2 Kings Chapter 23

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)

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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:

  1. Covenant Renewal (vv. 1-3)
  2. A Ruthless Purge (vv. 4-20)
  3. Passover Restored (vv. 21-23)
  4. Sweeping Finishing Touches (vv. 24-27)
  5. The Death of Josiah (vv. 28-30)
  6. Aftershocks and Application (vv. 31-37)

Along the path we will pause for history, archaeology, word-study, and theological reflection.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Narrated version of this devotional on 2 Kings Chapter 23