Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Why Leadership Matters | Historical Books | 2 Kings 1

Episode Date: September 24, 2025

Why does leadership matter? How does Jesus represent us? What king do you follow? In today's episode, Jensen shares how 2 Kings 1 encourages us to follow Jesus, the humble and powerful king. 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 1

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. Today, you may have noticed that we are diving into a new book of the Bible. Though the Bible you're reading separates First and Second Kings as separate books, they were originally written together as one grand narrative. And so the story that we'll jump into today carries directly over from the last chapter of First Kings. Ahab has died, and his son Ahaziah is king, and will continue, unfortunately, to do evil in the eyes of the Lord. Now, the continuation of the narrative means that we will continue to see the themes we've encountered over the last few weeks. Israel's kings and in-turned people continue to reject God.

Despite the efforts of prophets who display the power of God and call out injustice, that people will continue to reject God and live inside of the consequences of their choices. God is ultimately and always in control, and we will see the downward spiral of the book of Second Kings as the evil and injustice and choices of the nation of Israel will eventually lead them into exile. But through it all, we're going to see God's faithfulness to his remnant, to the promises that he made to David. Despite the negative trajectory of the book, will still find small glimpses of hope. So today's story is a continuation of the negative trajectory of kings. As we said earlier, Ahaziah is on the throne. He's the son of Ahab, and he's doing

evil in the eyes of the Lord just like his father. We learn right off the bat that he's sick in bed from falling out of a window, and things must not be looking good, so he sends men out to inquire of the God of Ekron about whether he's going to be okay or not. They're not successful in executing the plants of the king because God steps in. He sends an angel to Elijah and tells him to meet this company of men to deliver some bad news. And Elijah does this, and the company then quickly returns to Ahaziah, and he says to them, why have you come back? A man came to meet us, they replied, and he said to us, go back to the king who sent you and tell him, this is what the Lord says, is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending messengers to consult

Balesabub, the god of Echron? Therefore, you will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die. So this is certainly not the news that he was hoping for. And when Ahezaiah finds out that the man who gave this message was Elijah, he immediately sends out a commander and 50 men to go and bring Elijah back to him. But Elijah doesn't take their orders. Instead, he replies, if I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your 50 men. Then fire fell from heaven and consumed the captain and his men. Twice this happens, and the king still sends another set of men out to get Elijah. The third captain, though, recognizes the power of God that is with Elijah is no match even for 50 armed men. And so he approaches Elijah with respect and honor that he

deserves. So God tells Elijah to go with him, not to give the king the news that he wants, not to be coerced into changing his prophecy, but to reiterate the same message face to face with Ahaziah. He would die because he sought out the consultation of another God, and he dies according to the word of the Lord. Now you might be thinking, as I was when I read the story, why does Elijah have to send fire down to consume the first 102 men that approach him. They aren't the king. They're merely doing his bidding. It wasn't their idea to seek out the other gods, nor their idea to demand Elijah come before the king. It just kind of seems unfair, maybe even unjust of God, to take the lives of these as far as we know, seemingly innocent men. But one of the things that we learn again and again

in the narrative of first and second kings is that the sins of those in leadership, can lead to tragic consequences for whom they lead. The great devastation of the kings who do evil in the eyes of the Lord is not just that the kings themselves serve idols and reject the true God, but that in doing so, the king leads the nation of Israel astray as well. And when he sins, the people who follow him are harmed as well, both by following in their ways and through the consequences of sin that the king's face. If we look back at 2 Samuel 24, we see that David sins against God.

And God tells him that he would send a punishment on the nation of Israel because of his sin. And so David pleads with God to not let the people suffer for his sins. But God doesn't relent. David has sinned and as a representative of God's people, because he has sinned, he has made them bear the consequences of his sin. Now, I think that these passages can offer as two different points of reference. The first and quick note is a reminder for those in leadership. And I'd extend this out, not just a formal leadership, but any of us who have others who look up to us, learn from us,

those whom God has given us to steward. You may be a pastor, a boss, a mentor, an older sibling, or a parent. But wherever you lead, this passage should remind you of the gift of leadership and also the responsibility that comes with it. Those in leadership have the power to lead those who follow them into paths of life or paths of rebellion. This passage should make us pause, remind us to steward the positions of leadership that we have well, and to always seek the wisdom of God first in those situations. Secondly, these passages should remind us that we, as humans, will not lead with perfection. We cannot always protect those we lead from sin and its consequences.

What we need is a good, and true king to lead us. We need a representative that is pure, that is holy, that is blameless, that does not make us bear the consequences of his own sin, but instead is able to bear ours. And of course, God became man. Jesus came to earth, a descendant of David, a fulfillment of the promise of God to extend David's rule for all of eternity. He is the Messiah, the Christ, the king. Romans 5 declares that he is also our representative. For just as through the disobedience of one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man that many will be made righteous.

So just as Adam was a representative that cast all of creation into sin, just as David and the kings were representative of the people that led them astray and caused them to bear the burden of their own trespasses, Jesus too is our representative, but because of his perfection, because he could do what no man before him could do or ever will be able to do, because he is fully man and fully God as our representative. He does not pull us deeper into sin, but removes our own sin and makes us righteous. David couldn't protect the people from his sin as their representative. He could not remove their burden because he himself was not blameless. But 1 Peter 224 gives us the good news of Jesus.

It says, he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed. He did what no one else could do. He took our sin, he bore it, he was punished for it, he was the sacrifice that paid our debt, that took the just punishment that we deserved and healed us rather than burdened us, cleansed us, rather than stained us. He is the good and true representative that we need. He is the only leader, the only king we can follow in safety as he leads us on the path to true life. First Peter tells us that he died so that we could die to our sins and live for righteousness. That's our calling, to take the gift that is being offered to us and to live lives of righteousness.

Will you do that today? Will you follow Jesus? Follow the one in whom you will find safety, refuge, healing, and righteousness. Following anyone else, submitting your life to anything else will leave you vulnerable. It will leave you aching under the weight of their sin, like Adam, like Ahaziah, like David. Follow the good and true king, the perfect representative, the Messiah, king, Jesus. Hear his words today from Matthew 11. Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Follow the one who takes your burdens, bears your sins, and delivers you into healing.