#24 On the Nature of God: HIS LONGSUFFERING

Do you find yourself committing the same sins repeatedly? For example, some people may get drunk, or tell lies, or commit fornication or adultery again and again. They may be thinking that since God is not administering immediate punishment, He is overlooking their actions and will save them eternally. This is a misunderstanding of the longsuffering nature of God.

The first example of the longsuffering of God occurred with Adam and Eve. When they sinned in the garden of Eden, God did not annihilate them. Instead, they were put out of the garden and given an additional opportunity to obey God, Genesis 3:23-24:

“…therefore, the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.”

As time passed, so much wickedness prevailed on the earth that God was not pleased, Genesis 6:1-3:

“When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”

The longsuffering nature of God gave mankind a time to repent—120 years. They did not, Genesis 6:5-8:

“The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So, the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.”

What is learned from this tragic situation? The longsuffering nature of God did not go on forever. Finally, He punished the unrepentant evildoers.

Although God may provide time to repent, at the end of that time He punishes unrepentant people.

Peter uses Noah and Sodom and Gomorrah to teach that God’s longsuffering will eventually end, 2 Peter 2:5-6, 9:

“…if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly…

… the Lord knows how to … keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment,”

Another powerful instructive example is the northern ten tribes of the children of Israel. They decided to make Jeroboam their king. He made two golden calves and encouraged them to worship the calves, 1 Kings 12:28-31:

“… the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Then this thing became a sin, for the people went as far as Dan to be before one.”

Although God was longsuffering and sent prophet after prophet to preach repentance, northern Israel slipped further into worshipping idols. Finally, the patience of God was exhausted and they were taken into Assyrian captivity, lost as a nation and never restored. God is longsuffering, but not forever.

Another example is the southern kingdom of Judah. It existed for a time, began to worship idols, and was taken into Babylonian captivity. Finally, a remnant was allowed to return to Judea. They existed as Jews until New Testament days when they crucified Jesus. In AD 70, God’s patience was exhausted. He allowed the Roman army to destroy them.

The same is true today. God is longsuffering with repeated sins. The Apostle Paul explains why judgment has not yet come, Romans 2:4:

“…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?”

The longsuffering of God today is meant to lead mankind to repentance.

However, He has promised a day of reckoning, a judgment day when God’s patience will be exhausted.

Jesus explained what will happen, Matthew 25:31-34, 41:

 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…

…Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

Judgment day is the end of the longsuffering of God.

It is the nature of God to be longsuffering for a time. But He will ultimately punish the unrepentant.

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