Return

“I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud, and your sins like a heavy mist.  Return to Me, for I have redeemed you”   Isaiah 44:22 

Return – The Hebrew word is shub.  This verb is the twelfth most frequently used verb in the Old Testament with more than 1000 occurrences.  All of the other descriptions used to indicate man’s need to be reconciled to God are summarized in this verb because the verb carries with it the two critical factors of repentance:  to turn from evil and to turn to God.  Reconciliation with God is accomplished first on the basis that God has already provided the foundation for forgiveness.  In this verse, God first proclaims His action on our behalf, then He asks for our response.  The promise is simple:  God forgives!  Therefore, act according to His forgiveness.  Life change could never begin until we saw that we were incapable to providing our own forgiveness.  We could not redeem ourselves no matter how much we tried.  Life really began when we gave up the pursuit of our desire for self-power and gave the real power in our lives over to the One who could forgive. 

Notice that God does not do it all.  He provides forgiveness.  He provides grace.  But we have to return.  We have to turn to Him and turn away from sin.  He can’t do that for us because it is our choice.  Renewal became a fact of our lives only after we turned from the whispers of temptation and turned to the One who forgives us.

We can see in this verse that God has prepared forgiveness before we ask for it.  He waits with the offer of a new life in His hand, exhorting us to accept what can be ours.  The redemption is complete.  That part does not depend on us.  God already accomplished it.  But the offer is not valid for us unless we take it.  We were marching away from His gift in a headlong rush to self-destruction.  We need to turn around and come back to Him.  It is an about-face that changes everything.

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