Divine Patience
“The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”—2 Peter 3:9
In 1616, after several years of debate, the astronomer Galileo Galilei was condemned for holding the view that the sun was the center of the universe. At that time, the most popular and prevailing view was that the earth was the center of the universe with the sun circling around it. And from first glance, one would assume so. One need only stand on a hill from sunrise to sunset and clearly see the sun rising in the east, soaring directly overhead at midday, and then setting in the west at sunset. From the perspective of the person on the hill, the sun does indeed go around the earth, not the earth going around the sun. However, we also know that modern astronomy has sufficiently proven that the earth does go around the sun, rotating as it does so, making one full rotation every twenty-four hours, and all the while the earth revolves around the sun once in 365 days.
Science has proven that Galileo was right; the sun does not revolve around us, but the earth revolves around it. This same concept that Galileo’s opponents argued for has been carried over into many churches. Some churches and pastors seem to teach that we are the proverbial centers of our universes. God does everything for us, loves us, and patiently waits for us, hoping that we would one day return to Him. It as if God were a helpless parent of rebellious teenage children who had stayed out all night without permission. There He is at home, pacing the floors, waiting, and wondering when they will return. But that is not the Bible’s view of God. That is the view with us at the center and God in orbit, whereas the Bible’s view has us in orbit and God at the center.
Everything we have is from God—life, breath, the ability to think, the ability to feel, the ability to choose, to understand. We didn’t choose where we would be born. We didn’t choose the period of time when we would be brought into existence. We didn’t give ourselves the abilities or faculties whereby we could learn language, mathematics, decision-making, etc. God gave us all of those things. He is the one who gave us the ability to do a trade or a task with precision so we could make a living (Deuteronomy 8:18). He is the one who determined our days, He is the one who has given us life, and He is the one to whom we must give an account when we die (Hebrews 9:27).
God is the center and we are on the periphery, not vice versa. It is all the more amazing then that God could be patient with us, His creation. We rebel everyday, yet He is patient toward us. It would be completely within His right to take our life away whenever He wanted. We have no rights apart from what God chooses to bestow on us, which flies in the face of our independent, democratic, individualistic spirit where everything is about living life in whatever way we want.
God is at the center of our existence whether we realize it or not. And while He is there at the center, He is patiently waiting for us to realize it. That’s what our passage for today is about. God is patient toward us, which means He is longsuffering, an old word used to denote God’s mercy and grace working in conjunction with one another. Jesus Christ is going to come again, but He has delayed His coming in order that those who have been chosen since the foundation of the world might be saved. In other words, He is patient with us, even though He doesn’t have to be. He patiently waits for us while we are in the midst of sin, desirous that we come to a realization of what life is apart from Him, what rebellion against Him entails, and what indulging in sin really results in (Romans 6:23), in order that we might embrace Him as the Lord of life before judgment comes.
Don’t be fooled! Christ is going to come again; we don’t know the day or the time, but we know that He will come again. And while God is patient toward us, we are not to presume upon His patience or His grace. If God has revealed Himself to you, then respond in immediate obedience. His voice is not to be tuned out, His Spirit is not to be rejected when conviction comes, but He is to be embraced as the great God He is. Amen.
In 1616, after several years of debate, the astronomer Galileo Galilei was condemned for holding the view that the sun was the center of the universe. At that time, the most popular and prevailing view was that the earth was the center of the universe with the sun circling around it. And from first glance, one would assume so. One need only stand on a hill from sunrise to sunset and clearly see the sun rising in the east, soaring directly overhead at midday, and then setting in the west at sunset. From the perspective of the person on the hill, the sun does indeed go around the earth, not the earth going around the sun. However, we also know that modern astronomy has sufficiently proven that the earth does go around the sun, rotating as it does so, making one full rotation every twenty-four hours, and all the while the earth revolves around the sun once in 365 days.
Science has proven that Galileo was right; the sun does not revolve around us, but the earth revolves around it. This same concept that Galileo’s opponents argued for has been carried over into many churches. Some churches and pastors seem to teach that we are the proverbial centers of our universes. God does everything for us, loves us, and patiently waits for us, hoping that we would one day return to Him. It as if God were a helpless parent of rebellious teenage children who had stayed out all night without permission. There He is at home, pacing the floors, waiting, and wondering when they will return. But that is not the Bible’s view of God. That is the view with us at the center and God in orbit, whereas the Bible’s view has us in orbit and God at the center.
Everything we have is from God—life, breath, the ability to think, the ability to feel, the ability to choose, to understand. We didn’t choose where we would be born. We didn’t choose the period of time when we would be brought into existence. We didn’t give ourselves the abilities or faculties whereby we could learn language, mathematics, decision-making, etc. God gave us all of those things. He is the one who gave us the ability to do a trade or a task with precision so we could make a living (Deuteronomy 8:18). He is the one who determined our days, He is the one who has given us life, and He is the one to whom we must give an account when we die (Hebrews 9:27).
God is the center and we are on the periphery, not vice versa. It is all the more amazing then that God could be patient with us, His creation. We rebel everyday, yet He is patient toward us. It would be completely within His right to take our life away whenever He wanted. We have no rights apart from what God chooses to bestow on us, which flies in the face of our independent, democratic, individualistic spirit where everything is about living life in whatever way we want.
God is at the center of our existence whether we realize it or not. And while He is there at the center, He is patiently waiting for us to realize it. That’s what our passage for today is about. God is patient toward us, which means He is longsuffering, an old word used to denote God’s mercy and grace working in conjunction with one another. Jesus Christ is going to come again, but He has delayed His coming in order that those who have been chosen since the foundation of the world might be saved. In other words, He is patient with us, even though He doesn’t have to be. He patiently waits for us while we are in the midst of sin, desirous that we come to a realization of what life is apart from Him, what rebellion against Him entails, and what indulging in sin really results in (Romans 6:23), in order that we might embrace Him as the Lord of life before judgment comes.
Don’t be fooled! Christ is going to come again; we don’t know the day or the time, but we know that He will come again. And while God is patient toward us, we are not to presume upon His patience or His grace. If God has revealed Himself to you, then respond in immediate obedience. His voice is not to be tuned out, His Spirit is not to be rejected when conviction comes, but He is to be embraced as the great God He is. Amen.
So true! Everything is from God, through God, and to God - to Him be the glory forever!!
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