249. Return to You
2 Chronicles 30:6, 9 Ye children of Israel, turn again unto the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he will return to the remnant of you….For if ye turn again unto the Lord, you shall find compassion…for the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if ye return unto him.
God promises to return to you if you return to Him. This sounds like a conditional promise (if…then), but it really is not. The Biblical truth is that God does not actually leave us, and so He doesn’t actually “come back.” He never went away. We left God to go after self and other gods. We may have just ignored God or forgot about Him, and did not actually deliberately reject Him. But it is the same thing. However, it feels to us as though God has left us, while the truth is we left Him. If we don’t pay attention to the Lord, then He says, “OK, you won’t let Me pay attention to you. Have it your way.”
It feels like God returns to us when we return to God. The Prodigal Son “returned” to the Father, and it felt to him like his Father returned to him. But we know that the Father never left. He still hung around at the gate looking for the son’s return. What joy overcomes the Lord when one child, one sheep, one coin returns! There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.
Hezekiah (one of the few good kings) is here calling all the people of Judah and Israel to repent. “Turn again” means “repent.” Leave your sin aside and turn again to the Lord. Pay attention to God. Receive His grace, goodness, forgiveness and love. The kindness of God leads us to repent. He is a gracious and merciful God. Repent and return. Hezekiah sent out letters to the people with these words. God promises you will find compassion in the loving arms of God the Father. “He will return” actually means: The Lord will draw you to Himself with cords of love. The Good News: the people did repent in Hezekiah’s day. What about our day?