We return to God because He first came to us (Luke 19:10). He does not merely lead us home; He makes us able to go. By cleansing the heart, He opens the way. By giving the Spirit, He fulfils Moses’s promise. By gathering His people from all nations, He completes the return Israel could never achieve on her own (Ephesians 2:11–22).

The central question of the Old Testament is: How can we return to God? First, this refers to how we can return to Eden after our exile from the Lord. Second, it refers to how Israel can return to God after he exiled them.

It is a question asked explicitly in Malachi: “Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’” (Mal 3:7). The Lord tells his people that from the days of their fathers they have turned aside from his statutes and have not kept them (Mal 3:7). So God commands them to return; they respond by asking how. The Old Testament takes that question seriously.

It is the question the whole Old Testament presses upon the reader. Israel knows that disobedience led to exile. Second Kings tells us plainly that Israel was scattered among the nations because she would not obey the Lord (2 Kgs 17:7–23). Judah soon followed (2 Kgs 24–25). The command to return is clear. The means of return are not.

Israel’s best kings could not solve the problem. So who can? And how can we return?

The Failure of the Heart

Josiah was the greatest reforming king in the book of Kings. Scripture tells us that he returned to the LORD with all his heart, soul, and might, according to all the law of Moses (2 Kgs 23:25). Yet even Josiah was not enough to reverse Judah’s fortunes. Judgment still came. Judah still went into exile (2 Kgs 23:26–27). Reform did not become renewal.

This lack of renewal exposes a deeper problem. Throughout Samuel and Kings, the decisive issue is the heart. David is called a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam 13:14), yet even David sinned grievously and required repentance (2 Sam 11–12; Ps 51). Solomon, the wisest king of Israel, fell deeply. His heart was turned away by his foreign wives (1 Kgs 11:1–8). After him, few kings—and few people—could be said to follow the LORD with their whole heart (1 Kgs 15:3; 2 Kgs 20:3).

The Old Testament therefore presses a question it cannot finally answer: how can a people whose hearts are turned away truly return to God?

Moses and the Promise of Return

The roots of this question lie in the Pentateuch itself. Moses foresaw Israel’s failure. In Deuteronomy, he tells the people that they will sin, that they will be scattered among the nations, and that they will need to return to the LORD (Deut 30:1–2). They must repent. They must obey him with all their heart and soul.

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