Results of Ignoring God

… they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.  Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts.  Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the LORD of hosts.

Zechariah 7:11-13

In this passage, the Israelites had rejected and ignored God.  They had turn a cold shoulder to Him, stopped their ears when He tried to speak to them, and hardened their hearts so that they would not follow His commandments.  And, as would be expected, they were about to come under His judgment.  But there is one more result of ignoring God that might be even worse than coming under judgment:

“…as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the LORD of hosts.”

God had spoken to them and they had not listened.  Now, He tells them that, even if they decided to speak to Him, He was not going to hear them.  Having God tell you that He is not going to listen to you would be a fearful thing.  But that is exactly where these people found themselves.  What a fearful thing.

God is very, very merciful and longsuffering.  But turning a dear ear to Him over and over and over again will result in His turning a deaf ear to us.  We need the Lord.  We desperately need Him to hear us and answer our prayers.  What could be worse than the Lord ignoring us?  It is, however, easily avoidable.  When He speaks to us, we need to listen.  Ignoring God is a terrible thing!