Daily Devotional
2 Kings 23 – “When a Heart Burns, Altars Fall”
“Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses.” (2 Kings 23 : 25, New International Version)
──────────────────────────
OVERVIEW
Chapter 23 is the crescendo of Josiah’s revival. What began yesterday (ch. 22) with a dusty scroll in a neglected Temple room now becomes a nationwide movement. Altars crumble, priests are defrocked, bones are burned, and the Passover blazes again for the first time in generations. Yet the chapter ends in sorrow: Judah’s brightest king falls, and the shadow of exile remains. The passage therefore sings in two keys—triumph and tragedy—like a minor-chord hymn that lifts us toward hope while warning us of judgment.
We will listen in six short movements:
Along the path we will pause for history, archaeology, word-study, and theological reflection.
──────────────────────────
1. Covenant Renewal – “All the People, from the Least to the Greatest”
(vv. 1-3)
Josiah reads the newly found “Book of the Covenant” aloud, then
publicly vows to obey it. The scene echoes Deuteronomy 31 : 9-13 where
Moses commands that the Law be read every seventh year “so that their
children… will learn to fear the Lord.” Notice the three verbs that
describe Josiah’s response in Hebrew: • qārāʾ – he “called
together”
• qārāʾ – he “read”
• kārat – he “cut/made” a covenant
“Cut” (kārat) evokes the ancient ritual of slicing animals to seal an agreement (cf. Genesis 15). In other words, the king does not merely sign a new policy; he binds himself with sacrificial seriousness.
Cross-references
• Joshua 24 : 22-27 – Joshua’s own covenant renewal at Shechem
• Romans 12 : 1-2 – presenting our bodies as living sacrifices
Spiritual reflection
Every awakening begins with hearing. We cannot obey what we have not
first absorbed. John Wesley called Scripture “the means of grace by
which God’s words sink into the soul.” The revival in 2 Kings 23 did not
start with better music, charismatic speakers, or fresh programs, but
with a plain public reading of the Word.
──────────────────────────
2. A Ruthless Purge – “He Smashed… He Burned… He Ground to Powder” (vv.
4-20)
Josiah removes idols from the Temple, crushes the high-place shrines, dethrones the “priests of the pagan gods,” tears down the houses of the qedēšîm (male cult-prostitutes), defiles Topheth in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom (Hebrew gey-hinnom—later “Gehenna”), breaks horses dedicated to the sun, and even journeys north to Bethel to desecrate Jeroboam’s golden-calf altar.
Historical and archaeological notes
• Tel Arad’s temple stones: Excavators found a dismantled altar whose
stones had been deliberately buried; many scholars date its destruction
to Josiah’s reforms.
• Valley of Ben-Hinnom: Two tiny silver scrolls found at Ketef Hinnom
just outside Jerusalem bear the priestly blessing from Numbers 6. They
may be eighth-century b.c., reminding us that true faith and perverse
practices co-existed in that very valley.
• Bethel: Jeroboam’s site has been located (modern Beitin). Excavated
bones in ash layers support a memory of cultic destruction.
Hebrew window
Verse 10 speaks of “burning his son or daughter in the fire to Molek.”
The phrase “to pass through (ʿābar) the fire” may imply both literal
immolation and an ordeal ritual. Josiah’s defilement of Topheth is a
prophetic act that says, “This site is permanently unfit for
worship.”
Theological thread
Holiness is not just addition (building the right altars) but
subtraction (tearing down the wrong ones). Augustine wrote, “We cannot
live for God while our hearts are farms for idols.” Calvin added that
the human heart is “a perpetual factory of idols”; therefore,
reformation must be ongoing, not one-time.
Questions for the heart
• What entrenched “high place” in my life still competes for
affection—career glory, digital distraction, secret grudges?
• How might I, like Josiah, act decisively rather than politely toward
it?
──────────────────────────
3. Passover Restored – “No Such Passover Had Been Observed… Since the
Days of the Judges” (vv. 21-23)
The rediscovery of Torah leads straight to the rediscovery of the Lamb. Passover realigns Israel’s calendar, imagination, and national story around deliverance by blood.
Christ-centred lens
Paul links Passover to Christ: “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been
sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5 : 7). Thus Josiah’s feast foreshadows the
Cross—cleansing precedes communion.
Liturgical sidebar
Verse 22’s hyperbolic language (“since the days of the judges”) is a
Hebraic way of saying “We haven’t done this right for as long as anyone
can recall.” The writer uses overstatement to shake readers awake.
Suggested hymn
“Nothing but the Blood” (Robert Lowry, 1876). Simple words, same logic:
purity flows not from reform alone but from redeeming blood.
──────────────────────────
4. Sweeping Finishing Touches – “Neither Household Gods nor Idolatrous
Images” (vv. 24-27)
Josiah presses on—removing mediums, spiritists, teraphim (small household gods), and shāqētzîm (“abominations”). Yet even after all this the divine verdict remains: judgment is coming, for Manasseh’s sins have filled the cup (vv. 26-27).
Tension in the text
Why does God not turn from fierce anger this time, as He did for Nineveh
in Jonah 3? Deuteronomistic theology stresses both repentance and
accumulated guilt. God hears individual cries (22 : 18-20) but also
governs history, and Judah’s collective corruption has run its course.
As chronicler Stephen Dempster notes, “Mercy delays exile but does not
erase consequences.”
Hope hinted
The phrase “I will cast off Jerusalem” uses the same verb (māsas) as 2
Kings 17 : 20 for Israel’s fall. Yet the same God later “had compassion”
(raham) in exile (2 Kings 25 : 27-30). Judgment is never God’s last
word.
──────────────────────────
5. The Death of Josiah – “An Arrow from an Unlikely Bow” (vv. 28-30)
Pharaoh Neco of Egypt marches to aid Assyria against rising Babylon. Josiah, perhaps misreading geopolitical signs or acting from zeal, confronts Neco at Megiddo and is fatally wounded. For Western readers the shock is severe: the best king since David dies in what looks like a military footnote.
Hidden layers
• Chronicles (2 Chr 35 : 21-22) records Neco claiming a word from God.
Was Josiah ignoring prophetic caution? Augustine saw in Josiah’s death a
reminder that earthly righteousness does not guarantee earthly length of
days.
• Megiddo’s tell holds the famous “Solomon Gate.” The site’s strategic
value made it a crossroads of empires; archaeology has uncovered
stables, fortifications, and a view across the Jezreel, where many
biblical battles raged.
Literary device
The historian dwells longer on Josiah’s reforms than on his death,
suggesting that spiritual legacy outweighs political outcome.
──────────────────────────
6. Aftershocks and Application – “Jehoiakim Did Evil…” (vv. 31-37)
Josiah’s sons reverse course. National momentum toward exile resumes. A final question hovers: can any human king fully deliver?
Whole-Bible arc
• 2 Kings 23 points forward to a greater Josiah—Jesus—who cleanses His
Father’s house (John 2 : 13-17) and celebrates Passover as the New
Covenant meal (Luke 22 : 20).
• Jesus too dies young at Passover, yet rises, achieving what Josiah
could only begin.
Personal takeaways
1. Word-saturated worship realigns a community.
2. Idols must be broken, not managed.
3. True renewal remembers the Lamb.
4. Even the best reforms cannot replace the need for the King of
kings.
──────────────────────────
CLOSING PRAYER
Holy Father,
You spoke through Moses, burned in Josiah, and bled in Christ.
Read Your Word over us again today.
Expose the high places we still visit in secret.
Give us Josiah’s courage to tear them down,
and Christ’s humility to trust the Passover blood alone.
May our lives, our churches, and our nations
be purified altars where Your praise never ceases.
We ask in the name of Jesus, our greater King.
Amen.