“The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet.”
(Nahum 1:3)
One of the most difficult tests believers face is that of being patient and waiting on God’s timing. We want things to happen when and how we want them to happen. But, in truth, every circumstance – both in our individual lives and the universe at large – occurs right on schedule according to God’s timetable exactly as He designed.
In eternity past, our sovereign God decreed every means, every detail, for every aspect of His creation that would bring about the exact result He wanted, precisely when and where He wanted. To an all-knowing and all-wise God, nothing unexpected ever occurs. God’s design and process and timing for everything in creation are perfect in every way.
For these reasons, His patience is, in truth, God acting out His plan in His perfect time for the people He created – both those He ordained to destruction and those He called to share in His glory. His patience and His sovereign plan work hand in hand, as described in Romans 9:22-24, “…God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, has endured with much patience [people] of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of His glory for [people] of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?”
He remains patient with people even though His patience is often used as an excuse to continue to rebel and even mock God. He exercises so much patience, in fact, that to us it may seem like God waits for men’s repentance. The multiple warnings that God graciously gives men, including both public and personal calamities, are His continual invitations to repent.
And yet, it is a mistake to believe that God is complacent toward sin. The “sin of Ephraim is hid,” Hosea 13:12-13 says. In other words, the fact that God does not inflict immediate punishment does not mean He will not punish in His own time to the extent that He determines. He simply delays His wrath based on His sovereign plan and timing. His patience stands between the offending creature and eternal misery for a very a long time. But His patience, mercy, and grace will end at the precise moment He has predetermined, and from that point forward God’s divine justice will prevail.
Until then, may we never presume upon His patience toward us. He knows what we are made of, and that it is only by His righteousness we are made whole. The patience of Jehovah is part of His saving grace to believers. Praise be to God that He is “slow to anger!”
“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.” (Psalm 103:8)
- O Lord, You exercise patience in such a merciful manner. Imagine if You punished every sin immediately? If Your patience had not intervened when Adam fell, what misery we would all be in! Your wonderful patience stepped in to allow for the continuance of Your plan for creation, including the work of Christ in redemption, without which we would all be eternally doomed.
- I’m so thankful for Your patience toward me and all that belong to You. You exercise that patience in Christ for us so willingly. If You were not patient toward us as sinners, what would become of us? Your bear so much with me, and with Your church, because of Your “election of grace.” Do we abuse Your patience? Do I abuse it? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may abound? Certainly not!
- Imagine if the apostle Peter had received his due when he denied knowing the Lord? What would have become of him? He would never have become a martyr for Christ. The apostle Paul would never have become a preacher of the Gospel of Christ had You judged him for his sins. It is Your patience, coupled with Your grace and mercy, that allows You to work through us to lead others to Yourself. You do everything You do for Your name’s sake. Thank you, Father, for deferring Your anger in order to gain the praise of redeemed men.
- Why do You not judge quickly and send out the fire of Your anger immediately? It is because You are so longsuffering with us through Christ, working Your sanctifying holiness in us that we might be more conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. What a blessing is this is beyond words!
Further References for Nahum 1:3
Exod. 34:6-7; Neh. 9:17; Ps. 103:8, 104:3; Job 9:4; Ps. 62:11; Joel 2:13
