Turn, O ye backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you, Jer 3:14.

The right understanding of the passage before us is a most humbling experience. God's Word tells us, "that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance," Ro 2:4. The Creator of Heaven and Earth condescends so low. He, "is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance," 2 Pe 3:9.

Oh, beloved, see the Fatherly tenderness in the reproof before us! See how the Lord addresses these backsliders as children and then reveals how He is looking upon them in Christ where He says, "for I am married unto you."

Oh, beloved, would it not break the hardest heart, if we would get but a glimpse of how we have so soiled those beautiful, white, wedding garments? Those wedding garments that were made white by the blood of our Heavenly Bridegroom, Re 7:14.

Now I must hasten to point out what prompted our blessed Lord to utter the words of our text. The heart of these backsliding children had been drawn away from the Lord and were taken in spiritual adultery. In verse one this spiritual adultery is likened unto an unfaithful woman saying, "thou hast played the harlot with many lovers." Yet see His long-suffering, "yet return again to me saith the Lord."

Our blessed Lord is not only "long-suffering to us-ward," but He is not willing that any of His children should perish, "but that all should come to repentance," 2 Pe 3:9. This repentance is not optional.

The Lord uses chastening when our hearts depart from Him and go after the things of this evil world. He tells us, "For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth," Heb 12:6.

This chastisement of the Lord is out of His eternal love for His dear children and His firm decree that none should perish, "but that all should come to repentance." In verse three of the chapter before us we find the chastisement He sent for the spiritual adultery of His dear children. "Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain . . . ."

In the following verses we can read how grievously God's dear children had sinned, but then in verses 13-14 we see how graciously The King of Kings holds out the golden scepter, Es 4:11, stating the terms for His wretched, polluted, rebellious adulterous bride to return into His presence! "Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God . . . and ye have not obeyed My voice, saith the Lord. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you."

When our lovely Saviour is revealed unto us as our personal Bridegroom by the eye of faith, then the confession of our guilt before Him becomes so easy. Then we can understand what our Saviour said in M't 11:29-30, "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

When our rebellion is broken and our eyes are again fixed upon Christ, we can "Acknowledge" our "iniquity" and also sing:

The gospel's the law of the Lamb;
My soul of its glories shall sing;
With pleasure my tongue shall proclaim
The law of my Saviour and King;
A sweet law of liberty this;
A yoke that is easy and mild;
Of love it the precious law is,
Unknown unto all but a child.