In Isaiah, chapter twenty-nine, verses one through four, “Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! Add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices. Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel. And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee. And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust.”
Ariel, meaning “lion of God,” is a symbolic name for Jerusalem. Although the inhabitants of Jerusalem felt secure and continued in their religious festivals as usual, God would bring devastating judgment upon them because of their sin. When God’s people do not recognize their spiritual poverty and their need to cry out to Him in repentance and prayer, He eventually has to remove them from their place in His kingdom.
“Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent,” as in Revelation two, verse five. Christ will remove any congregation or church from its place and destiny in His kingdom if it does not repent of its declining love for and obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Outward religious services and activities do not reserve our place in heaven. Hypocrites never can please God, nor make their peace with him. A repentive heart, obedience to His holy Word, and love for God through Jesus Christ.