Repentance, or reformation.
"O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God," etc. "After the prophet has set before the sinful nation in various ways its own guilt, and the punishment that awaits it, viz. the destruction of the kingdom, he concludes his addresses with a call to thorough conversion to the Lord, and the promise that the Lord will bestow his grace once more upon those who turn to him, and will bless them abundantly" (Delitzsch). The subject of these words is Repentance; or, the greatest reformation. Reformation is a subject on which men are never tired of talking: it is the grand text of the demagogue, as well as the leading purpose of the philanthropist. There are various kinds of reformation. There is the doctrinal reformation—reformation in creed, the renunciation of one set of opinions and the adoption of another. There is the institutional reformation—reformation in political, in ecclesiastical, and in social laws. There is the reformation in external character—involving the renunciation of old habits and the formation of new ones. But all such reformations are of little, if any worth, apart from the moral reformation—a reformation in the leading spirit and controlling dispositions of the soul, a reformation involving a thorough change of heart. This is the only reformation worth working for. In these verses we have several things worth notice in relation to it.
I. ITS NATURE AND METHOD INDICATED.
1. Its nature. "O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God." The description contained in the first and third verses of this reformation implies three things.
2. Its method. "Take with you words, and turn to the Lord." Why take words to God?
(a) His forgiveness. "Take away all sin."
(b) His acceptance. "Receive us graciously"
II. ITS CAUSE AND BLESSEDNESS SPECIFIED.
1. Its cause. God. "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely... I will be as the dew." All reformation is brought about by his agency. I will act upon the soul silently, penetratingly, revivifying, "as the dew." All true reformation brings with it God's silent but effective agency.
2. Its blessedness.
(a) The growth is connected with beauty. Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like it.
(b) Its growth is connected with strength. "Cast forth his roots as Lebanon." How deeply did the roots of the cedar in Lebanon strike into the earth! and how firm their grasp! The storms of centuries could not remove them.
(c) Its growth is connected with expansiveness. "His branches shall spread." Widely grew the branches of those old cedars, offering to the traveler a cooling shade from the sun and a shelter from the tempest. How a divinely formed soul expands! It outgrows the boundaries of sects and the limits of creeds. Its sympathies become world-wide.
(d) Its growth is connected with fragrance. "His beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon." Sweet was the aroma that was swept by the wind over those old hills. How delectable the fragrance of a holy life!
(e) Its growth is connected with social usefulness. It shall offer protection to men. "They that dwell under his shadow shall return." Where car we flee in distress but to the sympathy and love of the good? Not only protection, but beneficent progress. "They shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine."—D.T.