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The children of Israel had "deeply revolted" from God by preferring Egyptian cavalry to the defense of almighty power. This preference of the human and the material to the Divine is only too common everywhere.

I. THE DISLOYAL ATTITUDE OF MANKIND TOWARDS GOD. Mankind is in revolt against the Divine rule. We have all said in our hearts, "We will not have this One to reign over us."

1. God righteously claims our allegiance - the homage of our hearts, the subjection of our will, the obedience of our life.

2. We have deliberately refused it, we have practically disallowed his claim; we have retained our power for our own enjoyment, to be spent according to our own tastes and choices. Amid various forms of iniquity there is one which is common to the race-we have all withheld from the Divine Father of our spirits the willing and practical allegiance for which he has looked.

II. HUMAN DISLOYALTY IN ITS DEPTH There are many degrees of rebelliousness. Only he who searches the hearts and knows the real nature of righteousness and iniquity can accurately measure them, but we can form an approximate idea. Men may be deeply disloyal by going far in the direction of

(1) open and flagrant transgression - the commission of baneful vices or cruel and devastating crimes;

(2) distinct and formal denial of God's existence - the avowal and advocacy of blank atheism;

(3) the public denial of the Divine claims - the representation of the cardinal error that God is indifferent to the character of his human children, and does not ask for their worship or service;

(4) deliberate and persistent disregard of his will as revealed in his Word - the turning a deaf ear to his inviting voice.

III. THE DIVINE SUMMONS TO RETURN. "Turn ye unto him."

1. God's message through inspired men. At sundry times God spake by the prophets. Then and thus he spoke in very clear and in very gracious tones; he said emphatically and repeatedly, "Return unto me" (see text; Isaiah 1:16-18; Isaiah 55:6-9; Jeremiah 3:12-16; Ezekiel 18:30-32; Hosea 14:1, 2, etc.).

2. God's invitation through his Son, our Savior.

(1) That the disloyal hearts of men should return to their allegiance and become the holy and rejoicing citizens of his heavenly kingdom was the very end, for which Jesus came.

(2) To accomplish this he lived, wrought, spoke, suffered, died.

(3) This is the spirit and the scope of the message he has left behind him, and of the work in which he is now engaged.

(4) The way of return through Christ is the heart's acceptance of him as its Divine Lord and Redeemer. The voice which comes from the Man of sorrows, from the ascended Lord, is "Come unto me;" "Believe in me;" "Abide in me."

IV. THE SPIRITUAL CONSEQUENCE OF RETURN. "In that day every man shall cast away his idols." Return to the service of Jehovah and to a sincere trust in him certainly meant the utter abandonment of idolatry. Our restoration to the favor and friendship of God in Jesus Christ must also mean the putting away of every form of idolatry; e.g.

(1) the worship of pleasure or indulgence in any unholy or injurious gratification;

(2) covetousness, "which is idolatry" (Colossians 3:5);

(3) the worship of mammon, or absorption in the struggles and ambitions of this earthly life (Matthew 6:24).

(4) Such a devotion to any human object of love as leaves no room, or no sufficient room, for attention to the highest duties and the most sacred claims. It may be that not once nor twice, but again and again, the Christian man may find himself called on to "cast away his idols," to put them out of his heart, and therefore out of his life. - C.

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KJV: Turn ye unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted.

WEB: Return to him from whom you have deeply revolted, children of Israel.