Originally posted: 6/02/2020
“For if you return to the Lord, your brothers and your sons will find compassion before those who led them captive and will return to this land. For the Lord your God is gracious and compassionate, and will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him,” (30:9).
Have you ever met one of those people who “write people off” once they’ve been offended? Maybe you are even one yourself. Some admittedly assert the adage for themselves, “Hurt me once, shame on you. Hurt me twice, shame on me.” In other words, opportunities for a second wounding are no longer made available.
And if anyone has the right to “write people off,” it would be God; Perfect in Holiness, High and Exalted, God.
And I don’t know about you, but when reading of His Invitation to return to Him, promising He would not turn His face away, I found it, well, Inconceivably Incomprehensible.
Inconceivable: “not capable of being imagined or grasped mentally; unbelievable.”
Incomprehensible: “not able to be understood; not intelligible.”
Our human minds cannot even begin to imagine or understand such grace and compassion; and left to our own faculties and capabilities, I daresay we would never be so inclined to extend such kindness to those who have repeatedly turned their back on us.
And yet, Almighty God, the One repeatedly rejected and forsaken, Invites us to return… to Him. It is Inconceivably Incomprehensible!
Consider His Inconceivably Incomprehensible Invitation
“O sons of Israel, return to the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, that He may return to those of you who escaped and are left from the hand of the kings of Assyria. 7 Do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who were unfaithful to the Lord God of their fathers, so that He made them a horror, as you see. 8 Now do not stiffen your neck like your fathers, but yield to the Lord and enter His sanctuary which He has consecrated forever, and serve the Lord your God, that His burning anger may turn away from you. 9 For if you return to the Lord, your brothers and your sons will find compassion before those who led them captive and will return to this land. For the Lord your God is gracious and compassionate, and will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him,” (30:6-9).
- He Invites us into a Covenant Relationship with Him… Inconceivably Incomprehensible!
- O sons of Israel, return to the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel…
- He Invites us to come out of bondage into His Presence… Inconceivably Incomprehensible!
- …that He may return to those of you who escaped and are left from the hand of the kings of Assyria.
- He Invites us to a life of faith, that we would leave the horror of a life without Him… Inconceivably Incomprehensible!
- Do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who were unfaithful to the Lord God of their fathers, so that He made them a horror, as you see.
- He Invites us to soften our hearts, that we would yield in submission to Him… Inconceivably Incomprehensible!
- Now do not stiffen your neck like your fathers, but yield to the Lord…
- He Invites us to be set apart for Him in fellowship and service… Inconceivably Incomprehensible!
- …and enter His sanctuary which He has consecrated forever, and serve the Lord your God…
- He Invites us to experience His peace… Inconceivably Incomprehensible!
- …that His burning anger may turn away from you.
- He Invites us to His deliverance from the hand of the enemy… Inconceivably Incomprehensible!
- For if you return to the Lord, your brothers and your sons will find compassion before those who led them captive and will return to this land.
- He Invites us into the intimacy of His grace and compassion… Inconceivably Incomprehensible!
- For the Lord your God is gracious and compassionate, and will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him.
How do we respond to His Inconceivably Incomprehensible Invitation?
We must begin by responding in faith and dependence on His hand to work in our hearts; that by His Word, we would be moved to obedience.
The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the Lord…“May the good Lord pardon 19 everyone who prepares his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers, though not according to the purification rules of the sanctuary.” (30:18-19).
Although the Passover was to be celebrated in the first month, the people were not ready; heart preparation was needed first. Thus, they prepared their hearts to seek God, “though not according to the purification rules of the sanctuary.”
For the king and his princes and all the assembly in Jerusalem had decided to celebrate the Passover in the second month, 3 since they could not celebrate it at that time, because the priests had not consecrated themselves in sufficient numbers, nor had the people been gathered to Jerusalem, (30:2-3).
For the Lord is not interested in a mere adherence to regulations, but always looks at the heart.
“Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart,” (1 Samuel 16:7).
And the Lord heard and responded to the prayer of this king who had thus prepared his heart to seek his God…
So the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people, (30:20),
… and there was cause for much to celebrate… and the celebration began!
The sons of Israel present in Jerusalem celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with great joy, and the Levites and the priests praised the Lord day after day with loud instruments to the Lord, (30:21).
I am reminded of another Invitation extended, an Invitation to come and partake in a great celebration.
But He said to him, “A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; 17 and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ 18 But they all alike began to make excuses… 21 And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ 22 And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 23 And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner,” (Luke 14:16-24).
How Inconceivably Incomprehensible, that mere man would so easily “write off” His Invitation. But the truth is, many do. Oh, that we would take His Invitation to heart, to respond with all that we are.
- Oh, that we would respond to His Inconceivably Incomprehensible Invitation to celebrate Him alone, Who is worthy of our worship.
- They arose and removed the altars which were in Jerusalem; they also removed all the incense altars and cast them into the brook Kidron. 15 Then they slaughtered the Passover lambs on the fourteenth of the second month. And the priests and Levites were ashamed of themselves, and consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings to the house of the Lord… (30:14-15).
- Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, 25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen, (Jude 1:24-25).
- Oh, that we would respond to His Inconceivably Incomprehensible Invitation to celebrate Him alone, with complete dependence on Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world.
- …Then they slaughtered the Passover lambs on the fourteenth of the second month. (30:15).
- The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).
- Oh, that we would respond to His Inconceivably Incomprehensible Invitation to celebrate Him alone, through lives offered to Him in humility and consecration.
- And the priests and Levites were ashamed of themselves, and consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings to the house of the Lord, (30:14-15).
- “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. 26 If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him,” (John 12:24-26).
Choosing to daily respond to His Inconceivably Incomprehensible Invitation through faith, in worship, dependence, humility and consecration, clothes us in His righteousness and readies us for the joy and gladness we will ultimately celebrate at the marriage of the Lamb.
Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” 8 It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. 9 Then he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’” And he said to me, “These are true words of God,” (Revelation 19:7-9).
His Invitation to the marriage of the Lamb is Inconceivably Incomprehensible; but “These are true words of God.” Let’s be ready…