Ignorant and Ungrateful People

The people in the time of Yishayahu did not recognize G-d's power. They believed they were the source of their own success and did not attribute their success to G-d's power. The people however still thought they were doing everything right. They were giving korbanot and still believed in G-d even if they were worshipping an idol or two. The people were worshipping on the Bamot and not in the Beit Hamikdash like they are supposed to. Hashem calls upon Yishayahu to relay his message to them, which is basically that they are sinning and G-d will punish them for it. Ideally, the people should hear this message and being the Teshuva process and pray that G-d has mercy on them. Instead, the people still believe they are doing everything right and therefore this Yishayahu guy must not know what he's talking about. After all, everything was running smoothly; how could G-d be angry with them?

Of course, G-d being the all knowing, He knew that the people would not believe Yishayahu nor would they repent. In class we brought up and answered the obvious question here, why did G-d send Yishayahu on a mission when He knew Yishayahu would not succeed? The people wouldn't listen so why not just give up and punish them? As I mentioned earlier, the people believed they were doing all that G-d asked them to. They could do no wrong. G-d must be pleased with them. So, if G-d were to one day just punish them, they would not understand why. They would not be able to realize their mistakes and sins because they wouldn't know what they did wrong. Therefore, Yishayahu has to tell them what G-d wanted them to hear regardless of they would listen or not. These people and their future generations would need to know what they did wrong so they could eventually fix their ways. This is actually a messege in disguise, the way I see it. G-d is giving them a chance to fix their ways. Even though they must be punished, now they know what they were doing wrong so ideally they could fix all of that and become a great nation with G-d on their side. If G-d were to come and punish the people today then it would be hard to deny G-d's existence (depending on what the punishment was). Once we are all aware that G-d is there and G-d is angry, we should all want to do whatever we can so He would be happy with us. If he had given us a message like he did with these people, then we would know exactly what we were doing wrong and it would be much easier to fix it. In these days, we all hope and pray for Mashiach but we don't know exactly how to bring it here. There are many opinions as to what needs to happen to bring the Messiah, but we can't be sure. I've heard that if the majority of Jews keep shabbas then the Mashiach will come and I've also heard that if the majority of the Jews live in Israel than the Meshiach will come. What we need is a messenger like Yishayahu who can point out our flaws even if we must also endure G-d's punishment.

Also, I like to leave that idea for a moment and consider the Ashor situation. Ashor/Assyria is a superpower in the time of Achav, king of Yehuda. Achav allies with Assyria against Yisrael and Aram. When Yisrael comes to attack, Assyria is there to protect Yehuda. Assyria destroys Yisrael in the battle becuase the people of Yisrael had become corrupt. They had begun worshipping on Bamot in the times of Yeruvum when he had tried to prevent them from going to the Beit Hamkidash so they wouldn't abandon Yehuda for Yisrael, now they had moved on to Avodah Zara. They had to be punished, so G-d sent Assyria to destroy them. This was also meant to be a sign to Achav and the people of Yehuda that if they didn't repent and follow G-d's ways than G-d would send Assyria to destroy them too. Achav should have trusted Hashem to protect them and not have counted on Assyria. Achav, as well as the other people at the time, must realize that G-d is the one pulling the strings or they will have to come to that reality anyway when G-d sends Assyria to destroy them.

The whole Assyria thing confuses me. Why was Assyria chosen to punish the Jews? Did they do something right or did G-d just use them as a pawn because they were so powerful? If the Jews were such a mess at this time in history and didn't even recognize G-d's superiority then it could have even make sense for Hashem to just make the Assyrians the chosen people. I guess that's where the Brits and promises come in though. He had already promised the forefathers that this would be his chosen nation (Zara, Aretz). It's clearly a bad situation though when G-d must help out the Assyrians against the Jews.