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In ver. 19 we have given us the expression of the Divine perplexity in regard to lost Israel: "How shall I place thee among the children," etc.? But ere the verse closes we behold the problem solved, the seeming impossibility accomplished, for the lost is found, and he that was dead is alive again. The rebel Israel has become the loving obedient child. And now in these verses (20-Jeremiah 4:2) we seem to have a telling of the experience of the restored one, a setting forth of how God had dealt with him. It is given in the form of a dialogue between God and Israel, and is an accurate description of the Divine process of restoration.

I. THERE IS THE BRINGING HOME OF SIN TO THE CONSCIENCE. (Ver. 20.) God charges upon lost Israel great and grievous sin. He likens the wrong he has suffered at the hands of Israel to the most grievous wrong it is possible for a man to suffer, and which of all others a man resents the most. The accusation is terrible. Thus sharply and sternly does God deal with the soul he would save. He does not gloss over, or palliate, or in any way make little of our sin, as we are apt to do; but he shows it to us so clearly that the sight of it is almost more than the heart can bear.

II. THIS CONVICTION OF SIN IS FOLLOWED BY A DEEP REPENTANCE. (Ver. 21.) Israel is represented as seeing her sin, and then from the very high places which had witnessed her guilt is heard her weeping and supplication. The soul that has never known the smart and pain of the conviction of sin will never earnestly turn to the Great Physician for the healing that is needed.

III. THE PROCLAMATION OF MERCY FOLLOWS. Ver. 22, "Return, ye apostate children, I will heal your apostasies." Just as to the enraptured ears of the penitent who was weeping over the Savior's feet there came the blessed sound of his pardoning word, assuring her, her sins were forgiven and that she might go in peace, so here God is represented as declaring his mercy to the weeping, supplicating Israel. And the heart the Lord hath dealt with knows that thus it is. A voice not audible, but real, is heard in the soul, assuring the contrite one of the forgiveness he needs and craves.

IV. IN SUCH A HEART PROMPT BELIEF, INSTANT ACCEPTANCE OF THE OFFERED MERCY, FOLLOWS. Ver. 22, "Behold, we come unto thee; for," etc. As well might the steel filings refuse to be moved by the magnet that lies by them as the sin-convinced and contrite heart fail to lay hold on the promise set before it in the gospel. No sooner has God said, "Return, I will heal," than the answer is heard, "Behold, we come."

V. Then follows THE CONFESSION AND REPENTANCE OF FAITH. (Vers. 23-25.) There had been confession and repentance before the soul had heard and accepted the offer of pardon; but that which follows is more full, more deep than that which went before. We repent more deeply of sin after we have known God has pardoned us than before we had that blessed knowledge. See here:

1. Their confession of the utter vanity of all their idols (ver. 23).

2. Their confident assurance that God alone can be their salvation (ver. 23).

3. Their confession of the disgrace and infatuated folly which had characterized them as a people for so long a time (ver. 24). They call their idolatry "shame," and own how it has destroyed both their substance and themselves.

4. They acknowledge the complete righteousness of God's judgment against their sin, and their own just exposure to his wrath (ver. 25). "Let us lie in our shame and our disgrace cover us, that we have sinned," etc. (Lange's translation). And thus it ever is: the more we realize God's pardoning love, the more intense will be our perception of the baseness and utter evil of the sin that has been forgiven.

VI. This CONFESSION IS FOLLOWED BY FURTHER ASSURANCES OF GRACE. (Jeremiah 4:1, 2.) Return to God shall be followed by return to their own land. "If thou returnest to me, thou shalt return (unto thy land), and if thou puttest away, etc., thou shalt not remove," i.e. into exile again. "And if thou shalt swear by Jehovah with sincere, righteous, and true heart," i.e. "if thou wilt truly give thyself up to God, then the heathen nations outside, seeing how thy God shall bless thee and shall heap his favors upon thee, shall come and bless themselves in him, and shall glory in him," i.e. they shall have done with their idolatries and be converted unto God. With such gracious promises would God encourage Israel in the new and better way in which they are represented as walking; with such gentleness would he make them, as he in like manner makes all who truly turn to him, great. - C.

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KJV: Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD.

WEB: "Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so you have dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel," says Yahweh.