Look, over there is a village close enough to run to, and it’s a small one. Let me escape there instead. You can see that it’s such a small village. Let my life be spared!”
Pay attention and come closer to me, and hear, that your total being may flourish. I will enter into an everlasting covenant with you, and I will show you the same faithful love that I showed David.
that I made with your ancestors when I freed them from the fiery, iron furnace of their suffering in Egypt. Now, listen to my voice and do all that I commanded you, and you will be a beloved people to me, and I, I will be your God,
But they refused to listen or change their ways. They lived in the stubbornness of their evil hearts, so I finally enforced the penalties of disobeying this covenant and its terms which I commanded them to keep.’ ”
But if you stop doing evil, change your ways, and obey the voice of Yahweh your God, then Yahweh will stop the impending disaster and relent of what he has decreed against you.
Rather, I commanded them: “Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Live your lives according to what I command you that all may go well with you.”
“Your Majesty, please be willing to do what I say and accept my advice. Renounce your sins by doing what is right. Turn from your wickedness by showing mercy to the poor and unfortunate, and perhaps your prosperity will continue.”
Paul replied, “I pray to God that both you and those here listening to me would one day become the same as I am, except, of course, without these chains.”
Since we are those who stand in holy awe of the Lord, we make it our passion to persuade others to turn to him. We know that our lives are transparent before the God who knows us fully, and I hope that we are also well known to your consciences.
We are ambassadors of the Anointed One who carry the message of Christ to the world, as though God were tenderly pleading with them directly through our lips. So we tenderly plead with you on Christ’s behalf, “Turn back to God and be reconciled to him.”
Don’t just listen to the Word of Truth and not respond to it, for that is the essence of self-deception. So always let his Word become like poetry written and fulfilled by your life!