“If you will return, O Israel,My Understanding: The Lord Jesus, our God, creator of all things and sustainer of all things, has been calling out for some time now to his idolatrous and adulterous church to return to him and to put her detestable idols out of his sight and to no longer go astray. He is calling out to her collectively, and individually - to believers who are following after other gods and who have forsaken their first love, Jesus Christ, to come to him in truth and in repentance (turning from sin) and to return to him with her whole heart. Then he will restore her to a right relationship with him and she will enjoy intimate fellowship with him once again. Then, the Lord will pour his Spirit upon her and will bless her with spiritual blessings from above. Then the people will be called “The Righteous Ones” because they will have put their faith and trust in their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and in him alone.
return to me,”
declares the LORD.
“If you put your detestable idols out of my sight
and no longer go astray,
2 and if in a truthful, just and righteous way
you swear, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’
then the nations will be blessed by him
and in him they will glory.”
3 This is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem:
“Break up your unplowed ground
and do not sow among thorns.
4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD,
circumcise your hearts,
you men of Judah and people of Jerusalem,
or my wrath will break out and burn like fire
because of the evil you have done—
burn with no one to quench it.
…7 A lion has come out of his lair;
a destroyer of nations has set out.
He has left his place
to lay waste your land.
Your towns will lie in ruins
without inhabitant.
8 So put on sackcloth,
lament and wail,
for the fierce anger of the LORD
has not turned away from us.
9 “In that day,” declares the LORD,
“the king and the officials will lose heart,
the priests will be horrified,
and the prophets will be appalled.”
10 Then I said, “Ah, Sovereign LORD, how completely you have deceived this people and Jerusalem by saying, ‘You will have peace,’ when the sword is at our throats.”
11 At that time this people and Jerusalem will be told, “A scorching wind from the barren heights in the desert blows toward my people, but not to winnow or cleanse; 12 a wind too strong for that comes from me. Now I pronounce my judgments against them.”
13 Look! He advances like the clouds,
his chariots come like a whirlwind,
his horses are swifter than eagles.
Woe to us! We are ruined!
14 O Jerusalem, wash the evil from your heart and be saved.
How long will you harbor wicked thoughts?
…18 “Your own conduct and actions
have brought this upon you.
This is your punishment.
How bitter it is!
How it pierces to the heart!”
… 22 “My people are fools;
they do not know me.
They are senseless children;
they have no understanding.
They are skilled in doing evil;
they know not how to do good.”
…30 What are you doing, O devastated one?
Why dress yourself in scarlet
and put on jewels of gold?
Why shade your eyes with paint?
You adorn yourself in vain.
Your lovers despise you;
they seek your life.
31 I hear a cry as of a woman in labor,
a groan as of one bearing her first child—
the cry of the Daughter of Zion gasping for breath,
stretching out her hands and saying,
“Alas! I am fainting;
my life is given over to murderers.”
God/Jesus is calling out to his church to repent of her sins. Ground that is unplowed is not useful for planting seeds or for producing a harvest. The way we break up our own “unplowed ground” in our hearts is through prayerful heart examination before the Lord in truth and we turn from our sin, forsaking, reprioritizing and/or throwing off anything that is leading us into sin or that has become the object of our affection over and above or in place of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Physical circumcision involves the cutting away of flesh so to circumcise our hearts involves the cutting away of our fleshly appetites and desires that stand in opposition to our holy God and to his will for our lives. So, God is calling out to his church to come to him in humility, to allow the Holy Spirit to examine our hearts and to put his finger on areas of our lives that are sinful and that we know are against God’s will for our lives, and then for us to turn from our sin and turn to walk in obedience to Christ.
If the church does not repent of her sin, a day is coming, and may have already begun, when God will judge his people for their rebellion, their idolatry and their spiritual adultery. God is calling to his servants today to announce to the church that God is not happy with those who are living in rebellion and are who are following after other gods (anything that takes the place of God in our hearts in passion, desire, obedience, time and affection), and he will judge her. His servants are to announce to the idolatrous church that she needs to flee from following after her own selfish desires and from following the ways of this world and she needs to seek refuge in her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through repentance and obedience, because God is going to bring disaster and terrible destruction one day upon this earth, and we cannot rest in the hope of a pre-trib rapture thinking that just because we prayed some prayer at an altar, or we call ourselves Christians, or because we live in America that we will escape God’s divine correction and discipline.
I believe that we are living in the last days before the return of our Lord Jesus Christ and that my generation will see his return. This is my personal belief. I know people have been saying this for generations, and I also know that we will not know the day or the hour of Christ’s return, but we are supposed to know the season by the signs of the times. I also believe that the beast of Revelation is already forming and is busily preparing for this one world government under which all people will be forced to bow or to face certain death and that the reality of that is not that far off. That is why I believe God is calling out to his church to repent and to return to him so vehemently in these final days before judgment hits the earth because Jesus is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. We serve an awesome God who is very patient, loving, kind, compassionate and tenderhearted, yet he is also a jealous God who desires very much that we be married to him and to him alone, and God the Father is a loving parent who will correct and punish those who are his in order to bring them back into a right relationship with him.
So, God is asking his church what they are doing remaining in their slumber, their rebellion, their disobedience, their idolatry and spiritual adultery. He is asking why they continue to live this way and why they continue to go after other “lovers” who do not love them. He is appealing to his church today to wake up, to examine their hearts, to look at where they are heading and the futility of it all, and then to repent and return to God and to allow our Lord Jesus and his Holy Spirit to lead us, to guide us, to teach us to walk in his ways and his truth, to obey him, and to be his servants and witnesses to a world in need of a Savior.
Teach Me, Lord / An Original Work / June 12, 2011
Teach me, Lord, to walk in Your ways,
And observe all You command.
May I ever hasten to You,
And desire to not offend.
Teach me how to follow Your steps,
Gently guiding me each day.
May I love and serve You always,
Loving others, this I pray.
Teach me, Lord, to listen to You
Speaking Your words to my heart.
May I never stray from Your truth,
And from Your law ne’er depart.
Teach me how to instruct others
In the way that we should go,
Leading them by my life witness,
So that Jesus they should know.
Teach me, Lord, to be a light in
This dark world of grief and sin.
May I always care for others;
Share their burdens; help to mend.
Teach me how to share with them that
Jesus came to set them free,
So that they could be forgiven;
Live with Christ eternally.
Song Lyrics @ Public Domain
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