Patience Now, Judgment Soon

Man, how patient God is with us! If it were up to me, I would have lost my cool a long time ago with this corrupt and wicked generation. There would have been plenty of times I would have lost my cool with myself. But God is patient – thanks be to God!

After this most recent shooting in Maryville, where a guy walks right into the middle of a church worship service and kills the pastor, I’m ready to say, “That’s enough!”

After reading about yet another child being abused as the hands of her own parents, I’m ready to say, “Enough!”

After another year of legalized abortions in this nation where now over 50 million babies have been killed before ever having a chance to draw their first breath, I’m ready to say, “Enough already!”

But God is patient. We wonder, “How long, O Lord? How long will the wicked pour out their arrogant words? How long will the evildoers boast as they carry out their evil schemes? How long will you look on, O Lord, while the ungodly continue to mock your holy name?”

The souls of those who have been slain for the word of God and for the witness they’ve borne cry out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Rev. 6:10).

Friend, you can be sure that there will come a Day of Judgment. The patience of God toward wickedness will soon reach its fullness, and the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed against all ungodliness is on the way!

We’re already seeing signs of His wrath upon sin as God gives man up to his own sinful desires and shameful lusts and depraved minds, to do what ought not to be done (see Romans 1:18-32).

The Lord sent the prophet Isaiah to testify against His own people: “For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen, because their speech and their deeds are against the Lord, defying his glorious presence. For the look on their faces bears witness against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves” (Isaiah 3:8-9).

It’s not too difficult to see in our day that we have brought evil upon ourselves! Everyone does what is right in his own eyes, and there is no fear of God before them.

“But mark this: there will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Tim. 3:1-5).

Does that not describe our generation? Is there a greater wrath than God giving us up to our own devices? Surely the judgment of God is not far off!

But God is patient so that He may save those whom He has chosen. “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. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” (2 Peter 3:9-10).

God was patient in the days of Noah, waiting while the ark was being built to save Noah and his family though the “wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5).

God was patient with the city of Nineveh, and with His prophet Jonah, and relented from the disaster He had in store for them when they turned from their evil ways and called upon God.

And He’s patient with you and with me. What will you do with His patience? “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?” (Rom. 2:4). Or will you fall humbly on your knees before Almighty God, repenting of your sin and seeking the Lord wholeheartedly – before it’s too late?