RETURN

 

 Our nation has turned its back on our Savior. Even though so many have been raised in the Church, even the Democratic Party will no longer acknowledge Him. Neither will our universities, especially those of the Ivy League, show any respect for their Christian origins. We have banished God from our classrooms, sports events, and even from our daily conversations. He has been sidelined.

This had been Israel’s situation. It was 20 years after their miraculous rescue from Babylon and their return to their Promised Land under Joshua and Zerubbabel (538 BC). They too had sidelined God because He had been interfering with their own agenda. Therefore, God sent the Prophet Haggai with His words of correction:

·       “You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.”” (Haggai 1:6-11)
 

Israel had placed their interests above the Lord, and it cost them dearly! We too are beset with increasing problems - drug abuse, broken families, divorces, domestic violence, depression, many other mental health issues, suicide, loneliness, alienation, cynicism, distrust of all of our institutions, lawlessness, and a lack of respect for others. The signs of decline are ubiquitous. We are even facing the prospect of civil war.

However, are we able to connect the dots? Are we willing to see the connection between our rejection of God and our increasing sorrows? Must we first lose everything before we re-trace our steps back to the One who promised:

·       “Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, “‘Return, faithless Israel, declares the Lord. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the Lord; I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the Lord your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 3:12-13)