If they confess their iniquity.

Leviticus 26:40-42, “‘If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their acting with hostility against Me— I also was acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies—or if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that they then make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also My covenant with Isaac, and My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land.’”

It wasn’t that God abandoned His people; He sent them prophets to warn them, and as they continued for decades to ignore Him, He took them out of the land. In Romans 1, we see what is happening in much of the world around us today, as people deny the existence of God and seek after what is corruptible. “For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions.” “God gave them over to a depraved mind.” Reading the rest of the chapter in Romans sound like what we see in news! Our hope is not to be found anywhere but in Him, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.

We put all of our hope in you; we pray for those who so desperately need You and thank You that You are longsuffering, “not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”