Manasseh who reared images to Baal, defiled the temple and overthrew the good work of his father Hezekiah. (6) A revival under Josiah, grandson of Manasseh, whose piety began to manifest itself at the age of sixteen.  He began his reforms at the age of twenty and spent six years in hewing down the altars and images of idolatry.  The temple was repaired, the law found and enjoined upon the people and the Passover celebrated. (7) A final decline that carried Judah on downward until her glory was destroyed and she was led away into Babylon as captive.

The study of these successive efforts at returning to the true worship of Jehovah and their quick collapse indicate that the kindlings of spiritual life which they seem to manifest were not real spiritual revivals.  Many people did no doubt turn in truth to God. but the rapidity with which each effort was followed by a return to deeper depths of immorality, such as those indicated by Amos 5:l6, 7:17, 8:6; Is. 1:23, 10:1; and Hos. 9:15 give evidence of the abounding wickedness of the period.

The Wealth and Luxury.  There is much in the discourses to indicate that wealth abounded and that kings and other influential men lived in luxury.  The upper classes indulged in all the follies of the idle rich and showed the usual heartlessness toward the poor.  The following list of scriptures will indicate some of the things which they possessed and which they did:  Amos 5:11, 3:15, 6:4; Jer. 22:14; Is. 5:ll-12, 3:18-23, 21:7.  To this list the student by comparison and reference can add many others.

Contemporary Nations.  No study of this period would be complete without a knowledge of the other nations that influenced this time.  Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Media, Phoenicia, Carthage, Greece and Rome all influenced Judah.  From the Bible narratives and from secular history the student should become acquainted with the leading events in the history of this period of each of these nations.

Lessons of the Period.  It is most difficult to put down the permanent lessons or teachings of this period.  To the teachings of the prophets given above the following are well worth preserving as lessons for our day as well as theirs. (1) All reformation must begin at the house of God and in connection with his worship-witness the reform work of Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Hezekiah and Josiah. (2) Religion must set the standards for the conduct of national affairs. (3) Sin is infidelity to love, or spiritual adultery.  It not only breaks law but cruelly wounds love. (4) Sin blinds men to their best interests, turns them against their best friends and issues in their ruin. (5) The political sentiment or the politician that neglects or attacks God, or the national recognition of him is perilous to the nation. (6) The loss of the sense or vision of God leads to “degraded ideals, deadened consciences and defeated purposes.” (7) True love:  (a) is not blind to the sins of the one loved; (b) does not try to cover up the faults but tries to turn one from them; (c) does not desert one when calamity comes because of persistence in sin.  See the attitude of Jeremiah to Judah before and after the captivity.