When you’re tired from being out working or shopping or traveling, it’s refreshing to return home. I thought of this in light of Israel’s Old Testament prophets, whose main message is: “Return to the LORD.”
God’s covenant people broke the covenant repeatedly: seeking other gods and help from ungodly nations. They disregarded the widows, orphans, and poor and only worshiped God as a formality, while their hearts were far from Him (Deuteronomy 26; Isaiah 29:13). God had promised to bless them richly for their faithfulness, but their unfaithfulness put them far from His blessings.
By the time the prophet Hosea writes, Israel was already beginning to experience the consequences of their national disobedience. Hosea sings out his heartbroken appeal to God’s wayward children: “Come, let us return to the LORD” (Hosea 6:1). As the Prodigal Son returned to his father’s open arms (Luke 15), so the prophet beckons all Israel to come back home.
“For He has torn us, that He may heal us; He has struck us down, and He will bind us up.” God’s correction may be painful, but it’s meant to bring us closer to Him. Ultimately, Jesus was torn and struck down to heal and restore us (Isaiah 53:5).
So, with the opportunity to return to God for forgiveness, Hosea continues, “Let us know, let us press on to know the LORD”—pursuing personal knowledge of God rather that going after our temptations.
We “press on to know the LORD” because of His gracious faithfulness: “His going out is as sure as the dawn; He will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth” (Hosea 6:3).
If sin has left you parched and dry, why not come home to God’s refreshing grace? “Come, let us return to the Lord.”
