4:1,2
Returning to God is more than a matter of words, it involves actions. Israel had to get rid of her “detestable idols” and stop going astray. Repentance involves real change, not just words or feelings (Matt 3:7-10). A commitment to God needs to be “truthful, just and righteous”, not just saying “as surely as the Lord lives”. We can have the right words, the outward show, but it is a matter of the reality of our lives. This is good news! For the ways of the Lord are ways of life, the ways of the world are ways of death. Then look at what it says at the end, “then the nations will invoke blessings by Him and in Him they will boast”. Oh how stupid we can be in the church when we adopt the ways of the world in order to try and “win” them. It is when we are faithful to the Lord that the nations will come and they will boast in the Lord. We want to win people to Christ, not to ourselves. And see that God’s view is global, it is, and always has been, to reach all peoples.
4:3,4
God now addresses Judah, the southern kingdom. Breaking up the unploughed ground maybe a reference to Hos 10:12, which involves sowing in righteousness, and not among thorns. Judah was heading exactly the same way as Israel, only more so. They were to circumcise their hearts. Ie to be truly dedicated to God, truly belonging to Him. If they did not the wrath of the Lord would burn fiercely against them. Why? Because of the evil they had done. God’s wrath is based on justice.
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