By Billy Hathorn (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Common

The Impatience of God

(The emotions of God)

Judges 10:15-16; “And the people of Israel said to the Lord, “We have sinned; do to us whatever seems good to you. Only please deliver us this day.” So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord, and he became impatient over the misery of Israel.” (ESV)

Malachi 2:17 “You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”

When we think about God, we don’t think about Him being impatient.  We know in our heart that our actions don’t measure up and we do not live holy lives as His Word instructs us.  We deserve judgment, He gives mercy and grace. I am so thankful, so very grateful for His lovingkindness.  But there were times that He became very impatient with the children of Israel.  They were a rebellious and stiff-necked people (in God’s own words).(Exodus 32:9)

The book of Judges tells stories of the failure of the Israelites.  The theme of Judges is “every man did what is right in his own eyes.”  God would deliver them and for a time they would obey Him then they would forget Him and turn to fulfill their own desires.  Sound familiar??  We do the same, do we not?

When the Israelites would sin, God would have enough and bring enemies against them to discipline them.  They would be taken captive.  They would then cry out to God for deliverance once again.  In the scripture today, that is what has happened.  They pleaded with the Almighty to deliver them and do “whatever seems good to you.”  “They put away their foreign gods from among them and served the LORD.”

God looked at them and their misery.  The English Standard Version says, “He became impatient over their misery!”

As a parent, there were many times we had to discipline our children, it was really hard to stick with the punishment, especially when I saw they were truly repentant but the consequences had to remain to reinforce the importance of making good decisions the next time.  I would be “impatient”, anxiously expectant, wanting to give in and show them grace but I knew it was for their good to be consistent.  That’s our LORD’s impatience!  He so desires to bless us.  He longs to be gracious to us.  Our rebellion and pride chains His hands until we come to Him in His way.  Our ways are not His ways.

Malachi 2:17 says,” You have wearied the LORD with your words.”

How have we wearied the LORD with our words?

We weary God by:

1. “saying, All who do evil is good in the eyes of the LORD.”  We live in a generation that does just that!  We call good evil and evil good.  We deny the truth that there is a difference between good and evil.
2. Our mindless words.  Chatter!  Tinkling brass!  (I Corinthians 13) “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”
3. Our hypocritical questions —  Like Cain, we ask am I my brothers’ keeper? We tend to be defensive and act surprised when God brings our sin to our attention. For example:

God:  I want you to go visit ______________ and share my good news.
Me:    I will do that.  You know I want to be a good servant.
God:  You haven’t done what I ask you to do.
Me:    Well, I prayed for them at least 5 times today.
God:  Is that what I ask you to do?
Me:    Well, uh… No but I’ve been busy with your other work.

Our disbelief of His coming judgment.  We are scoffers!  If we really believed Jesus was coming soon, we would be living our lives very differently.God is anxiously wanting to bless us.  He is impatient and sees our misery!  He wants to deliver us.  2 Peter 3:18-10. “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.  The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” KJVIsaiah 48:18 “Oh that you would hearken to my commands. Then you would have had peace flowing like a gentle river and righteousness rolling over you like waves in the sea.”The loving, forgiving Father is impatient to show His grace and mercy.

Be Bless today!!

Freda  Reynolds

 https://youtu.be/gBEI1F22uqE  Thankful by Josh Groban

Josh Groban

“So for tonight, we pray for
What we know can be,
And on this day, we hope for,
What we still can’t see,
It’s up to us, to be the change,
And even though this world needs so much more
There’s so much to be thankful for.” ( from the lyrics Thankful)

Let the Light of Jesus Shine Forth this Thanksgiving week.