I heard a message by a well-known preacher about 3 years ago, in which he said something that really struck me and has stayed with me ever since. It was this: “The normal posture of God’s people in this world - in this life - is to wait.” It’s ironic, isn’t it, that just about the one thing we are all terrible at by nature is being patient?
We’re not great at waiting for the Amazon delivery truck to swing by our house with that special thing we have wanted for so long. Maybe we track it with their app. “It’s 10 stops away - it’ll soon be here! ....How can it be stuck at 7 stops away for so long? OK - just 2 stops now....!” Am I the only person who goes through this ritual? I suspect not!
The preacher I mentioned earlier pointed out that God’s people had to wait 2000 years from Abraham (who received the promise) and 1000 years from David (to whom God said one of his descendants would rule over an everlasting kingdom) before Christ came to fulfill that promise and to become that King. And now again, we await His coming from heaven - already it is 2000 years since Christ was born, ministered, died, rose and ascended - and we continue to wait.
If waiting is bad, though, waiting patiently while suffering is worse - and that is what James is talking about in the passage above. Farmers are patient, he says. They really have no choice. They can’t make the seasons speed up so they can get the harvest sooner! We need to take a leaf out of their books. The Lord’s coming is drawing near. It’s nearer now than when we first believed. He will not be early or late, but will come at precisely the right moment. We must be alert and wait patiently for Him, our Hope, to come. In the meanwhile, we’ll each know times of suffering and sometimes (as today) collective suffering.
In the genius and love of our God, though, He has given us exactly what we need to endure patiently. One thing we have, of course, is His Word. In the Bible, we see people keeping on keeping on, even in the midst of suffering we cannot begin to imagine. The prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord and as often as not were despised, reviled and even killed for their trouble (remember Christ laying the responsibility for their righteous blood at the feet of that generation). Yet as God’s people, we admire their courage and steadfastness, don’t we?
Think of Job, James continues - consider the horror of what he went through, not really knowing why, and how he clung to God almost when he had nothing left to cling with, or rather, when he had nothing else to cling to.
James doesn’t say this, but others do... Think of Jesus - who resisted temptation to the point of shedding His blood and who went, despised and rejected, to the cross for His people.
How is this kind of patience possible? Because of future hope, says James! The farmer hopes for the harvest. The prophet speaks of the coming of Christ and the glories that will follow. Job knew for sure that his own eyes would see God after his skin had been destroyed. Jesus despised the shame of the cross because of the joy set before Him - the delight of His Father and having those for whom He died with Him as brothers and sisters in heaven.
We have the same hope - the return of the Lord and the ushering in of the eternal state, in which we will all participate with great joy, thanks to the grace of our amazing God!
Also high on the list of God’s provision to help us endure patiently is the local church. We get to go through life together, to weep with those who weep and to rejoice with those who rejoice. We get to pray together, to minister Christ to one another while we wait for Christ.
And that is where James sounds a note of caution, because believers back then were no better at this patience thing than you or I. When we get impatient, our behavior can go downhill fast. We get frustrated and we vent on the nearest pair of ears. We grumble against one another, because each of us privately thinks we are being singled out for an unfair share in the suffering that is going around. Watch out, says James. Remember that God is compassionate and merciful. Remember that when you grumble against a brother or sister, you are grumbling against one who is beloved in God’s sight, and for whom Christ died on the cross. Since Christ lives in them and is being formed in them, and since He is sovereign over your circumstances, you are grumbling against Him, too. This present life is just a temporary thing for all of us - the Lord’s coming is at hand, so be patient!
This really applies to us in spades right now, doesn’t it? Very few of us enjoy being in lockdown, and it’s not natural for members of a body to be divided up the way we are. We get impatient, frustrated. Perhaps we start to grumble against one another. We certainly have an enemy who loves to see that happen in the church. More than ever right now, we are to love one another, be patient with one another and remember that the Lord’s coming is at hand!
