Justin Houtz

2 Kings 21, John 6

DateVersionReading Plan
November 30, 2025ESV (2016)OT/NT Plan 2025 – 2027

2 Kings 21

Observation & Interpretation

2 Kings 21:1-9 – … Manasseh is the only Judaen king to be compared to a king of Israel (ESVEC – Comment)

2 Kings 21:16-18 – In 2 Chronicles 33:1-20, it is recorded that Manasseh repented toward the end of his life. No reference is made to the this in Kings, presumably because the significance of Manasseh is that his rein is the tipping point for the nation as a whole. Our writer is interested less in Manasseh the man and more in Manasseh the king who led the people of God across the line of judgment, to a place from which there was no way back. (ESVEC – Comment)

2 Kings – With Manasseh, the plain warning is that with our God, the God of the covenant, the God of the Bible, there is a line we cannot afford to cross…There is a point of no return. There is a point where stupidity, disobedience, and defiance turn into apostasy. There is a point where it becomes obvious that we have been hardened by sin and are locked onto a course for destruction. The problem for sinners is that they do not know where that point is. (ESVEC – Response)

John 6

Observation & Interpretation

John 6:34 – Te crowd said to Jesus, “Sir, give. us this bread always.”

  • Similar to the Samaritan woman at the well who asked of Jesus, “Sir, give me this water.” (John 4:15)

John 6:53 – Jesus spoke of how unless they ate the flesh of the Son of Man and drank of His blood, they have no life in them.

  • Jesus meant for His words to be taken neither in a literal nor sacramental sense. They Hebrew idiom “flesh and blood” refers to the total person. Nowhere is Jesus’ teaching more shocking than here. Eternal life comes from eating His flesh and drinking His blood — that is, from believing in Him. (CSB – Notes)

John 6:22-40 – If we hunger and thirst physically, the worst-case scenario is that we starve or die of thirst, that our physical lives come to a painful end. If our spiritual hunger and thirst are not satisfied, however, the worst-case scenario never comes to an end. (ESVEC – Response)

John 6:41-71 – John 6:51 and Hebrews 10:20 are describing the way that the flesh of Jesus, the body of Jesus, was crucified to give life to the world and open the way to the Father’s presence. Jesus gives his flesh for the life of the world in the sense that he gives himself up to be crucified on behalf of sinners. (ESVEC – Comment)

John 6:60-71 – The words of Christ come to the person dead in sin, and the Spirit gives life at the hearing of the word of Christ (cf. Rom. 10:17).

  • John does not narrate the naming of the Twelve the way Matthew, Mark and Luke do. He seems to assume his audience will know who the Twelve are, just as he has assumed earlier in this passage that his audience will be familiar with the Lord’s Supper. (ESVEC – Comment)

Resources