Ariel is another name for Jerusalem. They just carried on as if nothing had really changed or was about to happen. They just continued going through the same cycle of festivals. This is a very human reaction. We assume things will always be as they have always been. This works both positively and negatively. We assume that good times will last forever, we assume that bad times will last forever. Neither is true. We are not in a constant loop of life, for there was a beginning and there is an end, and there are events that happen in-between. A time of judgement was coming upon Judah and she needed to respond to this. At the moment there are great economic changes happening in the West, but leaders seem oblivious to it all, or at least unwilling to face up to the reality of it.
Judah would be brought low, and it would be the Lord who was besieging the city of Jerusalem. However, this time her enemies would not triumph, but would be blown away like dust. This is a prophecy of what would happen when Assyria attacked. It would be like wakening from a bad dream.
Yet the real tragedy was that the people were blind to the word of God. They could not see or understand it. They had the form of religion, but not the reality, not the power. It was a mere set of human rules. They had religion without God.
God would reveal Himself to them in a way they could not deny. There human wisdom would come to nothing. "Shall what is formed say of the one who formed it..." This is the ultimate folly of all proud human thought. We forget that we did not form ourselves.
In the end it is God's will that will be done. A time will come when the humble will rejoice and the oppressed set free. The ruthless and the mockers will come to nothing.
A time of salvation will come, and this will involve a people who truly know, trust and obey the Lord.
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