Bible Commentaries
2 Kings 23

Verses 3-4

2 Kings 23:3-4 , 2 Kings 23:25-26

The lesson we learn from this chapter is that we may repent and yet be punished.

I. People do not like to believe that; it is much more convenient to fancy that when a man repents and, as he says, turns over a new leaf, he need trouble himself no more about his past sins. But it is a mistake; he may not choose to trouble himself about his past sins, but he will find that his past sins trouble him, whether he chooses or not.

II. After the forgiveness of sin must come the cure of sin. And that cure, like most cures, is a long and painful process. Heavy, and bitter, and shameful is the burden which many a man has to bear after he has turned from self to God, from sin to holiness. He is haunted, as it were, by the ghosts of his own follies. The good that he would do he does not do, and the evil that he would not do he does.

III. Christ, the great Healer, the great Physician, can deliver us, and will deliver us, from the remains of our old sins, the consequences of our own follies. Not, indeed, at once, or by miracle, but by slow education in new and nobler motives, in purer and more unselfish habits. And better for us perhaps that He should not cure us at once, lest we should fancy that sin was a light thing, which we could throw off whenever we chose, not what it is: an inward disease, corroding and corrupting, the wages whereof are death. Provided we attain at last to the truly heroic and Divine life, which is the life of virtue, it will matter little to us by what wild and weary ways or by what painful and humiliating processes we have arrived thither.

C. Kingsley, All Saints' Day, and Other Sermons, p. 292.

References: 2 Kings 23:1 , 2 Kings 23:2 . G. Moberly, Plain Sermons, p. 157. 2 Kings 23:6 . Preacher's Monthly, vol. iv., p. 249. 2 Kings 23:17 . Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 248. 2 Kings 23:22 . R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons, p. 276. 2 Kings 23:25 . Clergyman's Magazine, vol. xi., p. 81. 2 Kings 23:25 , 2 Kings 23:26 . Bishop Temple, Rugby Sermons, 2nd series, p. 305.

Verses 25-26

2 Kings 23:3-4 , 2 Kings 23:25-26

The lesson we learn from this chapter is that we may repent and yet be punished.

I. People do not like to believe that; it is much more convenient to fancy that when a man repents and, as he says, turns over a new leaf, he need trouble himself no more about his past sins. But it is a mistake; he may not choose to trouble himself about his past sins, but he will find that his past sins trouble him, whether he chooses or not.

II. After the forgiveness of sin must come the cure of sin. And that cure, like most cures, is a long and painful process. Heavy, and bitter, and shameful is the burden which many a man has to bear after he has turned from self to God, from sin to holiness. He is haunted, as it were, by the ghosts of his own follies. The good that he would do he does not do, and the evil that he would not do he does.

III. Christ, the great Healer, the great Physician, can deliver us, and will deliver us, from the remains of our old sins, the consequences of our own follies. Not, indeed, at once, or by miracle, but by slow education in new and nobler motives, in purer and more unselfish habits. And better for us perhaps that He should not cure us at once, lest we should fancy that sin was a light thing, which we could throw off whenever we chose, not what it is: an inward disease, corroding and corrupting, the wages whereof are death. Provided we attain at last to the truly heroic and Divine life, which is the life of virtue, it will matter little to us by what wild and weary ways or by what painful and humiliating processes we have arrived thither.

C. Kingsley, All Saints' Day, and Other Sermons, p. 292.

References: 2 Kings 23:1 , 2 Kings 23:2 . G. Moberly, Plain Sermons, p. 157. 2 Kings 23:6 . Preacher's Monthly, vol. iv., p. 249. 2 Kings 23:17 . Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 248. 2 Kings 23:22 . R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons, p. 276. 2 Kings 23:25 . Clergyman's Magazine, vol. xi., p. 81. 2 Kings 23:25 , 2 Kings 23:26 . Bishop Temple, Rugby Sermons, 2nd series, p. 305.

Verses 29-30

2 Kings 23:29-30

I. The striking feature of this story is the picture it gives us of the quiet manner in which God's servants are sometimes allowed to pass away when they have finished their work. The history of the death of Josiah, as compared with that of his life, puts things in their right order: his life active, hard-working, zealous; his death quiet, unexciting, what we should call inglorious. The history seems fitted to check that tendency which exists in men's minds to lay too much stress upon the circumstances of a man's death, to be fond of exciting deathbed scenes, to delight in religious books which describe very vividly the last moments of departing souls. He who will stand least reprovable at the last day will be he who has worked here the most earnestly and vigorously in the cause of holiness and of Christ when all the temptations of the world and the strength of Satan have been opposed to him.

II. The moral we may draw from the text is that he who does his work in the proper time, who does not put off till old age the work of youth, nor to the hour of death the labour of life, may be quiet and unconcerned for the way in which God may be pleased to call him. If he is called by some sudden providence when engaged in his work or summoned by some speedy sickness, he may be of good cheer and of a quiet mind, knowing that God will do all things well.

Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 3rd series, p. 93.

References: 2 Kings 23:0 Parker, vol. viii., p. 302. 2 Kings 24:0 Ibid., p. 305. 2 Kings 25:30 . Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 45.