'Shub' - Sunday July 15, 2012
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. Shout for joy, O heavens, for the Lord has done it! Isaiah 44:22-23
One day while reading Jeremiah 3, I began to glimpse the passion of God, our lover. "Return," God cried to His adulterous wife! He desired His people, and nothing could take away His longing to hold His bride. Even though she had left Him for the adultery of idolatry, not even her polluted condition could squelch the longing in His heart.
"Return!" In Hebrew the word for return was "shub." In my quest to understand God's heart, I began to look at other places where God's plea was "Shub." I found lots!
"Egypt, return to the Lord! He will respond, heal, and deliver," was what the prophet Isaiah promised (paraphrased, 19:20,22). Shub!
"Return to Me...that I may return to you.... I am exceedingly jealous for Zion, yes, with great wrath I am jealous for her" (Zechariah 1:3 and 8:2) Shub!
"The day of the Lord is indeed great and very awesome, and who can endure it? 'Yet even now,' declares the Lord 'return to Me'....For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness, and relenting of evil" (Joel 2:11-13). Shub!
It's clear. God longs to show His love to every person in the entire world, and that includes you. The way is already prepared because your sins were eliminated through the blood of Christ. You can just run to Him and rest in His love-both for salvation and for daily joy! Shub!
Submitted by:
Rita Bergen
Lee's Summit Community Church
Lee's Summit, Missouri
One-Year Reading Plan:
1 Chronicles 19:1-21:30
Romans 2:25-3:8
Psalms 11:1-7
Proverbs 19:10-12
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