April 2021
April 2021
“Return to me, for I have redeemed you”
Isaiah 44.22 (RSV)
These words are spoken by the
prophet to God’s people, who are still held in Babylon after many years of
being in exile from their homeland and all they hold dear. But, Isaiah assures
them, the prospect of change is coming. The prophet speaks out in God’s name, to
comfort and encourage them, to assure them that God has not forgotten them and
that their transgressions have been swept away like a cloud being dispersed by
the wind, like early mist lifting in the morning sun. The text here is echoed
with similar words in Jeremiah 24.7: “I will be their God, for they shall
return to me with all their heart”.
These are words to encourage
the exiles to have confidence in God, to sing and celebrate a God who values
them and has redeemed them and will bring them home. Their past sins have been
paid for, the slate is wiped clean. They are encouraged to put that past, with
its feelings of separation and loss, behind them and to look forward in hope.
They are to trust God wholeheartedly and not to doubt his goodness or
intentions towards them. However they might feel at times, they are to realise
that God is faithful and just, and all creation should celebrate his goodness
(Psalm 137)
To feel vulnerable in the
face of lost opportunities or the loss of familiar physical presence of people
or places is something people throughout the ages have been able to identify
with. Throughout history, areas of the world have been destroyed by natural
disasters, decimated by widespread illness and the ravages of conflict and
injustice of all kinds.
Yet, through these words God
speaks into these situations to reassure us that we are not alone; that it is
safe to return to him with complete confidence; and that he has our, and the
whole creation’s, best interests are heart. This is a text of encouragement in
hard and trying times, urging us to depend on a God who loves and values us and
wants to welcome us home.
A Watchword might be “Return
to me” or “I have redeemed you”