Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.
Behold, we come unto you; for you are the LORD our God.
Read Chapter 3
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Through the prophet the Lord speaks and declares with his own gracious words how much mercy and goodness he wishes to bestow on humankind. He says, “But if the wicked do penance for all his sins, which he has committed, and keeps all my commandments and does justice and mercy, living he shall live, and shall not die. I will not remember all his iniquities that he has done. In his justice, which he has done, he shall live.” And, “Is it my will that a sinner should die,” says the Lord God, “and not that he should be converted from his evil ways, and I shall cause him to live?” In another passage we find, “The wickedness of the wicked shall not hurt him on the day that he turns from his wickedness.” And again: “Return, you returning children, and I will heal your sorrow.” - "The Christian Life 2"
Let us return to the Lord our God, and whenever we pray, he, who daily urges us to pause and get to know him, will hear us. And in another place he says, “Return to me, and I will return to you.” And again, “Return to me, my backsliding children, and I will rule over you.” Ezekiel likewise calls on us, saying, “Why will you die, O house of Israel? I want not the death of the sinner, only that he turn from his evil ways and live.” The most merciful Lord and source of all goodness cries out to us in the Gospel and declares, “Come to me, all you who labor and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Carry my yoke on you and learn of me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Let us consider that the goodness of God calls us to repentance, and holy people encourage us to salvation. Let us not harden our hearts and collect against ourselves a store of divine anger for the day of wrath. Then, on that day, shall be revealed the just judgment of God, wh...
Our obstinacy and scorn, reflecting our spirit of rebellious disdain for him when he urges us to return and be saved, is described in the following comparison. He says, “And I said you shall call me Father and shall not cease to walk after me. But as a woman that despises her lover, so has the house of Israel despised me, says the Lord.” It is only appropriate that as he has compared Jerusalem with an adulteress forsaking her husband, he compares his own love and persevering goodness with a man’s undying love for a woman. For the goodness and love of God that he has always shown to the human race could not be more appropriately described by any comparison than the case of a man inflamed with most ardent love for a woman. God’s love is overcome by no injuries that might make him stop caring for our salvation or that might drive him from his first intention as if he were defeated by our sins. Instead, he is consumed by a more burning passion for her, the more he sees that he is slighted ...
