“…For the Lord your God is gracious and compassionate, and will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him.” ( 2 Chronicles 30:9)
The text above is a plea by King Hezekiah to all the children of Israel to repent of their sin and evil ways. He calls them to turn from their rebellion against the Lord and join together as God’s people. To demonstrate their repentance, they are called collectively to reinstate the Passover meal at Jerusalem. They did this and the Lord blessed them because their hearts were right again with YAHWEH.
I find this extremely relevant for God’s people today. I don’t mean that we are to keep the Jewish Passover but a willing, from the heart, demonstration of active worship, will always follow true repentance. This of course will be seen in the collective worship of the saints in the local church.
We often wonder why our lives as believers are not as they should be, or barren of real joy and satisfaction in Jesus Christ. And while in that state we often try to fill the void with worldly satisfaction, that soon runs dry. It can often be like Israel was doing in Jeremiah’s day. He said of Israel, "My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” (Jer. 2:13)
How we need to return and repent, whenever our hearts are drawn away from the Lord so to worship the Lord in Spirit and in truth and know His blessing.
We may ask: “Why would the Lord be bothered about my return to Him.” The answer is as above: He is “gracious and compassionate…” The Lord has promised that he “will not turn his face away from you if you return to Him.” In other words – God loves His people so much! He will not let us go! As matter of fact Thomas Goodwin of old says the same thing for our encouragement. “God hath but three things dear unto Him in this world, His saints, His worship, and His truth; and it is hard to say which of these is dearest unto Him.” [Grace Quotes]