Return

And 'thus says' is a formula written throughout scripture that we all do well to heed.

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Again and again God speaks through His prophets, warning his people to mend their ways or face judgement.  The prophet Ezekiel stands before the elders of the nation of Judah, pleading with them to turn back to the Lord.  The northern nation of Israel has already been defeated and exiled to Assyria and now the southern nation of Judah faces defeat and deportation at the hands of the Babylonians. The reason for God allowing such a catastrophe was the same in both cases - the worship of idols.  They had embraced the religions and gods of neighbouring nations and were trying to serve the One God as if He were one of many.  But the Lord had stated clearly to these people that He is a jealous God, and will not tolerate rivals (Deuteronomy 4, Exodus 34). Syncretism is the slippery slope to ruin.

A word for then and for today is 'return'. The World Prayer Centre has framed prayer around three words - 'repent, return, release'; and in the recent week of prayer for the nation the theme was - 'gather, remember, return'. The word in common, and which has been repeated on several occasions is 'return'.

In Ezekiel 14:6 it comes three times, though it is partly lost in translation. 

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations." Ezekiel 14:6 (italics added for emphasis)

The Hebrew word 'shuv' is translated into English in various ways, but the root word means simply to return.  In this passage 'repent' is 'shuv' stated in the imperative; it is a command to return to the Lord, no ifs or buts, no conditions or terms, no delays or procrastination, just come back to God. And 'thus says' is a formula written throughout scripture that we all do well to heed. For these elders of Judah, as for the nations of today, it is not too late to return to the Lord. Unless this primary command is heeded and obeyed, nothing else can be achieved, and we remain victims of our own sinfulness.

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'Turning away' is also translated from 'shuv', but here as a causative (the hifil stem). So we can infer from this simple grammar that if we simply and promptly obey God's primary command to return to Him, then He will cause us naturally to shun idolatry. To 'turn your faces' is a simple expression meaning to shift attention, so as we return to the Lord our attention intuitively turns away from all our abominations, those being all the things that displease our heavenly Father.

Ezekiel was addressing the leaders of Judah prior to their demise, entirely due to their own wanton waywardness and refusal to return. The prophetic word still stands for the people of modern Israel, whose presence in the land God promised is guaranteed by their faithfulness to the Lord rather than their own ingenuity.

The prophetic word also has universal application. In our own nation if we seek answers to our national debt, to crime, drug abuse, street violence, racial tensions, discrimination, health issues, gender confusion, family breakdown, and so many more troubling trends, there is, according to the Bible, only one answer: 

'Return to the Lord'.

“Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us;

he has struck us down, and he will bind us up." (Hos 6:1)

Author: John Plumb

May God bless and enrich your life

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