The Return - Tuesday October 27, 2015
With weeping they shall come, and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back, I will make them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble, for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. Jeremiah 31:9 ESV For the Lord has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him. Jeremiah 31:11 ESV
God is a poet, a painter of images. The picture above is a beautiful one-a company of bedraggled people being brought back out of captivity: "a great company, they shall return here" (31:8). This company includes those who are physically (and spiritually) blind and lame, and even pregnant mothers and "she who is in labor"! (The Lord leaves no one out.) Perhaps one truth we learn from these verses is that repentance is sometimes a path of return, rather than an abrupt about-face. Yes, there must be a decision to turn around from the wrong direction and set one's foot on the path to the Lord's country-but human beings are subject to confusion. Vacillations, doubts, fears, guilt, and shame may still haunt those who hope to come back from a period of rebellion or isolation from God.
The Lord's very active intervention here gives us great hope. He says, "I will lead them back . . . I will make them walk by brooks of [life-giving] water . . . I am a father to Israel." (We the redeemed are now identified with Israel! Our identity is children of the Father.)
The phrase "pleas for mercy" intrigues me in verse 9. NAS translates this "by supplication I will lead them"; NIV puts in "they will pray as I bring them back"; NLT says, "I will lead them home with great care." May we in the kingdom also extend mercy to those on the path of return.
Submitted by:
Dotty Vanderhorst
Cornerstone Community Church
Overland Park, Kansas
One-Year Reading Plan:
Jeremiah 51:1-53
Titus 2:1-15
Psalms 99:1-9
Proverbs 26:17
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SCRIPTURE REFERENCB-ES: Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible B) The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are from the Holy, Bible, New International Version, copyright B) 1973, 1978, 1984 by InternaB-tional Bible Society; (NKJV) are from New King James Version B) 1982 by Thomas Nelson; (NLT) are from the New Living Translation, B) 1996, Tyndale House Publishers; (ESV) are from English Standard VersionB., B) 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers; (TM) are from The Message B) 1993 by NavPress Publishers.