THE FIRST STRING

Don't Miss This Study

Emily Freeman & David Butler

Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 5 July 2026

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of Don’t Miss This, Dave Butler and Grace Freeman study 2 Kings 16–25, following the final years of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. As one kingdom falls and another struggles to survive, these chapters reveal that the greatest danger was never the nations surrounding them, but the slow drift of hearts turning away from God. Even in seasons of decline, the Lord continued to invite His people to return, reminding us that repentance is always an invitation to come home. Through the faithful examples of Hezekiah and Josiah, we see what it looks like to seek God with a whole heart. They opened the doors of the temple, restored true worship, gathered the people, rediscovered the scriptures, and removed anything that drew hearts away from the Lord. Their stories remind us that spiritual renewal often begins with small, intentional choices to place God first, trust His voice, and create room for His presence in our lives. This episode also explores the voices we choose to listen to. While the enemy filled God's people with fear, doubt, and discouragement, the scriptures continually pointed them back to truth, hope, and covenant promises. Whether through worship, scripture study, generosity, or quiet acts of repentance, every step toward God helped retune hearts that had slowly drifted out of harmony. The Lord never stopped inviting His people to return, no matter how far they had wandered. Although these chapters record the fall of kingdoms and the sorrow of exile, they end with a quiet reminder that God is never finished with His people. Even after loss and captivity, He continued preparing the way for restoration. The same promise is true today. No matter where our story has taken us, the Lord continues to call us back, restore what has been broken, and remind us that with Him, our story is never over. Chapters: 00:00 INTRO 05:36 Kings vs Chronicles narratives 08:45 King Ahaz adopts foreign altar design 12:27 Life's guitar strings and faith 16:30 Reflecting on Personal Accountability 17:45 Relying on faith in hard times 20:30 Repetitive cycles in human life 25:35 Repairing Doors and Hearts 29:32 Embracing sudden change through faith 32:11 Discussing Passover timing changes 34:00 Embracing joyful persistence 38:45 Singing enthusiastically in church 41:21 Hezekiah's faith and success 44:20 Inviting everyone to the covenant 48:37 Using scripture to guide life 51:23 Destroying the old altar 54:31 Jacob Becomes Israel 57:08 Reflecting on Faith and Priorities 59:28 Jehoiakin's partial restoration Sign up for the Don’t Miss This newsletter at www.dontmissthisstudy.com #dontmissthis #comefollowme NEWSLETTER LINK: The Don’t Miss This video, the prayer poster, and tip-ins for kids, teens, couples and individuals can all be found in this week’s newsletter. Sign-up link in bio if you haven’t had a chance yet!! www.dontmissthisstudy.com Instagram: @dontmissthisstudy Podcast: Don’t Miss This Study Facebook: Don’t Miss This Study Follow Grace Instagram @thisweeksgrace Follow David Instagram: @mrdavebutler Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mrdavebutler/ Subscribe to the Don't Miss This App https://www.dontmissthisstudy.com/app

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi there, welcome to Don't Miss This, a scripture study podcast with Dave Butler and Grace Freeman.
0:04.9	Each week, we point out things in the scriptures that we love and think you don't want to miss.
0:08.9	Thanks for listening.
0:10.2	Hi there, I'm Dave Butler.
0:11.6	And I'm Grace Freeman Smith, Green.
0:15.2	I'm just, I just have to choose my name.
0:17.5	Welcome to Don't Miss this.
0:19.5	While Grace learns her name, remember you you guys this comes out in july
0:22.6	we're recording this right after the wedding so you haven't had much time i'm not used to it okay
0:27.6	i'm not used to it my poor husband i just keep saying grace freeman i'm disgracing his name
0:33.3	it's fine publicly on the internet um but you're you're gonna figure that out we're all going to figure this out, life and everything. So happy midsummer. It's midsummer right now. How are you doing? Is everyone loving it? I do that. I like that when you like said that like a little bit crazy. Encouragingly. Yeah. Like it was like, okay. I'm already. Yeah.
0:56.4	We're recording this right at the beginning of summer. And so it's all fun and games still, but it goes downhill fast.
1:02.7	All right, you guys, we are, okay, we have to get a little bit smart before we jump into
1:08.6	the chapters today because starting right here in the Bible, we sort hit almost we're not quite to the spot where the timeline gets super
1:16.8	confusing okay but we're getting to the end of the timeline of the Bible so starting in Genesis
1:21.7	and what do you know we have our timeline behind us okay so if you look we started, we started in Genesis, the creation of the world,
1:29.5	the fall, we had Noah, the Tower of Babel, and then we zeroed in on this single person, this couple,
1:36.6	Abraham and Sarah, and their family. So we had Abraham and then their son, Isaac, America,
1:41.6	and Rachel, and Jacob, who gets his name changed to Israel
1:46.1	and all of these promises are made to them about their land and their posterity and the blessings
1:54.5	of God upon this family.
1:56.2	Then they get taken away.
	...

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