God's Patience

I have been bothered since writing my last post that I missed the real truth of patience.  The amazing story is not the patience that the Spirit develops in us (although it is vital), but rather the awesome patience that God displays toward His creation.  How quick we are to lose patience with our fellow brother, friend, coworker, or loved one when they don't live up to our expectations?  What hope would we have if God's patience looked more like man's?  How much more have we fallen short of the Fathers expectations and hopes for us than our fellow man has fallen short of ours?  It is immeasurable.

Intertwined with His mercy, God's patience is displayed throughout the Bible.  Toward the Israelites in Nehemiah 9:17:

        They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. (Nehemiah 9:17 ESV)

In 1 Kings, God displays His patience with Ahab.  In Genesis 6, He was patient with His creation before the flood.  Also, in Psalm 103, we see God's patience described by His mercy, slowness to anger and His steadfast love:

The LORD is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
(Psalm 103:8 ESV)

In 2 Peter 3, God is described as patient in His desire that all should come to repentance and salvation:

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 ESV)

God's patience toward sinners is a great gift to us.  He wants us all to come to repent (Acts 3:19) and gain eternal life with Him (Jn 3:16).  Where would we be and what chance of salvation would we have if God had the patience of you and I?

It is a part of the Divine goodness and mercy, yet differs from both. God being the greatest goodness, hath the greatest mildness; mildness is always the companion of true goodness, and the greater the goodness, the greater the mildness. Who so holy as Christ, and who so meek? God’s slowness to anger is a branch of His mercy: "the Lord is full of compassion, slow to anger" (Ps. 145:8). It differs from mercy in the formal consideration of the subject: mercy respects the creature as miserable, patience respects the creature as criminal; mercy pities him in his misery, patience bears with the sin which engendered the misery, and giving birth to more.

Personally we would define the Divine patience as that power of control which God exercises over Himself, causing Him to bear with the wicked and forebear so long in punishing them. In Nahum 1:3 we read, "The Lord is slow to anger and great in power," upon which Mr. Charnock said,

Men that are great in the world are quick in passion, and are not so ready to forgive an injury, or bear with an offender, as one of a meaner rank. It is a want of power over that man’s self that makes him do unbecoming things upon a provocation. A prince that can bridle his passions is a king over himself as well as over his subjects. God is slow to anger because great in power. He has no less power over Himself than over His creatures. 

-Stephen Charnock (1628-1680) (1)

(1) The Attributes of God, A.W. Pink