Deuteronomy 30:2-3: “And shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and they children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul;  that then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee.”

James 4:8:  “Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you.”

There is one striking similarity between all these verses that talk of returning to God or drawing near to Him and that is that it is us who must make the first step toward God.  The syntax of  Deuteronomy 30:2 suggest that  returning to the Lord  is a separate step from obeying His voice.  In other words the first step is to return to the Lord.   We must return and obey with all our hearts and soul.

There is an interesting play on words for the word return.  The word used for return is shabata.  It appears to be from the same root as the word for Sabbath which means to rest, except that the Masoretes pointed this with a pathah under the Shin rather than a qammits making the root word shuv which means to return or restore.  In the unpointed text, this word could come from the either the root word shabat or shuv  and I believe the intent was both.   We are to return to God and rest upon God and not the arm of the flesh.  The preposition od could mean to or upon depending upon the context.

Note we must do this with all our hearts and souls. The word heart is lavav in Hebrew and the word for soul is nepesh.  When these words are used together it means both your intellect or understanding and your passions.   We can return to God with our intellect but not with our passions, or we can return to God with our passions but not our intellect.   God is saying we must return to Him with both.

The passage also says that we are to return to the Lord your God. In the Hebrew this is to return to YHWH your Elohim.   There are some Christians who seem to be caught up in a fad that it is more appropriate to say YHWH, which is fine, but some seem to go as far as to suggest that they are showing some deeper insight or that they will get some special benefit by saying YHWH rather than Lord. Some even suggested that I should be ashamed of myself, being a Hebrew student and saying the Lord rather YHWH.  They tell me, “Wouldn’t you rather be called by your name than someone else’s name?  Frankly, I don’t care what you call me so long as it is not late to dinner.  A wife might even feel hurt if her husband called her by her real name and not the name of endearment that he has given her like sweetheart, honey or dear. For me the name Jesus has also been an expression of endearment when I address God or even praying Dear Lord is an expression of my love for Him. If the word YHWH or Yeshua  carried the same amount of endearment for me I would use those words.  God does not listen to our words anyways, He listens to our heart’s cry.  You can use all the Hebrew words you want but if they do not come from your heart God is not listening. A man may call his wife honey child but if it does not come from his heart, his wife is not going to care what words he uses, she will still not listen to what follows. There is no magic or mysticism in the name of God, any power in the use of His name only comes when it the name is spoke in love from the heart. My study partner and I were talking yesterday about the dog whisperer we saw in television. He would walk up a vicious barking down, hold out two fingers and quietly say, “Down, Down” and the dog would stop barking and lay down.  Saying down to a barking dog and waving your fingers is not what makes him stop barking.  A dog does not understand your words, he is reading your heart, he is watching your facial expression and he even smells that slight difference in odor you off when you are angry, threaten, or fearful.  You can’t fool him because he does not listen to your words, he listens to your heart and if there is no fear in you and you truly love and care for him, and he will relax and quiet down.

Actually, no one can be sure just what the correct pronunciation is for the name of God as there are no vowel pointings in YHWH,  it could be yaway or yahoah, we just can’t be sure. Vowel pointings were not added to the written Hebrew until 700 years after the birth of Jesus and then the Masoretes just added the vowels from the word for lord (adoni).    What I do find interesting about the word YHWH is that it is in a feminine form.  The word Elohim is in a masculine form.  The sages teach that when the word YHWH is used it represents the feminine nature of God  which is the mercy, nurturing and lovingkindness of God.   The word Elohim represents the masculine nature of God, God’s protection and provision.   Thus you return to YHWH the nurturing, the loving and the caring part of God with your heart and it is to Elohim that protection and provision part of God that you return with your soul.

When this is done then the Lord God will then return to you.  There is just one issue that bothers me.  This business of returning seems very ambiguous.  How do I really know that I have returned with all my heart and all my soul?  Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that the word return is in a Qal form and not a Piel.  This return with all your heart and soul is giving the best you can give even if it falls short.  If we come to Him in the best possible way that we can, offering our heart and soul to him as best we can, that is enough, He will meet us at that point.
James tells us that we just need to draw near to God and he will then move into action to draw near to us.  We just need to start the process and do our best.  The Lord will take care of the rest.

There is a story in the Talmud about a king who had a disagreement with his son.  The nature of this disagreement was such that the son left home to live in another kingdom.   After a time the father sent a messenger to the son with this message:  “Please come home.”   The son sent the messenger back telling his father: “That is too far for me to come.”    The Father then sent his messenger back with this message: “Then come as far as you can and I will meet you.”