I have been thinking about what it must have been like to be a part of the Jewish religious system in the days of the Prophets. I wonder how convinced that they may have been that nothing is really wrong. Everything was working well. There did not seem to be a lack of sacrifices, the services were going along quite well. In fact I can just imagine a fair amount of both resistance and resentment to these men who said that there was a problem and the problem was that God had vacated the religous system. In fact God was pretty upset that it appeared to Him that He had now come to be of little importance at all.
Can you hear what some of the Temple conversations might have included? Maybe disdain for these troublers of the system?
If there may be any accuracy in these thoughts, what would make it unreasonable to assume that the religious community would not always be going thru those times of drifting away from God and not even being aware?
The only resolution for Isreal was a call to repent. It seemed an almost impossible task to bring about then, let us pray that it will not be so difficult this time.