Return, Ye Backsliding Children

In Jeremiah 3 the prophet used the word backsliding multiple times to describe the children of Israel. He wrote, “Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot…. And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce…. The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah. Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord…. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you…. Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings” (v6, 8, 11-12, 14, 22). The dictionary defines the word this way: “To relapse into bad habits, sinful behavior, or undesirable activities.” This was really the story of the children of Israel—they would repent but then soon thereafter relapse into their bad habits going after their false gods and forgetting Jehovah. Jeremiah’s mission was to try to stop Judah’s backsliding before they slid right into destruction by the Babylonians. He also looked forward to the future day when Israel would be gathered again and end their backsliding so the Lord could heal them. In hope he promised that the Lord would be merciful and would heal their backslidings if they would just return to Him.  

            Each of us who have covenanted with the Lord are surely guilty of backsliding in one way or another; we lapse into bad habits or sins or behaviors which distance us from the Lord. The message of Jeremiah is that if we will keep returning as often as we slide back, the Lord will receive us and heal us. Hosea used similar language and declared that “Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer,” a description which the student manual suggests “is one who refuses to follow when led and sets her feet and slides in the dirt.” We are sometimes perhaps like that cow that is sliding back when the Lord is seeking to move us forward. But Hosea also gave us this promise of the Lord: “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him” (Hosea 4:16, 14:4). If we will return to the Lord and let our feet be moved forward by Him, He can heal us from our sins and help us move forward. This reminds me of the Prophet Joseph’s call to all of us: “Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory!” (Doctrine and Covenants 128:22) We must not go backward to our former sins but rather move forward in the work of the Lord. As Lehi’s dream invites us, we can “press forward through the mist of darkness… continually holding fast to the rod of iron” until we finally come to “partake of the fruit of the tree." As we hold on tight to the words of the Lord, in the scriptures and given through modern prophets, that will keep us from going backwards but continue to propel us forward towards Him. We must be "clinging to the rod of iron" so that we can keep from going back as the world tries to push us away from receiving the promises of the Lord (1 Nephi 8:24, 30). Instead of sliding back we can, as Nephi invited us, "press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life" (2 Nephi 31:20).