Israel had now fallen to Assyria, Judah had survived and had just had a very good king. However, things were now to take a decided turn for the worse for Judah, leading up eventually to the Babylonian exile. Manasseh was the next king and had the longest reign of the kings of Judah. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, undoing all the good work of Hezekiah. Idol worship was reintroduced to Judah. In fact he was following the ways of Israel's king Ahab. Now why did he do this? They had seen what had happened to Israel. They had seen the deliverance of Jerusalem from Assyria. Why then did they turn so quickly to false gods? The basic reason is that we are sinful and are blinded by sin. The world has rejected God's standards of morality. The results of this are obvious for all to see. Study after study shows that people suffer when family life breaks down, yet the world refuses to see and carries on headlong in its rush to destruction.
Manasseh's evil even went as far as sacrificing his own son. He also set up an idol in the temple of the Lord. He seemed to have a determination to be as disobedient as possible, going against the law in every respect.
So God sent various prophets to Judah, all with the same message. They warned of the direction Judah was going in, they told Judah to learn from Israel, they warned of coming judgement upon the nation. The nation had the chance to repent, but did not take it.
Manasseh's sin also led to much bloodshed in the nation. Violence always accompanies evil.
Amon came next and he too did evil in the eyes of the Lord. Amon was assassinated, but his assassins were themselves then killed by the people of the land. Then they would get s good king.
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