Once, Jerusalem's hills burned with the fires of false gods. Under the reign of Manasseh, Judah forgot its covenant and filled the Lord's temple with idols. Altars rose on every hill, and the holy city echoed with prayers to the stars. Yet even in judgment, mercy waited. Dragged to Babylon with a hook in his nose, Manasseh fell to his knees and found the God he had forsaken. His repentance came too late to save his legacy, but it sowed a seed of hope for the next generation.
That seed was Josiah-a boy crowned king at eight years old, born into a broken kingdom still haunted by the sins of its fathers. Raised in a palace of whispers and fear, Josiah began to seek the God of David in a time when few remembered His name. He walked the silent courts of the neglected temple and felt its emptiness. He listened to the weary priests and dreamed of the God who once filled this place with fire.
As the years passed, the boy became a reformer. With hammer and fire, Josiah tore down the idols of Judah, crushed the images, and burned the bones of false priests upon their altars. But his greatest discovery came not from battle, but from dust-the Book of the Law, buried beneath the ruin of Solomon's temple. When its words were read aloud, the young king's heart broke. He tore his robes and wept, for he saw his nation's guilt written across the pages. In the end, Josiah's reign became the last light before the darkness of exile. His heart, wholly devoted to God, burned like an altar restored. Fallen Altars is a story of repentance and reform, of divine mercy and the cost of obedience-a testament to the God who still speaks through ruins, and the king who listened with all his heart.