What are the implications of God saying, "Return to me" (Jeremiah 3)?

In Jeremiah 3 the Lord takes a different figure, and likens the sin of His people to harlotry. Even although their sin was as deep as that, we read, "Yet return again to me, says the Lord" (Jer. 3:1). So deep was His desire for their restoration.

Following on this the action of Israel and Judah is contrasted. "The Lord said also to me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel has done? she is gone up upon every high mountain, and under every green tree, and there has played the harlot. And I said, after she had done all these things, Turn thou to me: but she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. And it came to pass, through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks. And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to me with her whole heart, but feignedly, says the Lord" (Jer. 3:6-10). God would rather have reality even though our souls be in distance, than unreality, and professed nearness, when we are not in it. There was open backsliding and rebellion on the part of the ten tribes. But what did Judah do? "Judah feared not" (Jer. 3:8). "Judah has not turned to me with her whole heart, but feignedly, says the Lord" (Jer. 3:10). We get a great lesson there, beloved brethren. The Lord will not have anything but what is real. In King Josiah's day there had been a revival, as we have seen. You would think that they had really turned to the Lord, but it was simply the effect of Josiah's influence. It was only feigned. The Lord help us to avoid what He comments on here.

Now observe how beautifully He labours with these backsliding ten tribes to bring them back. "And the Lord said to me, The backsliding Israel has justified herself more than treacherous Judah. Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, says the Lord, and I will not. cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, says the Lord, and I will not keep anger for ever. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, says the Lord. Turn, O backsliding children, says the Lord, for I am married to you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: and I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding" (Jer. 3:11-15). Backslider! He then called them, and bid them come back. Now He calls you back. You might ask, How can I get back? You say, I feel God has spoken to my soul through His Word, I am drinking at broken cisterns, how am I to get back? Listen. "Only acknowledge thine iniquity" (Jer. 3:13). There is only one way back, and what is it? Confession. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). How touchingly tender is the call. "Turn, O backsliding children, says the Lord, for I am married to you" (Jer. 3:14). There was no break of relationship on God's part. See, too, how He encourages the heart in Jer. 3:15. It is really lovely, beloved, the way in which the Lord seeks to recover and link the soul with Himself.

From the sixteenth verse to the twentieth, we are shown how God will, by-and-by, recover and restore Israel. Jer. 3:21 shows the moral state that precedes restoration, i.e., weeping and prayer. Then comes another loving call. "Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings." Who could withstand such an appeal? Many a time a poor soul says, How can I get back, what must I go through to get back? Look at this verse, "Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings," and note the result of the call, "Behold, we come to thee; for thou art the Lord our God" (Jer. 3:22). Behold, we come. It is done. The soul that heeds the call to return says, "We come to thee; thou art the Lord our God."

Jeremiah 3. God, however, is nowhere more Himself than in His pitiful mercy to His fallen people. A man could not take back the wife who had deserted him for another. "Israel had committed fornication with many lovers: yet return again to me, says the Lord." He points out their frequent and shameless unfaithfulness, calling Him withal the father and guide of their youth. But whatever they said, they persevered in evil-doing. (Ver. 1-5.) Israel's uncleanness was notorious, and God had called her back in vain; but Judah was yet more treacherous, despised the warning with better knowledge, and sinned yet more audaciously. (Ver. 6-11.)

In the face of all the prophet is bid say, "Return, thou backsliding Israel, says the Lord; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for 1 am merciful, says the Lord, and I will not keep anger for ever. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, says the Lord. Turn, O backsliding children, says the Lord; for I am married to you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: and I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, says the Lord, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more. At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of God; and all the nations shall be gathered into it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart. In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance to your fathers." (Ver. 12-18.) It is in vain to refer such language as this to the past. Such interpretations not only mislead as to the drift of the passage itself, but do the far greater damage of enfeebling all Scripture in the eyes of those who accept them. For if God can exaggerate or fail as to the one point, how can His word be trusted absolutely anywhere else? Apply such a prediction to the future, when, beginning with ever so small a gathering from this or that place, God will bring back His people to Zion, and the new order will far outshine the past, and Jerusalem be His throne, a centre for all nations, and the long-divided houses of Judah and Israel be re-united once more and for ever, not in another world, or after a mystical sort, but in the land given for an inheritance to their fathers. But it will be no mere external resuscitation of Israel. They will truly repent and cleave to the lord with purpose of heart. (Ver. 12-19.)

Should these lines be scanned by one who has backslidden or fallen, we would earnestly press upon him the importance of immediately returning to Jesus. “Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.” What is the response to this pathetic appeal? “Behold, we come to Thee; for Thou art the Lord our God.” “If thou wilt return, O Israel, says the Lord, return to Me” (Jer. 3:22; Jer. 4:1). The love of the heart of Jesus knows no change. We change but He is “the same yesterday, today, and forever,” and He delights to be trusted. The confidence of Peter's heart was a rich feast to the heart of Christ. No doubt, it is sad to fall, to err, to backslide, but it is sadder still, when we have done so, to distrust the love of Jesus or His gracious readiness to take us to His bosom again.

Verses 1-4. A return must be a return unto Him, Jehovah; anything less is insufficient. Their abominations must be judged and put away. Every return of backsliders must be in the same way--a true return to the Lord with confession of sin, self-judgment, and abandonment of evil. The circumcision of the heart means regeneration. (See chapter 31:31-34, and Ezek. 36:26.)

Verses 6-11. The message which begins with the sixth verse was given to Jeremiah during the reign of Josiah. There is then, first of all, a contrast between Israel (the ten tribes) and her sister Judah. (Compare with Ezekiel 23.) The house of Israel, the northern kingdom was judged first by the Lord. She played the harlot; after she had done so, the Lord said, "Turn thou to Me." She refused, and her treacherous sister the house of Judah saw it. And when the Lord dealt with the house of Israel in judgment and they were carried away, Judah did not fear but played the harlot. The tenth verse proves conclusively that the reformation under Josiah was not a true spiritual revival: "And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not returned unto Me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD."

Verses 12-18. Here is a message to be proclaimed toward the north, calling on backsliding Israel to return. He promises mercy to them. One hundred years before, the house of Israel had gone northward as captives. The Lord knew where they dwelt and sent them this message of mercy. He knows today where the house of Israel is, the ten tribes, and at some future time the gracious offer given here will be consummated in their return. These verses are prophetic. They speak of the time when the chosen people will return. Then Jerusalem will be called "the throne of the LORD." Israel will be converted. All the nations will be gathered unto the Name of Jehovah; the house of Judah with the house of Israel will be reunited. That will be when the King our ever blessed Lord comes back.

Verses 19-25. What the future true repentance of the people will be is here predicted and anticipated. There will be weeping and supplications. They will acknowledge that true salvation is in the Lord. They will confess their sins and their disobedience.

Jeremiah 3 has the same character; indeed it is the continuation of the same address; but it contains details of Israel's and Judah's behaviour, and proclaims the restoration of Israel by sovereign goodness, and the blessing of the last days on their return to God. Remark only that, before the pleading with Israel for their folly, what the Lord first notices is that there was no seeking Himself, no longing after Him: no people nor priests said, "Where is Jehovah?" For judgment being executed on Israel, God can allow His heart to flow out in the testimony of grace. This necessarily gives a place also to Judah, as the two are to be united. The end of the chapter enlarges, in a very affecting manner, on the spirit that grace will produce in Israel when they are brought back, and on the manner in which the Lord will receive them. In verses 23-25 the prophet confesses the people's condition at the time in which he spoke. It is in this chapter that we have the solemn revelation, that as far as the people were concerned, the reformation under Josiah was but hypocrisy. These two chapters form a kind of general introduction, shewing the ways and judgment of Israel and Judah, and their restoration by grace. The first chapter had been the appointment of Jeremiah to the prophet's office.

Jeremiah 3 continues to lay bare their unfaithfulness and the present consequence of the same; pleading with them also to cry to the Guide of their youth (vv. 1-5). Then the prophet foresees a turning to the Lord, with future consequences of astonishing splendour; when, in the exalted Lord, Israel shall be saved and the nations be abundantly blessed (Jer. 3:6; 4:2). This flows out of a special word of the Lord to Jeremiah in his early days, when Josiah was king (Jer. 6:11). The outward revival of those days was “with falsehood” (Jer. 10, N.Tr.). The call which follows to return and confess to the One who is married to them looks on to a future day, when the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord shall be outshone by a greater glory, when the true King shall reign, and “they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord”, when He shall be truly exalted, and when in a national sense Israel shall call Him “My Father”, and “not turn away from following Him” (vv. 14-19). This has never yet taken place, as we know. It supposes the return of our Lord Jesus Christ to Israel as David’s greater Son. Their conscience will be truly reached then, and they will return to the One they had forsaken and forgotten. “Behold we come to Thee”, they say, “for Thou art the Lord our God” (v. 22). They confess their sin, owning that the salvation of Israel is in Him alone (v. 23).

Now I need not dwell upon the bitter charges of the prophet — the double evil of the Jews by their forsaking the Lord — the only source of living waters, and their recourse to cisterns that could hold no water by their flying to idolatry and all its corrupting influences. But, in Jeremiah 3, we have a pleading of the Lord with them. He shows them that bad as Israel might have been, Judah that had held out for a time and gave fair promises under Josiah would turn out no better. The crisis would surely come; but when a man has sunk to the lowest, God appears in His grace.

Now nothing can be more distinct than this prediction, nor more gracious; for here we have clearly the intervention of God's grace for the whole people in the latter day, after not only the Assyrian captivity which had already taken place, but the Babylonish one which was going to take place. After all that, God would recall His people — not part of them, but the whole of them — would recall Israel, would recall Judah, would bring them both back into the land, would bless them there so highly that even all the ancient blessing that they had had, namely, the ark of the covenant, which was the grand distinctive feature of David's faith, for which he had made a resting-place on Zion, and which was directly lost after Solomon (for the greater part of the nation then lost the ark, and set up golden calves). So great would be the blessing of the latter day that even what was known under David and Solomon would pass away; and be altogether eclipsed by the still brighter glory of the whole united people in the latter day; and from that time they should never depart from the Lord again.

11 Verses 12, 13. All that does not agree with that rest, to which we are walking, must be judged on the way. We are judged by the word of God. He Himself, by His searching word, discovers to us the state of our soul, and probes it to its deepest and dearest feeling. All that is within us must be revealed before Him. God, in reference to His government, generally judges only the outward state of things; but when it is His intercourse with His people, or His rights of love towards them, He judges more deeply. We are shewn by the historical books of the Old Testament how the merciful Lord renewed His blessing whenever the people returned to Him; but if we read the prophets, we shall see how God searches deeply and judges the evil which must not remain after the blessing has returned. During the time of Josiah we see a good return of the people towards God, and there was also abundant blessing; but this does not prevent Jeremiah saying to the people by Jehovah's orders, "Acknowledge thine iniquity," Jer. 3:13.