When he makes all the altar stones to be like chalk stones crushed to pieces, no Asherah poles or incense altars will be left standing.For this is a people without understanding; so their Maker has no compassion on them, and their Creator shows them no favor.The fortified city stands desolate, an abandoned settlement, forsaken like the desert; there the calves graze, there they lie down; they strip its branches bare. When its twigs are dry, they are broken off and women come and make fires with them.
In that day the LORD will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, O Israelites, will be gathered up one by one. And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.
God deals severly with those identifying themselves as God's people but who stubbornly live a lifestyle of sin. Even of Christians in the New Testament such people are dealt with by being cast out, and handed over to Satan. (1Cor 5:5) Yet God's intention is to bring such people to repentance. He destroys expectations, crushing the idols of life and bringing desolation and isolation. One's life has no good fruitfulness due to sin, but the dryness of death.
People have no excuse for not understanding, and especially those to whom the Word of God was imparted. God has spoken, but has little compassion for those who refuse to hear, or who purposely misread so as to justify their sinful lifestyle. God's Word is easy to understand, but people don't understand when they can't accept the implications.
The Lord is involved in sifting out nominalism in the Christian community. He purges our faith testing it in the fires of trials. Those who develop a faith acceptable to God will be restored and regenerate and will worship in an acceptable manner.