RETURN!

Last Thursday, I was getting back home from a trip abroad, making a connection in Seoul, S. Korea. Flying into the west coast of the US crossing the international dateline does funny things to your clock. My Korean Airlines flight left Seoul on Thursday at 9:50 am, and I arrived in Dallas at 8:50 am … on the same day! In other words, I practically got to my destination before I left! Time travel! (Needless to say, I’m still getting over the ill effects of that odd journey “back in time.”)

I’ve often wished I could do that in actuality—bid time return. There are times when we’ve all wished for that gift. Ye olde Bard penned those immortal words.

“O, call back yesterday, bid time return.”
Shakespeare, 1597 (Richard II, Act III, Scene 2)

The good Bard and we aren’t alone in wishing time be turned back. Indeed, God, too, desires we “return”—a form of time travel! In the mouths of God’s spokespersons, the Hebrew prophets, šûb (“return”) was a popular word, as they called upon their audiences to reject their wayward ways. Return to God, they pled, petitioned, and persuaded.

“Yet even now,” declares the LORD,
“return to Me with all your heart,
and with fasting, weeping and mourning;
and rend your heart and not your garments.”
Joel 2:12

We must return to a clean slate often—“go back in time”—for we humans have an inherent tendency to drift and meander far, far from God.

All of us like sheep have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way.
Isaiah 53:6

Or as the hymn writer put it …

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love.
Robert Robinson, 1758

A return to God, a heartfelt turning back, a repentant time travel, is essential—frequently. Here’s the prophet Joel in full …

“Yet even now,” declares the LORD,
“return to Me with all your heart,
and with fasting, weeping and mourning;
and rend your heart and not your garments.”
Now return to the LORD your God,
for He is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness
and relenting of evil.
Joel 2:12–13

Those were not arbitrary words chosen by Joel to describe the God of love. In fact, this depiction of YHWH, first noted in Exodus 34:6 when God gave the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai, attained idiomatic status, and recurs time and again in the Scriptures.

The LORD, the LORD God,
compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, and
abounding in lovingkindness ….
Exodus 34:6

(and Nehemiah 9:17; Psalm 103:8; Jonah 4:2)

This is why a return is possible; this is why a return is advisable; and this is why a return is profitable.

Come, let us return to the LORD.
For He has torn us, but He will heal us;
He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.
Hosea 6:1

We return because our God is a forgiving God.

Let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
and let him return to the LORD,
and He will have compassion on him, …
for He will abundantly pardon.
Isaiah 55:7

This return, one of repentance, therefore quickly turns to one of exultation as the “returner” is restored. Time travel, indeed!

So the ransomed of the LORD will return
and come with joyful shouting to Zion,
and everlasting joy will be on their heads.
They will obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Isaiah 51:11

Let’s go back, shall we? Travel in time!