Scripture Daily

Context No. 4123 of 4322 · Jeremiah

Context · Reflection

Jeremiah 3:11-18: in context

11The LORD said to me, “Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. 12Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, ‘Return, you backsliding Israel,’ says the LORD; ‘I will not look in anger on you, for I am merciful,’ says the LORD. ‘I will not keep anger forever. 13Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the LORD your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,’” says the LORD. 14“Return, backsliding children,” says the LORD, “for I am a husband to you. I will take one of you from a city, and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. 15I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. 16It will come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land in those days,” says the LORD, “they will no longer say, ‘the ark of the LORD’s covenant!’ It will not come to mind. They won’t remember it. They won’t miss it, nor will another be made. 17At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The LORD’s Throne;’ and all the nations will be gathered to it, to the LORD’s name, to Jerusalem. They will no longer walk after the stubbornness of their evil heart. 18In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance to your fathers.

Through Jeremiah, God calls his wayward, unfaithful people back to himself, and the tone is astonishingly tender for a people who had betrayed him. Return, faithless Israel, he says; I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful; I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt, that you have rebelled against the LORD your God.

God's requirement for their return is not a long list of conditions or penances, but simply this: acknowledge your guilt, own honestly what you have done, and come back. There is remarkable grace here. God, the offended party, is the one pleading, return; and he promises mercy rather than anger to those who come back. And the one thing he asks is honesty, only acknowledge your guilt, an honest admission of the sin, not excuses or self-justification. This is the heart of God toward the wayward. He does not stand aloof, waiting to be appeased; he pleads with his people to come home, promising mercy, asking only that they honestly acknowledge their sin.

However far I have wandered from God, will I take the way back he holds open, honestly acknowledging my guilt rather than excusing it, and returning to the merciful God who pleads with the wayward to come home?

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