Zephaniah 1:6
"And I will destroy those who used to worship me, but now no longer do. They no longer ask for the Lord’s guidance or seek my blessings.”
The Prophet jumps right in with the Lord's message about the absolute destruction of Jerusalem and all living things there. He wastes no time getting to the point. He points out the cause of this total destructive effect, the worship of Baal and Molech, and the works of their idolatrous priests. But I think God's motives are maybe a little more personal.
We know God has said time and time again that he is a jealous God. Many times, he's said you cannot worship Him and have other masters as well.
Jesus spoke about this...
"For you will hate one and love the other; or you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money." (Matthew 6:24)
And so, here the prophet gives us a quick look into God's personal motivations for wiping these idolatrous people from the face of the earth. It's not just that they no longer worship Him, but now they've gone so far from Him that they never even call upon him for guidance anymore. They aren't seeking his wisdom or his blessings. Their prayers now are completely directed towards false teachers and materialistic gods. For a time, they worshiped both, but as is always the case with the idolatrous people, materialism wins their hearts and minds.
They mingled for the jingle of pagan coins. Their gods are gold and silver, land and prestige, power and strength. They make alliances with foreign enemies to secure their positions and they are paid for their blasphemy in pagan coins. But their sin didn't end there, it never does. Their king became so spiritually bankrupt that he practiced in child sacrifice, and participated in sorcery and Assyrian cultism [2 Kings 21:6]. And they incorporated into the temple worship, the divination of the stars (Astrology). And as heinous as was their pagan religious butchery, this questioning the stars for advice hurt God the most. Their families would go out at night on the rooftops and build their altars to the stars. This religious syncretism became their greatest sin. This regression into pagan idolatry broke God's heart and of course in this way they broke the covenant he created for them. They released God's wrath upon themselves. But that wrath is really only its own creation. What I mean to say is, the people became polytheistic in their worship, and therefore the culture changed with the change in covenant. Polytheism, with its many gods, does not offer any real and consistent moral basis for human interaction, since it does not have any single almighty authoritative source. They embraced other gods and along with those gods comes ungodly standards of conduct. And in doing this they have opened the door of God's justice; they've invited the Divine Warrior to come and bring with him total annihilation.
The ancient City of David is located southeast of the Old Jerusalem City, on the Ophel Hill near the Western Wall. It's one of the most significant archeological dig sites in Israel. Here they find buried beneath the earth the ancient ruins of the city from the time of the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem. Much of these ancient buildings and artifacts are intact as it was in those times. When Israel returned from captivity they rebuilt their city on top of the broken down buildings and in doing this they entombed the ancient ruins which are now being dug up and catalogued.
The layers of Babylonian destruction sealed large quantities of significant finds. Domestic utensils, kitchenware, epigraphical material, Israeli flat iron arrowheads, and bronze "Scythian" arrowheads used by the foreign armies, likely connected to the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar's siege of the city in 586 BCE. And they found multitudes of foreign coinage and pagan seals. Despite the biblical prohibition against making idols, the digs at The City of David uncovered large groups of provincial official seal impressions and Persian coins, also Roman coins from the time of the revolt against Rome. Throughout the whole city these idols were found. These people had completely made the materialistic gods of their pagan neighbors a part of their lives, and now all that remains are these objects of their desires. All this happened because they stopped praying to God and seeking His wisdom.
Why did they stop praying?
I'll do like Zephaniah; I'll get right to the bottom of it. They stopped praying because they've stopped believing. They saw the greatness of their pagan neighbors and they lost faith in Elohim, God almighty. They desired the things that the pagans had and so they lost faith in Yahweh Yireh, the God who provides. The pagan hordes were marauding throughout the lands and so they lost faith in El-Elyon, the Most-High God. They prayed and didn't get what they wanted so they lost faith in El-Roi, the strong One who sees. Their priests were corrupted by wealth and the cares of the world, and so they lost faith in El-Deah, the God of knowledge and Wisdom. And they broke their covenant time and time again and eventually they forgot about the glory of Attiyq Youm, The Eternal Ancient of Days. They had all these names for the One God to describe His nature and many provisions, but they needed more.
And so now---now they meet Yahweh-Ghmolah, The God of Recompense. And they see his mighty hand, his avenging hand. Now their prayers are not only not being heard, but now they ONLY hear the sounds of the rams horn of war.
BUT...
But all is not lost. Yahweh-Rapha is coming. The Lord our healer is coming. “By His stripes we are healed” declares the Bible. Yahweh-Shammah, The Lord who is present, has come and is coming again. Yahweh-Tsidkenu, The Lord our righteousness has made the way for all who believe and obey his word. He has sent his Spirit, Yahweh-Nissi, our spiritual warfare guide, to help us come to Him, and guide us in following his commands. And now the perfecter of our faith is coming, Adonai, our God, Lord over all. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and He reigns forever.
And because we now have Him, Jesus, we can pray and KNOW he will hear us...
Romans 10:9
"If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
...and he'll call us by name and bring us home.