Why the prophesies of prophets were mostly ignored.

These few weeks I have been reading the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel again. These prophets were all commissioned by God to warn the Israelites to turn away from their sinful ways.

At that time, around 700 BC to 500 BC, Israel was split into 2.  The northern state was called Israel, and the southern state called Judah.  Some prophets were working in the northern and some in the southern state.

As I look back, I understand why the Israelites did not listen to the prophets.  A lot is due to timing issue.  Let's say, someone comes and warns us "Patchoe, the sea level will rise due to global warming and melting ice.  Your country will be submerged in 10 feet of water in 1000 years time.

Now, will I bother with this bad news. No! Who cares what happens in 1000 years' time?  Most of us care about what happen in our generation, or the next 2 generations only !!!  Who cares what would happen to our nation 50 generations down the road??

Now, the prophets, like Isaiah, generally could not provide specific timing on when their prophesies would take place.  Like people of today, their Israelite audiences were optimistic people (today, we call optimism "positive thinking" or "avoid negative thoughts"). 

Today, when we read about the prophesies of the major prophets, we know that they had mostly been fulfilled.  Christ had come, born of a virgin birth, died and was buried, rose again and left earth to be seated at the right hand of God the Father.

But one prophesy had not been fulfilled - Christ will come again to bring His believers to dwell with Him.  But when?  We are not bothered - because it did not happen in the last 2000 years will not happen tomorrow or during our lifetime.  Or would it??