Hosea 5:15--6:1

5:15 Then I will return again to my lair

until they have suffered their punishment.

Then they will seek me;

in their distress they will earnestly seek me.

Superficial Repentance Breeds False Assurance of God’s Forgiveness

6:1 “Come on! Let’s return to the Lord!

He himself has torn us to pieces,

but he will heal us!

He has injured us,

but he will bandage our wounds!

Hosea 14:1

Prophetic Call to Genuine Repentance

14:1 Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,

for your sin has been your downfall!

Psalms 116:7

116:7 Rest once more, my soul,

for the Lord has vindicated you.

Jeremiah 3:22-25

3:22 Come back to me, you wayward people.

I want to cure your waywardness.

Say, ‘Here we are. We come to you

because you are the Lord our God.

3:23 We know our noisy worship of false gods

on the hills and mountains did not help us.

We know that the Lord our God

is the only one who can deliver Israel.

3:24 From earliest times our worship of that shameful god, Baal,

has taken away all that our ancestors worked for.

It has taken away our flocks and our herds,

and even our sons and daughters.

3:25 Let us acknowledge our shame.

Let us bear the disgrace that we deserve.

For we have sinned against the Lord our God,

both we and our ancestors.

From earliest times to this very day

we have not obeyed the Lord our God.’

Jeremiah 31:18

31:18 I have indeed heard the people of Israel say mournfully,

‘We were like a calf untrained to the yoke.

You disciplined us and we learned from it.

Let us come back to you and we will do so,

for you are the Lord our God.

Jeremiah 50:4-5

50:4 “When that time comes,” says the Lord,

“the people of Israel and Judah will return to the land together.

They will come back with tears of repentance

as they seek the Lord their God.

50:5 They will ask the way to Zion;

they will turn their faces toward it.

They will come and bind themselves to the Lord

in a lasting covenant that will never be forgotten.

Lamentations 3:40-42

נ (Nun)

3:40 Let us carefully examine our ways,

and let us return to the Lord.

3:41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands

to God in heaven:

3:42 “We have blatantly rebelled;

you have not forgiven.”

Luke 15:17-20

15:17 But when he came to his senses he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have food enough to spare, but here I am dying from hunger! 15:18 I will get up and go to my father and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 15:19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired workers.”’ 15:20 So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way from home his father saw him, and his heart went out to him; he ran and hugged his son and kissed him.