them so they can never be used again. He executes the priests who burn children and the flames to Mollach? He condemns the gods of the starry hosts and all others. He even destroys the high places that his great-great-great-grandfather Solomon built to foreign

gods. Verse 13 says this, the king also desecrated the high places that were east of Jerusalem on the south of the hill of corruption. The ones, Solomon, king of Israel, had built for Asthmaeth, the vile goddess of the Sidonians, for Kimosh, the vile god of Moab, and for Moloch, the detestable God of the people of Amon. Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the astropoles and covered the sights with human bones. Josiah's devotion is totalizing. And eventually he comes to Bethel, which is the place where the northern kingdom of Israel's first king, Jeroboam, led the people into idolatry for the first time. I mean, this is where idolatry starts in the northern kingdom that ultimately leads to its destruction. Now, when Jeroboam led the people in

idolatry, God actually sent a prophet from Judah to Jeroboam. And this is what that prophet said to Jeroboam all the way back in 1st Kings 13. And behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel. Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make offerings. And the man cried against the altar by the word of the Lord and said, O altar, altar, thus says the Lord. Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name. and he shall sacrifice on you the priest of the high places who make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you. And he gave this sign on the same day, saying, this is the sign that the Lord has spoken. Behold, the altar shall be torn down,

and the ashes that are on it shall be poured out. You see, it's not just Josiah's name that fulfills this prophecy. He does all the things the prophecy says. He tears down the altar. He covers it with ashes. He defiles it once in front. He defiles it once in front. He does. He does all the things. He says. He does. He files it once and for all. And then he returns to Jerusalem. He removes every medium, spiritist, idol, and household God. The people celebrate Passover to the Lord. And the author says that this Passover was so celebratory, so joyous, that it was unlike any Passover that came before it. So at this point, you're probably expecting the narrator to tell us the good news. Josiah began a new golden age in Judah. He was faithful and God brought forth all the covenant blessings promised. And

in Deuteronomy. Well, let's read how the author summarizes Josiah's reign in verse 24. This is a haunting passage, just like I said at the beginning. This Josiah did, to fulfill the requirements of the law written in the book that Hilkaya the priest had discovered in the temple of the Lord. Neither before or after Josiah was there a king like him, who turned to the Lord as he did. With all his heart, with all his soul, with all his strength, in accordance with the law of Moses. So far so good. Josiah was an unparalleled king. He turned to God like no king before him. He obeyed God with his heart, his strength, his soul, and he followed the law of Moses. So blessings followed, right? Well, we finish here. Verse 26. Nevertheless,

the Lord did not turn away from the heat of his fierce anger, which burned against Judah because of all that Manasseh had done to arouse his anger. So the Lord said, I will remove Judah also from my presence as I removed Israel, and I will reject Jerusalem, the city I chose, and this temple, about which I said, my name shall be there. Welcome to why I find this chapter so haunting. Perhaps your first thought is that God's being unfair, but you'd be wrong. In the book of Deuteronomy, God said that just as Adam and Eve were exiled from the garden for their sin, he said that in the same way the people of Israel would be exiled from the land that they continued in their idolatry. God basically said, if you want to worship the gods of Babylon, then you can go live there. And here's the remarkable thing.

from the time of the judges to the time of the exile the Israelites continually worshipped idols for 600 years for 600 years god didn't enact the covenant curses that they deserved instead he forgave generation after generation after generation until monasa came along and committed sins with the people so grievous that the author says they were worse than the canaanites who lived in the land before them. So God's not being unfair. With grief and anger in his heart, he's seen the people for what they are. Recalcitrant, refusing to repent, refusing to change. You see, as good as Josiah was, the people needed something more than a righteous king. They needed transformed hearts. They needed God's spirit to wash them and change them and end dwell them. And this is precisely what God intends to do,

their exile. He plans to send them away and one day send his son, the true king, to regather them and establish a new covenant with them. And in this new covenant, he's going to transform their hearts so that they can obey and walk in step with his spirit who indwells them. You see, even on this day of cursing, even after 600 years of relenting, and now God's going to do what he promised he would do if they committed idolatry. He's going to send them out of the land. He's going to exile them. But even on that day of cursing, God's plan, is ultimately restoration. And yet this passage still haunts me because it reminds me that obedience, you know, Josiah's obedience, the best obedience, well, that does not guarantee worldly blessing

or good things. It reminds me that obedience doesn't always lead to revival or renewal. That's not to say that obedience is worthless, but that its value is not in what it earns, but whom it draws you near to. You see, Josiah may not have ushered in a new golden age, but he was ushered in to the presence of God, where his heart could be satisfied and known, and after death brought into his presence to await the resurrection.