Repent, Obey and Love God

Israel disobeyed God and broke the covenant. It was, therefore, uprooted and exiled in Babylon. However, that is not the final chapter of God’s relationship with his people. Despite knowing that they would fall into apostasy, God keeps the file on Israel open. Who can fully understand God’s patient love for his disobedient people who seem to suffer from incurable sinfulness? God speaks to future generations. He calls them to repent: “turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul” (10). This is not to be a ritualistic or halfhearted response to God’s love. The sounds of its weeping must be heard in every room in the heart; its tears must drench every part of the guilty soul.

Such wholehearted repentance will lead to wholehearted obedience (2), motivated by wholehearted love for God (6). Can this really happen? Is Israel not stricken with an incurable illness of the soul? God promises something radical: he will circumcise his people’s hearts (6). Circumcision is an outward sign of commitment to the covenant, but now there will be an inward spiritual equivalent. Through Christ (Col. 2:11) they will receive the promised new hearts (Ezek. 36:26,27) upon which God will write his law (Jer. 31:33). God will end the sordid cycles of apostasy and create a new history.

There is hope for all because of divine mercy and grace. God the Father patiently holds out his hand and invites us to repent and return to him. He enables us to repent, obey and love him–with all our hearts. He will not bless us less because of our sinful past but will make us “most prosperous” (9). Like the father who welcomed his prodigal son (Luke 15:22), God will spare no effort to bless us.

Am I guilty of halfhearted responses to God’s grace and mercy? Is there any part of my life where repentance, obedience and love for God are yet to be seen?