Let's say that God wanted your attention. What do you think this would look like? Isaiah found that this didn't happen in the form of fire or thunder, but a whisper on the breeze.
What if the fire and thunder thing was true? What if God sent a messenger who withered your hand and then fixed it and then made stone structures shatter before your very eyes? Would you listen any closer?
King Jeroboam didn't.
He rebuilt the altar that was destroyed and doubled his efforts to worship other gods and raise other priests. He ignored God's message and God's warning.
God's response is interesting. He tells Jeroboam that Josiah is coming and he will sit on the throne and put things right. What God doesn't say is when. Jeroboam never meets him, neither does his son or grandson or great-grandson.
It is over 400 years before Josiah shows up. It is so long that the people aren't just ignoring the laws that Jeroboam broke, they don,t even know what they are anymore. They've literally lost the book whee they a written.
Yet, God is there the whole time. He speaks through his prophets to those that will listen. He never gives up, never goes away, never forsakes them.
That's one of the wonderful things about God, he is patient beyond measure. 400 years of a nation ignoring Him and he was still there when they finally came back.
Of course he'll be there when we turn back too.
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