Jeremiah 3:22

3:21-25 Sin is turning aside to crooked ways. And forgetting the Lord our God is at the bottom of all sin. By sin we bring ourselves into trouble. The promise to those that return is, God will heal their backslidings, by his pardoning mercy, his quieting peace, and his renewing grace. They come devoting themselves to God. They come disclaiming all expectations of relief and succour from any but the Lord. Therefore they come depending upon him only. He is the Lord, and he only can save. It points out the great salvation from sin Jesus Christ wrought out for us. They come justifying God in their troubles, and judging themselves for their sins. True penitents learn to call sin shame, even the sin they have been most pleased with. True penitents learn to call sin death and ruin, and to charge upon it all they suffer. While men harden themselves in sin, contempt and misery are their portion: for he that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but he that confesseth and forsaketh them, shall find mercy.

Return, ye backsliding children,.... This is the call of the Jews to repentance in the latter day; See Gill on Jeremiah 3:14 . and I will heal your backslidings; that is, I will forgive your sins. Sins are the diseases of the soul, and the wounds made in it; and pardoning them is healing them. So the Targum, "I will forgive you when ye return;'' see Psalm 103:3, this is done by the application of the blood of Christ, the only physician, and whose blood is the balm that heals every wound; and this springs from the love of God, and his free favour to his people, even the riches of his grace and abounding mercy through Christ; and is the great motive and inducement, and what gives the greatest encouragement to return unto the Lord, Hosea 14:1.

Behold, we come unto thee; the Targum represents this as what the Jews pretended always to say, and did say, in a hypocritical manner, with which they are upbraided, "lo, at all times ye say, we return to thy worship, save us;'' and Jarchi is of opinion that these are words the prophet put into their mouths, and taught them to say, and to confess in this manner: but they are rather their own words, arising from a true sense of sin, under the influence of divine grace, and encouraged with the hope and assurance of pardon; declaring that as they were called upon to return, so they did return, and now were come to God by repentance, with confession and acknowledgment of sin, and by prayer and supplication for pardon and by the exercise of faith upon him for it; and also were come into his house to wait upon him, and worship him in his ordinances: for thou art the Lord our God; not merely as the God of nature and providence, or in a natural way, but in a way of special grace, of which they now will have an application by the Spirit of God.

Jeremiah 3:22 . Here begins a dialogue between God and his people, wherein he offers gracious terms of pardon to them, and they make sincere professions of obedience to him. Return, ye backsliding — Or revolted, children — Return to me, and to my worship and service; return to your duty. God is introduced as saying this upon hearing the weeping and supplications of the Israelites, acknowledging their sin, and humbling themselves for it. And I will heal your backslidings — Your revolts, or apostacies: I will take away the guilt of them, and save you from a refractory and revolting disposition. God heals our backslidings by his pardoning mercy, his composing peace, and his renewing grace. Behold, we come unto thee — We readily and cheerfully obey thy command, and comply with thy invitation. It is an echo to God’s call; an immediate, speedy answer, without delay; not we will come hereafter, but we do come now; we need not take time to consider of it. For thou art the Lord our God — Words expressing the strongest inducements to return to God imaginable, because God had an undoubted right to them and their services, was willing to accept them, and able to save them, Isaiah 55:7 ; chap. Jeremiah 14:22 . Not only this latter part of the verse, but what follows, to the end of the chapter, is spoken of in the name of the Israelites, accepting the divine invitation, acknowledging the vanity of their misplaced trust, and professing the deepest contrition and shame for their misconduct.

It is a description, not of what was really done by the Israelites in general, but of what was necessary to be done in order to their regaining God’s favour; and of what he foresaw would actually be done by such of them as should believe on the Messiah, when he came, and receive the privileges and blessings of the new covenant.

Verse 22. - Return, ye backsliding children , etc.; more literally, Turn, ye turned-away sons ; I will heal your turnings (as Hosea 14:4 ). It seems strange at first sight that this verso does not stand before ver. 21. But the truth is that ver. 21 describes not so much the "conversion" of the Jews as their willingness to "convert" (an archaism of King James's Bible, which we may well regret), or "turn" to God. Christ must touch, or at least make his presence felt, in order that the sick man may be healed; a special call of God must be heard, in order that the sinner may truly repent. Behold, we come unto thee . Efficacious, and not "irresistible" grace, is the doctrine of the Old Testament. Jeremiah 3:22

(22) Return, ye backsliding children . . . —We lose, as before, the force of the Hebrew repetition of the same root, Turn, ye children that have turned, I will heal your turnings. As so often in Hebrew poetry, we have the answer to the invitation given in dramatic form, and hear the cry—we might almost call it the litany—of the suppliants, “Behold, we come unto thee.” They at last own Jehovah as their one true God.

Yahweh's answer to their prayer in Jeremiah 3:21 is immediately followed by their acceptance of the offer of divine mercy. For - Rather, because ... This profession of faith gives the reason why they return to Yahweh. The whole description is most graphically conceived. The people weeping upon the hills: God's gracious voice bidding them return: the glad cry of the penitents exclaiming that they come: the profession of faith won from them by the divine love; these form altogether a most touching picture of a national repentance.

Return, viz. repent for sin and from sin. Here God calls upon them, and invites them to consider whither they are going, and to hearken unto the voice of his ministers, Hosea 14:1 Acts 3:19 . See Jeremiah 3:12 . God doth as it were bid them hearken to his messengers, and then he will heal their backsliding. I will heal your backslidings, i.e. idolatries , whereby you turned from me, and rebelled against me; I will take you into that state, as if you had never turned from me; I will make all whole again among you, and reconcile you to myself, Isaiah 57:18 Jeremiah 32:40 . See Zechariah 10:6 13:9 . I will not only remove your judgments, but your sins also shall be forgiven. Behold, we come unto thee. This is either God’s framing their answer for them, prescribing the manner and form of their repentance, by a figure called mimesis , Hosea 14:2,3 ; or it is their reply to God by way of promise, which they performed under Josiah, 2 Kings 22 2Ki 23 , which with their confession reacheth to the end of the chapter. For thou art the Lord our God; words expressing the strongest inducements to it imaginable, because God hath right to them, is willing to accept them, and able to save them, Isaiah 55:7 Jeremiah 14:22 .