The Patience of God

The Glory of God in Exodus 34:6–7

We recently had the privilege of listening to Pastor Wil preach a sermon from portions of Exodus 33 and 34. In those two chapters of Exodus, we see something remarkable. Moses requests to see God’s glory. What an bold request! God goes on to tell Moses that if he were to see the fullness of his glory, it would kill him (Exodus 33:20). And if this request wasn’t remarkable enough for you, God’s response is even more staggering. God actually shows Moses his glory. He does so by putting Moses in the cleft of a rock to guard him, covering Moses with his hand, and passing by him so that Moses can see his back (Exodus 33:21–23; 34:5–7). And when God passes by Moses, he doesn’t pass by him in silence. God proclaims his name, “The LORD” or “YHWH”, and makes known who he is. Exodus 34:6–7 describes the scene

The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

In his sermon, Pastor Wil noted that you could write a book on each of these attributes that God proclaims about himself. Indeed, there have been books written on the attributes of God. Here, I aim to write a little about one particular attribute—God’s patience.

 

The Patience of God

In Exodus 34:6, God proclaims, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger…”. God is slow to anger. The literal translation of the Hebrew here is long of nose. This is quite the word picture isn’t it? It conveys the idea that God’s divine wrath takes a long time to ever manifest in his divine judgment.[1] In other words, God’s patience, his forbearance, his long-suffering is inexhaustible. The very just judgment that God promises to bring about a few words later in Exodus 34:7 is stayed for a time because of his slowness to anger, because of his patience.

We benefit from God’s divine patience in at least two ways. First, we benefited from God’s patience before we were in Christ—while we were actively rebelling against him. Second, we benefit from God’s patience while we are in Christ—while we continue to struggle with our sinful flesh. In short, God’s patience means our initial salvation and our ongoing sanctification. How can a just God afford to be so patient with rebellious, treasonous sinners? Jesus won this inexhaustible patience of God for each of us, who are in him, through the cross.

 

Before We Were in Christ

God has been unbelievably patient to humanity as a whole. God could have wiped out humanity because of our sinful rebellion against him, and he would have been just in doing so. But God has patiently endured humanity’s sinful rebellion in order to save his people. Second Peter 3:7–9 speaks of this reality:

But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 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.

God has set aside a day of judgment for the ungodly (2 Peter 3:7). And God is not just dragging his feet with regard to that judgment—“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness” (2 Peter 3:9). Rather, God is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2 Peter 3:9). God’s patience toward humanity comes to a laser focus. God isn’t just patient to humanity in general. God has been patient with you personally. If you are in Christ, you are in Christ because God was patient with your rebellion and your unbelief. And then by his effectual grace, he awakened faith in your heart. Recording artist and author Shai Linne captures this reality wonderfully in his song “Lord of Patience”:

Lord, we worship You, we know that everything we owe You
And when we reflect on the time before we came to know You
How we were unbelievers committing tons of treason
We had a hundred reasons why we wouldn’t come to Jesus…

We were active in our rebellion against the God of the universe. But he remained patient in order to save. Linne goes on:

…So after waiting with patience as we would run from You
You activated our faith so that we would come to You
Your law exposed our sin so that we would know the danger
And take refuge in the Holy Savior who’s slow to anger
And as our teary eyes beheld the cross of our King
We understood the true meaning of long-suffering
Who can record Your graces? Adored through scores of ages
Your reward is the nations, for You are the Lord of patience

God’s patience means your salvation.

 

While We Are in Christ

But God has not only been patient with us before we were in Christ. God continues to be patient with us while we are in Christ. We as Christians still battle the flesh:

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do (Galatians 5:17).

And occasionally sinful flesh and unbelief get the upper-hand (Romans 7:19–20).[2] Yet, even in the midst of our stumbling as Christians, even in the midst of our sinfulness that breaks through more often than we would like, God continues to display his marvelous patience toward us. And his divine patience toward those not in Christ and those in Christ is meant to lead us to the same thing: repentance. Indeed, his patience and kindness is what should move us to repentance:

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? (Romans 2:4).

So even in Christ, God continues to show his marvelous patience toward us. Again, Shai Linne:

And now that we’re in Christ, the thing that is amazing to us
Is that You still continue to display Your patience to us
Through all our stumbles and falls and our idolatry
Through all our grumbling and all of our hypocrisy…

Though we are imperfect now, through Jesus by the power for the Holy Spirit, God patiently sanctifies and perfects us. And so we actively lean into that promise. Shai Linne continues:

…Oh Father, help us please! We truly need Your Holy Spirit!
He is the only Person who can shape this fruit within us
We praise the risen Savior who is able to present us
Without an ounce of blame, with zero doubt or shame
Lord Jesus, down You came from heaven to announce Your reign
In the hearts of Your people, and now we have the truth
And gladly choose to praise You for all of Your attributes
Who can record Your graces? Adored through scores of ages
Your reward is the nations, for You are the Lord of patience

God’s patience means your sanctification.

 

The Lord of Patience

How can God afford to be so patient toward us and still be the God of justice? God is inexhaustibly patient toward us because Jesus secured God’s patience for us by absorbing all of God’s righteous wrath on our behalf. The cross of Jesus makes God’s patience with us possible, and it should move us to avail ourselves of his patience and strive toward greater Christlikeness. We do not look at God’s patient kindness and think, “This means I have a license to sin.” This is the sure mark of impending judgment (Hebrews 10:26–29).  Rather, when behold God’s patience, we see nothing less than the cross of Christ. When we behold God’s patience in the cross of Christ, we are moved to come to him in repentance. And there in that place, in the face of our crucified, risen savior, we behold the glory of the LORD even more clearly than Moses. In the person of Jesus we see the Lord of patience.

[1] See Jason DeRouchie, Lecture 4 Exodus (Jason S. DeRouchie: 2022), https://jasonderouchie.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Lect-04-Exodus.pdf

[2] There is disagreement whether Romans 7:14–25 describes the pre-Christians life or the Christians life. I am persuaded that it describes the experience of Christian wrestling with sinful flesh at times. This doesn’t mean it describes the “totality of the Christian experience.” For a helpful discussion see Piper on this point at https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/does-romans-7-describe-a-christian

God’s Power – For What?

Why do you need God’s power? When you pray that others might be empowered by God, what outcome do you have in mind? The completion of some great task? Effective witness of the Gospel to thousands?

Surely there are times when we should pray for such outcomes. But consider the Apostle Paul’s prayer in Colossians 1. He makes a number of requests for that church, yet especially asks that they might be “strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father” (Colossians 1:11-12a).

Paul himself is under arrest when he writes (Colossians 4:18). The natural reaction to such circumstances would be to chafe at these bonds, to be annoyed at the limitations on his freedom and ministry – even to be bitter and angry towards God for this experience of suffering.

But he rejects this natural reaction. He endures to the end. He rejoices always in the Lord. He gives thanks in all circumstances.  He does all this by the power of God working in him.

Having fought this battle against temptation in his own life through dependence on God’s power, he prays that the Colossians might do the same. Let’s walk through this part of his prayer:

  • He prays that they would be strengthened not just with a bit of power, but with “all power.” This fight is so important – and the adversary tempting Christians to despair, to anger, to frustration, is so powerful – that we need great power, all power to resist.
  • To accentuate the extent of the power, Paul asks that we be strengthened with power “according to His glorious might.” That is, in accord with the great power of God Himself. That is the mightiest power possible!
  • He prays that God might strengthen us with this power so that we would live out “all endurance.” He asks that we be able to bear up under whatever trials, sufferings, or setbacks we might experience.
  • Furthermore, he prays that we might be strengthened to all “patience” or “longsuffering.” Confident in God’s sovereign control, we know that He is working all things together for His good and wise purposes. Even in the valley of the shadow of death we wait patiently, eagerly anticipating God’s turning to the good what evil men and malevolent spiritual forces mean for harm.
  • In addition, he prays that we would exhibit joy as we endure patiently. We are not gritting our teeth, saying, “I can get through this, I can get through this!” By His power, we like the Apostle rejoice in the Lord always, in all circumstances.
  • Finally, he prays that we might maintain an attitude of thankfulness. Whatever our circumstances, we are always recipients of undeserved gifts. Every breath we breath, every calorie we consume, every minute we live is a gift of God. By His power we can continue to recognize those gifts even in the midst of horrible suffering.

So, pray this way for one another. Pray for strength according to God’s mighty power, so that we might have all endurance and patience with joy, always with an attitude of thanksgiving. God is pleased to answer such prayers – so that we, individually and corporately, might be conformed more and more to the image of His suffering yet conquering Son, to the glory and praise of the Father.

Taking on the Character of Jesus

Are you patient? Are you kind? Are you good?

Romans 12:2 tells us not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewal of our minds.  As the Apostle Paul says earlier in Romans, God predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). In the book of Galatians, Paul elaborates on what that looks like, saying the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

So, Jesus must have acted with patience. With kindness. With goodness. Right?

Consider the incident recorded in Mark 9. Jesus and three disciples return to find a distraught father, a boy with a demon, and the other disciples unable to help. Jesus says, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?” (Mark 9:19).

Was Jesus being patient?

Or consider a story from Luke 11. A Pharisee invites Jesus to eat with him. When Jesus arrives, He does not perform the normal ceremonial washing prior to the meal. The Pharisee doesn’t say anything, but is surprised. Then Jesus upbraids His host: “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness” (Luke 11:39).

Was Jesus being kind?

Consider also John 2. Jesus find people selling oxen, sheep, and pigeons in the temple, together with money-changers. He takes the time to make a whip out of cords, and then uses that whip to drive them all out (John 2:14-15). Note that the Greek word translated “goodness” especially refers to showing an “interest in the welfare of others.”

Was Jesus showing concern for the welfare of these people?

Or imagine you hear me say, “O these church members, how long do I have to put with them!” Or we both are invited to dinner with a prominent Charlotte businessmen and I insult our host. I don’t think your first thought would be, “Wow, Coty’s really displaying the fruit of the Spirit! He’s so patient and kind!”

Now, we know that Jesus perfectly displayed God’s character in every interaction in His life. Thus, He always displayed the fruit of the Spirit. As those who are in Christ, we are indeed to exhibit patience, kindness, and goodness. But our reactions to these stories about Jesus show that we need to learn better what it means to exhibit them.

If we are to become like Jesus, we need to understand how Jesus displayed patience, kindness, and goodness – NOT how our culture would like to define those terms, NOT how the world expects kind people to act. In this way, we will not be conformed to the world, but will be transformed by the renewal of our minds.

To explore this topic, we will first consider examples of Jesus displaying extraordinary patience, kindness, and goodness. Then we will look at the seeming contradictions, when to our eyes He seems not to show these qualities. From these contrasts, we will gain insight into the true nature of Jesus’ character, and thus the fruit of the Spirit. We’ll use those insights to help us see how we can live transformed lives, taking on the character of Jesus.

Examples of Jesus’ Patience, Kindness, and Goodness

Examples of Healings

In Mark 2:1-12, Jesus is teaching in a crowded house – when the roof above Him is removed and a paralyzed man is let down in front of him! Instead of rebuking this man’s friends for disturbing His teaching, Jesus sees the paralytic’s faith, forgives his sin, and heals his paralysis.

In Luke 7:11-15, when Jesus approaches a town, He meets a funeral procession. The dead man is the only son of a widowed mother. In that society, she could well face destitution. Jesus has compassion on her, brings the dead man back to life, and gives him to his mother.

An Example of Feeding

After several days of teaching, Jesus says to His disciples:

“I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way” (Matthew 15:32).

Jesus is concerned for them and is willing to take responsibility for them.

Examples from His Passion

Again and again during this most severe trial, Jesus display patience, kindness, and goodness toward others around Him.

On the night He is to be betrayed, Jesus knows that Peter will deny Him. But He tells him, “I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:32).

What patience! Jesus says, “You will deny Me. You will claim that you don’t even know Me. Satan wanted to condemn you for that. But, Peter – though you deny Me, I will not let you go.                 I have prayed – and my prayer is effective. You WILL turn again. So when you deny me, don’t despair.  Don’t give up hope. I have much work for you. I will use you to strengthen your brothers.”

Fast forward about fifteen hours. Jesus, condemned to death, whipped, beaten, and mocked, stumbles toward the place of His execution. A crowd follows, many of them women who are mourning. Jesus – weak as He is, knowing He is about to die a horrible death – turns to them and says, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children” (Luke 23:28). He foresees the horror that will come upon this city within forty years when the Romans will destroy it. He feels compassion and sorrow for them – even when He Himself is suffering immensely.

Fast forward another two hours. Jesus hangs from the cross. He is hardly able to breathe. He experiences a stabbing pain whenever He lifts up His body to breathe. And He fights for the breath to able to say, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

Then, when Jesus sees His mother and John standing near Him, He says to her, “Woman, behold, your son!” And to John, “Behold, your mother!” (John 19:26-27). He thus provides for the needs of Mary while He suffers intensely.

This is our Savior. This is our Lord: Exhibiting patience, kindness, and goodness, showing great concern for the welfare of others, even in the midst of torture, even in the midst of cruel and inhuman punishment.

Resolving the contradictions

These incidents contrast sharply with the ones cited earlier. Could this Jesus – so patient and kind with Peter, so patient, so kind with his tormentors while hanging on the cross – could this same Jesus exhibit a lack of patience with His disciples?

Let’s look back at these seeming contradictions.

In Mark 9, when the disciples couldn’t cast out the demon, what was Jesus exhibiting? Commentators from the Puritan Matthew Henry to the Reformation Study Bible to John MacArthur admit Jesus was impatient or exasperated. But this was not a sinful impatience. Why not?

Some impatience is good and godly. There are times when we should be impatient.

Ask yourself: What must we long for? What must we hope for with all our being?

We must long for the new heavens and the new earth! For God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven!

THAT is Jesus’ longing here.

Our impatience so frequently is a longing to have our burdens lifted NOW – quite apart from any longing for God to change the entire world around us and glorify His Name.

If when you are burdened by this world, you burst out, “Lord Jesus, come quickly! Right this wrong! Bring in your justice! Usher in the new heavens and the new earth! Show who You are!” Then you are exhibiting a godly impatience.

So be patient with affronts to you personally. And long for His coming kingdom. Long for justice to be done. Long for Jesus to be recognized as King.

That’s the true fruit of the Spirit.

Turn now to the cleansing of the temple In John 2. Note that Jesus paused to make the whip. At first, you might think, “This was a premeditated action! That’s even worse!” But think: Jesus did not let His emotions get the best of Him. He did not drive out the moneychangers in a fit of passion. He knew exactly what He was doing. He knew what was right.

Why?

He says, “Do not make my Father’s house a house of trade!” And His disciples remember the Scripture, “Zeal for your house will consume me” (John 2:16-17).

God’s house, the temple, is a picture of His presence – indeed, a picture of His glory. Jesus is consumed with zeal for the glory of God.

Godly patience, kindness, and goodness are always for the purpose of glorifying God. That is our goal – to magnify His Name, not to be nice to people or to make people think highly of us. Oftentimes we CAN glorify God by being civil and nice, according to the standards of our society. But at other times, magnifying God’s glory means appearing unkind, means breaking the rules of civil conduct.

Jesus was ready not to conform to the standards of this world for civil conduct, when by doing so He could glorify the Father.

Thirdly, look again at Luke 11, when Jesus pronounces woes on His host. How is He showing kindness and goodness in this case?

If we are truly concerned for the welfare of others we will say what they most need to hear. And this host most needed to hear of his sin. He and the other Pharisees thought they were right with God. They needed to be shocked. So Jesus was doing what was in their best interest.

Our goal is not to avoid offending others. We instead must love others enough, care about their souls enough, that we are willing to offend them – if those words are what they most need to hear.

How Then Are We to Have Patience, Kindness, and Goodness Like Jesus?

We can take away two principles from these passages:

1) To Be Like Jesus We Must Love the Glory of God

Like Him, we will desire to glorify God through showing compassion for physical needs. One day, God will wipe every tear from our eyes and end all mourning, sorrow and pain. We foreshadow that by showing compassion and helping the hurting.

And like Him, we will desire even more to glorify God through bringing many to saving knowledge of Jesus, who then share this Good News with others who also come to saving faith. We, the church, will not end poverty, disease, and suffering in this world. But we will preach this Gospel of the kingdom as a testimony to all nations before the end comes (Matthew 24:14). We will see those from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation come to faith. We pray for and work to alleviate physical suffering not INSTEAD of proclaiming the Gospel, but rather to BETTER proclaim the Gospel, to the glory of God.

So we are to love the glory of God as much as Jesus, and thus proclaim the Gospel in word and deed.

2) To Be Like Jesus We Must Hate Sin

Jesus was sinless. We don’t take on that aspect of His character in this life.

But we must long to be sinless like Him, and so hate our own sin.

We begin by acknowledging our rebellion against our rightful King, our Creator, seeing Jesus and His righteousness as our only hope, confessing that apart from His death on the cross, we have no access to His presence.

Then we confess our sins day by day, hating our own hardness of heart, our own lack of faith, the puniness of our desire for His glory.

After confessing our own sin and repenting of it, we, like Jesus, need to speak to others of sin. Having patience, kindness, and goodness does NOT mean we never speak to others of their sin. However, we do speak:

  • Humbly, knowing our perceptions can be wrong
  • Carefully, knowing we could fall into the same sin, or into pride because we don’t share that person’s sin
  • With discretion and wisdom – Jesus did not confront every sin, either in unbelievers around Him or in the disciples. Oftentimes, silent forbearance is the right action. But too often, we are silent NOT because that’s what is best for the other person, but because we are afraid, or lazy, or just don’t feel like speaking. Sometimes we should confront gently, as Jesus confronted the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11); sometimes we should confront offensively, as Jesus did with the Pharisees.

To take on the character of Christ is to hate sin, and deal with it. Jesus dealt with it – even at the risk of appearing unkind and impatient. Are you willing to do the same?

Appearing patient, kind, and good is not our goal. Our goal must be to be transformed into Christlikeness. Thus we will sometimes appear ungracious and inconsiderate – even when we truly have the welfare of others at heart.

Is that your desire? To be truly like Christ?

May God be pleased conform all of us into Christ’s character, by His Spirit.

[This devotion is an edited and shortened version of a sermon preached December 9, 2007. You can download or listen to that sermon at this link.]

Minister, Rejoice, and Pray

In our small group this week, we considered 1 Thessalonians 5:14-18. On first reading, this passage appears to be a laundry list of isolated commands, but as John Piper argues in When I Don’t Desire God, there is an underlying logic that ties them all together. Here is the passage, followed by an extended paraphrase that elaborates on each command and draws out the logic of Paul’s thought. Meditate on these verses – and minister as God’s agent by His power for His glory.

1 Thessalonians 5:14-18 And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

We strongly exhort you, brothers and sisters, to be involved in each other’s lives, responding as each person needs. Here are three examples: (more…)