Help us father to be patient for Jesus' return.
I'm not sure what it would be like being a prophet after the exile. In some ways the difficult job is being a prophet before God calls the calamity, especially when people feel safe and secure. We can really see how people such as Jeremiah tried again and again to persuade the people to turn from their wicked ways. Once the lesson has been learned then we'd assume the job would have been much easier.
The problem is that people often see things there own way and want to do things their own things. But the captivity did teach the people a lesson. They did start to put away foreign idols and devote themselves to God. The temple in particular was one thing that they revered. But not at first.
After the children of Israel had endured the 70 years of captivity they returned to Jerusalem and started to build their own houses. The temple and walls remained in ruins. It took prophets such as Haggai to persuade the people to rebuild the temple.
But once the temple was built it became a focus of belief. Unfortunately by the time of Jesus the people had such a strong belief in the temple and the religious process that they put details of the law before God himself. In other words a lot like now. Many 'Christians' look to the church for guidance, but where does the church look? It often looks at back to its own ideals, not necessarily at what God wants or commands.
And while it's easier to say 'told you so' after the event, persuading people to follow God is a difficult enough task when people feel comfortable in themselves.
I'm not sure if people missed the prophets during the four hundred years between Malachi and John the Baptist or if they would have taken any notice about what they said. But we can see the similarities between then and today.
Jesus said that people didn't listen to the prophets, but saw them as some sort of entertainment. Is it the same today?
The other notable prophet at that time was Zechariah. His vision, like that of the Revalation of John, looks towards a kingdom ruled by God. But did the people of the day take that with the same attention as we do today. After all, we are all waiting for that event to come to pass.