Mashal

Everything that we learned in this class reminds me of a משל I once heard. I may get some of this wrong, but here it goes. A man was stranded on an island. One day, a huge lifeboat came to the island and the captain yelled, "We are here! Come get on the boat and we can take you home!" The young man looked at the captain and replied, "No thank you! God will save me!" The boat disappeared in the distance. A few days later, another lifeboat appeared at the island. The emaciated man, looked up to see the captain. "We have come to get you! Please get on and we can help you!" said the captain. The frail man motioned the people to go saying, "No thank you! God will save me." The boat floated away. Not too long after the man lost all of his strength and passed away. When he got to heaven he said to God, "God! Why didn't you come and save me? I waited and waited and you were never came!" God smirked and said, "Are you kidding me? I sent two huge lifeboats to you! Each captain offered help, but you just turned them away."

The jews were not doing what was expected of them. They were "stranded" on a corrupt "island." God sent help but they always turned it away. In order for them to change there had to be some huge, miraculous sign. Eventually, they were at the point of no return and God could not help them. Yes, חזקיהו helped somewhat by removing the במות and restoring the בית המקדש, but they were still missing the מצוות בין אדם לחבירו.